Should I replace Land Animals if we’ve previously studied animals?
Should you replace a science living book if your child has previously studied that topic? Well, I was recently asked this about Heart of Dakota’s (HOD’s) Land Animals, and it is a good question that others may have! So, I thought I’d share this question and my answer in this post, hoping it will help others too!
What if we’ve already studied animals fairly extensively?
Looking ahead to Creation to Christ’s (CTC’s) science, I have a concern about the first book used – Land Animals. We just started Preparing Hearts for His Glory (PHFHG). However, prior to that, we studied animals and habitats in another curriculum. In addition, we did Sassafras Science Adventure’s Zoology book, and we are finishing that now while we start PHFHG. So even before starting Preparing, we have done quite a lot with animals and habitats. By the time we start CTC in the fall, we will have done more than a whole year on the topic. I am a little concerned that doing Land Animals will be redundant. We’ve also done the Burgess Bird Book prior to starting HOD, but I’m still interested in doing Birds of the Air.
I am intrigued by the animal tracks, bird and plant life notebooks in CTC. I am also not sure we want to miss the connections that would be made with history and the other subjects. Additionally, I really like the weekly science routine we’ve started in PHFHG. My daughter likes knowing what to expect each day and each week. I have the next Sassafras book which is Anatomy and am contemplating subbing out that for the Land Animals book for the first several weeks, as it might go nicely with the anatomy that is studied later in the CTC plans. What are your thoughts? Would Land Animals be too redundant given the animal studies we’ve already done? Thank you!
Reply To: What if we’ve already studied animals fairly extensively?
This is a good question! I know that you have just started PHFHG’s science, and the first several living books begin with life science. Moving forward, PHFHG includes a nice balance of life, physical, and earth sciences. Resources such as Find the Constellations, Columbus, Who was Leonardo daVinci?, Pasteur’s Fight Against Microbes, and Albert Einstein – Young Thinker will include additional science topics other than just animals and habitats.
Looking ahead to CTC, Land Animals is one of six science books, so it is not used the entire year. Land Animals is important to do for many reasons. First, it is used at the start of the guide, and science is an independent subject in CTC. Carrie writes independent plans directly to students, and the beginning of the guide’s plans give special guidance to students, so they learn to do each skill properly. Skipping those plans will mean skipping that initial guidance and training.
Science topics connect to history themes.
CTC’s “Science Exploration” topics correspond with the general history themes being studied in the “Learning Through History” part of the plans. Studying science in this manner allows for natural connections to be made between the two areas.
Science activities connect to reading assignments.
Each CTC unit includes the following science activities in coordination with the reading assignments:
First Day: Create a science notebook entry.
Second Day: Practice oral narration by retelling the science reading.
Third Day: Write answers to five provided questions based on the science reading – including scientific terms and Biblical application.
Fourth Day: Conduct an experiment related to the reading. Log it in a science notebook or on a copy of the “Science Lab Sheet” found in the Appendix.
Science skills connect to specific living books.
These skills are important and hard to do on the fly with a different resource. The experiments, notebook entries, and discussion questions Carrie has written are all of her own making, so they will be new. The students store their notebook entries, written answers, and science experiment results in a three-ring binder. As you already mentioned, students make a book of animal tracks, bird sketches, and plant sketches as part of their notebook assignments.
Science skills are kept in balance with the assignments planned for other subjects in the daily plans.
I know Carrie has even recommended still doing Land Animals for students who have read it previously, unless they just finished reading it. Even then, we are reluctant to suggest skipping it for all the reasons I already shared. Science is so much more than just reading the books and randomly doing follow-ups in HOD. Skills are tied tightly to the readings, and the follow-up skills are even written to be kept in balance with the rest of the subjects’ assignments in the guide.
For example, Day 1 of Reading About History’s follow-up skill is research with oral answers. So, Day 1 of Science Exploration is a notebooking assignment requiring more writing and drawing. Additionally, Day 3 of Reading About History’s follow-up skill is making brief timeline entries. So, Day 3 of Science Exploration is writing answers to five questions, which requires more writing. Furthermore, Day 2 of Language Arts is a Write with the Best writing assignment. So, Day 2 of Science Exploration is an oral narration, which requires no writing. Finally, Day 4 of Reading About History is a written narration and Day 4 of Science Exploration is writing a lab sheet. So, as both require a fair share of writing, we made sure not to schedule a writing assignment in Write with the Best for Language Arts on Day 4.
We would recommend using Land Animals even if you’ve studied animals fairly extensively previously.
So, for all these reasons, even if you have studied animals a fair share previously, we would recommend still doing Land Animals alongside the other five CTC science books. This will give your student a strong start in science, better training for successful independence, more connections to CTC’s history, a better balance of oral/written work across subjects, new experiments and specific comprehension questions, special keepsake notebooking assignments, and most importantly – a wonderful Christian connection to God as our Creator. Hope you enjoy CTC’s science as much as we did!
In Christ,
Julie
