If you noticed, the higher the grade levels get in education, the dryer the textbooks may become.
As a homeschooling parent, we are always looking for resources that provide useful information, hold genuine interests for the learner, and for added points, are visually appealing.
I also have to consider, my rising 8th grader is becoming increasingly more interested in taking a more active role in his education; he is working more independently.
So, the resources provided to him must be able to peak his curiosity, maintain his interest, and motivate him to extend his new-found knowledge with added research when applicable.
My criteria are as follows, visually appealing, easy to read, and extension lesson capabilities.
So, having those goals in mind, Joy Hakim’s Discovering Life’s Story series is an interesting start.
We received Discovering Life’s Story: Biology’s Beginnings” and “Discovering Life’s Story: The Evolution of an Idea for our honest review.
These are the first two books out of four in the series Discovering Life’s Story:
Volume 1: Discovering Life’s Story: Biology’s Beginnings
The first volume begins in the ”Islamic Golden Age as scholars ask questions about life science and medicine that establish those fields, charting a path that accelerates during the Renaissance, when Leonardo da Vinci dissects cadavers to learn human anatomy firsthand.” – Joy Hakim
Volume 2: Discovering Life’s Story: The Evolution of an Idea
The second volume begins with the “Swedish naturalist Carl Linnaeus, who attempts to create an organizing system for the myriad forms of life on earth……” – Joy Hakim
There are useful aspects within this series:
Beautiful Illustrations
Once you open the book, and flip through the pages, you are captivated by all of the beautiful and detailed illustrations. The photos automatically convince you to want to learn more, and the captions are a very helpful tool to draw out the, “Oh, wow, thats interesting.”
Story-Like Lessons
History and science may be boring for some, but the way the lessons are pulled together makes the reading palatable for my 8th grader.
It is also helpful that there are colorful textboxes throughout the books, used to pull out information into smaller bit-size chunks.
This allows my son a subtle mental and visual break from the overall text source.
Lesson Extensions can be Achieved
There are two features that I look for when scanning any resources
- Can art be included?
- Are there any lesson plans available?
The answer to these two questions is Yes.
You can implement art into these lessons by being inspired by all the beautiful illustrations and pulling what makes you happy then making your personalized artistic copy.
Additionally, Joy Hakim has teaching resources available to help you extend most lessons.
Discovery Life’s Story: Overall Impression
It will spark interest. It will create great conversation starters. There are wonderful teaching guides to extend the lessons.
Field trips like Museums and Art galleries can easily be incorporated to highlight some topics.
But, personally, as a multi-cultural family, I would have appreciated a more inclusive and diverse resource for our science.
However, these two volumes may serve as a great supplement to most homeschoolers.
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