Hi readers! Welcome to today’s homeschool curriculum forum on science!
As most of you know, I am currently using Abeka science in our homeschool. I have to say that this has been a wonderful addition to our homeschool this year. Not only does it require very little planning on my part, but it does include some hands on activities as well.
Since this program has a variety of resources included, I thought it might be helpful if I told you which things I purchase when doing Abeka Science.
One thing I don’t love about Abeka are all of the little booklets that you have to purchase. It would be nice if they came all together to make life easier. But for the science I always purchase the teacher’s manual or “curriculum” as they are often called. The student work text, the student workbooks, and the answer keys if I am teaching an upper grade. I also purchase the tests and quizzes and answer keys to those as well.
I do not always choose to purchase the optional visual aids, however if you plan to use this curriculum for several years it is worth it as the materials are re-used across several grades so you will get good use out of them.
Another great thing about Abeka is that you can typically find their materials used at a very reasonable price. Just be aware of which version you are purchasing and whether or not you can still purchase workbooks that correlate with that version.
Pros:
- Material is grade appropriate.
- Lessons are easy to teach and plan.
- Includes hands-on activities to reinforce lessons.
- Re-uses colorful flashcards through the grade levels so you only have to purchase once.
Cons:
- Can be a little confusing for the teacher with several booklets to purchase.
Once my children are a little older I plan to switch from Abeka to God’s Design For Science by Answers in Genesis. This curriculum is a four year curriculum that is meant to be repeated with older grades. Unfortunately I did try to start it but the materials were just too advanced for my younger children, so we will wait to start this.
Pros:
- Focuses on God as Creator.
- Hands-on activities to reinforce skills.
Cons:
- Can be expensive, but not so bad when you consider it is four years worth of curriculum.
A fun hands-on alternative for younger children is the Nancy Larson Science program. I have been tempted to try this a few times, however they currently only offer Science K to Science 4. With my oldest going into 5th grade, I wasn’t sure if it would benefit my children or not.
The other issue I have with this program is the price. Materials are quite expensive, however it comes in a complete kit. So it is tempting to purchase a science “kit” that includes everything you need!
Pros:
- Hands-on and fun activities for younger learners.
Cons:
- Expensive
- Currently only available for elementary grades.
So, now comes the fun part!
What are your favorite Science curriculum, resources, websites, etc? Leave a comment below discussing your choices for this year and why.
Feel free to ask questions or reply to each other too!
It’s my way of doing a forum without actually doing a forum haha!
And hopefully this will help us all as we start the process of researching curriculum, and trying to decide what will be the best fit for our homeschool.
Note: Please keep today’s conversations geared towards SCIENCE, I will be posting one for each subject separately so we can keep our comments organized.
Click here if you missed my previous Homeschool Curriculum Forum posts!
Disclosure: This was not a sponsored post, I may however be affiliated with one or more products mentioned. The opinions expressed in this post were not influenced by the company. They are products I have used and felt like sharing, cuz’ it’s my blog and I can if I want to.
We love heathscientific.net for science supplies to support our homeschool curriculum. Love the selection and the prices! They also have fun kits that my kids love, like robot building kits or owl pellet dissection kits.
We use God’s Design for our kiddos and I am in love with it! I have a 5 year old who hasn’t really started school yet and a 2nd grader. We also co-op with a 6 other kiddos all from 1-4th grade. These books are great. The first part of the lesson is for the “beginners” which would be 1st-4th grade and then when you repeat through the books you go into the more complex lesson. We have chosen to read the “advanced” section to the kiddos because we believe that this plants the seed for information that they will be learning. Today I over heard my kids discussing photosynthesis it was very encouraging!!
Our kids have learned so much. I didn’t use the other books though. I just used the student books and then would use their lesson suggestions and also used google when I felt like I needed to add more to the lesson.
I am glad that I got into this curriculum because I worried that she would have gaps since I am not a sciency person and with this curriculum it seems very contingent to what the schools around us are also teaching.
I’m looking for a non religious view science curriculum for my 6th graders and my 3rd grader, something we can do together. Any ideas?
We used Science Fusion this year. I loved it because I was sure they had a science lesson every day. It has online lessons and labs, as well as a very nice colorful workbook. This program includes lots of hands-on activities via the online instructor module.
Advantages
* Online Lessons and digital labs were excellent and allowed kids to do science on their own every day.
* Kids retained the information.
* Very nice workbook and my oldest would frequently do more pages than I asked him to do because he enjoyed it.
*. Focused on inquiry skills and getting kids to think about science as opposed to just reading facts.
Disadvantages
*The online instructor module was a pain to use. Assigning online tests and assignments was confusing.
http://www.hmhco.com/shop/education-curriculum/science/elementary-science/sciencefusion
I have a 5 and 8 year old and am wondering if anyone has used a curriculum that would work for both . I have a little one, 3, who limits our time so if I can get the lessons dpne together, it is wonderful! Interested in Sonlight, Nancy Larson, and Apologia…
I do sonlight with my 6 year old son and I have a 5,3 and 1 year old. Science takes 15 mins. It’s a breeze and my son loves to read the textbook in his spare time.
I have used Apologia Anatomy, Land Animals, Winged Animals, and Astronomy, all were loved. They are simple and don’t require much, but do not do a lot of teaching into the Scientific Method or learning how to document (although the journals are excellent and I would greatly recommend them!).
We have found that we also love Teresa Bondera from http://howtoteachscience.com (although she is NOT creation based, she does teach things your child will need to know to excel at science).
Our favorite though has been hands down Supercharged Science. So much that I became an affiliate so this link is an affiliate link just FYI. There is a FREE webinar tomorrow that you can see how it works for yourself. I think you will like it, especially if your kids are science junkies like mine 🙂 Here is where you can register for the webinar http://www.superchargedscience.com/affiliate/500_live_tele-classes.htm All of these are great programs, you just have to find what works for you and your family. 🙂
does anyone use supercharged science? My son did a web class yesterday and loved it. They have a summer e-camp with experiments for 87$. I’m trying to decide if I want to spend the $ on it or not. Reviews would be helpful! Thanks
If you’re looking for a less boring approach to science, I highly recommend Noeo (Greek word for “understanding”) Science. It has incredible, colorful books in their kits (including many Usborne books with internet links for further research, One Small Square books, Encyclopedia of the Human Body, etc.) The kit for the year also includes numerous science experiments that are super fun and come in prepared kits with almost everything you need except for a few common household items. Each year, the curriculum is planned out for you and young scientists are given journals they can use for recording notes and each child is taught how to use the scientific method for determining conclusions for their experiments. Noeo has been my 1st graders favorite subject this year and mama loves it too. It’s a great mix of reading and hands on learning that’s fun, but easy to do. We love it and will definitely use it again next year!
We’ve loved Nancy Larson Science and experiments using The Usborne Book of Science Activities with Sonlight’s Discover and Do DVDs.
Anyone use Purposeful Design Science? I bought A reason for Science for our boys last year for Kindergarten but I only used the first unit. We just focused on Phonics, Math and Handwriting.