Before we dig into how the Sassafras Science Series works, let's chat a bit about the history.

When we released the very first novel of our journey in 2013, we had no idea what the response would be. We just wanted to share a story that would make learning about science fun. Five years later . . . we have been blown away - it turns out that people love to take a journey to learn about science.

But maybe you haven’t started your journey.

Maybe you are new to the Sassafras Science series and it's kinda hard to see how having so much fun can really be considered "science class." So, we wanted to help with that.

Today we are going to walk you through a semi-quick, not-so-dirty look at how the Sassafras Science Series works. And by the end of this, you will see why thousands of people are loving to learn about science with our books!

Let the tour begin…

How the Sassafras Science Series works

Here is the nitty-gritty of the Sassafras Science Series.

The foundational ideas for our series come from the three basic keys you need to teach science at home. But those three pieces look different in the Sassafras Science series than in the traditional science curriculum.

Let's take a closer look at how the Sassafras Science Series works.

It starts with an adventure-packed novel.

Each of the Sassafras Science novels follows the Sassafras Twins as they zip around the world learning about science. Along the way, the twins meet local experts who highlight an aspect of science as they journey through each area of science.

We recommend that you read the novels in order from, starting with zoology so that you get the full impact of our journey. But, if animals aren’t your thing, you can pick up with any volume as we review key parts of the story in the first chapter.

The Sassafras Science Adventures books can read-aloud for K on up or independently read for 5th on up.

There are 8 books, each one focuses on one area of science.

The completed series will contain 8 novels, each designed to take half a year to cover. Each novel follows one leg of the Sassafras Twins summer-long adventure. And on each leg, the twins learned about topics relating to one area of science at a time.

Here is a look at the volumes in our series

1. Volume 1: Zoology
2. Volume 2: Anatomy
3. Volume 3: Botany 
4. Volume 4: Earth Science
5. Volume 5: Geology
6. Volume 6: Astronomy
7. Volume 7: Chemistry 
8. Volume 8: Physics (Currently in production)

You can read the novels all by themselves along with your current plan for science or you can add in our support materials to create a full living books science curriculum.

Then, you add in related science activities and notebooking.

We get it – one of the hardest parts of using a living book for homeschool science is pulling together a plan. So, we also offer loads of support materials to help you turn the series into a complete plan for homeschool science.

We have several options of support materials to fit your family’s needs. 

Here is a description of the different components so you can see how the Sassafras Science Series works:

1. Activity Guides – These guides will help you create a full plan for science education around our novels.  You will find chapter summaries, notebooking suggestions, related scientific demonstrations, copywork or dictation, and coordinating activities. The activity guide partners with the SCIDAT logbook which includes notebooking sheets to record what the students are learning.
2. SCIDAT logbook – Each logbook includes open-ended notebooking pages complete with images and spaces for your students to fill. You will find overview sheets with maps, subject-specific pages with images and space for narrations, glossary sheets with vocabulary cards, and space to record additional narrations, copywork, and dictation assignments.
3. Lapbooking Guides – Each lapbooking guide leads you through a survey of an area of science using a series of eight mini-lapbooks to document the journey. The lapbooking guide includes vocabulary, lapbooking templates, and a coordinating activity for each chapter.
4. Coloring Pages – The coloring pages have sheets for the illustrations along with ones for every SCIDAT topic covered in the book. Each topical coloring page has a large, black line illustration along with a key fact sentence for the students to learn about the topic.
5. Experiment Kits – Each our experiment kits provide the hard to find and difficult to get the materials you need for the experiments found in the Sassafras Science Series. These kits are compatible with both the activity guide and the lapbooking guide.

Our plan for teaching science with a living book looks like this…

So, you can read our novel, choose to do related science activities from the activity guide, and record it all in the SCIDAT logbook.

Of if you kids are younger, you can lighten the writing load a bit by using the lapbooking guide, which has the same scientific demonstration for each chapter, but all the student notebooking is done in cutesy mini-books instead of scary blank pages!

And if you love more, we have got coloring pages, so your littlest crew can join the journey and experiment kits to make your life easier!

Sounds great, doesn’t it?

Here is a detailed quick look at how the Sassafras Science Series works.

Now that you understand all the different pieces, let's put them all together in a detailed day-by-explanation of how the Sassafras Science Series works.

When you use the Sassafras Science Series as your main science curriculum your week will look like this:

• Day 1: Read half a chapter in the adventure-style fictional book and complete a SCIDAT logbook page. (Or you will make a mini-book or color a coloring page depending upon which student materials you are using.)
• Day 2: Do a coordinating scientific demonstration relating to one of the topics the students are learning about in the chapter. (These demonstrations can be found in both the activity guide and the lapbooking guide.)
• Day 3: Read the other half a chapter in the adventure-style fictional book and complete a SCIDAT logbook page. (Or you will make a mini-book or color a coloring page depending upon which student materials you are using.)
• (Optional) Day 4: Work on learning the vocabulary from the chapter and choose a library book or two to read about the subjects from the chapter. (Suggestions for vocabulary and library books are found in both the activity guide and the lapbooking guide.)
• (Optional) Day 5: Choose to complete one of the multi-week projects or weekly activities to reinforce what the students have been studying. (Additional projects, activity suggestions, and memory work are found in the activity guide only.)

In short – Novel + Support Materials = Science-learning Fun!

As you can see the novel and the support materials work together to create a full homeschool science curriculum that makes learning fun and exciting! Here is a bit of help for choosing between the lapbook and the logbook.

Need more visuals?

What are you waiting for?

Go ahead, join the thousands of homeschoolers who are taking a journey to learn about science! Visit our store to grab your copy of our adventures.