Science Plans Complete

I also got the Science lesson planning done tonight. I wrote out all the science I hope to get done before the end of the year. It's a little more for David than for the others, but that's as it should be since he is doing seventh grade work.

David is working out of Backyard Ballistics. He has completed only a couple projects from this book so far. I need him to complete all of the book before I will consider this subject complete. I am calling his science work: Applied Science: Ballistic Engineering. Doesn't that sound fancy? He's pretty much learning the physics that goes into creating weaponry.

If you're wondering what kinds of projects David will be working on, here is a project list that the author - William Gurstelle - put on his website.

I do plan to have David work on a website for these projects. He has a webpage done for one of the earlier projects, but we never published it anywhere.

There are a LOT of materials needed for this book, everything from Sterno to lots of PVC to things I've never heard of. So, it'll be costly, but I bet he'll remember THIS science way more than he would reading a dry textbook. And he may actually be able to apply the physics principles later on too.

OK, now the three younger kids are all working together on some simple science concepts. Last year we did Considering God's Creation and that stretched both Bob and me nearly to the limit. So I wanted something simple this year.

Suzy is Kdg, James is 2nd/3rd, and Emily is in 5th. I found a book called Science Mini-Journals from Scholastic, aimed at grades 2-4, which seemed close enough to me. There isn't a whole lot of content and the story-writing prompts are kinda lame, but I think the little booklet format is fun. There's enough information that I feel good about using it as a jumping-off point anyway. We will do several activities for each topic, some writing, and read some related picture books. That's not much science for a 5th grader, I know, but she got a LOT last year and she's in no way ready for what David is doing. We'll do something more involved next year again.

Anyway, those are all planned out and photocopied (did that in the fall), although I have to find the picture books before each topic.

We've been doing Science and History in alternating weeks. Not sure what we'll do now.