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HOMESCHOOL CURRICULUM FLIP THROUGH + REVIEW: Sonlight Science E
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Jun 19, 2024
Considering using Sonlight science curriculum in your homeschool? Don't miss my homeschool curriculum flip through to see what it's like! Sonlight Homeschool Curriculum: https://www.sonlight.com MORE VIDEOS YOU MIGHT LIKE Homeschool Week in the Life — https://youtu.be/N-TtH42K9kQ Homeschool Mom Day in the Life — https://youtu.be/6-JcAvI0-Q4 BJU Press vs. Sonlight HBL — https://youtu.be/BrcmGHqr-t4 ********************************************* Hey there! I’m Sara, and I’m a teacher-turned-homeschooling mom to 4 kiddos (including a set of twins!). I balance homeschooling while working full-time from home, and am so thankful you are here. I love sharing about homeschooling on my blog, Blessed Homeschool, where you’ll find tips, resources, and curriculum reviews. Whether you are a newbie or a veteran, I hope you will leave inspired and equipped with what you find. ********************************************* Boring Legal Stuff:
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Hey friends! Welcome back to my channel. After watching my sunlight unboxing video, I got a few
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requests for a closer look at the science experiments book and some of the other materials
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So for today's video, I'm going to be showing you exactly what experiments are included in
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this curriculum and give you a little bit more in-depth look at how this science curriculum
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is structured. I want to say a big thank you to sunlight for sending me the science e curriculum
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to review and share with you. I did end up purchasing some extra student sheets so that
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I can use this with all three of my older kids. Science e is geared for ages 10 to 13
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or about grades 5 to 8 and my kids are 10, 10, and 12. So I'm hoping this will be a good fit for
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us. If you didn't see my unboxing video, I will share that we are starting to use this curriculum
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midway through our homeschool year. We have been using my father's world exploring countries and
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cultures this year and while I love it, the science portion has been just a little bit light
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So with sunlight e, I chose the four-day-a-week program and we're going to be using this
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alongside our current curriculum. You also have the option to purchase a five-day-per-week program
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and I love that about sunlight how you have the option to customize your schedule from
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the get-go. Okay, real quick let me show you what came in my curriculum kit
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So we got the experiments book, the level e experiments book, this book, How to Be Good at Science, Technology, and Engineering
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It came with the Usborne Book of Astronomy and Space, this water book
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Listening to Crickets. We also got the Discover and Do Science Supplies Kit
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and then it came with some activity sheets for the kids and also
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science experiment sheets. Okay, so it came with all the worksheets that we would need to
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go along with the experiments and to go along with our readings and our daily lessons
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So real quick, let me just show you how I set up my kids binders. So I just have a one-inch binder
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here and I separated it with a pocket folder. I like having the pockets in case I need to put
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something in there, but really simple. In the front, I just put their weekly activity sheets
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Okay, so these are the sheets that go along with what we're going to be reading that day
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and those are all in here. They're very colorful and the lessons are pretty short as you'll see
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in a minute. Yesterday with our reading, we just had the three questions to do on this one page
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So then behind this is where I stuck the experiment sheets. So all these sheets are
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going to go along with the experiments book that I'm going to show you. And if you have more than
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one kid that's going to be doing this, you are going to have to order extra activity sheets
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and a set of extra experiment sheets if you want them. I really like the worksheets that are
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included. I like having something for the kids to fill out, having documents of their learning
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and it's just helpful to have it all in this binder to kind of show what we've been doing
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this year. And when they write it down, I can tell what they're learning, what they're not
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learning. So I love that the worksheets are included. I did have to hole punch these worksheets
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They were not hole punched. So I just hole punched them and stuck them in the binder. So again, not
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not too overwhelming, not too much to do per lesson, but there are some worksheets that are
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included with the science curriculum. This curriculum has 36 weeks worth of lessons and
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it's pretty much open and go, which is always a big plus in my book. I guess I did forget to show
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you that the teacher manual also comes with the kit. So I stuck this in another one inch binder
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and it's hole punched. So it's all just in one place in this binder. And one thing that
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is a big stumbling block for me personally about science experiments and science curriculum
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is that I'm horrible about prepping supplies in advance. And especially if the experiment includes
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materials that I need to order or don't likely have on hand, it's probably not going to happen
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if I'm being honest. And what I noticed right away and what I love is that at the beginning of each
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week in the instructor guide, you are given a detailed list of supplies, not only for the
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current week, but also for the next week. So I don't have to go look somewhere else for a supply
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list. It's right here. And I'm less likely to forget about it since it's right in front of me
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on my weekly schedule page. It also breaks the supplies down into what is already included in
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the discover and do box that came with the curriculum and what you would need to provide
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And from what I've been able to tell as I've looked through the notes, a lot of supplies really are common items that you most likely have at home or can easily grab at the grocery store
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that week. So let me walk you through what a typical week will look like so you can get a
