How I Teach Science
Exploring nature with our children has been such a blessing. Seeing the natural wonder in a child’s eyes and allowing them a chance to see God’s creation for what it is, can be such an experience in this journey of homeschool. If you follow me on Instagram, you know that one of my major goals this year is to allow our children more time to be wild and free outdoors.
I’m the unexpected homeschooler, for sure. I went to school and got my masters degree in business. I worked for a bank and took maternity leave when our first son was born. I never thought I’d stay home with him as a baby, let alone homeschool when they got older. The Lord changed my heart. My husband and I dabbled in the thought of homeschool when we saw a homeschool convention in our state. We took a road trip and attended a Teach Them Diligently conference. I felt convicted as a I read a verse.
“And thou shalt teach them diligently unto thy children, and shalt talk of them when thou sittest in thine house, and when thou walkest by the way, and when thou liest down, and when thou risest up.” Deuteronomy 6:7
So, there we were. Faced with the calling to homeschool but no idea what to do or how to do it. While we were at the conference, we walked into the convention hall and strolled through to look at the resources available. Let me just say there is a lot of curriculum you can buy and it could be overwhelming.
We kept finding ourselves landing at one specific table. That table was Apologia. This curriculum not only gives our children the opportunity to explore God’s creation within the walls of our home, but outdoors as well. We fell in love with it and decided to purchase all of the Exploring Creation Through Science books and nature journals.
Before it sounds like I have it all together and go through all of this with our children in a year time, let me just say that I don’t. This curriculum has it all together for me though. We wanted to be sure we had a curriculum we trusted would speak truth. The primary reason Apologia is a hands-down win for us is the fact that everything points back to the Bible and that God is our creator.
They have a variety of science subjects that you can teach within this specific collection. Below is a list of subjects that are available.
I take these books and use them in combination with our Bible and form lessons for my children. When my children are interested in a certain subject or ask me a question while we’re out exploring, I simply run at the opportunity to teach them. Below, I’m sharing some of our children’s favorite lessons and crafts to go along with these incredible resources.
Flying Creatures
Cardinal Study
We enjoy creating crafts with natural materials. Here we made cardinals with cardboard and a few flowers that were beginning to wilt.
We made a nest for our cardinal bird. Everything here was purchased from the dollar store so we could keep the cost down.
Sea Creatures
Apologia does a wonderful job of incorporating hands-on activities into their lessons. Here we examined shark teeth and went ourside to measure the length of the shark based on the size of their teeth.
Flying Creatures
After being outside and discovering this little guy, my son was begging me to open our Apologia Exploring Creation with Flying Creatures book to learn more about him. It then prompted a rich day of studies that included math, watercolor, drawing, photography, reading and more.
Come back next week! I’ll be sharing more science related crafts and activities we’ve been working on.
Happy homeschooling and remember to "Willfully Serve His Children" throughout your homeschool day.