What Can be Harder Than Science?

Is science hard for you?  Could you teach it?

I was not necessarily the best at science in school, but I held my own.  I actually really liked the subject now that I think about it.  I even entertained being a marine biologist at one point.

But teaching it, now that is a different story.  Yes, I would say that science is my hardest subject to teach.

Why?

In the younger grades science seems to take a back seat.  Reading and math - now those things HAVE to be learned and right away.  If a child cannot read, well, you've got a problem.  So at the end of the school day when we are all tired and cranky, science slips to the next day.  And the next.  And the next.  See the trend here?

Experiments - You know I am not an arts and crafts girl.  I have come clean about that.  And most of those early science experiemnts are mostly just that.  Lots of pieces.  Lots of parts.  And lots of work for mom.  Yuck!  Got better things to do with my time, so my brain says.

And then let's not even talk about higher levels.  Biology. Chemistry. Physics.

What can be harder than teaching science?

After teaching my first daughter Biology I swore I would never do it again.  But I did.  And I disliked it just as much the second time around.  The first time, we were blessed to have my dad do all of the dissections with  the girls.  The second time around, we watched some videos and did a virtual lab. What is the point, really, of seeing the inside of a frog or earthworm?

And Chemistry!  Really?  More yuck.  More experiements.  And now they want to add complicated math equations too?  Just gouge my eyes out now.   This time around we have invested in a video set that is taught by a gentleman far more knowledgeable (and braver) than me.  Hey, any little bit helps.

Plus, do you know what they want you to do for experiments?  Now we have gone from cutesy stuff to blow up your house kind of stuff.  Seriously!  They want me to go to the local hardware store for stump removal liquid.  Ummm, no thank you.  Sounds too hard and frankly too dangerous.  Next year our homeschool group will be doing Chemistry.  I intend on begging them to let let my poor, experiment deprived daughter to sit in on their lab days.

Physics anyone?  Not here.  Not yet.  My girls opted out of that.  The boys will just have to take it somewhere else.  I am passing on even attempting to teach that one.

So what can be harder than science?  In my opinion, not too much!

English anyone? ;)

Blessings,


If you too are science illiterate, I would encourage you to take a look at these three sites that have been life savers for us.  I did do reviews for them in the past but an receiving nothing in exchange for mentioning them here.  We just like them!

EEME
Supercharged Science
Apologia

Want to read about other hard to teach subjects?  This week the Crew is a buzz!