Have You Thought About Christian Science Courses For Elementary Grades?

When educating your children at home, you have the freedom to teach them sound science that is presented from a Christian worldview. "Christian Kids Explore Earth and Space," geared at elementary students, fits the bill very well. This text is part of a series by Stephanie L. Redmond which include Biology, Chemistry, and Physics. I enjoyed teaching from this text for a number of reasons including: it requires little to no teacher prep time; it is enjoyable to work through; being from a Christian worldview, it is God-honoring; and it is written in a conversational tone that is easy to read aloud and appeals to the younger audience.

The text has 24 lessons, 2 on the Earth in general (including Creation); 5 covering the lithosphere; 4 covering the hydrosphere; 4 covering the atmosphere; 5 covering weather; and 4 covering all of outer space. The maps, forms and coloring sheets are reproducible. An applicable scripture has been chosen for each lesson. In addition, there is an appendix of recipes and additional activities, another on how to make a folderbook, and another including additional books and resources. We took the book to our local copy center and had them cut off the binding. Then we separated the reproducible sheets and had the text spiral-bound with all the glossaries and appendices.

Altogether, I found this course to be a good core text for my second-grader that was easily supplemented in a few areas. I will be using it again with my younger kids when they hit second grade. And although my second-grader and I completed the entire course, we definitely amended and expanded it to be more in-depth. One example of this was finding all nine planets covered in one short chapter! I thought this was neglecting an opportunity to excite kids about outer space, so we expanded on that section with outside materials. There is no chapter at all about biomes, which I found startling, as there is so much to intrigue children about the variety of habitats and temperature zones on this planet we call home. Again, we supplemented the study of Earth with outside materials.

In a few of the chapters it seemed as though the bulk of the reading is about the author's own experiences, although this contributes to the 'talking to a young child' tone. One of the main things I noticed about Christian Kids Explore was the lack of consistency in material from chapter to chapter. It is a curious mix of technical definitions and conversational banter.

It's always great to find a science course that gives glory to God for his creation. The first lesson was about Creation, but neglected the "on the first day, on the second day..." so we supplemented that with some reading from Genesis. In Lesson three she goes over the theory of Pangea and the worldwide flood, how some scientists and theologians have conflicting ideas. She presents it flawlessly and intelligently. Although the coloring sheets are beautiful, they have a lot of black space that can't be colored. In addition, there is one sheet for the entire unit, not individual sheets to work on while mom reads each chapter.

The benefits in this book for the upper elementary students include lots of definitions in the margins and timelines listing scientists and scientific discoveries. One thing that would have been helpful was a 'year-long list of copies to be made' in case you don't have a copier at home to do it chapter by chapter. I think this book is a good value, especially if you supplement with library materials instead of buying them.

Teresa Dear is a homeschooling mom of four kids. She and her husband of eleven years do not worry about socialization. You can read more about the Classical Education Method in general and her homeschool lifestyle in particular at http://highereducation-mama4x.blogspot.com/. Find out her choices for curriculum and everything else homeschool. She divides her time between education, making a home, shopping curriculum, and stocking her http://www.mama4x.etsy.com/ storefront with handmade greeting cards and vintage ephemera.

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Teresa_Dear

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Get the Best Grades With the Least Amount of Effort Review

'Get the Best Grades with the Least Amount of Effort' is a unique collection that reveals the secrets of studying ways. This product is quite mature because it was released on 15th April 2008. In ReviewCritical.com's subcategory: Test Prep & Study Guides, it ranked #1. You can imagine how much sales and how many people bought this product.

For me such an undergrad student, this is the must-tool-to-have as it thought me how to learn smart (not hard). As young man, i love mingling with my mates. Nothing wrong with that, BUT how about the continuous assignments we've got? Final project maybe? Do we have enough time to do many things in one time? Hell no! Just robots can do that.

This book taught how to manage your times as well. Do not have to worry much how to handle the study and social life because this book will teach you how to become super learner. 'Get the Best Grades with the Least Amount of Effort' is a collection of secrets and hidden techniques that students maybe don't know or maybe they do not realize.

The students always had the problems with times. I admit, I always try hard to learn in first 30 minutes in lecture hall, but end up losing direction for another 30 minutes. In the end of semester, last minute study is the only option. Anybody does not like it, because we have to do revision until 4 am or maybe even lucky, NOT SLEEP AT ALL!.

In 'Get the Best Grades with the Least Amount of Effort' you will learn how to absorb, remember and digest lots of information quickly and easily. Here, I give you the best parts of this product:

* A very simple formula to improve your grades, which is very interesting, easy to apply

* How to prepare for your test

* 5-steps system to organize your work, social life, family and sports

* 6 effective methods to remember facts or information and at the same time, having fun!

* 7 studying shortcuts that save time WITHOUT compromising results, so you can complete your schoolwork in the shortest time possible

* How to determine exactly what will be on your next exam.

