Questions about new Science Curriculum

Let me see if I can answer your questions adequately.

1. We never tell you what to think about what the Bible says, but always encourage you to draw your own conclusions. That being said, both Discovering What God Has Made and Exploring What God Has Made are written from a young earth creation perspective. The first lessons in each course instruct you to read the full creation account from Genesis 1, then either read a book that gently illustrates the idea of happening by chance and being purposefully made (this is the lesson in Discovering What God Has Made) or doing further research on creation and evolution (this is in several lessons in Exploring What God Has Made.)

Also, throughout both courses, there are suggestions for reading books with evolutionary content in a way that is not contrary to a young earth creation interpretation of Genesis 1. It is your choice to use those suggestions or ignore them.

2. Nope, it will not be confusing because the Bible readings you will be doing for science will be associated with what is being learned for science. In my family, we read the Bible together as a family, memorize Bible verses together, read the Bible as part of our school, and each family member has their own private time to read the Bible. None of my children are ever confused with all of that Bible reading. Children are usually able to keep them it straight without any trouble at all.

Because Discovering What God Has Made is based on the days of creation, it is highly recommended that you read the Bible when it is scheduled for a lesson. Your child will be making a Creation notebook throughout the year with divisions for each day of creation. If you don’t read the Bible passages, then the Creation notebook won’t make much sense to your child.

3. We recommend doing formal science lessons twice a week for grades 1-3, with an additional day for a separate time of nature study. There are nature study activities scheduled in Discovering What God Has Made that relate to what the child is learning about in the lessons. The separate day of nature study that we recommend is a time for your child to explore nature on his/her own. It doesn’t need to relate to anything that the child is learning in his/her formal science lessons, but should focus on the nature that is in your area.

4. Discovering What God Has Made is a one-year study that is suitable for grades 1-3. Use it for one year, then choose another study.

We have three science courses that are suitable for about grades 1-3 that can be used in whichever order you prefer. We also have three science courses that are suitable for grades 4-6. Again, you can use those in any order. Our recommended order for using our science courses is:

• grade 1 — Outdoor Secrets
• grade 2 — Pond and Stream
• grade 3 — Discovering What God Has Made
• grade 4 — Learning About Birds
• grade 5 — Exploring What God Has Made
• grade 6 — Jack’s Insects

Wonderfully answered previous questions about new science courses made me think even harder what to choose for my family. I have a 4th grader and kindergartener this year. We started homeschooling 6 months ago and while I was figuring everything out by the end of the day we were able to accomplish mostly only basics. So my former 3d grader had very little of science. what would you recommend for our family (not just for 4th grader) : to do Discovering what God has made together with kindergartener or move on to learning about birds?