BFSU: Chapter 1

We started Building Foundation of Scientific Understanding this week and I am very pleased with it. This is an absolute shock because it is so unlike anything I thought I would like. A lot of the work is left to the parent which I wasn't sure if I would like but it actually makes me feel extremely useful, like I am actually teaching my children and not just teaching them through what someone else wrote. Who knows, maybe I will actually search out more curriculum like this! I hope to expand on my thoughts on BFSU in later posts. So the first chapter is about organizing. From what I understand, and I haven't quite finished reading the parental parts of the book (tsk tsk I know), this will help children understand at a deeper level all aspects of sorting and organizing in science. To help us understand and visualize sorting, I made up a little "game" to play. I recently bought a ton of old buttons at an antique show, so we busted those out.

 

C got her own pile to "do science" with :) Love those little hands!

 

Although my sophisticated gentleman had already covered such topics in ps kindergarten, he was still very excited to get going. I let him sort them however he wanted so he chose colors.

 

 

Then we went with size (the ones on the right look smaller due to the camera angle but they are actually bigger than the ones on the left). We also had a weird shaped one which he is holding.

 

 

Then we sorted the lacing beads by color and discussed other ways we could sort them. We went on to talk about all the different things in life that are sorted into categories. We just went with the flow and it was a very natural discussion. Quite refreshing from the rather stale curriculum we have been doing up until now. I have certainly learned a lot about my son and the way he learns best. If only I had more money to get all new curriculum :) Oh well, we will have to make do for now.