Science Unit Studies For Homeschoolers and Teachers {Schoolhouse Crew Review}
Science is something that I feel is important to include in our home-school studies. Children need to understand the how and why things work and form their own conclusions in solving problems. Science causes one to observe, form a hypothesis, experiment, and interpret what’s going on. It’s the basic foundation of how we learn about everything!
-Curriculum Information-
Science Unit Studies for Homeschoolers and Teachers is made up of 20 different lessons. The age recommendations are for ages 4-13 years old. Lessons are listed from younger to older, featuring half for ages 4-7, and the other half for those ages 8 to 13.
The units offered for both age groups feature a number of different science topics such as life, earth, and physical. For example, there is focus on the human body, animals, plant life, weather, machines, atoms, chemistry, and so forth. Units are broken down into parts that focus on separate aspects that makes it up.
Each unit features up to eight parts which can be completed over a couple of weeks depending how little or how often science is included in one’s study.Though it appears most of the lessons build upon the previous, one has the freedom to pick and choose whichever lessons they want to start with to suit their students or classroom needs.
Every unit starts with a list of needed materials. Materials vary quite a bit from each specific unit. Most items needed are common and can be found around the home or classroom easily. This is the only part of the unit will take a bit of preparation. Gathering things together for the study should be done in advanced. Some units require picking up a specific video, book, or scientific tools to go along with or to be used as an additional reinforcement to what is being taught.
The activities throughout vary from listening and interacting to a story that’s read, crafting scientific models, exploring the outdoors, journaling, and so on. Many different learning styles are covered. The units do feature lots of hands-on projects which makes learning much more memorable and a lot of fun! Units for older students explore in the same way but each unit ends with questions and multiple choice tests to make sure what’s being taught it sticking. All answers are provided and located in the back of the book.
There are re-produce-able pages in the book which can be copied or traced over whether it’s to be a guide or the foundation for an instructed activity. Simple illustrations are also provided to give you general instruction in completing some of the science projects with a student or entire classroom.
This book is available in print and e-book format.
-How We Used This-
My children are ages 4 & 7 years old. They both fall into the younger age bracket of the science unit studies which works out perfectly for our schooling this year. In using Science Unit Studies for Homeschoolers and Teachers together with both of my children I’m saving precious time, energy, and money in preparing lessons all on my own.
I appreciate the thought and effort that went into this to make everything feel more personal from the author. Instead of just presenting a unit with no direction, she walks you through telling you exactly what to say to your student(s) or entire class, if needed. If one feels intimidated by teaching science, chances are this book will be a great solution to that and boost ones confidence in the area. It’s done wonders for me since it’s so clear to understand!
At our current pace, we’ve found that doing one unit over the span of two weeks to be a good fit. We’ve decided to go through units in order. I like the fact that each unit builds off the previous. My children’s reaction to science using the units in the book has been extremely favorable. They enjoy all the hands on activities and tell me they can’t wait for our science days each week because it’s so much fun! The fact that the parts of each unit aren’t very long, helps keep my kids attention pretty well too.
Most of the science projects in the book don’t take a lot of money for supplies which is something my family which on a tight budget can appreciate. The lessons provide enough activities that I can be selective or supplement an activity in a different way where needed if cost became a concern. I like how some of the units suggest certain books that I can pick up at the library and DVD’s to use as a supplement such as The Magical School Bus Series ( already a favorite of ours that we own!).
We look forward to diving into more of the science units in this book. We’ve done the Ours Senses unit together and my kids loved it! They were all giggles and laughs when creating a potato person out of vegetables and fruits from our garden! All the activities have cemented what our senses are to my kids in a fun way. I imagine their love for science will grow even more as we continue through Susan’s units!
Overall, I would recommend Science Unit Studies for Homeschoolers and Teachers as it’s been a very practical and a wise choice for my family that we’ll be able to use for years to come. I think it’s perfect for homeschool families and would work equally as well in a classroom setting!
-Freebies and Bonuses-
Susan is offering two pdf units from the book at the following link: http://funtasticunitstudies.com/science-unit-studies-book/
Other freebies include American History Activities to Accompany Sue’s Our America Series at: http://funtasticunitstudies.com/lessons-and-activities/
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