Reference to go with bfsu 1

[lulalu]

We do not have a library available.

 

And there is no way I can purchase a book for each lesson we do.

 

I need a reference book for science that I can use along side bfsu 1 to give just a little extra to the lessons.

[knitgrl]

A lot of people really like the big Evan-Moor Science 1-6 book. I haven't used it or looked at it, but their stuff is usually high quality. Here is a link to their site:http://www.evan-moor.com/p/602/giant-science-resource-book

[bwdiaz]

I agree with knitgirl about the Evan-Moor book. Get that and an Usborne or Kingfisher Science Encyclopedia. We got both but used the Usborne more at BFSU book 1 age because the Internet links are super useful. I'm lucky to have a good library but we also looked in this a lot:

Everything You Need to Ace Science in One Big Fat Notebook: The Complete Middle School Study Guide (Big Fat Notebooks) https://www.amazon.com/dp/0761160957/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_api_p1BNzb9HDZD9T

[knitgrl]

A lot of people here really love Mystery Science, too. I happened to stumble upon a lesson about how biceps work without having to sign up somehow (I don't know how that happened), but the robot finger showing how tendons work was a great demonstration! The videos were short, to the point, and were better than trying to find random things on youtube. My understanding is that you can get the first year for free, and then it's $60-ish annually. I haven't researched to see how it might line up with BFSU, but it might be worth looking into.

[aprilleigh]

You can do BFSU without any supplemental books, but if you really want one, I'd pick up good science encyclopedia (Kingfisher, Usborne, and DK all have good ones).

[Ariston]

You can do BFSU without any supplemental books, but if you really want one, I'd pick up good science encyclopedia (Kingfisher, Usborne, and DK all have good ones).

 

I agree.  Nebel seems to stress scientific concepts that are accessible to kids through their own experiences, so the encyclopedias are a little antithetical to that and aren't in anyway necessary.  (Plus, my kids don't really seem to like them much.  I'd probably feel differently if I had kids who really ate them up.)

 

Maybe do the first few lessons and see how it goes or see what you feel the need for at that point?

[Syllieann]

I think you can do level 1 without anything. For level 2 I found a science encyclopedia to be a helpful reference. You could replace that with online resources, but I prefer elementary kids to limit that and use real books so we did the kingfisher instead. If you join the bfsu forum, Nebel has added links to online sources.

[Petrichor]

I'd recommend looking through the supply list too. We haven't finished it yet, but I have had to buy a few field guides.

 

We dont use extra books with every lesson of BFSU.

 

We have a science encyclopedia, but I havent managed to remember to try to use it in conjunction with bfsu. Usually its just for DS to explore in his free time.

 

He also really enjoys the animal encyclopedia we have.

[Petrichor]

The nice thing about BFSU is if a lesson is too difficult to do at that moment - either kid isnt getting it, or mom isnt sure of how to teach it - or you dont have the materials, you can easily do a lesson from a different section while you wait for the materials you need to come in the mail.