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science

Review: The Way Things Work, Animated

For years we, like many homeschoolers, have enjoyed David Macaulay’s book The Way Things Work.   Recently we discovered that portions of this book have been animated! The movies give you both the science and the big woolly mammoths of the book. Originally produced for the BBC, this set of 26 videos, each 13 minutes long, [...]

Exploring Augustine College

Yesterday Miss 15 and I were students for a day at Augustine College in Ottawa, Canada, a Christian college that reminds me of both classical and Charlotte Mason education. Our visit was inspiring as well as mind-expanding.  In fact, I’d love to take a year ‘off’ to study at Augustine if yesterday’s lectures were representative. First we, [...]

Review: The Genius of Ancient Man by Don Landis

There are two opposing points of view about ancient man: He was relatively unintelligent and incapable of deep thoughts or great inventions, or He was very intelligent and made great strides in many different fields in a remarkably short time. One would suppose that archeology should be able to decide this question.  However, even though [...]

“Growing Great Garlic” in Our Garden

October 15.  That’s when a local grower plants garlic, so we did it today, too.  We’ve tried to grow garlic before, but it never really worked because we did not know anything about the process.  However, when we attended a garlic festival this summer and came face to face with $3 garlic bulbs, we were [...]

Whales Tohora: Thoughts about Whales and Ultimate Reality

No photography, no eating, no drinking, and no swearing. That notice was posted throughout the Whales Tohora exhibit which included skeletons of stranded whales donated by the Maori of New Zealand.  The Maori had requested that, in keeping with their spiritual practices, there would be no photography or swearing in the exhibition. I had not ever [...]

Learning about The Fascinating World of Farming

  We’ve always tried to grow some of our own food, for both health and financial reasons. It wasn’t until later that we realized it was a wonderful educational opportunity as well, perfect for our homeschooling family.  We learn about plants and animals, bugs and diseases, and soil.  What’s more, we learn how they are [...]

Going with the Flow: Mid-Year Changes in Elementary Science and High School Bible, Lit, and History

We rarely make major curriculum adjustments partway through the school year.  This year, however, we made two huge changes that, so far, are going well.  The Little Misses have changed science programs, and Mr. 16 has switched to Veritas Press’s Omnibus for most of his Bible, history, and literature. Elementary Science Changes The Little Misses [...]

Review: Katherine’s Farm, a DVD

Katherine, an energetic, enthusiastic young girl, has written a diary of a year on her family’s farm.  She and her mother take turns reading the diary while we tour the farm through the seasons.    We begin with the horse, Tim, who’s much nicer than a tractor because he starts even in the cold Manitoba [...]

Review: Science Roots by Nancy Paula Hasseler

When your teens begin to study biology, they are suddenly faced with an overwhelming amount of vocabulary to learn.  Many modules in our teens’ biology course contain dozens of new words and that is what makes biology so difficult.  In Science Roots: Latin and Greek Roots for Biology and Life Science, Nancy Hasseler has provided [...]

Review: God and Stephen Hawking

In judo, one uses the opponent’s own strength to unbalance him. That’s what mathematician John Lennox does in God and Stephen Hawking, a compelling refutation of Stephen Hawking’s book The Grand Design.  In layman’s terms, and using careful logic, Lennox exposes the flaws and foolishness in Hawking’s proposal that the laws of physics themselves brought [...]