The kids love the hands-on activities we do - they observed a spinning top mimicking the motion of the planets, and then they got to pretend to be planets, with me being the sun.  As they walked in circles around me, they also spun around.  My daughter (almost 8) draped a blanket over herself, pretending to be Pluto, while my son (6 years) crashed into me and told me he had burned up in the sun. 

They also enjoy making new pages for their science notebooks, and looking through them.  A couple weeks ago, they made a small book about the universe, and last week they made a small model of the solar system.  This week while I read to them about each planet, they filled out "Solar System Detective" sheets with interesting facts about each planet: relatives size, distance from the sun, how long a day and a year are, how much they would weigh, and distinctive features.  I was shocked at how much they enjoyed this. 

I really enjoy the notebook pages because all I have to do is make copies and give instruction for them.  So far the activities haven't required lots of additional materials either, but the kids are actually learning and retaining the material.

They are learning new vocabulary words as well as the roots of the words.  Each week, I write any new words on index cards for them, pass them out to the kids, and have them take turns reading the definitions of the words.  This week they even quizzed each other on all the words we've learned so far.  When a word comes up in our reading, we can refer back to the card for the definition.

Each lesson also includes a section of Bible Reading, that tells what the Bible says about what we're studying.  This is probably the least interesting part for the kids.  Looking up the passages is time-consuming at their level, and they don't like to wait while I look up the passages either.  Next week I'll try printing off the verses from the computer for them and see how that goes.

One of the fascinating parts of each lesson is the "Evolution Stumpers" section, which highlights scientific discoveries that call evolution into question. 

Because we finished a topic (astronomy) this week, we had the opportunity to evaluate what we learned by doing a crossword review.  My daughter was able to recall independently all the key words and facts we had learned in the last few weeks.  My son was able to complete about half of the review independently, including naming the planets in order.  On the next day I allowed him to refer to his notebook and to our vocabulary cards to complete the rest of his crossword.  It looks like these will serve well as tests for my daughter (though I will not call them that to her), and reviews for my son.  While my son completed his crossword puzzle, my daughter did some extra research on the scientist Galileo using the computer and filling in a "Scientist Detective" page included in the curriculum. 

Today at lunch time I got to share with my brother-in-law some surprising astronomy facts I learned along with the kids this week in our science curriculum.  I think he was surprised by the fact that the sun is shrinking (something that flies in the face of evolution), and that Jupiter gives off more heat than it receives from the sun.  These were just 2 examples of facts I got to learn as I teach my kids.  It made me realize how much I love using the Considering God's Creation curriculum.

Tomorrow we begin to study the atmosphere and rainbows.  I can hardly wait.  The activities look like so much fun!