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feel for how this curriculum is going to work. All right. So I mentioned that I got the four day
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a week option. So we'll be doing this curriculum four days a week. And how this is broken down
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is you get each week on a page. So you've got a day one column, day two, day three
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day four. And this is pretty typical for how sunlight structures their instructor manuals
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So for day one, for example, we've got this book here, how to be good at science, technology
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and engineering. And it tells me what pages we are going to read. So if I show you this book
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right here, this is what this looks like. All right. So we've got page 10 and 11 right here
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talking about how science works. So very colorful, lots of diagrams and pictures
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very easy to read. And then this is the next page. So working scientifically, we actually did this
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lesson yesterday. So these were the four pages that we read from here. So after you do the reading
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then you have the activity sheet questions one through three. And these were what I showed you
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before in my kid finder. So week one activity sheet, and then we had questions one, two
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and three. And that was it for day one. It did not take us very much time to get through. We
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did our reading. The kids asked any questions that they had. And then we kind of walked through this
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sheet together. Pretty light day for that first day. I love that it didn't take a lot of time
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And in the instructor's guide, they do include answer keys for those worksheets that your kids
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are going to be doing. So you don't have to worry about if you don't know the answer
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all the answer keys are included each week for those worksheets. Okay. So then for day two
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we're going back to the same book. We have page 14 through 17. So what we would do is we would
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open this up and, you know, depending on your kids, you would either read this with your kids
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you may choose to have them read through it independently and then work on the worksheets
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independently. That's going to be totally up to you. My three older kids, we typically do our
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science history, our Bible together. And so I usually like to read it all together. We only
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have one book. So it's kind of hard, you know, unless they just take turns, which they could do
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but we like doing it together. So today we would do, what did I say? 14 through 17. This is a
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lesson we're going to be doing today. Those are the pages. And after we read, we would go to the
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activity manual and do four through eight. All right. Now I also wanted to point out in the
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instructor guide, they do have some notes for you if needed. So for example, if I flip to the back
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and I look at day two, it gives me a little bit of extra information here. And so it's just extra
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information that you might need to know as an instructor. Okay. For day three, back in the same
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book, 19 through 23, and then three more questions in the activity sheets. And then we have an
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optional activity, which, you know, if you check it out and you want to do it, then that is included
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in there. So again, for day three on the back, we've got a note to parents and it says, all kinds
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of living things strive to produce offspring and over long periods of time, all forms of life
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change by a process called evolution. Okay. And so that is in this book right here. All right. So
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right on this page. And if you watch my unboxing video, I touched on this a bit in the instructor
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guide notes. They mentioned that they do use materials that sunlight does use materials
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supportive of evolution, largely because they don't want to take an isolationist approach
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to learning. They mentioned in the instructor guide that they want to present fair and balanced
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perspectives on issues like evolution and age of the earth. And they want to encourage you as a
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parent to provide guidance to your kids based on your beliefs. I think that this is ideally great
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Evolution is a big perspective in our culture and I want to be able to talk about it with my kids
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talk to my kids about these things, you know, they're going to encounter it at some point. So
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why not now when we have the chance to navigate it together and just to give you another idea
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of how, you know, it's mentioned and incorporated. They've got this whole spread right here
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in this book. That's part of your lessons. So just kind of be prepared, whether you believe
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in evolution or you don't believe in evolution will determine how you want to talk to your kids
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about this and how you want to handle this in the curriculum. But they do use materials that
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are supportive of evolution. And also, you know, it mentions millions of years
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talks about the age of the earth. And so there are varying viewpoints on that. So just to be aware
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that this is in the books that you're going to be using. And that being said, and I think you'll
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see this as I walk through the other books, although they say they want to present fair and
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balanced perspectives, none of the books that are used present perspectives from a biblical
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worldview. And I think this is important to note, to present that fair and balanced perspective from
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a biblical worldview, that's going to be up to you. I do understand their purpose for the books
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that they chose, but just know that if you do want to teach and train your kids with a biblical
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worldview, those will be discussions that you will have to add in. Okay. And in case you wanted
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to see the optional, not experiment, but optional activity, it talks about it right here. Okay. So
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they've got notes on that in the back of that first sheet. Okay. The last day of the week, day
