Thursday, November 20, 2008

Focus On Science

I have next week scheduled off for Thanksgiving break, so I'm not stressing too much about school this week either. I figure we can catch up a bit during the holiday. We're planning a trip to the zoo this Saturday and we're doing tons of pre-zoo science work. We got this book, The Complete Zoo Adventure, and we're really enjoying it. It's got three sections: Before the Zoo, At the Zoo, and After the Zoo. For a week beforehand you do a daily devotional, and each one talks about the animals and their adaptations and habitats and mannerisms and how God's universe works together. It tells some of the theory of evolution and talks about how it doesn't stand up to the truth. A lot of it is way over her head, but we're having a good time discussing it, and even if she doesn't get all the creationist vs. evolution stuff, she's remembering words like adaptation and habitat.

Then there's a field journal, which she loves the idea of, since Diego keeps one too. She was annoyed that it doesn't talk and look exactly like his, but hey, it's a twelve dollar book. There are sections for each kind of animal and a little scavenger hunt type thing where you fill in spaces with information about each critter as you walk around and see them. Or, if you don't live near a zoo they call this a "field trip in a book", and you can read about all the animals and fill out the journal at home, which is cool.

Then there are word finds and mazes and questions and coloring sheets and all kinds of stuff to do after you get home.

We're all really excited about the trip and I love that we're doing so much prep work. The meerkats were her favorite animal anyway, and now that she knows one of their adaptations is their social life and the way they work in groups, I think she's going to have even more fun watching them.

Robin Hood is excited too. He's learning the names of all the animals and the sounds they make. I can't wait to see the look on his face when he realizes how BIG lions and elephants really are!

1 comment:

Kate said...

I was really impressed with that article that you had me read. I liked how the intent is not to discount all science because of problems with the theory of evolution and that you don't have to choose creation OR evolution (or some of its parts). And that an actual scientist could disagree with certain parts of the theory of evolution and (gasp) believe in God. Lots of scientists do.

I love that she has a field guide and I think Robin will love seeing the animals in person!