Originally Posted by Cassiopeia  I've close to given up hope on finding a complete science curriculum that is secular. The real science books seem like they could be nice but I don't trust them to really be secular based on the author's essay here: http://gravitashomeschool.wordpress....ligent-design/ |
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Originally Posted by melissel Hmm, I don't know. I've been assured that it doesn't address either end of the spectrum at all, just as she says in the entry: "Although I do have a personal bias and I do prefer one interpretative framework over another, RS4K is, and will continue to be (to the best of my ability), a practice of science only curriculum." I guess I'll have to see for myself. It will be here in a few days. I am...shall we say...a COMPLETELY, 100% secular homeschooler?
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Originally Posted by Rivka5 For me, it wouldn't be enough that a curriculum refrained from teaching intelligent design, creationism, or young earth theory. Evolutionary theory is the fundamental framework of biology. It's not just an interesting but isolated side topic that you can address or not address - "how did life originally begin?" - evolution, selection, environmental pressures, adaptation, population genetics, etc. underlie pretty much all biological processes. And more: thinking of intelligent design and creationism as "just another framework for interpreting science" is highly misleading. Those theories shut down science by declaring that any process we can't understand must have a supernatural cause. Or they're willing to conduct "science," but only with the understanding that the conclusions are already decided at the beginning. That is simply not scientific reasoning. |
Originally Posted by Treasuremapper My daughter really loves paper and pencil stuff and she also loves to do science experiments. The thing is, I have been finding science experiments alone in kits, with explanations that do not make sense to me or to five year olds. My own knowledge of science is very, very weak. Perhaps I should start out educating my self. |
Originally Posted by Treasuremapper My daughter really loves paper and pencil stuff and she also loves to do science experiments. The thing is, I have been finding science experiments alone in kits, with explanations that do not make sense to me or to five year olds. My own knowledge of science is very, very weak. Perhaps I should start out educating my self. |
Originally Posted by mom2ponygirl http://www.msnucleus.org/membership/k-6.html Have you looked at this? And the price is right - free! |
Originally Posted by Treasuremapper I found a math curriculum that is so perfect for my daughter that I want something similarly perfect for science. Math U See is so great (http://www.mathusee.com) that my dd begs to use it and I feel confident to use it because it has a DVD for me to watch and then teach with and hands on rods and cubes that help her conceptualize things. Everything is broken down into teeny steps. For science, I want to find the equivalent to Math U See, in terms of the DVD and hands on activities that we pace ourselves. I want the same workbooks that build slowly, almost imperceptibly, on the knowledge. I want very exciting experiments that illustrate the principles being taught, preferably with the option of buying the kits at the same time. Also, it must be secular without intelligent design or creationism. I want it to have things like field trips to the zoo, birdwatching, along with things like making volcanos out of paper mache. Does such a curriculum exist? Please point it out to me. I need it. I do not want to design it myself, but please, there must be a market for such a product, so if it doesn't exist yet, will someone please make it? |
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