The deal with homeschool science materials

@Donia_Varnon

I found that for a general overview for my ignorant self, Darrel Falk’s Coming to Peace with Science was really helpful.

As far as teaching young elementary kids, I haven’t straight out “taught evolution.” We use secular books that refer to evolutionary history and adaptations and ancestor species, and touch on different aspects of science that presume an evolutionary model, but we aren’t going to delve into the formal subject of evolution as a process until next year. (with my 6th and 4th grader) If I were you, I would just focus on “God created plants” and read lots of books about plants. And “God created oceans” and read lots of books about oceans. And “God created the sun and the moon” and read lots of books about the solar system. You could use the Genesis framework for studying subject matter (as I think MFW does) without using YEC books that insist on a scientific interpretation of Genesis.

I like the book Billions of Years Amazing Changes for presenting the process of evolution to kids. Also the Usborne Encyclopedia of World History has about 80 pages of pre-history including info on the formation of the solar system, how fossils are studied, the eras of prehistoric time and emergence of life forms, an overview of evolution, tectonic plate movement over time, and various highlights in the development of life up through early humans. You can see some of the setup and the table of contents using the Look Inside feature. It was educational for me, since like you, I feel like I missed that part in my education somehow. I went to public school from 6th grade on, but I think I was trained to tune out all references to prehistory, and I think teachers avoided focusing on it.

As far as I know, there isn’t anything that integrates the “God created” part with evolution for the elementary set. But it doesn’t seem to cause that much cognitive dissonance for them to learn the science and then turn around and read the Bible. We read the creation account in Genesis every year, and when it comes up, I just point out that the point is to give God praise for being the creator, not explain scientifically how everything began, and that is satisfactory for my kids. I think it is when you have to undo a bunch of YEC indoctrination that you run into more “conflict.”

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