We started last school year rotating Science and History every other week with our History group. Our group found it was too disjointed and didn’t do either subject justice. We were using Building Foundations of Scientific Understanding (BFSU). It worked for some of our families and didn’t work for others. Our family really enjoyed BFSU and made great progress on our own after we dropped science from our co-op. I liked that I had BFSU as a jumping off board and Big Brother enjoyed the topics and experiments we did for each topic. BFSU is a curriculum that integrates all the sciences and each topic builds on the one before. There are 4 main categories and you can mix and match them as long as you have completed the prerequisite for each topic. It is designed for k-2 but does have a follow on and it is recommended by the author that all students begin at BFSU regardless of age/grade to get the needed foundations for future scientific studies. You also have the freedom of going the pace you want. We made it almost half way through, I blame all the house hunting and moving on the fact that we didn’t make it further as planned. BFSU is a keeper and we look forward to continuing with it this coming year.
For nature study, we attended Forest school and 4-H. Our forest school allowed the kids to explore the creek and woods independently with parents earshot away to keep eye and answer inquires. Our 4- h group went once a month to a new natural space each time. We explored Mason Neck (my favorite), Hidden Oaks, the Botanical Center, the Arboretum and more. We plan to combine these 2 activities this coming year. They were both successes but to open up schedules, we’ve decided to combine. Most people ae members of both.
Big Brother Also has an engineering side and has become very interested and apt at LEGO building. For the winter and spring we participated monthly in a homeschool LEGO Club that brought a new level of creativity to Big Brothers LEGO building. He’d get so inspired by everyone else’s creations. Both science and art.