Come Learn with Me
Reviewed by Martha Robinson
Purchase details: Come Learn With Me series. Hardcovers with dust jackets. $18.95 list price. Please support HomeschoolChristian.com by buying this program from our Christian Book Distributors link or from the Amazon links shown in the text below.
Lickle Publishing's Come Learn With Me series uses attractive photographs and diagrams to explain science concepts to elementary-aged children. While written so that the student could read them alone, these books include advanced vocabulary that may require the parent's help.
The books are broken into logical sections with a heading at the top of every other page. Large, colorful pictures with captions break up the text. A glossary and an index appear at the end.
All four of the books in the series were provided for review.
How Bodies Work: Animal Physiology by Bridget Anderson. This book begins with the building blocks of the body, cells, and moves on to overviews of body systems such as circulatory, excretory, and nervous systems. With the introduction of vocabulary including mitochondria, homeostasis, and peristalsis, the material would probably be best held till later elementary years. Illustrations include photographs of many types of animals and microscopic tissues; drawings of internal organs; and depictions of internal systems, such as the lymphatic system, on a female outline that has visible nipples.
Animals Without Backbones: Invertebrates by Bridget Anderson. This volume emphasizes the huge percentage of invertebrates as compared to vertebrates in our world. Evolutionary theory is mentioned in the explanation of the animal family tree: "Where the branches come together, the animals in those phyla have a common ancestor." Several pages for each of the phyla then follow with amazing pictures of sponges, jellyfish, mollusks, parasitic worms, and more.
The Kingdom of Classification by Bridget Anderson. The Kingdom of Classification first explains the history of organism classification starting with the ancient Greeks and then moving to the efforts of Linnaeus. A brief discussion of how the microscope has added to the number of organisms needing to be classified follows. Each of the six kingdoms is then introduced. Evolution is an underlying theme in the book and can be seen in statements such as "Because of this unique characteristic, scientists think that dinosaurs are the ancestors of birds." and "Mammals also evolved from a reptilian ancestor."
What Fossils Tell Us: The History of Life by Bridget Anderson. This book is divided into two sections -- fossils and the "history of life," a breakdown of the eras over the 4.5 billion years of earth's existence. Pictures of many fascinating fossils appear along with a discussion of how paleontologists work with biologists and geologists to learn more about the living things that became fossils. The process of evolution is explained using the specific example of the okapi and the giraffe. In the second section, bacteria are represented as the first life on earth, and slowly, they "started to change shape and size to form more complex organisms." As the eras go on, the book explains that organisms become "new and more complex." Two nineteenth century scientists are mentioned in the Mesozoic Era section. The book ends by pointing out that oil and coal are fossil fuels.
Recommendation: The Come Learn With Me books offer beautiful illustrations and stimulating text. Some Christian families may find the material questionable with the emphasis on evolution in three of the four books and the less-than-modest drawing in the fourth. The information presented is well-laid out and "mainstream" so if you are seeking to provide your child with the sort of information taught in public schools, these books will gain your child's interest.
HomeschoolChristian.com resources related to this review:
HomeschoolChristian.com's Science section
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Review of Lyrical Learning Audio Science Programs
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