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Burgess Bird Book (SCM Study) & "Learning?"
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Hi Everyone:
We have used Apologia Science for years and decided to switch over to the SCM Guide for Bird Study. It must be just me, but I am *not* enjoying the Burgess Bird Book as a science book. (We have ended up just reaidng the Bird Book and not doing the guide, as MANY children had health issues). I find that there are too many different kids of birds in each chapter to try and keep with the story line and w/ what adaptations they are trying to teach. You really have to *want* to track the story to try and learn (which is confusing, even for me). My question is: What am I missing that this book can be used as a science lesson? When I think of the Apologia Bird book, there are chapters on wing structure, the science of flight, comparison of beaks and talons, how it eats….science of birds. Comparing that to the Burgess Bird book, I am struggling to understand what we are supposed to be learning. And I know, these are two very different types of curriculums, but I want to feel like we are learning. We are on chapter 10 and I only notice them brushing on where they nest……was hoping for more learning, but maybe there isn’t.
I think the main difference is that with The Burgess Bird Book you are learning about the habits of different birds, rather than just facts about birds in general. Some of the same facts about birds that are laid out in a more factual presentation in a textbook, i.e. different beaks and feet, are learned through the story in the Burgess book. However, the Burgess book also gives information on nesting habits, habitat, identification clues, and songs each bird species sings. These are what Charlotte Mason would have considered just as important as the facts relating to how flight is possible and other nitty-gritty details.
We are also using the Bird Book. I started making a “timeline” of the birds we’ve come across. I printed a picture of each bird onto cardstock (just using Google images), and have hung them up across our schoolroom wall. We make notes at the bottom of the card of things like what they eat, where their nest is and how it’s built, bird calls, their book name and scientific name, etc. It’s been a great reminder of which birds we’ve “met”. We were starting to struggle with keeping the birds straight (at least I was), and this has been a big help. We also have a CD of bird calls that we’ve been listening to…there are some free websites with calls as well that I’ve used when our bird wasn’t on the CD.
I have added some extra science…one of my DC is older than the recommended age for the bird study, and we prefer daily science anyway. We’ve read a few living books on the days we don’t complete the bird study. One of our living books was on birds, and they learned a bit more through it. It’s called Bird Watchers and Bird Feeders, but I believe it’s out of print. We’ve been doing two days of living science books and one day of the Handbook of Nature Study, in addition to the two days of the bird study. I’ve picked HNS lessons based on our other living books, as well as things we can study from our yard (plants from the garden, animals/bugs from the yard, etc.). I plan on doing a lesson with our Christmas tree before we take it down. 🙂
I will admit I’m feeling a bit panicked after checking out high school science books over our winter break (I’ll have a 9th grader next year). There is such a jump between middle school and high school science! I will be assigning some independent science books for my older two DC with the coming year, as well as teaching them how to do a lab report.
I hope it helps to see how we’ve been using it. I think the timeline has been very helpful since we are very visual. We’ve only used it for a few lessons, so I’m curious to see how the rest of the book will go.
It’s funny I just ran across your post because our family just fell into bird study a couple months ago and I can feel your trepidation! I’ve since coupled some books that may help to bring it all together. (I also, was having trouble keeping the birds straight because of their nicknames given in the book. I have cut out the nicknames and usually say the bird name and that has helped.)
I have discovered that using Marguerite Henry’s book, Birds at Home is a great resource, but it took a little planning to coordinate the two books. This is how I carried out an example lesson: from Birds at Home ,I read ch. 5 aloud, 2 pages, “The House Wren”, showed a picture of a house wren in a nature book I just happened to own, cut it out and let my kids look at it while I read.
Then read Burgess, ch. 1 “Jenny Wren arrives” and while I was reading, the children( aged 14,9,7,b,g,b) are encouraged to picture narrate or draw/ trace a House Wren, while their finishing I put on a cd of eastern us bird calls and when it gets to the wren part my son backs it up to listen 10-12 times to the house wren and then we try to mimic the call. We discuss if we know/have seen this bird in our travels and pledge to keep an eye out.
Also, after many times of draw/tracing my children have on their own with little encouragement, preferred to draw over trace.
This method has made me skip all over both books to align the coordinating birds. Also, Birds at Home has wonderful illustrations. My favorite was when we each sketched blue jays and I even did too. I am no artist, but from coping the pic, didn’t do half bad and it inspired my kids to work harder on theirs when they witnessed my countless erasings and attention to detail. We keep all our bird drawings in a binder, in a central location,so quests and family can see them and they commonly are asked about and they look forward to seeing our latest works. Never thought this would ever be my life. But, I SURE LOVE IT!!
With skipping thru burgess my kids have asked me to read prior chapters when we are lost in the happenings from skipping over prior chapters.I hope this hasn’t left you baffled, as it’s harder to explain than I thought.
Above all, this advice from all of us may be helpful, but if your frustration continues, maybe revisit the book another year and realize what works for some of us just doesn’t for others.
Blessings for an exciting and contented homeschool year. Martha
ps. all our resources came from our public library, except the mature book I had in my personal library.
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