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CM Science in the 21st century
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I have this deep burning question in the back of my mind and I’d love to have a discussion about whether or not science the “CM way” is as relevant in the 21st century as it was during the early 20th century when Charlotte Mason was alive.
Given that we live in a time that is high tech, with children learning coding and doing STEM in elementary school, how do we know that we’re preparing our children to thrive in the jobs of the future especially if they choose a career in the sciences?
My children are still very young (ages 5 and 8) and I have not done a lot of nature studies because I’ve been mostly started using the CM approach in the subject of history. I am sold on CM principles and history but for some reason I’m hesitant to jump all in in the area of science. I can’t help but wonder if my kids are going to be at a disadvantage if I don’t expose them to STEM and things like that. I’ve held off on pushing any kind of science other than some biology and what we’ve done has been more CM aligned. We used Noeo in 2nd grade, which has living books, notebooking and narration.
I’d love to hear from other mamas about their concerns with science. Do you have the same worries? If you don’t tell me why and how I can overcome these concerns.
I don’t worry about this at least partially because my oldest two are doing so well. We did CM style science all through their homeschooling – nature study (mostly they initiated this as I still struggle with it), lots of field guides, some nature type DVDs, living books, experiments if they asked for them, field trips. In high school, we did Biology 101 with added stuff and then Apologia for both Chemistry and Physics.
My oldest is now 20 and will be starting his last year of college next month. He is majoring in Computer Science. He’s had no trouble with the computer science class. He decided to get a minor in math (taking Calc 3, Vector Analysis, etc). Took both Chem 1 and 2 and Physics 1 and 2. He’s done well with all of it. He’s actually told me that our homeschooling prepared him well for college.
My second is 19. He also has one year of college left – he’s getting an associates in Welding. It isn’t a STEM field but he does have to do a decent amount of math to figure out welding measurements for construction projects. He also chose to take Calc 1 for fun.
They are both doing beautifully and I have full confidence that they could easily move into any STEM field should they so choose. I think the value of CM style science is that it teaches in a way children can remember (not just facts but ideas that inspire), it teaches through discovery, it teaches through interest and focused attention.
And for another idea: why not teach STEM subjects CM style?-Rebecca
I wanted to address your nature study concerns.
Nature Study is in addition to a science curriculum. The idea is to go outdoors and study nature up close, then record your discoveries in a journal. You can do this daily or weekly, but the key to this is consistency. You can do this while you decide to do CM style science or a traditional science.
Charlotte Mason said that Nature Study is the base to all other sciences – meaning that children can observe and record what they see in nature and then, when they encounter it in a scientific class – living book or traditional textbook, they learn the name for something they already know and real-life connections are made. I know this works – I have seen it in my children lots of times. How many times have we been reading some science text and one of them will run and get their journals or go outside to get a sample! It is fun to watch this progress. It really instills a love of science when consistently practiced and modeled by you. We want science to be REAL not just something we do with technology.
I wrote a blog post about the benefits of nature study in my children’s over-all school experience because the rewards did not just stop at a science notebook! Here is a link:
https://mysouldothdelight.wordpress.com/2017/02/23/nature-study-building-skills-and-knowledge/
Thank you ladies for sharing your insight with me. Rebecca, its so nice to hear from a mom who’s been there and done that and it’s even better knowing that your kids are successful and thriving in college. I really appreciate getting those pearls of wisdom because my mom thinks I’m crazy! I don’t have anyone close to me who’s gone before me on this journey. So thank you again. Sheraz and Wings2fly, thanks for the links. I will check them out when I have some down time. My heart is a little more set at ease. I need to go do my homework now on how to incorporate more CM in science.
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