Skip to main content

Instinct vs Extinct –?!? Explorations in Apologia Science

Preliminary report:  So far, so good!

It’s getting done, and the kids (well, Naomi Rivka) are enjoying it.  But we ran into our first roadblock two days ago – well, our first if you don’t count how DRY the first chapter is (which I knew already – other parents warned me, but said that once you’re past that, it gets AMAZING fast).

DSC01105Here’s the problem:  the words INSTINCT and EXTINCTION, both brand-new to Naomi Rivka, are introduced on basically the same page of the book.  See it here???

image

So now Naomi Rivka is totally mixed up.  I helped her through the narration, so she did that properly, but I doubt very much that she remembers now which is which.

image Luckily, I posted this problem to the wise parents at the Well-Trained Minds forum, looking for a quick, helpful mnemonic, and one mama had a great suggestion:  “eXtinction has an 'X' in it, which you can show as being a sign for crossing out something.” 

Which immediately brought to MY mind the little X’s that people draw in the eyes of creatures that are dead… like Naomi Rivka has JUST learned how to do!  She did it, in fact, on this narration page where she drew a few “extinct” birds, marking them with X’s. 

I’m so excited; I want to go wake her up so I can tell her about the X’s, but it’s midnight and I doubt the seeds of learning would fall on fertile soil.  :-)

Meanwhile, confusion or not, dry text or not, she likes the “official” look and feel of the narration / notebooking journal, although in my opinion, the coil binding doesn’t give us much room for creativity (I’ve stapled our science vocabulary sheet inside the front cover, but I suspect it’s going to get bulky there).

DSC01107 DSC01108DSC01109

And what I love is not having to figure out ways to INSERT Hashem (God) into the curriculum – He’s already there!!!  So when we talk about instincts, we don’t have to wonder how the animals know how to do certain things, even right away at birth.  They are automatic, because Hashem put them there.

 DSC01106   

That said, this page ALSO points out that “the most likely” reason dinosaurs died out is the worldwide flood of Noach.  Uh-huh.  Well, I didn’t say “most likely,” and I skipped that sentence and segued right into the bit about the climate changing.  And then went to the library to get a more conventional book about dinosaur extinction.  I knew I would have to edit, and I’m not upset or disappointed, though I can only imagine how horrified a younger version of me would be to see such a thing in a science text.

(and I’m happy my baby sister Abigail is too busy on her European tour to see what kind of intellectual pap I’m feeding her niblings)

I don’t know why… somehow, I’m happier editing OUT what I feel are extreme (“young-earth” Christian) Creationist references than I am editing IN the God references that are so central to my own belief system.  Texts without Hashem in them, science without Hashem in it, somewhere, just feels… well, empty.  So that’s why I’m enjoying this book so far.

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

לימודי קודש/Limudei Kodesh Copywork & Activity Printables

Welcome to my Limudei Kodesh / Jewish Studies copywork and activity printables page.  As of June 2013, I am slowly but surely moving all my printables over to 4shared because Google Docs / Drive is just too flaky for me. What you’ll find here: Weekly Parsha Copywork More Parsha Activities More Chumash / Tanach Activities Yom Tov Copywork & Activities Tefillah Copywork Pirkei Avos / Pirkei Avot Jewish Preschool Resources Other printables! For General Studies printables and activities, including Hebrew-English science resources and more, click here . For Miscellaneous homeschool helps and printables, click here . If you use any of my worksheets, activities or printables, please leave a comment or email me at Jay3fer “at” gmail “dot” com, to link to your blog, to tell me what you’re doing with it, or just to say hi!  If you want to use them in a school, camp or co-op setting, please email me (remove the X’s) for rates. If you just want to say Thank You, here’s a

Hebrew/ עברית & English General Studies Printables

For Jewish Studies, including weekly parsha resources and copywork, click here . If you use any of my worksheets, activities or printables, please leave a comment or email me at Jay3fer “at” gmail “dot” com, to link to your blog, to tell me what you’re doing with it, or just to say hi!  If you want to use them in a school, camp or co-op setting, please email me (remove the X’s) for rates. If you enjoy these resources, please consider buying my weekly parsha book, The Family Torah :  the story of the Torah, written to be read aloud – or any of my other wonderful Jewish books for kids and families . English Worksheets & Printables: (For Hebrew, click here ) Science :  Plants, Animals, Human Body Math   Ambleside :  Composers, Artists History Geography Language & Literature     Science General Poems for Elemental Science .  Original Poems written by ME, because the ones that came with Elemental Science were so awful.  Three pages are included:  one page with two po

It's Heart Month: 3 days left to save lives!

Dear Friends & Family: Hi, everybody! Sorry I can’t stop by in person... you're a bit out of my area.  :-) We’re out walking up and down on our street on this beautiful afternoon to raise money for Heart & Stroke.  This cause is important to me (I won't say it's close to my heart , because that would be tacky!).  I hope you'll join me by donating online. Growing up, I watched as every single one of my grandparents' lives were shortened by heart disease and strokes, and my father had a defibrillator that saved his life on more than one occasion.  Heart disease and stroke kill 1 in 3 Canadians and are the #1 killer of women. Please click this link to be redirected to my main page at the Heart & Stroke website: http://tinyurl.com/AtlasHeart Thus ends my personal appeal.  Official information follows.  :-))) ----- Heart disease and stroke is the #1 killer of women - taking more women's lives than all forms of cancer combined. But no one is immune. Th