Science

Yep, I am a science girl and that is what always got pushed aside last year BUT this year, because we are doing Classical Conversations, we do science each week.  I'm NOT interested in making it a boring hated subject...I truly believe it is a subject that they don't need to totally master right now but be introduced to and learn to love....science is one of those subjects they will get again and again...and if it is something they want to go into at the college level, then they will learn it all again.  I think mostly, science needs to teach them how to gather facts, how to study something and engage the world around them...ask questions, etc.  So obviously, John and I are loving anatomy this year.  This week we have been studying cells and the skeletal system. I LOVE OUR SCIENCE BOOK!  It is great. I read it to both kids...and they get the same material but they get what they are going to get out of it....John Daniel loves the hands on stuff and Emily is better a listening and comprehending but I love that it touches on both their weaknesses and strengths.  We have done like 5 science projects and it is only the 3rd week of school.  We dug up our mummified apple and due to an error on my part, the apple that was covered in chemicals, still did not hold up....it looked different than the control apple but still went bad..We figured out that it was because when we covered it with chemicals that there was one little hole for air to come through....paying attention to detail which I sorely lack would have made the difference I think!  We also just today made edible cells!  We got together with some other families to do this project.  There were all ages....2-10 years old.  Each child had a Jello Mold which represented the cell and cytoplasm.  They each then added organelles to the cell...lysosomes, ribosomes, Golgi bodies, mitochondria, endoplasmic reticulum, etc...each organelle was represented by some type of candy...for instance the nucleus of the cell was a large gumdrop.  The kids cut the mold and placed the candy in the middle of their cell.  They also had to tell about their candy (organelle) that they had brought to science club.  When all the organelles were in place they flipped the jello mold out onto a plate and it looked just like a cell with a bunch of organelles floating in it!  It was very cool and then of course they all ate it!  I LOVE this kind of stuff!  I think I really would have enjoyed being an elementary school science teacher....oh wait, I AM!!!!!