This series of blog posts about our Christian Kids Explore Creation Science homeschool co-op took over four months to write, so you might notice some changes in what we planned and what we actually taught. We took the opportunity to let things happen and forget the lesson plans in favor of meaningful learning opportunities that arose. You can see the entire series at the bottom of this post.

I collected many ideas for teaching the 6 Days of Creation on a Pinterest board. For our co-op meetings, we started each class with the song and drawing from  Six Days of Creation at ohamanda.com. Our boys loved the experiment Why Does the Sky Change Colors and the light scavenger hunt found in the Christian Kids Explore Creation Science book.

By this point in our co-op experience, my oldest son has gathered enough data from the observation game to make a bar graph of how many items the boys could remember each week. The observation game consists of identifying which items are removed from a collection of objects. See lesson 1 for details.

A local college has an exhibit of treasures recovered from a sunken ship off the coast of Florida. A little bit of a leap from our topic, but we followed how a group of divers spent years exploring the ocean floor in search of the Spanish ship Atocha. The boys loved seeing the cannons that once protected the ship.

   We use tree notebook pages to take a closer look at the trees planted on the property of a local college. The school has a collection of every state tree of America.

The co-op scrapbooks are looking great! They are just photos of each class to review what we learned, nothing fancy. I have picked up a few stickers but the focus remains on the photos.

This is part of a series of posts about using Christian Kids Explore Creation Science in a homeschool co-op* of two moms and three boys grades 7, 4, and K.

Read other posts from this series:

• Christian Kids Explore Creation Science Co-op: Animals
• Studying Variation Through Teeth: Creation Science Homeschool Co-Op
• Studying Dogs: Creation Science Homeschool Co-Op
• Fossils: Creation Science Homeschool Co-Op
• Six Days of Creation: a Creation Science Homeschool Co-Op

*Learn more about using Bright Ideas Press curriculum in a co-op setting.

We begin preparing for each lesson of Christian Kids Explore Creation Science with a quick Internet search for ideas. Our research of dinosaurs ideas let to fossils. Researching fossils in our area led us to a Delaware area where we could dig our own fossils. We quickly voted to move our co-op meeting to Reedy Point Bridge for hands-on science learning.

The hardest part about this lesson was studying dinosaurs for only a week. If you are teaching younger students through Christian Kids Explore Creation Science, you might want to spend several weeks dinosaurs and skip the lessons at the end of the book which are geared toward older students.

We gathered the boys together to construct their sifter boxes. The design we used for the sifter box was a wooden frame with a screen stapled or duck taped to the edge. Once their boxes were done, we added a shovel, brush, and plastic bag to their backpacks.

Using the resources provided by the State of Delaware, we showed the boys what kind of fossils we would find on our dig. It took a few moments to show them how to sift and look for the fossils. In a matter of minutes they each had a handful of Belemnite.

After an afternoon of digging, we sent the boys home with instructions for cleaning their fossils. At the beginning of our next co-op, the boys took turns showing their finds.

What to do if you don’t live near northern Delaware?

• Research fossil hunters in your area.
• Check the National Park’s Service‘s list of activities for National Fossil Day. (National Fossil Day for 2014 is Oct. 15.)
• Visit a local science museum

We have now completed the first unit in Christian Kids Explore Creation Science.  I reviewed the material with the older boys and gave them the unit wrap up.

This is part of a series of posts about using Christian Kids Explore Creation Science in a homeschool co-op* of two moms and three boys grades 7, 4, and K.

Read other posts from this series:

• Christian Kids Explore Creation Science Co-op: Animals
• Studying Variation Through Teeth: Creation Science Homeschool Co-Op
• Studying Dogs: Creation Science Homeschool Co-Op
• Fossils: Creation Science Homeschool Co-Op
• Six Days of Creation: a Creation Science Homeschool Co-Op

*Learn more about using Bright Ideas Press curriculum in a co-op setting.

My first few posts in this series of using Christian Kids Explore Creation Science in a co-op included extra notebooking pages for teaching the lessons. My next few posts are going to take a different approach to presenting the material: hands-on.

I wanted to approach the topic of variation in species with a hands-on approach instead of the written assignment in the book. Using this Iowa Academy of Science lesson plan for using teeth to teach variation, we looked at a variety photos of teeth and learned  how teeth work. The lesson plan even includes the links for printing the photos of the teeth.

I loved watching the boys choose which type of instrument would work best for eating different foods. For example, what is the best way to eat M&Ms candies or beef jerky? Blocks smashing them or a staple remover tearing them?

We had a model of human teeth on hand to spur a discussion of how different teeth help us to eat different foods. We reviewed the terms omnivore, carnivore, and herbivore.

Using teeth as a basis of  our study of variation really helped the boys understand the concept.

I did have the oldest child in our co-op use the Internet to research the species name of each animal in the hands-on time. This site provided a nice video and explanation of taxonomy.

As another hands-on activity, we looked at a skull of a deer to decide what kind of teeth a deer has what kind of food a deer eats.

 

This is part of a series of posts about using Christian Kids Explore Creation Science in a homeschool co-op* of two moms and three boys grades 7, 4, and K.

Read other posts from this series:

• Christian Kids Explore Creation Science Co-op: Animals
• Studying Variation Through Teeth: Creation Science Homeschool Co-Op
• Studying Dogs: Creation Science Homeschool Co-Op
• Fossils: Creation Science Homeschool Co-Op
• Six Days of Creation: a Creation Science Homeschool Co-Op

*Learn more about using Bright Ideas Press curriculum in a co-op setting.

This is part of a series of posts about using Christian Kids Explore Creation Science in a homeschool co-op* of two moms and three boys grades 7, 4, and K.

For our third lesson, we learned about the animal kingdom.

As always, class started with the observation game. This week, one of our college kids joined in the game. After a few times the boys took turns taking away the items in hopes of messing her up. Then they increased the number of items each turn until she forgot one. It was great for her to model different ways to remember the items in the game and for the different ages to interact.

We reviewed out last lesson by placing photos taken during that session in our creation science scrapbook.

We discussed the difference between mammals, insects, reptiles and amphibians. We printed the animal classifications cards from Homeschool Creations. We placed animal labels on the table and had the boys stand on the bench to answer. According to each boy’s ability, we quizzed them.

• For older kids, we asked them to identify the class of the animal on a card. They had to explain why they were putting that animal in that class.
• For younger kids, we gave them the card and they identified the animal. We accepted any answer and then layered on the correct reason why it would go into the correct category.

We took a virtual tour of our local zoo and picked out two animals from the zoo that they wanted to see. On a printed a map of the zoo, we marked each animal the boys chose. Then we had the boys classify them. I created a zoo notebook page for our upcoming trip. While we are enjoying the animals, we can review the scientific classifications.

According to our routine, we ended class by giving the boys a box of puppets. They had five minutes to create a show that included the words insects, amphibians, and mammals. The youngest boy remembered that Humpty Dumpty was an egg. We quickly had a show based on animals that lay eggs which were attacked by animals that fly. It was silly, but the boys enjoyed it and successfully demonstrated that they had learned the differences between the animal classifications.

Read other posts from this series:

• Christian Kids Explore Creation Science Co-op: Animals
• Studying Variation Through Teeth: Creation Science Homeschool Co-Op
• Studying Dogs: Creation Science Homeschool Co-Op
• Fossils: Creation Science Homeschool Co-Op
• Six Days of Creation: a Creation Science Homeschool Co-Op

*Learn more about using Bright Ideas Press curriculum in a co-op setting.