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Swimming Creatures OR Ocean Unit Studies for 4th Grader
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My oldest daughter wants to be a Marine Biologist when she grows up. In planning the upcoming year, I was thinking of allowing her to complete Swimming Creatures as HER OWN science (just too text-booky for my younger one). But, I’m not sure if she can/would do it on her own and I dont’ want to have too many things on MY plate. I’d originally planned to just do the living books, nature stories and nature study route through 6th grade with the entire family and then they could start General Science individually as they reached 7th grade. But, she has this interest. I’m wondering if I should feed it with a full science curriculum like Swimming Creatures or just continue with our Nature stories, Nature Study and throw in some Ocean unit study type stuff for her?
Any thoughts or opinions?
It’s already going to be an adjustment for her to have so much more to do this coming year than her sister and alone (independent reading, written narrations that she’s never done before, dictation, etc.). She tends to feel left out and lonely when she has to do things while I’m working with her little sister.
Thanks ladies.
melissa
My girls 5 & 7 LOVED the swimming creatures. I got the student notebooks to go along with them, so they could sketch pictures of the different creatures in their notebooks and write down memorable facts about them. Then we picked up some of the additional books from the library and some neat dvds too – they are recommended at the end of each notebook chapter. I read it to them, but a fourth grader could easily read short segements to herself. My now 8 year old loved it so much she asked if she can keep the “text” book to have for her children!
I agree. My 4th grader loves that book and insisted on doing it. He isn’t quite finished and we’ll be finishing it up first semester of next school year, but I guess that’s okay. He did science classes elsewhere and read some living science books (not many) and sat in on Outdoor Secrets with his younger sibling. So that may have been why it took us longer.
I would highly recommend the Junior Notebook over the regular one. Plus, there is a guide in the notebook that is not in the text-book that is really helpful to keep moving along (your dd could easily use it to keep track).
HTH
@my3boys … you would recommend the Junior Notebook for the 4th grader? And, are you saying that YOUR 4th grader did this course on his own while you did OUtdoor Secrets as a family Nature study? Because that sounds like what I want to do … something as a family and then my 4th grader does this on her own. Did you find the Junior notebook font to be TOO LARGE for a 4th grader? Or maybe I could just have her do the cursive and that would be helpful for practice.
Thank you so much for your input, ladies.
my3boys – that’s funny that you prefer the jr. one, I’d love to know why. I do LIKE the Jr. one, but prefer the “regular” one. I got the Jr. one for my 5 now 6 year old and she’ll use a jr. one again next year, but my 7 now 8 year old did the regular one and the only thing she preferred about the jr. one was that she wanted the coloring pages! LOL!
I particularly like the crossword puzzles in the regular one, because I thought that was a fun way to review vocabulary and terms that otherwise may not have sunk in.
btw – I sincerely meant that I’d love to know why – reading back it kind of sounds snotty! Truly didn’t mean it that way, just wondering if there’s some special gem from the jr. one that I’m missing in comparison to the regular.
@rebekahy,I think I may have confused the jr. one with the reg. one. Now I don’t know what my son has, LOL. It’s probably the reg. one.
I didn’t think your comment was snotty, LOL. I may have confused the issue altogether….
@iriemomma, My ds who is using that right now loves all things nature and loves to do what his younger brother does. He loves picture books, stories from Outdoor Secrets, nature study (when we do it), drawing, and so on. So for him, Outdoor Secrets alone would’ve been way too young, but to do certain things with his brother was a treat for him. He’s kind of a young 9yo, not immature, but really likes being a child and doesn’t want to miss out on any book that might be read to him or that he can read about that has animals or characters of any kind. He doesn’t care how young or mature a book is, kwim??
HTH, and sorry for confusing you with the notebook thing. Get the reg. one and you’ll be happy. It has a guide that your dd can easily follow. Experiments are household item friendly, until you get to the polywogs (did I spell that right?), LOL.
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