Christian Kids Explore Biology
Review
Review by Cindy Prechtel, www.homeschoolingfromtheheart.com.Take a break from textbooks and spend a year exploring biology
with your kids! Christian Kids Explore Biology is a perfect
survey course for younger students. Classical in design, students keep
their work in notebooks that are organized at the beginning of the
course. They will be keeping a vocabulary list for each topic, research
forms, coloring sheets, reports, writing assignments and lesson/quiz
answers in their notebook. Author Stephanie Redmond, has done an
excellent job organizing the material in an easy-to-use format. Busy
homeschool moms will appreciate the wide margins for notes and the
materials list provided at the beginning of each unit. The units consist
of lessons covering a specific area of biology such as basic biology,
cells, plants, birds, classification, mammals (land and aquatic),
anatomy, reptiles, insects, and water creatures. Scattered throughout
the book in the margins are "Discovery Zones" – these often provide
interesting tidbits related to the topic and, occasionally, a website
for further investigation. Written from a Christian perspective, you
will find Bible verses throughout, as well as a suggested Scripture
verse to be memorized for each unit.
Christian Kids Explore Biology is written in an engaging,
conversational style with each lesson taking one week to complete. Each
lesson has two parts, "Teaching Time" and a "Hands-On Time". If you do
each on separate days, as the author suggests, then you’ll be spending
about 1 to 1½ hours studying the lesson each day. Part of this time is
review of vocabulary terms, discussion and additional reading by the
student. Throughout the book there are illustrations and diagrams – the
coloring pages, drawn by the author’s brother, are not only beautiful,
but will keep hands busy during read aloud time! A big part of this
course is supplemental reading by the student and Stephanie has provided
an appendix with a thorough list of books and videos to go along with
each lesson topic. Of course, you are encouraged to use what your
library has to offer, saving you time and expense. After the reading of
the text during the "Teaching Time" part of the lesson, students are
supposed to list vocabulary words (those in bold lettering in the
lesson) and define them. One improvement that I would like is a list of
the definitions included in the answer key for quick reference. This
would be especially useful when I’m working with a younger student who
lacks dictionary skills, but who would benefit from the copywork. In
addition to vocabulary, students are also to complete the provided
"Daily Reading Sheet" for each lesson covered. The author also
recommends having students complete additional sheets for their
supplemental reading. (Since this course is designed to be used with
multiple children, you should feel free to scale back the writing for
those in the younger grades.) The "Daily Reading Sheets" are just one of
several reproducible forms available in the appendix. For those
following the classical model, the author has also provided memory lists
for each unit in one of the appendices.
Throughout the book there are many neat experiments and projects for
"Hands-On" portion of each week’s lesson. We recently made the edible
3-D cell – YUM! Reproducible experiment forms are used to encourage the
use of the scientific method. I was a bit disappointed to find that
several "Hands-On Time" sections simply require the student to research
and write about a topic or are comprised of the end of the unit review,
rather than doing a more fun, hands-on activity. However, many of the
suggested books in the appendix also include project ideas, so it would
be easy to supplement on those days when you are all ready for more
interactive learning. Speaking of the unit reviews, these wrap-ups give
mom a way to measure mastery and understanding. The questions may be
answered orally, or in writing by photocopying the quiz for the student
to complete and place in his notebook. My favorite part of the "Unit
Wrap-Up" is the fun creative writing assignment, perfect for motivating
even the most reluctant writer! Another neat feature of Christian
Kids Explore Biology is the "Animal Kingdom ABC Book" that can be
completed all at once, or taken at a more leisurely pace and spread
through the whole year. While older students will most likely find this
to be "below" them – the ABC Book is perfect for younger children.
Each time I flip through the pages of Christian Kids Explore Biology,
I am amazed at the amount of information that the author has managed to
pack into this course! The lessons provide a solid framework, while
giving you plenty of flexibility to tailor your science studies to meet
your educational goals. After spending a year with Christian Kids
Explore Biology, you may never want to use a science textbook again!
*Making the grade:* A
*Cost:* $29.95
*Value for your homeschool dollar:* 10
©2004, Homeschool Reviews For You (Used with permission)
Product Review by Kris Price, Assistant to the
Publishers,
The Old
Schoolhouse Magazine, LLC
Well, I was all set for my son to study Physics next year, but I think we're going to use this book as our main text and study Physics at another time before he "outgrows" this book!
Christian Kids Explore Biology is a one-year curriculum written for children in grades 3-6. It should be noted that it is easily adaptable for younger students as well. There are 8 units – Biology Basics, Plants, Birds, Mammals, the Human Body, Reptiles, Insects and Water Creatures. These units are broken down into 35 weekly lessons which include coloring pages, hands-on activities, experiments and memorization lists. Each lesson consists of a Teaching Time and a Hands-On Time. The lessons are set up so that you can cover each section over two days. This is a nice feature for busy parents who don’t have time to allot for science each day of the week.
Let’s look inside the book to see how the material is covered. First off, when beginning a new unit, there is a complete listing of the vocabulary that the child should be learning as well as a list of materials needed for each unit. I love it when these material lists are included because then I’m not scrambling at the last minute gathering items needed for experiments. I randomly chose Lesson 26 – Turtles, Tortoises and Terrapins – to discuss in this review. The lesson begins with the text in Teaching Time. Vocabulary words are bolded for easy recognition. In the sidebar is a Bible verse as well as room for the parent or student to make some notes. There is not a lot of reading and it is recommended that you supplement your studies with some books from home or the library (I would do this especially for viewing "real" pictures of the topic at hand). There is also a coloring page/diagram in every lesson. The coloring pages are reproducible if the parent doesn’t want the child coloring in the book. Personally, I’m going to let my child color in the book because this will make a nice keepsake to look back through!
After the child reads the text, there is a Review It! Section. (This is not in all of the Lessons – many of the lessons have an immediate Hands-On activity following the text reading.) Next is the Hands-On section and, in this chapter on Turtles, we have the Unit Seven Wrap-Up which consists of 15 questions to answer about ALL of the previous lesson in the unit – this could be used as a test for older children. The Hands-On section in a lesson that is NOT a Unit Review may consist of a mini-Bible study, a simple experiment, a research topic, an art activity, a search-a-word puzzle, a game to make and play, a map activity, etc. At the end of a unit, there is a Writing Assignment section – In Lesson 26, this is a creative writing activity for the child to complete in their science notebook. That’s it! What an easy-to-use and complete format! I went ahead and randomly chose another lesson just to compare and I opened the book to Lesson 33 which covers Crustaceans. In this lesson, the Hands-on Time is a cooking lesson with shrimp – how fun (and delicious)!
The next section in Christian Kids Explore Biology is a set of Appendices which contain the following: reproducible forms and maps, memorization lists by unit, Scripture memory cards (more about these in a minute), reproducibles for an Animal Kingdom ABC book, additional coloring pages, recipes, supplemental activities and, finally, the Answer Key and a Suggested Reading List for the parent. The Scripture memory cards are very nice. I would copy them onto cardstock and have my child color them in and then laminate them and store them on a ring together for future review. I am impressed with how much fun my son and I will have studying Biology next year. In keeping with the Classical approach, the child is encouraged to keep a Science notebook where they will file away their vocabulary lists, reading forms, coloring pages/sketches, reports, field trip forms, etc. There is one thing that would be a nice addition to the book – perforated pages – this would make it MUCH easier for the parent who chooses to reproduce the pages for use with multiple children. However, at only $29.95 for the entire book, I think the parent is still getting a great value for the money spent.