* And much more

View the original article here

Get the Best Grades With the Least Amount of Effort Review

'Get the Best Grades with the Least Amount of Effort' is a unique collection that reveals the secrets of studying ways. This product is quite mature because it was released on 15th April 2008. In ReviewCritical.com's subcategory: Test Prep & Study Guides, it ranked #1. You can imagine how much sales and how many people bought this product.

For me such an undergrad student, this is the must-tool-to-have as it thought me how to learn smart (not hard). As young man, i love mingling with my mates. Nothing wrong with that, BUT how about the continuous assignments we've got? Final project maybe? Do we have enough time to do many things in one time? Hell no! Just robots can do that.

This book taught how to manage your times as well. Do not have to worry much how to handle the study and social life because this book will teach you how to become super learner. 'Get the Best Grades with the Least Amount of Effort' is a collection of secrets and hidden techniques that students maybe don't know or maybe they do not realize.

The students always had the problems with times. I admit, I always try hard to learn in first 30 minutes in lecture hall, but end up losing direction for another 30 minutes. In the end of semester, last minute study is the only option. Anybody does not like it, because we have to do revision until 4 am or maybe even lucky, NOT SLEEP AT ALL!.

In 'Get the Best Grades with the Least Amount of Effort' you will learn how to absorb, remember and digest lots of information quickly and easily. Here, I give you the best parts of this product:

* A very simple formula to improve your grades, which is very interesting, easy to apply

* How to prepare for your test

* 5-steps system to organize your work, social life, family and sports

* 6 effective methods to remember facts or information and at the same time, having fun!

* 7 studying shortcuts that save time WITHOUT compromising results, so you can complete your schoolwork in the shortest time possible

* How to determine exactly what will be on your next exam.

* And much more

View the original article here

A Quest to Explain What Grades Really Mean

It could be a Zen koan: if everybody in the class gets an A, what does an A mean?

The answer: Not what it should, says Andrew Perrin, a sociologist at the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill. “An A should mean outstanding work; it should not be the default grade,” Mr. Perrin said. “If everyone gets an A for adequate completion of tasks, it cripples our ability to recognize exemplary scholarship.”

As part of the university’s long effort to clarify what grades really mean, Mr. Perrin now leads a committee that is working with the registrar on plans to add extra information — probably median grades, and perhaps more — to transcripts. In addition, they expect to post further statistics providing context online and give instructors data on how their grading compares with their colleagues’.

“It’s going to be modest and nowhere near enough to correct the problems,” Mr. Perrin said. “But it’s our judgment that it’s the best we can do now.”

With college grades creeping ever higher, a few universities have taken direct action against grade inflation. Most notably, Princeton adopted guidelines in 2004 providing that no more than 35 percent of undergraduate grades should be A’s, a policy that remains controversial on campus.

Others have taken a less direct approach, leaving instructors free to award whatever grades they like but expanding their transcripts to include information giving graduate schools and employers a fuller picture of what the grades mean.

Dartmouth transcripts include median grades, along with the number of courses in which the student exceeded, equaled or came in lower than those medians. Columbia transcripts show the percentage of students in the course who earned an A.

At Reed College, transcripts are accompanied by an explanatory card. Last year’s graduating class had an average G.P.A. of 3.20, it says, and only 10 percent of the class graduated with a G.P.A. of 3.67 or higher.

“We also tell them that in 26 years, only 10 students have graduated with a perfect 4.0 average — and three of them were transfers who didn’t get all those grades at Reed,” said Nora McLaughlin, the registrar at Reed. “We wanted to put the grades at Reed in context to be sure that graduate schools, particularly professional schools where G.P.A. is very much an important factor, understand how capable our students are.”

Especially in hard economic times, students worry that professors who are stingy with the A’s will leave them at a disadvantage in graduate school admissions and employment. No wonder, then, that many students visit Web sites like RateMyProfessors.com when registering, perhaps to help them avoid tough graders.

Cornell’s experience shows the impact — and the unintended consequences — that grading information can bring.

In 1996, Cornell’s faculty adopted a “truth in grading” policy, and median grades were posted online starting in 1998. The policy called for median grades to be shown on transcripts as soon as student-records technology made that possible, but that did not happen until a full decade later.

And while the median grades were available only online, a study by three Cornell economists found a large increase in enrollment in courses with a median grade of A — further driving grade inflation.

“At least when the grades were only online, the main users of the information seemed to be students shopping around for easier classes,” said Talia Bar, one of the three economists.

Ms. Bar said there is no consensus on the right way to grade.

“I might see a course of 200 people with a median grade of A as not right, but others might see it as good,” she said.

But at least in the realm of theory, there is widespread agreement that providing extra context on transcripts is a good thing.

“It’s generally recognized that an A by itself is not very meaningful,” said Barmak Nassirian, associate executive director of the American Association of Collegiate Registrars and Admissions Officers. “Giving statistical context to assist recipients of a transcript in understanding the grades is definitely helpful.”

But as a practical matter, it is not so easy.

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