When I began preparing science curriculum, it was for a public Charlotte Mason style charter school that was expected to satisfy each of its state’s learning requirements. It was a rather interesting exercise to immerse myself in that state’s standards and then later to compare those to the NGSS standards. From the start, I had a negative attitude towards “requirements” of any kind, mostly because I don’t like being pushed around by anyone. I especially have a problem with the government having any say in my children’s education, and I take extra measures to ensure that they are never subjected to standardized tests. It’s one of the primary reasons we homeschool — to remove the government from my children’s education. But the charter school I was working for didn’t have that liberty, and it turns out, not all homeschooling families in the U.S. have that liberty either.

At first, I thought that the charter school might need to heavily supplement the living book based curriculum because I didn’t know how they could ever cover each of the state standards while reading a single book on a subject. I was quite wrong. It is simply amazing how much is covered by a living book, and because each detail is clothed in living ideas, you don’t need a whole page of facts to get the point across. In reality, the textbook may need to be longer than the living book when covering the same amount of material. To learn more about this idea, read my article Science Writing Can’t Survive on Charm Alone.

I also learned that the standards for science aren’t all that big of a deal. (Note that I am only talking about science here.) For example, high school chemistry only includes eleven standards and physics comprises 27 standards. Here are some examples: Continue reading →

My Form 3 (gr. 7-8) study guide for Astronomy is finally available! It uses the book The Planets by Dava Sobel (2006), which is a beautifully written book. I’ve had so much fun writing this guide and hope it is just as much fun for your students to use.

I think this will work well for your form 4 (gr. 9) students as well, in case you are looking for something for them, and my form 2 (gr. 4-6) astronomy study guide will be available by the beginning of August, so maybe your whole family can dive into the same science topic this fall. I’ll be using the book Finding the Constellations by H. A. Rey for the form 2 guide in case you want to get a copy of that now.

Enjoy!

Science, a Vast and Joyous Region.––Science is one of these provinces. Here, the stars are measured, the ocean sounded, and the wind made the servant of man; here, every flower that blooms reveals the secret of its growth, and every grain of sand recounts its history. This is a vast and joyous realm; for the people who walk therein are always discovering new things, and each new thing is a delight, because the things are not a medley, but each is a part of the great whole. So immense is the realm of Science that one of the wisest and greatest travelers therein, who had discovered many things, said, when he was an old man, that he was only like a little child playing with pebbles on the beach. -Charlotte Mason, Ourselves, p. 35