Still My Favorite Science

Let me get right to the point.   After 14 years of homeschooling with two graduates so far, Adventurer awards and Pathfinder honors are still my favorite science.  I’ll tell you why.  

You will find a wide variety of topics among the awards and honors. Our family preferred that over single subject science programs.   Just the Pathfinder nature section alone features more than 90 honors covering zoology, botany, astronomy, etc.  The Bridges honor in Pathfinder Arts and Crafts is a study in physics.  Don’t forget Adventurer awards like Butterfly or  Friend of Animals  for the younger children.  The nice thing is , the majority of the work is already done for me.  These awards and honors are essentially free, organized, ready-to-go unit studies just waiting for me to download and print.  Doesn’t get easier than that!  If you’re not a science-minded person (I’m not), you will find the convenience of the answers in Adventurer and Pathfinder Wikibooks.

It is not hard to adjust the difficulty of the requirements to fit a child’s individual needs.  Customize the requirements by looking for library resources that extend the learning, as well as check for advanced or related honors.  Become and expert in a particular area by completing the Master award requirements.   Add in videos,  trips to museums, community classes, and specialty equipment and you’ll be working on some serious productive interest-led science learning.  The key is, you’ll only get out of it what you put into it.

I usually choose several awards that I think my children would benefit from experiencing, and ask my children to choose some that they would like to complete. Some years we have worked on only one or two honors, other years we have completed multiple honors. The interest level has always been high for my kids and as they grew into their high school years, my oldest two advanced from completing the honors themselves to teaching an honor to others at summer camp.

In high school, my children experienced traditional science courses, 4-H science classes, online coursework.  They did well in those classes, but their strong interest in science was founded in the awards and honors we completed through their middle school years.

If you are a new homeschooler, or on a tight budget, or need to meet special needs, or want to kindle an interest in science, I wholeheartedly recommend giving Adventurer and Pathfinder honors a try.

 

 

 

Free Adventist History Resources

Free resources for those families who would like to incorporate Adventist history into their homeschool studies.

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Adventist Pioneers Coloring Pages courtesy of  Adventist Heritage Ministry.  

Audio stream of over 100 Adventist pioneer stories courtesy of the University Park SDA church in Oregon.

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                            Lest We Forget : A 5 part printable unit study for upper elementary- jr. high aged students.

Our Adventist Heritage is another set of free printable resources and project ideas looking at                               the lives of early Adventist church pioneers.

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There are several Pathfinder awards dealing with Adventist Church history.  Combine them with other doctrinal & Bible awards to earn the Master award for that category.

 

Don’t forget the Adventist Church’s official Office of Archives, Statistics and Research website– chock-full of photographs,
online archives and more.  An excellent resource for a high school level research project.

 

New Pathfinder Honors!

Looking for unit study ideas for older children?  There are some newly approved Pathfinder honors that look like fun, including a LEGO® design honor!

Many of the new honors are scienced-based, which makes them the perfect foundation for a unit study.   You will find the list of new honors HERE along with more information about each one.

Curriculum Resource ~ Award Manuals

GC PF Tri Logo C.639e79c3-8815-49c7-8361-261dbe5940b0Here’s a secret that some of our new homeschool families may not know about:  the Adventurer, Pathfinder and Adventist Youth award manuals are great resources to use to create your own unit studies, as outlines for creating your own curriculum or to supplement another curriculum.      Click on the links below to download these pdf resources.

Adventurer Award Manual – 6.75MB

Pathfinder Award Manual – 5.33MB

Youth Leadership Award Manual – 601.23KB

 

Fun Links for February

Let’s start February with some fun links for your homeschool!

The Great Backyard Bird Count takes place February 18-21.  Why not use the Adventurer Feathered Friends award and the Pathfinder Birds and Birds-Advanced honors to turn the bird count into a fun unit study?

Do you have the Uncle Arthur Bible Story books?  Here’s a great free resource to accompany the series.   This two-part curriculum is designed for classroom use, but is a great source of ideas for creative worships and Bible lessons.  It is designed to be an 8 year program.  DOWNLOAD NOTE: The documents are large, the first set is 293 pages!

This South Pacific Division elementary Bible curriculum was developed by and for Pacific Island Adventist schools. This teacher’s guide includes lesson or story plans to accompany Uncle Arthur’s Bible Story series, Volumes 1-6. Concise, clear, adaptable, utilizing multiple intelligences, this Adventist religious education resource is free of copyright, ready for use or translation. See also the companion Pacific Island Bible Story Plans 7-10

October Brings

Fresh October brings the pheasant,

Then to gather nuts is pleasant.*

This month brings Fall weather to the Northern Hemisphere and Spring weather to the Southern. On October 1st, there are only 91 days left in 2010!

October is Health Literacy Month- Here are two unit studies using the Adventurer and Pathfinder club curriculum: Adventurer -Health Specialist ; Pathfinder- Nutrition

Is your student learning about the seasons? A fall lapbook is a fun way to teach the seasons. Here’s a Squiddo page full of ideas to fill several lapbooks!

October is National Go-On-A-Field Trip Month. Do a web search on “field trips in *your state* ” to discover lots of ideas for fun educational day trips.

Fall-themed crafts are always fun. Enchanted Learning offers lots of activities. Fall leaf templates are fun to work with too!

*The Garden Year, by Sara Coleridge