The New K Program Part III - Science

Finally, I am going to write about Sonlight K Science Program. It is not included in the Sonlight K core. I added in because I have been very impressed by Sonlight's science so far. Den and I enjoyed all the science reading in the PreK program (it was part of the PreK core program).

Sonlight science curriculum follows a spiral pattern of education which means it touches "on the certain topic once, twice, maybe even three times at different points in one year, then returning to the same topics two or three more times over the next several years. This way the basic vocabulary of science becomes ingrained not only in short-term but also long-term memory." (K science IG)

These are some of the main books we used in science:

1. The Usborne Internet-Linked Children's Encyclopedia - The same one we use in History. You can read more about this book in my previous blog The New K Program Part II- History and an additional review here (under Science).


2. The Usborne Book of Science Activities Vol 2 (Under Science) -This is a colorful book that is filled with interesting yet easy experiments for young kids to do. I already have quite a few books on science experiments but I have to say this is one most suitable for young kids (age 4 to upper primary). It has pictures to illustrate every experiment and none of them are too time-consuming. Den is very much looking forward to this every week.

3. Inquisikids Discover & Do Level K (Unders Science) Sonlight actually produced this to go hand in hand with the Usborne book of Science Activities Vol 2. It shows you exactly how to do the experiment. Good addition even though it is not necessary.





4. Science Worksheet - In the IG (instructor's guide), include worksheets for every week. I think it is great.

For the 1st week, in the Children's Encyclopedia, we studied a few interrelated subjects. True to its spiral education philosophy, we already studied some of the subjects in Pre K and now we are going deeper.

• Our planet - the atmosphere & what is inside the earth (in Pre K, we already learned this in How To Dig A Hole To The Other Side Of The World -Under Science 2)
• Day & Night - Earth spins at its axis; Eclipse & Shadows
• The Season - Earth travels around the sun thus season changes (In Pre K, we learned about season change in The Berenstain Bear's Big Book Of Science & Nature as well as in The Year At Maple Hill Farm - both under Science)

Through the internet links, we looked at some of the eclipse pictures and also animation on the way Earth spins at its axis and travels around the sun at the same time.

Air is all around us even though we can see it, so we did a few easy experiments from Usborne Book of Science Activities Vol 2 to prove that.

Before we did the experiments, we watch 3 short video clips from the Inquisikids DVD. In the DVD, it explained how to be a scientist:

1. Hypothesis (Guess): I told Den what we are going to do and ask her to guess the result;

2. Experiment (Activity)

3. Conclusion (Result): We are supposed to keep a journal on the conclusion of the experiments we did. So I decided to ask Den to draw the conclusion in her scrapbook.

It was a fun way to learn. Den has been bagging me to teach her every day. :)

For review & info --
For K books - http://www.squidoo.com/booksforK (updated 26 Nov 2009);
on Pre K books- http://www.squidoo.com/ahomeschoolingmomjornel