What makes a great homeschool science curriculum?
In my opinion it has to have three things:
- Engaging books that kids love looking at and asking more questions
- Easy to teach for the parents
- Hands on projects that kids enjoy doing
- Writing and note taking activities for what the kids have learned
* NOTE* I received Science level 1 from Bookshark to offer my honest opinion and review. All thoughts and experiences are my own and unique to our family.
For our grade 1 science we used Bookshark Level 1 science which teaches Animals, Astronomy, and Physics
When you learn about the animal kingdom it also teaches geography in a hands on way. If you get the all subject package the reading with history has an excellent large map which I also pulled out for our science. (see my history review here).
Our daughter LOVES the worksheets and cutting and gluing different animals into each habitat.
We are only about a 1/3rd of the way through this science curriculum but we’ve enjoyed the topics so far.
The curriculum includes hands on projects from a Science Supplies kit. For level 1 we’ve been doing magnets after watching the included dvd.
When you purchase Bookshark, it comes with an over-sized binder. This helps you see every week and what subjects to teach. Although it’s amazingly detailed & planned, I chose to separate the history and science from the language arts. I do this because language arts and math are always a priority for us. Science and History I try to teach every week, but some weeks we aren’t ‘on schedule’. By separating my subjects I don’t feel like I’m falling behind.
I really liked the projects for this age. They were a nice balance of hands on without too much complication.
I really like what the level 1 teaches. It has a nice introduction to many scientific topics that will get explored into more details as they get older.
That’s exactly what you want for this age, a nice introduction to science to ignite that desire to learn more.
My daughter really enjoys the activity sheets. Although not every child this age enjoys worksheets, they are brightly colored and engaging and a nice summary of the facts you learn from the books.
I would definitely recommend the bookshark science !
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