As our children continue to get older, I encourage independent learning. I love resources that not only help them learn on their own but actually teach them how to use resources to help them learn. Surfing the Net: Science from The Critical Thinking Co. is a resource that helps children use the Internet to learn science!
The Critical Thinking Co. offers award-winning educational products for grades PreK-12+ in a variety of subjects like reading, math, science, writing and history that go beyond just learning the subjects and encourages children to use critical thinking.
For our Critical Thinking Company review we received the Surfing the Net: Science Physical Workbook. It is a paperback book containing 250 pages of inquiry-based worksheets for free Internet videos, articles and games recommended for Grades 3-6. It covers a variety of Science topics many of which are new to us, an although they are definitely learning new topics, the key focus of Surfing the Net: Science is teaching them how to find information on the Internet.
We have been using the Surfing the Net: Science Workbook with both our older children (ages 7 and 9) who are currently at the 3rd Grade level. Because of their special needs, they are delayed readers, though, so I knew this wouldn’t be an independent study, but I knew it would be a great introduction because as they are advancing in their reading and using the Internet more (our daughter has particularly made major advancements in reading this year) they will need to know how to use it efficiently for finding answers.
The Surfing the Net: Science book starts with a simple (but very thorough) 2-page introduction on how to use the book. It explains how each topic covers critical thinking inquiries in five different capacities, how it can be used in different ways for the different age and even designates the more challenging questions.
Surfing the Net: Science is divided into 6 Sections:
- Animals
- Atmosphere
- Ecosystems and Habitats
- Energy
- Geology
- Plants
- Space
Each Section is then divided into more focused topics. There are 6-8 topics per section. For example, the Animals Section is divided into Amphibians, Animal Cells, Birds, Fish, etc. It shows all topics covered on the Surfing the Net: Science page. Each topic is between 3-5 pages. Because we were working together, it would take us a little longer to complete a page because I would ask them the questions, have them answer and then write down the answer. Sometimes we would complete the topic in one day, but other times we would only do one page per day. Generally 30-45 minutes is our stopping point because after that our kids lose interest. We have been using it as our main Science curriculum 3-4 days per week.
The Activity Layout always begins with a key word search. In the Introduction it notes the importance of the key word search because, as we know, search results can get overwhelming. It includes a link to a video lesson that is helpful on using key word searches, and I highly recommend watching it!
Additional activities are marked by icons that note to either Watch a video, Play a game, Search for images, View an animation, Use a website, Use an interactive website, Take a quiz or Read an article. The author spent a lot of time selecting the resources for this workbook. She noted that she chose not to include YouTube links because although there are educational resources on YouTube, they can be unreliable and there can be many videos that are inappropriate for children.
I think that’s an important point here – Surfing the Net: Science isn’t designed for just free surfing of the Internet. Even if your children are older and may be surfing the net on their own, they are guided to the appropriate websites either with your assistance or directly by the book itself. There are even links for the activities available online rather than having to type them all in, though I find it’s important to practice the key word searches. I think practicing key word searches, though, is definitely something to do with parent supervision!
Pages 183 – 250 of the book are the Answers. If you’re like me, you probably often learn a lot of new things yourself when teaching your children (which I love!) so having an answer key is always helpful!
Overall, I have found Surfing the Net: Science to be a great Science curriculum for our kids. It’s really challenged them to think beyond just learning science to how to get the answers. Although I do help them with it, I challenge them to tell me what key words I should use and, of course, to answer the questions, do the activities, etc. I like that it is teaching them how to use educational resources on the Internet.
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When I first received the text book I was amazed at the wealth of information provided. At first, it was almost overwhelming at the thought of all the information and knowing with our kids’ special needs they have a hard time focusing. Luckily, they provide a recommended schedule (which can be found in the beginning of the Junior Notebooking Journal) that divides each Lesson into 4 days. So by their recommended schedule we worked on the curriculum twice a week, which means you complete one lesson every two weeks. This is just the recommended schedule per the Junior Notebooking Journal, so you could definitely tailor it to work on it more often as well. This schedule worked out very well for us given our kids’ short attention spans. With their developmental delays (one is on the Autism Spectrum and the other has Sensory Processing Disorder) they take information much better in short spurts, and it helps them retain it better, so this break up of the material was perfect. There were still times when reading from the text that I had to paraphrase in order to keep their attention but because it was a subject they want to learn about it, it really helped to keep them attentive. They were really surprised at the things they were learning about the sea creatures, and how there is so much more than they imagined. I really appreciated the Biblical references for the creatures of the Fifth Day as well. There were also a wonderful amount of hands on activities to really enforce what we learned in the text. I love how we were able to us personal experiences to reinforce lessons as well such as when we go fishing! The kids really enjoyed making hypothesis and then discovering the results of our experiments. It was great that many of the hands on experiments use products you generally have at home anyway. Just in case, though, the beginning of the Text Book thoroughly covers what to expect from this curriculum, how to use the book in a step-by-step guide, and items needed to complete each lesson. They definitely didn’t leave anything out! They have gracious provided a 
The Junior Notebooking Journal complemented the lessons very well, and we used it regularly. You can make your own notebook, but I appreciated the layout and ease of this Notebooking Journal because it flows so well with the lessons. Because there are a lot of activities I opted to have our children share the notebook and divide the work evenly, which worked out really well! I found it was divided perfectly for this, and it really helped both of them to not feel overwhelmed. I loved when we would go to the Junior Notebooking Journal because that is where I would discover what they had been learning, and it was so neat to me that they would both soak in different things that would be their “favorite” part of the lessons. They would each draw different pictures and write about something different, though sometimes they chose the same thing. Because they cannot write on their own yet I would ask them what they would want to say to remember what they learned, which I would then write on a separate piece of paper and have them write it in the notebook. Certain lines were smaller, so I would fill in their answers myself on those lines because they do both have motor skill delays with writing, so writing in smaller spaces can be very difficult. In the Junior Notebooking Journal they answered questions about what they had learned, drew pictures about what they had learned, colored pictures, made puzzle pockets and mini books, and copied Bible Verses. The Bible Verses were offered in both print and cursive, but because they haven’t learned cursive they would both copy the print verse. It really was full of great activities. For more check out the 