Donna's Comments
Learning Curve
I'm not sure how common this is for homeschoolers, but Exploring Creation with General can present students with a learning curve in scientific reasoning, study skills, and how to make a lab report. The first module seems to be the hardest module because it throws all of that in and in quantity. There is more about module one below. Basically, I want to encourage you to stick it out and do the course as prescribed by Dr. Wile. Children can get a lot out of this course that will help them in the coming years.
Module One
The first module seems difficult. Module one has: history, lots of scientists, and four experiments. The student is not only learning how to conduct experiments and how to do lab write-ups, the student is learning names of scientists and what they did - and they will be tested on 16 of the scientists. It is a tough first module!
Spreading out the Work
In one of my schedules, Schedule One, the student is to do this module in two weeks and that is tight. I have posted a suggested revision below. In my new schedule, Schedule Two, module one is spread over 15 days. The module one schedules from Schedule One and Schedule Two are linked on the right for your convenience.
Module One in 14 days.
| Introduce book, read Student Notes, Read pg 1 up to pg. 4 Stop at "True Science Begins to Emerge" | Pg 4 Read "True Science Begins to Emerge" through first experiment, do Ex 1.1 | Continue reading and through experiment 1.2, do Ex. 1.2, finish reading section and do OYO | pg. 8 "Three Other Notable Greek Scientists" | pg. 12 "The Progress of Science Stalls For a While" pg. 12 do Ex. 1.3: A Chemical Reaction |
| pg. 16 "Science Begins To Pick Up Some Speed Again" | pg. 19 "The Renaissance: The "Golden Age" of
Science" 21 Ex 1.4: Mapping the Paths of the Planets |
pg. 23 "The Era of Newton" | pg. 25 "The "Enlightenment" and the Industrial Revolution" | pg. 27 "The Rest of the Nineteenth Century" |
| pg. 29 "Modern Science (1900 A.D. - Present)" pg. 31 Summing it Up |
Study | Study | Test | Free |
Taking Two Years
Exploring Creation with General Science isn't really a two-year course. It is possible to spread it out over a couple of additional months, but another whole year is spreading it thin. If you are planning to use this book for your child's 6th and 7th grade years, have your child do extra work. Investigate some of the topics in the book to a greater depth. Or start the book in the last quarter of the 6th grade year and finish it in the 7th grade year.
My Red Cabbage Tip
Modules 1, 12, 13, call for red cabbage. If you have a child using physical science or biology, red cabbage is used for those too. The following is my tip.
Buy the smallest head that you can. When you get it home do this.
Frozen Red Cabbage
- Cut it into narrow strips
- Put it in a BIG freezer bag, spread it out in the bag
- Keep it in the freezer
- When you need some break off a small handful and put the rest back into the freezer.
Or Make Red Cabbage Juice
- Shred the cabbage or cut into narrow strips
- Place the cabbage in a saucepan
- Add enough water to float the cabbage
- Boil the cabbage until the water is very colored
- Remove the cabbage
- Cool the water
- Pour into ice cube trays
- Freeze solid and dump the cubes into a freezer bag
- Store in the freezer and take out cubes as needed for experiments.
Note: Making and freezing the cabbage juice ahead of time takes away from the child the experience of preparing the cabbage and boiling it.
Lab Book Drawings
We did a lot of drawings in our lab books. In the lesson plans that I posted online, I did not always assign the drawings, but if there is a drawing that you feel would be educational for your child to do then go ahead and assign that drawing.
Lab Book Drawing Examples 01 | 02 | Drawing practice printables: Drawing Ia
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