Choosing a science curriculum is a big decision when you homeschool your children. Each family has its personal interests and preferred methods of offering science from year to year. Are you looking for your curriculum for science and nature study? Looking to add in some formal technology training too? This post is full of ideas and practical suggestions for making your science, nature study, and technology choices easier. Check out what other families are using and LOVING!
~ don’t miss the fantastic giveaway at the end!
Nature Study and Science from the Archives
Science and Nature Study Resources from The Curriculum Choice Authors: You are going to find valuable links to resources and ways of using those resources in this post from the archives. Everything from formal curriculum reviews to suggestions for books, games, printables, and more are to be found in this post from Curriculum Choice authors. Pin this post!!!
Technology in the Homeschool from The Curriculum Choice Authors: Glimpse into the homeschool of other families who are using and recommending the best things to try in offering technology to your children. You will find curriculum ideas, apps for your iPad, ways to use your Kindle, robotics ideas, and so much more in this valuable post from Curriculum Choice authors.
Our Nature Study, Science & Technology Curriculum Reviews
Below are some of the many nature study, science and technology reviews our Curriculum Choice authors have written. You’ll be amazed at all the resources available to you and your homeschoolers!
Nature Study Reviews
Habitat Study by Evan-Moor: “Habitats” by Evan-Moor is a science activity book that introduces six types of habitat using short lessons to read, mini-books to make, with experiments and activities to do.”
Peterson Field Guides for Young Children: “Use them as part of a simple nature study course or alongside your biology or flying creatures study. These are the sorts of books that will help build a library of reference materials for the years to come.”
New Ultimate Naturalist Library from Handbook of Nature Study: “Find out more on The Handbook of Nature Study membership page. Three levels of membership are available. All the details on membership levels are found under the ‘join us’ tab on the membership page.”
Science Reviews
Apologia: Swimming Creatures of the Fifth Day: “The Young Explorers series of Apologia texts, like this Swimming Creatures of the Fifth Day, have these components:Lessons Narration Notebooks Projects Experiments.”
Apologia Exploring Creations with Marine Biology: “The text is written in a conversational style. So, while my children are reading they are truly learning. This course is Christ centered and God glorifying! Oh the marvels and explanations.”
Elemental Science – Biology for the Grammar Stage: “Biology for the Grammar Stage covers three main topics: Animals, the Human Body, and Plants.”
Noeo Science Curriculum: “Noeo Science is a rare jewel for Charlotte Mason homeschoolers. Miss Mason felt that nature study was adequate science instruction for elementary children. But for eclectic homeschoolers who desire a more structured science curriculum in addition to nature study, Noeo fits the bill.
Volatile Volcanoes – Download and Go: “This Download n’ Go unit study contains the resources you need for a thorough, week-long study of the world’s volcanoes. No prep, all you need is readily available to click, print and go!”
Answers in Genesis-God’s Design for Science: “Gone are the days of buying separate science curriculum for various levels. Focusing on different topics in multiple grades. For me, as homeschool parent, I no longer have to set aside time to “do science” with each child. Everyone is learning together.”
Technology Reviews
Technology ReviewsK’Nex Education: “Complete instructions for building seven different bridges, illustrating the basic kinds of bridge structures”
Rocks HD App Review: “Each page in every section includes a high definition picture and a fun fact at the bottom. There are also glowing circles called ‘hotspots’ on every page that you can tap to learn more.”
Homeschool Programming – TeenCoder Review: “TeenCoder: Windows Programming teaches the fundamentals of writing computer programs. The course uses the Microsoft C# programming language. It is designed for high-school students who want to learn computer programming.”
The Way Things Work – Animated: “The Way Things Work DVDs are an excellent introduction to basic concepts in science and technology. They are an easy and effective way to give elementary students a basic understanding of the world around them.”
Introducing Your Children to Programming with Scratch: “There’s a wonderful free resource from MIT that I’d like to share with you called Scratch. Instead of just playing computer or video games, your kids can create their own games using characters they’ve drawn themselves.”
More Encouragement from Our Authors
The Curriculum Choice authors have active blogs where they share all kinds of homeschooling advice and experiences. Below, you’ll find links to helpful nature study, science and technology posts from a few of our veteran homeschooling authors.
Barb- Handbook of Nature Study
Create a Nature Study Atmosphere-Starting With Your Attitude
Homeschool Science: Things I Would Do Differently
Apologia Physical Science With A Charlotte Mason Style
Robotics Course-Totally Simple Version
Cindy from Our Journey Westward
As the author of the NaturExplorers series, we obviously LOVE nature study! I’m able to teach so many of the sciences during our nature walks. We have some more traditional science favorites, too! I’m excited to share some of the fun resources with you!
- Nature Study: It’s All Here – I’ve compiled all my nature study resources on one handy page for you!
- Jonathan Park CD’s – We love these creation-based audio dramas that teach science through action-packed adventures.
- Max Axiom Graphic Science Books – This series of books packs a lot of information into a comic-strip like format that grabs the attention of even the most bored science student.
- We love science unit studies and you can find links to several of ours near the bottom of this project-based earning post.
- As with all subjects, we try to incorporate lots of living literature into our science studies. This post shares a few of our favorite elementary books.
