by Eric Sloane
This is the textbook for Sabbath Mood Homeschool's Form 3-4 Weather. It is written for grades 7-9 and is scheduled for the third term of ninth grade in the high school integrated science plan. The idea of studying a bit of biology, chemistry, physics, and earth sciences each year appealed to me. I thought it would bring a bit more interest to science as we'd be moving on to another discipline before becoming overwhelmed. I also thought it might be interesting to have more opportunities for noticing the inter-relationships of the different disciplines. The divisions are sometimes arbitrary as there is, of course, much physics in chemistry and much chemistry in biology, and so on.
Sabbath Mood's courses were appealing to me because of the focus on a living book rather than a dry textbook of definitions and practice problems. I thought this kind of approach would be more likely to immerse my son in the kind of study that made biology, chemistry, and physics a part of his daily life rather than an artificial study of "ideal" and therefore illusive environments.
Overall, I think I still like the idea of Sabbath Mood Homeschool and the integrated science. I have not yet decided whether I'm satisfied with the level of First Son's learning and whether that has more to do with his lackadaisical attitude than the coursework. Certainly the lab work for both chemistry and physics was informative and challenging. The mathematical aspects were missing, almost entirely, though I'm not sure how much of a problem that would be for First Son in college. I took every science class my high school offered (three semesters each of biology, chemistry, and physics) and basically felt like I knew exactly nothing once I sat down on the second day of my science courses in college. Yet I still managed to graduate with a degree in biology.
This particular book, Look at the Sky and Tell the Weather, is a delight. The author's voice shines clearly through along with his love of weather. His illustrations are enjoyable and, when appropriate, informative. The "main character" of the book is cP, the air mass that flows from the Canadian Rockies.
In her voyage from Canada, sweeping down through the middle United States, eastward to New England, and finally out over the Atlantic Ocean. As each person breathes her in and exhales her out, she will have become a part of their existence; not just a matter of rain or shine, but a backdrop to their living moments.While there is a substantial amount of information about weather in the text, it's certainly not a full year's worth of meteorology. Nor is it intended to be; it's one-third of a credit of earth sciences. Even so, I think I'd prefer something a little more substantial and have my eyes on a few options for my younger children. This lovely book will be a supplemental reading book, I think.
There is a description of a young man who parachutes out of a plane and waits too long to open his parachute. It's not graphic, but may be distressing to a young reader.
The activities provided by Sabbath Mood seemed good and thorough enough. Many of them were weather observations made on homemade instruments, which could foster a life-long interest in weather-watching.
I believe that the sky was created for pure beholding; that one of man's greatest joys can be simply looking at the sky.I have received nothing in exchange for this post which contains only my honest opinions. Links to Sabbath Mood Homeschool are not affiliate links, but links to Amazon are affiliate links.
