Science for Arielle

Arielle says she hates science. Supposedly, no topic interests her. Two years ago she was with me at a homeschool fair and we met the author of a new science curriculum and Arielle decided maybe she would like to try chemistry. (She was thinking bubbling, messy, exciting projects.) She did not like this book.

In the elementary years, when kids are just exploring science topics, I think it is good to let them choose what interests them. One year Liana was very interested in birds and we studied Jeannie Fulbright's Flying Creatures. Liana had a lot of fun and we did science without complaint. Not so with Arielle.

Last year I decided it was time for more serious science and I bought Jay Wile's General Science . It looked intimidating, even to me. Then our evaluator recommended we do something else for the 7th grade year. (We will use General Science this fall for 8th grade. Somehow it doesn't look so scary now.) The evaluator sold us a short, one semester book called Earth's Waters. By the time Arielle got to oceanography, she admitted it was a "little bit interesting."

My goal was to start both girls with Jeannie Fulbright's new Anatomy and Physiology in January. We were a little late, but we did start and have finished the first chapter. Arielle is reading it on her own and then we do the projects all together. FINALLY! I think we hit on something. Arielle actually said she likes it! And this is a girl who claimed she wants nothing to do with anything medical.

So what makes this science different? The book is written in a conversational tone, but it doesn't talk down to the kids. The first chapter is a brief history of medicine and then a study of cells and the function of the organelles. The girls made a cell diagram and labeled the parts. Then they made a model of a cell with gelatin and candies. That was a big hit. They also mummified an apple to get an idea of how bodies were preserved by the Egyptians. We bought the notebooking journal too. It has fun ways to interact with the text, including lapbook ideas and crossword puzzles. Over the course of the year the girls will make a model of themselves and then add on the body systems with transparencies. They already started this by cutting out a picture of their heads and gluing them to a paper doll body.

We're off to a good start! Today we are de-calcifying some chicken bones.

Hospital Field Trip

For National Heart Month, we visited a hospital's cardiac unit as a field trip. The girls were not at all interested in going, but a friend had invited us. Years ago when I was a nurse I never wanted to work with cardiac patients, but I was fascinated by the new technology and quite impressed with how patients are diagnosed and treated.

The best part of the trip was a demo in progress in one of the surgical suites. A mannequin was lying on the table, draped as a patient would be in actual surgery. The heart catherization monitor, along with an exposed leg, was set up for the visitors to see and hold. The actual person who runs the heart-lung machine was there to demonstrate, and a model of a heart was visible, just as it would be in surgery. Kids could step up to the table and actually touch it. A surgical nurse stood by her table of instruments to explain how they were used. It was all quite amazing to me. As for the girls, well, they made it clear they have no interest in the medical field. They think all things medical are "gross."