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Science Kits

Good textbooks contain science experiments, but you might want to occasionally purchase science kits to help makes things eaiser. Kits provide you with equipment and instructions, and they are often designed to look more like "fun and games" than learning materials. A good kit can save you much time and energy, and the chances of your experiments being successful are much greater than when you do-it-ourself from scratch. Kits range from miniature laboratory set-ups down to single topic kits. Following are a number of such kits.

Featured resource

Young Explorer Science Series: Exploring Creation with ... (Astronomy, Botany, , Zoology, and Land Animals of the Sixth Day)

Apologia Educational Ministries

At first glance, the Apologia Young Explorer books look like standard hardcover textbooks for the elementary grades. They're nicely printed with full-color illustrations. But the focus on a narrow area of science for each text and the methods of lesson presentation make these significantly different from standard texts.

The Astronomy and Botany volumes, with 176 pages each, address only those topics, digging much deeper into each than is possible in a typical textbook that aims to cover many different topics.


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General and Miscellaneous Science Resources

I've separated out experiment books in this section, although many resources offer a mixture of information and experiments.

Experiment Books and Labs

Article: "Experiments and Investigations" by Cathy Duffy

Animals, Birds, and Insects

The Human Body and Health Education

Study of the human body and health education go hand in hand so I've listed these resources together in this section. Secular health texts are usually either objectionable or a waste of time for homeschoolers. We should be training our children to care for their bodies with good health habits, good nutrition, and proper exercise without a health curriculum directing us. If we do in-depth study of the human body, we will very naturally learn about some good health habits as we learn how the human body functions and the problems we encounter when we mistreat it.

While I'm not excited about health textbooks, as you can tell, texts from Christian publishers and other resources can point out topics we might wish to cover and help us focus on particular areas. Note that A Beka's health textbooks are designed to be used along with another science text to make up a complete science course in most of the elementary grade levels.

Plants

Creation Science, Intelligent Design

Textbooks and Grade Level Resources

Physics and Chemistry

Web Links

  • www.teachwithmovies.org - website with recommended movies & study guides arranged topically (subscription access)

Science Fairs

Science fairs can be great fun for home school groups. They can be totally non-competitive if this is the first time for most participants. Each child can participate at his or her level. Young children can make and display collections. Experiments or demonstrations can be progressively more challenging as children get older. Every child should get some form of recognition for participation such as a certificate or participation ribbon.

For older or more experienced children, more rigid and challenging guidelines can be set up. The following resources present guidelines for science fairs you can use or adapt as needed. Older children should be encouraged to make an oral presentation to accompany their project. Those who are able can prepare written research reports documenting their presentation.

We should take care that our children are not overwhelmed with difficult and unfamiliar requirements for their first science fair or else they might never again participate.

Distributors for Lab Supplies and Resources

Sex Education

Sex education seems to require a lot of attention in the public schools as a means of counteracting the media and peer influence that generally promotes promiscuity and irresponsibility in sexual conduct. Many young children have been exposed to so much sexual information and misinformation that schools are "forced" into teaching children the "facts of life" at earlier and earlier ages.

At home we certainly should take advantage of the opportunity to shelter our children from too much information too soon, whether by regulating television and other media entry into the home or by maintaining some say over the people with whom our children associate.

Even if we keep things in proper perspective, we will still need to provide our children with explanations of how babies are made and how their own bodies function and change. Fortunately, we have some excellent materials available to help us handle it.