Name: CHEC Rocky Mountain Homeschool Conference
Start: 2025-06-12T00:00:00-05:00
End: 2025-06-14T23:59:59-05:00
Location: Denver, CO

Tagged: 106 Days of Creation Studies, Apologia, Constock, Jim Arnosky, kindergarten, Outdoor Secrets, Outdoor Secrets Companion, science, science poems, second grade

This topic has 10 replies, 9 voices, and was last updated 8 years, 6 months ago by totheskydear.

Viewing 11 posts - 1 through 11 (of 11 total)

Author
Posts
February 1, 2015 at 7:35 pm
HSMom03
Participant
Okay, I think I’m going to take the plunge and plan on using Outdoor Secrets & the Companion with my 6yo and 8yo (their ages as of late fall 2015). Any ideas on how to beef it up, if necessary? It’s sitting on my shelf unused and I can’t stand it! 😛 I must be in hyper planning mode right now, since it is only February. Anyway, I’d appreciate ideas!!!
Or is that a crazy plan? Maybe I should just do 106 Days of Creation Studies or an Apologia course? What do you all think?
February 1, 2015 at 8:46 pm
missceegee
Participant
Outdoor Secrets and Companion are plenty enough for those ages. The two times we’ve gone through OS and Comp. have been two of our favorites.
February 2, 2015 at 1:11 am
Wings2fly
Participant
We really enjoyed Outdoor Secrets and the companion books. Don’t miss it. But I think we spent only half the year on it. I think you could add in library books on the topics or follow your children’s interests on some fun rabbit trails. If you have the Christian Liberty Naure Readers, you can read more on some of the insects like the housefly and dragonflies. You could read the poem about the Spider’s Dinner Guest (a fly) and then learn about spiders. The poem is in Favorite Poems Old and New. Plan a field trip to an Apple orchard. Make Apple crafts. You can push whole cloves into nice round red apples to make designs and then set out for an air freshener and decoration. Read How to Make an Apple Pie and see the World for geography too. You could add in nature videos of insects, like BBC Planet Earth or Moody science videos like City of the Bees. You could expand on bees to learn about beekeeping and making recipes using honey.
February 2, 2015 at 3:28 pm
mama_nickles
Participant
We are doing it this year. We just add in extra library books.
February 2, 2015 at 9:19 pm
4boyslater
Participant
I don’t have any suggestions better than the ones above but I wanted to just say that I’m using Outdoor Secrets and the Companion with 3 of my sons (ages 11, 10 and 7) and we are enjoying it so much. I started it for my 7 year old but my older two always wanted to listen in and participate, so everyone enjoys it. My oldest is going through Land Animals….Apologia, and they all read their level of Christian Liberty Nature Readers and make notebook pages on their readings, but this is the common Sciency thing we all enjoy most. Just saying it’s good and I hope you enjoy it! 🙂 Definitely a “don’t miss” and you can do as much or as little as you have time for. Oh, and I do sometimes pull out the Handbook of Nature Study to pull questions from. Today we were on the Goldenrod chapter, so while we drew/painted a goldenrod, I glanced through HoNS and drew out a few interesting tidbits for them that were thought provoking.
February 4, 2015 at 7:07 pm
HSMom03
Participant
Thank you so much! I was looking at OS & Companion thinking that it really should be enough for those ages. Just needed some reassurance I guess!
We have The Handbook of Nature Study and Favorite Poems Old and New. I plan on getting the Christian Liberty Nature Readers. Those have been on the wishlist for awhile!
Great ideas, thanks again!
February 5, 2015 at 12:21 pm
5heartsathome
Participant
I agree that Outdoor Secrets and the Companion are enough. I am doing OS with my 6 year old this year and we absolutely love it. It’s perfect for little ones just starting to appreciate the magnificence of God’s world.
When we want to learn more about something, we just stop where we are and borrow books from the library on the topic. ***We commonly turn to the Jim Arnosky books available from the library. I would buy every single one if I could. The Arnosky books are just absolutely wonderful. You could simply use those only and have an entire of year of science before you for young ones. I can’t speak highly enough of those.
Ditto using Favorite Poems Old and New and the Comstock Handbook for additional information.
Don’t forget to go on Nature Walks once a week. Those are the best!!!
May the LORD bless you and keep you, Mollie
February 5, 2015 at 7:26 pm
greenebalts
Participant
We absolutely loved Outdoor Secrets and were sad to see it end!! After which, I wrote a lesson plan similar in nature to accompany Among the Farmyard People. I offer it free here…
http://reflectionsfromdrywoodcreek.blogspot.com/2012/02/among-farmyard-people-lesson-plans.html
Blessings,
Melissa
February 5, 2015 at 9:56 pm
missceegee
Participant
We didn’t tie it to OS, but we LOVE Arnosky books!
December 8, 2016 at 8:30 am
LeAnn
Participant
greenebalts, I was scouring the forum to see if anyone had a suggestion for what to do after Outdoor Secrets Companion, and I’m so thrilled I found your lesson plan!! I have been wanting to use some of those books in that series but haven’t had an organized way to do it yet and didn’t really want to just jump in by myself. So excited to see what you have. Thanks so much!
December 8, 2016 at 12:07 pm
totheskydear
Participant
GreenBalts, thank you! That looks great!
Another Arnosky/Crinkleroot fan here. 🙂