On science

I was a French major. I ended up with a Humanities minor, which was an amalgamation of art history, philosophy, and literature (read: hooey). I got the minimum required 12 credits of science in geology (lots of field trips!), astronomy, and psychology (required for teaching certification anyway).
In high school, I loved biology. I understood it. Physics made sense to me and I could memorize the formulas pretty easily (force equals mass times acceleration, gravity is 9.8 meters per second squared). Chemistry was another story. I maintain my teacher was making it all up, as neither his lectures nor the text made any sense to me.
Liking biology was a carryover from seventh grade when we first really studied life science. I was such a geek that I asked for (and received!) a microscope for Christmas. Seriously. 100, 600, 800, and 1200 power. It came with some made-up slides with rabbit hair and a goldfish scale, but my favorite things were those I made myself. Letting some rain water sit outside, then putting a drop of it under the 'scope and watching the little paramecia swim around... It was so cool.
I have long recognized my academic shortcoming in the whole science arena and have made a deliberate effort to make up for it since before we decided to homeschool. Sure, from those 12 or 16 pages of newsprint I could get a host of sticker books, merchandised stories, media tie-in lift-the-flaps, but I didn't. I gravitated toward the Usborne's, First Reader Planets, kindergarten workbooks.
Then came the homeschooling decision and a new host of worries. I didn't want kids who could quote Shakespeare and Augustine but don't know Kingdom, Phylum, Class, Order, Family, Genus, Species. I mean, it's great if they can list the popes of the last century and their important encyclicals, but if they have no idea the structure of an atom I'll have missed something.
I happened to be shopping at the local mecca of modern civilization (24-hour all-inclusive grocery store) and I found Parragon Publishing. Here were hardcover books, about 9x12 and an inch thick, with titles like: The World of Science, Earth & Space, Wild Wild World (animals), Mighty Machines, and My First Encyclopedia. That first one has seven chapters--the last of which is all experiments. Then we saw 150 Great Science Experiments discounted to $7 at the bookstore. That's one a week for three years. Including summers.
Plus our umbrella school has a brand spanking new science text series (okay, copyright 2005).
And my old microscope? My mom found it right where I asked her to look, under my bed. With a new pair of AA batteries, we were set. I'll bet Rachel is the only two-year-old I know to have seen microorganisms.
I said I had overcompensated.