Join Professor Ana Lyze as she leads you and your students on a wild scientific adventure, searching for "outlandish insects, rare diseases, unique gems and more" (from Introduction to The Dung Beetle). The Curiosity Files is a new series of Unit Studies by The Old Schoolhouse, focusing on unusual scientific subjects. We were captivated from page one of The Dung Beetle. The timing was perfect, giving us a break from our usual school routine while still covering all the core subjects.
Easily adapted to accomodate all ages, The Curiosity Files is especially recommended for ages 8-13. My second grader and I took turns with the reading. Spelling was addressed through fun games, using the provided vocabulary list for elementary grades. Another list is included for higher grade levels. I was impressed that my son was able to rattle off the definitions of the vocabulary words after three days. The Dung Beetle includes copious amounts of written work. I have a wiggle worm disguised as a seven year old boy and the copywork became tedious for him. We skipped the last page of it. I had him write in the answers to the reading comprehension portion, but allowed him to dictate his stories to me in the creative writing section.
The math lessons were fun. We ran around the house measuring everything in sight. We worked out geometric problems by rolling dung balls made of clay. A full page of Bible based discussion questions is included for those who teach religion, easily omitted for those who don't. Several Bible references are made on other pages, most notably the copywork (all Bible verses).
For our science project, we followed the directions included for making a model of a dragonfly, another beneficial insect. Only our clay was all dried out, so first we had to make some clay! We also researched why dung beetles have horns.
Even history is included, as we studied the scarab beetle in ancient Egypt, then did some research to discover a famous entomologist who specifically studied the Dung Beetle. Our findings led us to conclude that we need more dung beetles on our homestead!
Lapbooking is becoming a favorite way to document our homeschool studies, and several templates are included in The Dung Beetle. We put all our work in the lapbook, along with several mini books, including one titled "Where In The World Can I Find A Dung Beetle?" In assembling the lapbook, my son reviewed some of his work and decided to make a few improvements - now that's an improvement I like.
See what other Homeschool Crew members are saying about The Curiosity Files.
We received one free download of The Curiosity Files - The Dung Beetle to use and review. No other compensation was received for this review.
1 comment:
Liked your post. We did red tides and enjoyed that too. I am also following you now too.
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