At popular request, I am going to pull back the curtains and share with you all how we use our science programs.
Because I am not just the author of the programs here at Elemental Science, I am also a homeschooling mom who uses our curricula to teach science at home. {Oh my . . . that sounded a bit too much like the old Hair Club for Men commercial!}
Retro infomercials aside - Elemental Science really did begin with me writing a science program just to use with our daughter. You can read the story how thanks to a simple suggestion {and a whole lot of work} that one pencil-and-paper plan has become what you see here today.
All that to say that, I am excited to share with you all what science has looked like in our house!
First up - the Sassafras Science Adventures!
When our oldest was in first grade, the Sassafras Science Series didn't exist - in fact, most of our programs didn't exist!
However, our youngest is 8 years behind. And he's a bit more . . . energetic and playful. This boy loves adventure!
So, hubs and I decided that the Sassafras Science series would a great fit for him. Plus, it gave me a chance to actually use this series in our homeschool.
Right now, we do science twice a week, typically on Wednesday and Thursday. And we are currently using The Sassafras Science Adventures Volume 2: Anatomy along with Lapbooking through Anatomy with the Sassafras Twins.
On the first day of our week we:
On the second day of our week we:
It's that simple for us! If time allows, we will read another book about one of the topics or add in another activity from the activity guide, but we don't always get to those.
The above is an ideal week - I thought I would share with you all an actual week, complete with my six year old's responses to give you a better picture!
Here's how the first day of our second week with volume 2 went:
Time: 25 to 30 minutes, including read-aloud time
Here's how the second day of our second week with volume 2 went:
Time: 30 to 35 minutes, including several laughing sessions over the idea of a hot dog bun being a person's spinal cord!
And that's what an actual week of our anatomy adventures looked like. I hope you enjoyed this peek into our homeschool! And here's a tour of our completed zoology lapbook...
That's the plan for us!
At this point, I still do most of the writing but we are transitioning to having him write more on his own. You can see more about how we handle writing and science in the following videos:
As you can see, we didn't really use the plant information pages, notes pages, or project record pages. This is mostly because at this point our son doesn't write that much and I don't want to overwhelm him. We'll be adding these pages in the coming years!
Here is a quick video of how we use the activity guide and lapbook in our homeschool...
And here is a quick glimpse at how a reading lesson works in our house:
Fall is Brad’s favorite season. I’ll admit that before I met him, I wasn’t all that impressed with the season. I am more of a spring gal – love all those spring blooms!
But over the years, his love of fall has worn off on me. I have come to really enjoy the crisp mornings and the changing colors. Click "Read More" to see my three favorite supplies to use for fall science experiments!
Homeschool science can be simple when you have the right tools in your hand. Click "Read More" to listen to this audio boot camp from Elemental Science.
Here are Elemental Science we love science! And we love homeschool!! But how do you know if you are a homeschool scientist? Click "Read More" to take the quiz to find out your homeschool-scientistness.