Anyone using just living books for Science??

Hi Rachel,

My children are younger than yours, but yes we read living books for science and no, we don’t use a curriculum (we did buy 101 D of C, but we haven’t gotten into it yet!).

They are wonderful because they are easily tailored to older or younger ones. For example, if you read a biography of a scientist, you could have your older ones do more research on the person or his/her contribution, and younger ones could orally narrate, make an art project, etc. But even as I say this, the truth is we usually just read them and enjoy them.

Sometimes my husband will check out a book of simple science experiments from the library and will pick a few to do on successive Saturdays (they usually have nothing to do with anything we’re studying throughout the week, but the kids love it!).

The nice thing about using living books is that they are so flexible – if you have more time you can extend the learning, and if you don’t have time, they still get wonderful information in a way that will probably help them to remember.

I hope this helps!

-Tanya

HI Rachel,

I have a 7 and 8 yr. old and we aren’t using a curriculum either at this point. I have bought Exploring Creation through Astronomy for my son, but he uses as independant learning; including doing the projects. I do plan on using the other Exploring Creation…series, but only as rebooks for read alouds and/or independant efforts. eventually I will use Answers in Genesis as a base, but I plan on stressing the living books. Both your children could pick out one of the Exploring…books he/she is interested in and use it independantly. The series switches for 7th grade into General Science. Again, highly recommended. Also, around 13, you could delve into Creation-based Classical Astronomy with “Signs and Seasons”. The best prices for these are used on Amazon or Christianbook.

We use (and will continue to use) the living science books from Yesterdays Classics; those are our read-alouds w/narration. They have books for every age bracket. I combine those with Christian Liberty nature readers for their independant reading w/narration and Sam Campbell’s books for my son reading. We also get many experiment books from the library and my children do those independantly. The Backyard Scientist is a good one as well as “101 Great Science Experiments”. Then there’s the nature identifier books and keeping a Creation Study Notebook, day and night versions. I also add in nature myths and legends from other cultures. Those are amusing! Also, I keep an eye out for the books from Answers in Genesis; if you do a search on the Bookfinder you’ll find many great books; on dinosaurs, the flood, etc… Don’t forget the wonderful videos from Moody and all the new ones that are out there.

We also use Johnathon Park audios and I downloaded the Thornton Burgess animal books off of Librivox for them to listen to. There is so much info. in those Burgess books, but they are encased in wonderful storytelling (I just had to explain that we don’t use the term “Mother Nature” in our references to Creation, no biggie).

I do follow the order of creation in which read-alouds I do. Here’s Yesterday’s Classics Nature Page:

http://www.yesterdaysclassics.com/catalog/displaycatalog.php?catalog=nature

My children have absorbed so much info it amazes me. I couldn’t have taught this much to them. Noe I admit, they are rusty on their body info; we just haven’t delved into that yet. When I do (I’m shooting for next year) I’ll be very caerful and use only the Answers in Genesis and their are a couple of dvds and some books from Queen Homeschool to discuss body changes.

Hope this helps,

Rachel