If there is one area that I find our homeschool lacking in, it’s science. I don’t know if that is my fault because I’m not particularly “sciencey,” or if the options for a good hands-on science curriculum for homeschoolers are just not there. Either way, when Funtastic Unit Studies offered me the opportunity to review their book, Science Unit Studies for Homeschoolers and Teachers, I was happy to take it.
Science Unit Studies for Homeschoolers and Teachers is a physical book created by homeschooling mom Susan Kilbride. The book contains twenty units, half geared towards younger ages (suggested ages are 4-7) and half for older (8-13). Each unit builds upon the ideas in previous units, but can also be used independently.
The units are all different, but most are broken down into about seven “parts,” which focus on a different aspect of the broader topic of the unit. Units include things like Animals, Magnets, and Health for younger grades and Matter, Chemistry, and Simple Machines for older. Each unit comes with many hands-on activities and a test at the end.
For our review, Big Boy (9), Little Man (7), and I chose to do the unit on Weather. This is one of the units geared towards 8-13 year olds. It begins with a list of materials you need for the entire unit. For this one, all the materials we needed were things we already had at home. It included things like rubber bands, balloons, a shoelace, and modeling clay. Looking through the book, I don’t see any units that require materials that are expensive or hard to find. The Weather unit is broken down into six parts, each with multiple activities. The activities incorporate other aspects of learning, as any good unit study does, so while the kids are focusing on science, they are using math, reading, and writing skills. Little Man really enjoyed making a weather journal. He liked having a set time to take all the readings and record them in his journal. Big Boy’s favorite part was learning about clouds and rain. He liked the hands-on activities that included boiling water and experimenting with the water cycle. It took us about two weeks of working a little each school day to complete the weather unit.
I love that these units are designed for homeschoolers, so the experiments and activities are really easy to do with just one or two children. They could easily be adapted to fit a classroom setting as well, and because the materials required are easy to find and affordable, they would be a great fit for a co-op with a small budget. I also really like that it comes with so many units, so for one price (now $16.95) you get twenty different topics to work with that can grow with your child.
Like I said before, it’s hard for me to find good science activities for my boys. Ms. Kilbride’s unit studies offers informative and entertaining activities that don’t require a large financial commitment from me but still teach my kids a lot. The boys had a lot of fun working through the weather unit and are looking forward to trying more units from this book.