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four, that is when we're going to be focusing on our experiment. First experiment is, can you
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improve a catapult? And I will flip through this book in just a moment. So I will be coming back to
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that. And just in case you are curious, kind of going back to this book, if you just want to take
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a look at the table of contents, here is everything that's going to be included
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all the different topics that you'll be talking about this year. Okay. And so there's our introduction page. Science is the key to understanding the world
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Yes, it certainly is. But I think if you are a Christian homeschooling parent
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you don't want to forget that science is a way of knowing and exploring God's creation
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Okay. So even if you're using materials that are not necessarily Christian materials, we don't want
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to forget to teach our kids that science class can be a place of worship, a place where we can
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praise God, right? When we give students opportunities to explore, to learn about the
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world that God created, we are also giving them an opportunity to thank God for his care for us
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his care for all creation, right? Science should point us to God. That does not mean that we should
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point to God. That doesn't mean that I don't think this book can be used to teach science. I
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just think you will want to think how you want to approach teaching science to your kids. If you are
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a Christian homeschooling parent, I do think our kids should be exposed to the secular worldview
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of scientific topics, not to conform to this world, but to know God even more deeply, to be more
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firmly rooted in their faith and to be more firmly rooted in their understanding of God
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Overall, I think this is a beautiful book, colorful and easy to read, and we are going to have a great
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time learning and going through it this year. Okay. Once we get to week five, all right, this is when
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the water book comes into play. Also not a biblical worldview resource, but very colorful
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and has lots of good information in it. If you are using this with multiple kids, sometimes these
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types of books can be hard to read with all of them because they like to look at all the pictures
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and explore them. So I typically will just read them and hold them up to show the pictures and
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the diagrams, and then I'll let my kids pass it around to look at it themselves. So this resource
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comes into play in week five, then in week 23, this is when we begin using the Usborne book of
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astronomy and space, which is this one here. So again, not a resource that will be teaching your
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kids from a biblical worldview. And honestly, it's so interesting to me that books like these
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do take an isolationist approach to learning and don't even mention or give consideration
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to other possible viewpoints. God is completely left out of this book. Um, let's see, let's find
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an example. Okay. So this is where it's talking about the story of the universe. Okay. So it talks
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about the big bang theory and different things like that. Again, I don't think this is a deal
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breaker because I want my kids to know what's out there, but we are going to be evaluating what we
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are learning through the lens of scripture. I feel comfortable doing that, but just know that this
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curriculum will not offer guidance in that regard. So you are going to be responsible in offering
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your beliefs and viewpoints on these topics and sharing with your kids why you believe what you
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believe. Okay. And then in week 35, so closer to the end, we are going to be reading the listening
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to crickets book together, which is this one. And it looks like we'll be doing about a chapter a day
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and I will do this as a read aloud to my kids. All right, let's get back to this experiments
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book. As I know, some of you were interested in checking this out. One thing I did think
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was interesting was that they mentioned in the instructor's guide that the experiments will not
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typically coordinate to the science lessons and readings that you'll be doing. They noted that
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they just have not found a book that is as informative, colorful, and exciting for kids
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to read that also contains great experiments and hands-on activities. So just know that going into
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the set, the experiments you do will not match up with what you are reading. Okay. Let's flip
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through this book. So you can take a look at what experiments are included and see a couple of
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examples. All right. So here is our level E science experiments book from sunlight
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So first I will just show you guys quickly the table of contents
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These are all the different experiments that we're going to be doing, that they have scheduled this year
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If I flip to the back, there are 36 total. So here are the rest of the experiments
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And I won't flip through all of this, but I will just go through a couple of the experiments so
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you can see how they're laid out, how they're structured, and maybe that'll help you determine
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if this is going to be a good fit for your kids. I do love that one of the focuses of this book is
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teaching kids skills, teaching them scientific practices that will help them become scientists
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on their own, to help them become developers, to help them become innovators, learn how to
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investigate, ask questions, and things like that. It's going to teach them how to go through the
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scientific process, how to test their experiments, their designs, and I just I think that's great
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So it's not just going to be feeding them information, but it's going to be helping them
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be better scientists. All right. So here is our first experiment. Can you improve a catapult
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You'll have a materials list that's right here, and they have the supplies marked if they are in
