Such beauty
The beauty and delight of the season is definitely all around us. Christmas lights twinkle outside. Early Christmas gifts are exchanged. Christmas cards and family pictures arrive daily in the mail. Advent calendar treats are opened with eagerness.
And, because it’s Washington, the rain pours down. Nonetheless, Christmas is coming and soon we’ll have the family together again.
In the mean time – we do school.
David and Sarah are using a new curriculum this year for science – Physical Science by Exploration Education Science. It’s a wonderful program – computer driven lessons with a workbook for writing out labs and homework plus a large a box of materials to assemble into hands-on projects.
For some time we’ve been struggling with the “racer.” The kids couldn’t get it to work properly after the first experiment. We figured that was fine, we were done with it, and we moved on to the glider (very cool!!) and the boat. Little did we know there would be a continued set of experiments that all featured the racer. Ugh.
In addition to trying a new curriculum, we decided to do this year’s science with friends. David and Sarah work independently at home in their own workbooks, then once a week (cough, cough, okay, whenever we get around to actually meeting) we get together with David’s close friend, Eli, to complete the building projects and do the experiments. It’s a WIN-WIN! The children have fun working together, they help each other understand the various directions, and Michelle and I get to drink coffee and visit.
Older siblings either hide and do their own homework or come investigate and “help.”
Big sis Emma does homework in the other room.
This morning Michelle and I were fed up with the kids continually being STUCK in their lessons, unable to finish things because of that little broken racer. We both emailed complaints to the company (separately) asking for new materials, assistance, or whatever help we could get on this frustrating little racer car. Literally minutes after filing a complaint online, we each received personal emails asking for us to call them and they would help us get the cars in working order.
What great customer service!!
Of course, neither Michelle or I really knew exactly what the problem was with the cars, so we resolved to call the company this afternoon while the kids were working on fixing things. Better yet, we’d make the kids call them. They could work on their telephone skills as well as science – homeschooling is all about multi-tasking! Before we could even make a single call, Eli and David had the racers fixed and were soon completing one experiment after another. Nothing like the threat of having to call a company rep to make us all work a little harder. Ha.
David and Eli got the cars up and running again!
Heh heh heh. Very impressed that Exploration Educationcontacted us so quickly. Pleased that the kids could complete the missing experiments and get their labs all written up. Now we can move on to the next set of lessons. Or rather, we can stop and enjoy the upcoming holidays and FAMILY!!
- Quote of the Day –
David: “No science is worth this much aggravation!”
LOL! Welcome to the world of science, Davy. Your big brother, Joshua, would agree that there is definitely some serious work involved in math and science. Hopefully it is worth it.
Love the quote!
I absolutely agree. Science is totally overrated. Definitely NOT worth that much aggravation.
That’s certainly how I am feeling right now.
I disagree….science is worth…any aggravation! Science rocks!
I disagree….science is worth…any aggravation! Science with a friend rocks!
Nice blog, mom!
Love it! Look how sneaky you were taking pictures. How did I not notice you doing that?-! ha! Science is ALWAYS worth it!!! =D
Hang on… I have a prediction. Oh, it’s coming to me: …all of the previous comments about science being worth it were made… wait for it… by people who are … not… currently pursuing a science degree. Am I right?
They were probably made by mothers who think that promoting science in front of their children will excite their interest and capture their imaginations and lead them to be well-rounded individuals who are inquisitive and thoughtful. Right? Well be careful what you wish for! It just might work. Your children might be so fascinated by science that they just can’t stop studying it. They might go on and want to pursue it on the university level. Then they might want advanced degrees. Next thing you know, they have a Ph.d and think that they know everything. Then you can’t get them to shut up about science.
Be careful what you wish for. I say that introducing a little aggravation early on is very healthy. Keeps ‘em frustrated and stops any idealized dreams of science being easy. It’s not. Science is hard. Also, life is hard. Science is just practice.
Spoken as a man who took two upper-level Physics courses this semester, it seems.
As if you needed a PhD to think you knew everything!
But you’re right, life is hard. Imagine how much harder it would be, without science!
I agree with David, unless the science is a class with Mrs. Cross… That’s the only time when science is fun…