Heidi from Heidi’s Miscellany
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Our family loves science and our favorite science curricula is Apologia Elementary Science…Apologia covers everything in an easy-to-understand way for the kids. After you start Apologia, you will become a science person!
- Creation Science Resources As I was putting together a science study for my boys for the upcoming school year, I realized the challenges of finding Bible-based resources…I began compiling a list of my favorite websites.
Megan & Susan at Education Possible
Online Science Lessons for Middle School from Uzinggo – We found a great online science program for middle school. It offers detailed lesson plans, online activities, and detailed instructions for hands-on learning.
Learning Science with Disney Imagineering Videos – This year I am not using a textbook to help my children learn about science. Instead I am utilizing The Science of Disney Imagineering videos. This is a series of 11 videos that teach students science (mostly physical science) using real world applications from Disney attractions.
How to Start a Nature Journal – Nature journaling is an easy, practical way to capture the beauty you see, like a nature scrapbook or a type of journal diary. Use art, pictures, words and more to express yourself. A journal is as unique as you are, so feel free to make it simple or complex.
Stephanie @ Harrington Harmonies
Lyrical Life Science: The Human Body- Creative and fun way to learn about the body. What makes this program shine is most definitely the music. It is simply fantastic and so well done. We listen to it whenever we ride in the car; it seems effortless learning. The more we listen and memorize the songs, the more we learn about our bodies.
Raddish Kitchen Science Review-The Raddish boxes are engaging for kids. The contents of the box are engaging. My 11 y/o can follow the recipes independently. This made him feel comfortable in the kitchen able to take charge of preparing the recipes and experiments.
Gardens Unit Study by Amanda Bennett– being chocked full of goodies makes this unit study enjoyable and not an overwhelming . You can do as much or as little as you want of the four day week plans. Perfect for a little summer learning along with a field study in the garden.
Heather at Blog, She Wrote
Homeschooling Middle & High School Science– A look at how we do science in our homeschool.
Incorporating Nature Study into Your Academic Routine– How do you tie in nature study to your schooling regularly?
Tips for Botanical Illustrating– Add to your science and nature drawings with these suggestions.
Tricia at Hodgepodge
Science for Multiple Ages – We look forward to it. The reading of the science lesson during lunch. Not every day but most days we enjoy a lesson. We use several resources for all our ages. I’ll share them with you today as well as how we work them into our days – for each of our ages. In each section, I’ll share links to more how-tos or reviews.
Marine Biology for Multiple Ages – These are the resources we have gathered for our children to use together. It’s a family study for kindergarten, second grade, our sixth grader in middle school and our two high schoolers – ninth and tenth grades.
10 Science Fair Project Ideas – I’ve shared before about our love of display boards for learning. I offer an overview plus links to 10 of our science fair projects. I hope you will notice that these are all an extension of what we were already studying.
Annie Kate at Tea Time with Annie Kate
As a scientist, I really appreciate Apologia’s high school science curricula. We have used most of them and they are clear, thorough, and rigorous. I have reviewed Advanced Chemistry in detail. Sometimes, however, it can be difficult to decide what level one of these courses is, an issue I addressed in ‘Is this Course Grade 11, Grade, 12, or AP?’ At one point we needed to tweak Advanced Physics and Advanced Chemistry to meet certain educational goals without over-burdening our teen. Although other high school science curricula exist for homeschoolers, we have found Apologia to be ideal both for rigorous content and ease of use.
Curriculum Choice Science and Technology Pinterest board. You might also like to browse our Nature Study board.
We are joining up with our iHomeschool Network friends in a summer hopscotch!
Now for the giveaway!
We have a most generous giveaway today! Three winners will receive one of the following:
1. Ultimate Naturalist’s Library – Handbook of Nature Study – everything the Handbook of Nature Study has to offer!
2. Apologia Biology high school curriculum set, including: Biology textbook, Student Notebook, solutions, companion CD AND MP3!
3. NaturExplorer Animal Kingdom Bundle – 5 ebooks $32.50 value!
Simply follow the instructions in the rafflecopter widget below…
a Rafflecopter giveaway
Five Days of Homeschool Curriculum Reviews
Be sure to subscribe to The Curriculum Choice so you won’t miss any of the five days of reviews and giveaways! And stop by the rest of the week for more on Choosing Curriculum. Tomorrow we will feature curriculum reviews for homeschool electives. Pin each post for future reference! (Each link below will be live on that day).
- Monday – Homeschool Language Arts Curriculum Reviews
- Tuesday – Homeschool Math Curriculum Reviews
- Wednesday – Homeschool History and Geography Curriculum Reviews
- Thursday – Homeschool Science, Technology and Nature Study Reviews
- Friday – Homeschool Electives Reviews
~ Hosted by Barb-Harmony Art mom. She blogs at Harmony Art Mom and Handbook of Nature Study.
Barb McCoy- Harmony Art Mom writes about homeschooling their teens on her blog Harmony Art Mom. and taking family outdoor adventures on her other blog, Handbook of Nature Study. She is the author and host for the Outdoor Hour Challenge and a series of ebooks helping families get started with simple nature study. Barb also founded Harmony Fine Arts which helps homeschoolers with their art and music appreciation.
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