Out of this World notebooking packet

Hello there, September 3rd. I can’t believe you’re already here.

September 3rd means that it is the first day of our homeschool. Yes, I know it’s a holiday today, but we wanted to get a jump on sorting out our new routine before co-op classes start.

September 3rd means that it is E’s first day of leading our homeschool.

That means I’m in my office, working away. Things are different, but it feels like everything is going to be okay. I’m a little sad that I’m not out there reading Life is Fred and acting out an ancient Roman battle, but E. sounds like he is doing great. He even handled N’s meltdown over writing with aplomb.

September 3rd means that I have two more days to get ready for our co-op classes. The good news? I have Out of this World done! The bad news? I won’t have any photos of it ‘in action’ until after Wednesday. But here are some shots of how it looks printed out and ready to go:

Lesson Planning & Reference Guide

Out of this World contains a 19 page parent guide. There is a page of helps for each notebooking sheet. It has an answer key for the question listed on the notebooking page, a reference list for lesson planning, and 2 or more experiment ideas.

There is a coversheet with an area to write the child’s name and date:

The notebooking packet itself includes 16 pages (not including the coversheet) on the following solar bodies:

• The sun
• Mercury
• Venus
• Earth
• Our Moon
• Mars
• Ceres & the Asteroid Belt
• Jupiter (its rings are illustrated)
• Saturn (with rings of course)
• Uranus (with rings illustrated)
• Neptune (with rings illustrated)
• Pluto (the outer dwarf planets all touch on the Kuiper Belt)
• Haumea (with strange oblong shape illustrated)
• Makemake
• Eris
• Comets & the Oort Cloud

I’ve made the packet religion-neutral. Included resources include secular books and Christian, creationist books. The pages can be used with any style of teaching, regardless or religious background.

A note for my conservative Christian homeschooling friends:

The spine for the notebooking packet is written from a secular viewpoint: 13 Planets: The Latest View of the Solar System (National Geographic Kids), and includes background information on the ancient Roman gods many of the planets are named after. I still recommend this book to Christian, creationist families. First, the photos are fantastic, the ‘lessons’ as you use each page are very short, and it’s easy to supplement with Exploring Creation With Astronomy and page numbers and ideas are included in the parent resource guide to help you do so.

Finally, I think it’s important to teach children what some scientists and other people believe. I believe it’s a good springboard for discussion as you teach what your own family believes about God and creation. To my knowledge, it’s the only book available that includes the most recent additions of the dwarf planets, including the additional dwarf planets that are ‘up for consideration’ to be given official status. If you absolutely can’t bring yourself to use the book, additional resources have been given that direct you to the NASA and NASA kids websites for information and photos on all the recent additions to our solar system.

Once again, I was driven to create my own notebooking pages for a class on the solar system as everything I researched had not been updated to include the newest information. I wanted a packet that included the new dwarf planets, and images of the planets that included important defining characters that are often left off. Things like Jupiter’s rings, or Haumea’s strange football shape.

Age range: Fun for K – 12. You can help smaller children write a sentence about the experiment or activity you did, and fill in the answer area for them. You can let them draw a picture of the experiment, or even paste in a photo you took. Older children can make more notes, and write in greater detail, using the back of the sheets as needed.

Future plans:
As with Discover Africa, I plan on keeping these pages updated. Customers will receive free downloads of any changes (short of rewriting the whole thing) that I need to make.

I’m putting together a free download to go with this packet that will include color photos from NASA of each planet / object.

Where to get it

The zip file containing the Out of this World notebooking packet is for sale for just $5.00. I’m using e-junkie to host and deliver the file. Do let me know if you have any trouble.

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Some nitty gritty post-script

The packets are designed for use by families. If you’d like to use the packet in a classroom or homeschooling co-op, please contact me with the number of children who will need packets, and I will work out a special price for you.