Come take a look at our collection of homeschool science and nature study resources from all of us here at The Curriculum Choice.
“She who opens her eyes and her heart nature-ward even once a week finds nature study in the schoolroom a delight and an abiding joy……She finds, first of all, companionship with her children; and second, she finds that without planning or going on a far voyage, she has found health and strength.”
Handbook of Nature Study, page 3
Homeschool Science and Nature Study Resources
Nature study and science are two interrelated subjects near and dear to my heart. Every day there are opportunities to share a few minutes of time outdoors with your children, starting when they are young and continuing into their teen years. This gradual awakening to the joy of discovering things in nature builds into their hearts a love for all things in science. The roots of nature study hold fast the growth of knowledge acquired during more formal science.
Don’t miss the opportunity to learn alongside your children. The resources linked below are some of the best of the best to be found in the homeschooling world. I encourage you to click and pin as many as you can for future reference and encouragement.
Homeschool Science Resources
The Ultimate Guide to Homeschool Science – curriculum, supplements, free resources and more!
Homeschool 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. (with an accompanying Marine Biology Pinterest board)
Homeschool Science with Multiple Ages – 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.
My husband and I are scientists, and we are eager to teach our kids science. We have been very happy with Apologia’s high school science courses. They are thorough, clear, and honor God for his creating work. In fact, in a review I wrote: “Because of the Apologia science texts, homeschooled high school students have access to better quality science education than most students in public or private schools, even if their parents do not know science.”
To introduce you to these courses, here’s a detailed review of Advanced Chemistry.
As we were working through the Apologia courses, we had a question: Is This Course Grade 11, Grade 12, or AP? Here are my thoughts based on what an Apologia representative told me.
Tweaking Apologia’s Advanced Chemistry and Advanced Physics for Grade 12 – We needed to adjust these AP level courses for grade 12. This is how we met our province’s requirements for grade 12, and how you can do the same for your state or province.
Review: Science Roots by Nancy Paula Hasseler– We found that Science Roots was a great help in learning the vocabulary for Apologia’s Biology.
Elementary science is all about hands-on exploration, and igniting your children’s curiosity about the world and how it works so wondrously! And finding out the answer through doing, such as with Evan-Moor’s Science Works for Kids series, makes science real and so much fun!
Science from Oak Meadow reviews – First and Fifth Grades
For those looking for an engaging, easy to implement science curriculum for the elementary years, we have found BookShark Elementary Science curriculum to be a joy in our homeschool.
One of the things that can be difficult to tackle when homeschooling science are the labs. College Prep offers an amazing Virtual Lab for use with their courses, or as a stand alone lab!
Looking for secular science curriculum? Here is a list of 10 Secular Science Options.
When it comes to high school biology, the talk is often about dissections. For this reason I did a ton of research on both Frog Dissection and Fetal Pig Dissections to come up with a list of options for fulfilling both of these. And guess what? You can even dissect virtually! That means no mess, no smells, no handling the animals!
Homeschool Nature Study Resources
Nature Study-3 Steps to a Better Experience: “I am finding that for my high school aged son there needs to be a different sort of follow-up to our observations…more than just a nature journal. He is using his past experiences with nature study and making some connections. This has led me to going back to the internet to research more closely how nature study develops into upper level science. I am finding it fascinating. I am excited to share my findings and show how I am implementing the ideas learned with my son as we go along.”
Nature Study With Very Young Children: “What does this mean in a practical way? Our yard has lots of things to explore so many times we would just walk around our own backyard together. There were rocks to turn over and look at what was hiding underneath…..ants and spiders and crickets. There were plants to smell like roses, thyme, and lavender. There were trees to touch and leaves to gather.”
Nature Study-Living Science Beyond the Books: “Every parent hopes their child receives a solid education in science. This is the case whether our children are homeschooled or attending a more traditional school. Many parents, including myself, know we received very little “real” science education growing up and when it comes time to teaching or supporting science learning in our children, we feel inadequate. This doesn’t need to be the case.”
Free Printables from the Handbook of Nature Study: Lots of free printable notebook pages and activities to stimulate your nature study.
NaturExplorers Nature Unit Studies – NaturExplorers Nature Unit Studies are 19 different, complete nature based science studies for 1st – 8th grades.
Ultimate Guide to Nature Study: “In an effort to help you get started (or keep going) with nature study, I’ve pulled together a post of THE most wonderful resources I’ve found over the course of the last few years. I hope this Ultimate Guide to Nature Study proves to be your one-stop post for encouragement, ideas and more!”
10 Days of Nature Study: “A series of ten easily implemented nature walks and follow-up activities.”
Cultivating Curiosity with Nature Study – “Mama, I need a towel because I did one of the nature prompts,” she calls through the cracked open back door. I look and her feet are covered in clay. I smile.
How Nature Study Mixes with High School Biology – We’ve been blessed with the benefits of family nature study in so many ways. We notice the subtle seasonal changes and more. And just when we were enjoying nature the last couple of weeks, we were surprised by how much our times complement formal high school biology studies.
Homeschool Science and Nature Study Reviews from our Curriculum Choice archives
- Outdoor Hour Challenges – Handbook of Nature Study
- Sonlight Ultra Microscope – Investing in High School Science
- Nature Study Through the Holidays – a Mini book of Nature Studies for Easter
- Answers in Genesis: God’s Design for Science
- The Story of Science Series by Joy Hakim
- Get in on the Fun of Birdwatching with Bird Sleuth
- How to Teach About Electricity
- History of Science Unit Study for Middle Grades
- Volatile Volcanoes Unit Study by Amanda Bennett
- Owl Project Pack from In the Hands of a Child
- Science Roots: Vocabulary for Biology
More Places to Find Homeschool Science and Nature Study Here at TCC
- Our Curriculum Choice Nature Study and Science Pinterest boards
- Browse our homeschool science archives of reviews as well as our nature study reviews
~ originally published October 2013 by Barb
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