PrincipledMom™

The book I am using for science is from the 1180's, entitled The Child's Book of Nature by Dr. Worthington Hooker. My volume is three books in one that I got on eBay. It contains botany, zoology and light heat and air, etc. The title page says "... for the use of families and schools intended to aid mothers and teachers in training children in the observation of nature."

I want to give you a peek into his books because it is a gentle science text that your kids will love. It is from a Christian/creationist perspective, so God is glorified throughout. And the writing is eloquent, so I enjoy reading it just for that. Let me give you an example.

Sample of Botany Chapter 1: Our Love for Flowers
Everybody likes flowers. We like them wherever we see them. How pleasant they are to our eyes as we see them in the garden! How their various colors please us as we look along the borders! Some are red, some are white, some are blue, and some are yellow. All these different colors, mingled with the fresh green leaves, make a feast for our eyes....
It was in a garden that Adam and Eve were placed. While they were innocent and pure God surrpounded them with beautiful things, because he loved them so much. Before they sinned they lived among the flowers and trees of the garden of Eden. It was more beautiful than any garden that has been since that time. It was so beautiful that God would not let Adam and Eve stay in it after they had sinned.
Some of the chapter titles in the botany book include:

• Our love of flowers
• What live on flowers
• The sap in leaves
• The leaves in autumn
• Lfe in the seed
• What seeds are for
• Leaf-buds
• what roots are for
• the bark of trees and shrubs
• the wood in trees and shrubs
• circulation of the sap

This year-long study of plants will give your child a wonderful understanding of botany--why we need to study plants and the wonderful way God created them to function. And it goes from whole to parts, making it easy for children to understand. It begins with what you see and small and then moves to what you cannot see. Biblical principles are also easy to identify and highlight. And I cannot stress enough how this book, with its gentle approach to learning, excites your children to learn without overwhelming them with information. It's one of my favorite books to use. (You can see some lessons we have done ubder my "science" heading" and in "general lesson plans".)

This book also lends itself very well to notebooking, with its reasoning questions at the end of each chapter. The subject matter makes it so easy to develop notebook ideas that kids love to do.

Ms. Katherine Dang has a $10 supplement that follows Dr. Hooker's books, with experiements and the like. You can contact her for more info (it's not listed on her site but you can e-mail her about it). I recommend it.

Dr. Hooker also has written volumes on chemistry, natural history, philosophy and more. He has a small bio here. He is known as the "Father of American Medical Ethics."

I am so happy with this gentle study of the sciences. Princess G begs to study from this book every day (no joke) and she loves for me to read to her from it. She has learned a lot about flowers and I look forward to seeing what she has learned at the end of the year.

You can see some for sale on eBay here. There is a new reprint in softcover you can see there. (I have an origianl 1888 three-in-one edition in good shape that I love.) Or you can get reprints from the publisher here.

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