What has been your family's favorite science?

[seemesew]

I'm still struggling with science decisions 😄 so I want to know what has been your family's favorite ones you've done!

▪️If it's a curriculum or your own put together stuff either way please share! ▪️Also, share how many kids used it (like family style), or if it was something that was done individually,  or with one kid and a parent 😊 all grades!!!

[Clarita]

Mystery Science. 

Originally I didn't want to use it because it was online-based, but I think it's pretty well done for science. (The videos pause for answers so it doesn't just play straight through where the kids just zone out in front of it.)

I use it together with my 6 and 7 year old, but if the age gap were larger it'd be easy to have older child doing a different thing that younger child. Issues that I see with older and younger combined is likely the older child already knows about the topics the younger child is learning about, the activities and paperwork is geared toward the age group. This year though they put up resources for teachers so you could make your own paperwork for an older child to differentiate I suppose. It'd just be easier to have the older child do their own thing though in my opinion. 

What it looks like when we do it? 

My kids watch the video and does whatever activity the video specifies. If there is a worksheet for the activity then do it. These worksheets are basically hand-holding the children to write a "lab report" for the activity in the video. (they might have to write down data points, observations, then say something about what happened or what they think will happen.) There are assessment worksheet things for every lesson if you want to do that but we don't.   

It's fun and the activities are easy for me to prepare. 🤷‍♀️My kids do remember the science, of course they also remember random science facts that they encounter at science museums, encyclopedias and the like so, I don't know that it says much that they retain the things taught in the videos.

[ScoutTN]

Best two years were when I built the books part around monthly programs at our Nature Center and Children’s Science Center, both of which offered homeschool specific programs. Different topics monthly, scheduled well in advance.

Runner up was a year of RSO Life science, which used loosely as a spine and tweaked heavily. 

[Tanager]

Lyrical learning - life science 1, 2 and geology (we did them younger than suggested, but dd loved science) - and the cds are still being played (4?) years later 🙂

[SilverMoon]

Piles of books. Maybe some videos and field trips. Choose a science field. Look for the available resources that suit the level and kid. Ask other homeschoolers what they used. Start building it over the summer so it's "open and go" by the time we start. 

I never did find a science curriculum I'd have been happy to just use year after year with mine. And while family wide was so appealing it just never worked out well for everyone, and somehow it always made MORE work for me. 🤷‍♀️ Then my "little" two still at home are such drastically different humans. The kids before them loved hands-on projects to demonstrate concepts. These two would rather take a spork to their eye. 🙃

[seemesew]

1 hour ago, SilverMoon said:

Piles of books. Maybe some videos and field trips. Choose a science field. Look for the available resources that suit the level and kid. Ask other homeschoolers what they used. Start building it over the summer so it's "open and go" by the time we start. 

I never did find a science curriculum I'd have been happy to just use year after year with mine. And while family wide was so appealing it just never worked out well for everyone, and somehow it always made MORE work for me. 🤷‍♀️ Then my "little" two still at home are such drastically different humans. The kids before them loved hands-on projects to demonstrate concepts. These two would rather take a spork to their eye. 🙃

I can relate to your last bit so much! I am constantly changing this one subject. I'm curious what you did for your older kids or if you did the same thing with them finding things they wanted to learn and read?

[seemesew]

16 hours ago, ScoutTN said:

Best two years were when I built the books part around monthly programs at our Nature Center and Children’s Science Center, both of which offered homeschool specific programs. Different topics monthly, scheduled well in advance.

Runner up was a year of RSO Life science, which used loosely as a spine and tweaked heavily. 

What is rso science?

[cintinative]

2 hours ago, seemesew said:

What is rso science?

https://www.pandiapress.com/real-science-odyssey/

[ScoutTN]

3 hours ago, seemesew said:

What is rso science?

Real Science Odyssey 

[Green Bean]

BJU Science with videos. It’s the one that gets done. Grades 1-11 now but we skipped Biology.

Real Science 4 Kids Building Blocks just to read through.

[Xahm]

I'm prepping Real Science Odyssey Biology 1 and 2 right now. It's less overwhelming than I was worried it would be. I think the kids are all really going to enjoy it. We did Mystery Science last year and about 3 years ago as well. We did Science Mom in between. We also do lots of learning through reading and living.