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Science. He made me do it.

Posted on Wednesday, November 10, 2010 in Science

_MG_4153Science has been the subject of most resistance at our house, for me that is.  I have easily conjured the passion for Bible, All Things Art, Writing, and Reading.  Math, once I found the right program for our family, has been a steady and productive part of our learning.  Even History, which I gave over to Mr. Darcy for the first few years, has lost the yawn factor and I found myself talking about Captain John Smith in our after dinner conversation.

But Science.

This year the older girls joined a tutorial and take science once a week.  Saved.

Then Drummer Boy, the 5 year old, started asking for science experiments.  I suppose it was coming all along when I think back on his interests and constant questions on how things work.

I told him we would do science experiments once a week and then I proceeded to check out 50 books from the library.

Weeks went by, the pile overwhelmed me, I couldn’t find a starting point and although the lure of online science kits were tempting, I knew his curiosity didn’t need a 40 dollar product.

dk science

I found this book a few days okay and this is it.  I’ve always loved DK publications.  They consistently have great design, straightforward instruction and illustrations, and clear explanations.  We’re going to do one of these each week until we run out of pages and then we might move on to the other book in the series: I’m a Scientist: Backyard.  Either of these books, along with all of the non-perishable supplies, would make a great Christmas or birthday present.  A ten year old could do these experiments without much adult supervision.

Yesterday we made Gobbledy Goo, a experiment about solids and liquids and creating a colloid.  If there’s food coloring and a bowl of slime, he’s all in.

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