I was very confused with the number of science curriculum options available after my sons passed their elementary level. I want our children to have a well-qualified science curriculum that is accepted globally. The elementary level still allows us to play around and have the fun of science but the middle school levels demand us to be more serious with all of the subjects.
Our choice for the spine science in 2015-2016 goes to the Elemental Science Biology for The Logic Stage. It is the time when kids start to think more logical and critically. They love to find out more about many things.
Elemental Science Biology for the Logic Stage
Elemental Science is a homeschool science program compiled by Paige Hudson for her daughter to use. In her research, she could not find an option that incorporates weekly hand-ons activities and notebooking written by someone with the related degree.
With her background in Biochemistry, she decided to write her own. So she put together plans with weekly experiments, unique notebooking pages and coordinated reading assignments.
Browsing through the website, you can see this science curriculum series is based on the Classical Education and Charlotte Mason methods. As we are an eclectic homeschooling family with the classical tendency, we choose this classical education inspired curriculum. We started with the suggested field of science according to The Well-Trained Mind: A Guide to Classical Education at Home.
Biology for the Logic Stage is a 36 week classical science curriculum. It leads students through a study of plants, animal life, and the human body.
What is Included in The Curriculum?
Biology for the Logic Stage contains the study of the living things learned in the elementary level science with deeper study and discussion. There are two books used as a guide for learning:
The Teacher’s Guide
The Teacher Guide includes the student assignments sheets with two day and five day schedules to help you plan out the year.
You will also get some tips on how to lead your student through the program, comprehension questions, answers for the student’s work, and unit tests for you to use.
The Student Guide
The Student Guide contains:
- all student assignment sheets
- sketches
- experiment sheets
- blank report pages
Each of the student assignment sheets contains the weekly topic, sketch assignment, experiment directions, report options, dates to enter, and memory work.
What We Like About Biology for the Logic Stage
- Biology for The Logic Stage allows children to use a real reference (books) instead of a compilation of information. Therefore, children in the logic stage are forced to use their information skills to look for, gather, and compose based on real resources.
- There is a set of suggested books to complete the curriculum which are available to order in our local bookstores and Amazon. We have already had the books as those are really great books that we have purchased previously when kids were still in the elementary levels. Using the same books we can create a different result.
- There are some extension activities in all of the units. The best ones are the dissection activities. We really enjoy them.
- The Teacher’s Guide is very useful. It has some suggestions for online and hands-on materials to make the learning activities fun and engaging. Kids are very excited to learn about science.
- There are also some suggestions for the sequence and resources for learning materials with multiple ages of children.
- Biology for The Logic Stage is a secular curriculum that is not against Christianity. We still can add some religious concepts within the use of the materials.
- Biology for The Logic Stage provides a well-balanced set of science learning components. It is suitable for my children with multiple learning styles.
I would recommend the use of Biology for The Logic Stage for any homeschooling family using the classical education method. For those who love the unit study, you might get a lot of ideas from the activities suggested in the Teacher’s Guide.
Purchasing Elemental Science Products
Biology for The Logic Stage is available in both printed and electronic forms at Elemental Science
I am considering this for my daughter who will be in grade 8 next year, mostly because we are trying to find something other than apologia but she really doesn’t want to do Earth Science, which is what a lot of curricula use for the grade 8 level, and she’ll be doing more of a physics/chemistry next year. Do you think this curriculum will be too simple for that age level? Thanks!