Considering God's Creation: a Science curriculum.

There is a difference between a *hands on* learner & an *arts 'n' crafts kid*. I've had both sorts so I'm pretty aware of the differences. Ditz is in the latter category. We are talking a kid who won't do the science experiments, won't use manipulatives for math, thinks *acting out* for history too silly for words & promptly acquires *brain fog* if you suggest she should at least try these things.

Now this is not necessarily a problem for things like English (somehow drama is acceptable) or history (because we can draw lots) or math (which is not usually taught in a hands on manner anyway) but becomes excruciatingly difficult with science which seems to think people need to do things in order to learn about them. I have a fellow feeling for friends who banned science experiments when their child scorched a huge hole in their new carpet.

So finding a science curriculum that accommodates my child's predominant learning style becomes something of a challenge, especially when it's coupled with giftedness in non academic areas. Brains to burn if you can just do it right.

Our main science curriculum is Apologia. It's a great curriculum...& Ditz is struggling big time. It requires academic aptitude. Not Ditz's forte. I suffer from the same sort of blonde moments as my daughter so ordered science as our bible curriculum. I don't even want to ask how I got there but got there we did.


So Considering God's Creation is the curriculum I should have ordered for science & didn't. We get to do it anyway. If you don't like cutting & pasting & colouring don't ever order this curriculum. There's lots of cutting & lots of pasting & plenty of colouring & Ditz & I are perfectly content because we are happy to cut & paste & colour. This is an almost perfect curriculum for a visual/spatial learner. There is variety ~ of subject & approach.

Ditz had a ball putting all the flower bits together. She was less enthused about grasshopper bits or snake heads

The comic strip Bird in Flight , which makes the duck appear to actually be flying charmed her ~ as an artist!






I'm not sure what age this is aimed at. The CD is a little young for us so we haven't used it & because it's a supplementary curriculum I haven't followed the guidelines all that closely. What I do know is that freed of the high academic expectations of Apologia, freed of Scientific method & experimentation, & the need to be strictly factual Ditz still enjoys her science.

As an abstract, speculative, theoretical thinker myself I am less concerned with a strictly scientific approach to science. I prefer, like Mary to 'ponder these things in my heart' so that walking at night under the stars with Ditz & Liddy, speculating on the true nature of black holes & whether if we could get a camera big enough & far enough out into space it would really be possible to *photograph the past*, to speculate whether Hawkins expanding/shrinking universe is in fact *breathing*...so that Liddy charmed exclaimed, 'I never knew that! Why don't they teach science like that in school?'

I know there is a place for real science but I will never make a scientist & I'm pretty sure Ditz won't either. We still have a deep appreciation for certain aspects of science...in our own strange, quirky, artsy way. OK so photosynthesis is a word Ditz has already forgotten but her carnivorous plant garden is awesome! Guess which I prefer!