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the supply kit, and then they also have the worksheets marked. They tell you your key concepts
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that you're going to be learning and exploring throughout this experiment. All right. And then when you get into the experiment, I again, very colorful, it's kind of broken down
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into different blocks, so it's easy to read. It's easy to follow along, even if you're having your
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kids do these on your own. I think it's going to be very easy for them. They've got an introduction
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of pictures and diagrams, kind of gives an overview of some of the things that they're
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going to need to know why they're going to be doing this. They go through basic steps of a
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design process that engineers use, tells them what they're going to do, some interesting information
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and then it's going to lead them through investigating. So here it's
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looks like it's leading them through steps on how to create a catapult
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They're going to be knocking down a wall that they build, identifying problems, exploring
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designing, creating, trying and improving. So going through all the steps of that scientific
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process and then drawing conclusions. So these are things that they're going to be answering
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and filling out on their experiment worksheet that I showed you, and it gives you answers
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in here as well. So you can check their work, follow up with them and see how they're doing
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All right. At the end, they've got a takeaway and some other information, and even a little
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spot where you can take it further if the topic really interests them and they want to do that
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In this book, they also have the worksheets that are the print, the printouts that I showed you in
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the binder. Those are in here as well. But if you don't want to write in here, just use the worksheet
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or if you have more than one student and you wanted to let one of them write in here, this is part of the book as well. Okay. So I'm just going to flip through a couple of the pages
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so you can see what it looks like. They pretty much have a lot of the same
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sections for each experiment. How do animals regulate temperature? I love the pictures in
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here that kind of show kids what they should be doing as they go along. So it's all broken down
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very well. How many calories do you need? We were just kind of talking about this last night. My son
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was asking some questions about this. I think one of the games he is playing on his Oculus
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has had like a little calorie, it was like some kind of exercise thing that had
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like a calorie counter or something on there showing how many calories he was burning. So
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he was curious about that. That'll be an interesting lesson to cover
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All right. So it looks like there are a lot of great experiments in here
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I hope this gives you a good idea of what the book looks like. Again, if you want to know
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what every single experiment is, just go and take a look at that table of contents page
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and you'll kind of get an idea of everything that you're going to be covering this year
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and all the different types of experiments that you're going to be doing. I hope you enjoy this review and flip through of Sunlight Science E. We are getting started on this
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curriculum and going through it this week. So I'll definitely give you guys some updates when we get
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into it a little bit. Overall, I love how these lessons are short, simple, and they look very
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engaging for my kids. I think the experiments are going to be easy to implement and we'll have a lot
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of fun doing them. As a busy homeschool mom, I love how everything is laid out for me and I don't
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have to do hardly any planning or prep. My big takeaway is that if a biblical worldview shaping
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curriculum is what you are looking for, this is not it. Honestly, I think of Sunlight as a
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Christian curriculum company and I'm a little surprised that none of the resources are biblical
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worldview based. I love the approach they want to take about including topics like evolution
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age of the earth, etc. so we can have conversations about those. And I know that this can be tricky to
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navigate in a science curriculum, but in wanting to not take an isolationist approach to learning
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I think that if you're just looking at the curriculum and not whatever input you as a
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parent want to put in, it's pretty exclusionary to God's part in science and how we are to respond
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as his children. It's hard for me to believe that there aren't any resources that are just as
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beautiful and informative and also point to God as the author of science while giving information
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about some of the other viewpoints as well. All that to say, this doesn't have to be a deal breaker
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and this may be exactly what you're looking for, but I wanted to point it out in case you are truly
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looking for a Christian biblical worldview based perspective in a science curriculum. Something
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that will help you teach your kids to think biblically about science topics, this will not do
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it in and of itself. If you are looking for something like that, I personally would point
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you towards BJU Press or My Father's World. Those are just the two that I have had experience with
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and trust as a biblical worldview shaping curriculum. If you want to check out what
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Sunlight has to offer, I'll leave a link in the description below. They currently offer science
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curriculum for kindergarten through high school as well as other individual subjects
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full curriculum packages, and some great unit studies. And let me know if you like this video
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by subscribing to my channel and hitting that thumbs up button below and leave a comment if
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you have any questions at all. Thank you so much for watching. I'll see you next time
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