I mentioned in my previous post that we have just covered Light in Science. And one of the resources that we used was our Oaka Books Topic Pack on Light. While we were using it an interesting shift happened for my daughter. She has always LOVED the Oaka Books History packs purely because History is her subjects and she likes to get multiple sources on all History topics so she can read and reread and just go into a lot of detail. Which means she always asks for Oaka Book History packs. But while we were working through her Light pack she turned to me and said – “Mom I think we need to get all the physics topic packs that Oaka Books produce, because it turns physics from being something I find intimidating and unsure about into something that I actually understand.” So there, from a History/ English Literature loving child who is not always keen on physics these topic packs are brilliant. (And I must admit from a home educating mom, who has to explain all these concepts – I agree.)
As always the topic packs includes a booklet (notes), a write your own notes (which is becoming more and more appreciated by my daughter) and a board game.
Each page is broken done into boxes with an illustration and a few short concise sentences (no wordy long confusing paragraphs). The illustrations are brilliant and I have found my daughter (who is a very visual learner) often reminds herself of what she has read by remembering the illustration included in the booklets. She will get stuck and then say something like – “in the box with the speed of light being chased by the speed of sound they said it travels at 300,000,000 m/s.”
With the light pack we broke it down over 2 sittings (the kids had already read through a Light book and spoken about the topic in details with their dad). We read half the topic booklet together, reminding ourselves about what they had discussed with their dad and then my daughter went and worked through the first half of the Write Your Own Booklet. And the next day we read the second half of the topic booklet and she completed the Write Your Own Notes.
After we had finished we played the game, which is always excellent. Honestly these games are so simple but I want these games for every single thing that we learn about. They are an excellent way to wrap up a topic and then a brilliant way to come back and revise or remind the kids about a topic. I am known for digging out the games from the topic packs that we have completed and just randomly setting them up so that the kids get reminded about topics we have already covered.
I have always loved the History Topic packs and I must admit the Science ones are just as good, if not better purely because it is a subject that does not come naturally to my daughter.
ofamily learning together 
Pingback: Starting Year 8 – Science Ideas | ofamily learning together