Question on God\'s Design Science

We are heading into our second year using God’s Design for Science (this year the kids using it will be 5th, 4th, 2nd, 1st, with the four younger siblings tagging along).  One possibility I didn’t see you mention – what about using God’s Design daily instead of 3 days per week and not planning to do the whole chapter each time?  Just read a few paragraphs, as far as she is able to handle, and put a sticky note in to pick back up there next time.

Also, don’t forget to talk about the main points from the prior day’s reading before picking up the next day.  Refreshing her memory and laying things out in a continuous ribbon that connects.

Maybe you won’t get through all 3 books of one color in a year – but so what?  I suspect that if you take it slow and steady you will see improvement in her understanding by the end of the year, that she will be able to listen to or read a little bit more at a sitting.

And do you read it to her?  What about having a second copy so she can follow along?  I have one child who really needs to SEE it, not just hear it, so they sit right beside me and follow along.  Auditory just doesn’t stick as well for them.

How about Tristan’s idea of going slow — and taking it even slower by using books from the library to flesh out or help explain some of the lesson.  It seems like there are library books about the AiG GD for Life topics in nearly every level – pre-reading up to adult.

(We used that series this past year and thoroughly enjoyed the animals book and the human body book.  The plant book was a little boring for us. – perhaps it was my fault!)

So, you’d read half the lesson one day.  Then on another day, refresh her memory and read a library book about that topic.  Then finish the AiG G’sD lesson on another day.

Another way to stretch out the lesson would be to read half the lesson (or whatever amount) and then the next day do some kind of journaling – drawing a picture of whatever – and then the following day reading a library book and then the next day finishing the lesson…….or however.  I guess there are myriad ways of drawing out the lesson.

You wouldn’t get through all three books — but that shouldn’t be a problem unless you have state requirements to worry about.

We did enjoy this series.  This coming year we’re using the blue set – I hope we like it as well.

I am not too sure if this is helpful.  My experience with God’s Design Science was with the Properties of Ecosystems when we did it in a year of My Father’s World.

My children were aged 10, 8 and 6 yo.  I have to say that very quickly the younger two dropped out of our readings.  Even my son, an avid reader, who comprehends way beyond his age, could only manage short readings.

But, and a big but, apparently POE is NOT the best one to judge the series by.

Also, we never even knew there were other parts to go with it, it was just the book 🙂

I took it off the shelf the other day and realized that my son would manage it on his own, at 13, and actually enjoy it, because he is into nature conservation.  But, I still think it is pretty advanced for middle and junior school.

If I used it now, which I could, with my younger girls, I would rather read tiny sections at a time.  We use Apologia now, as I can get it in South Africa, and I can read 5pg’s at a time.   They seem to love it.

Lindy

Something that has really helped my daughter when we are reading science books is to stop often for her to narrate. It helps her to process the information as we go a long.