Preschool Science: Exploring Creation Together is a delightful introduction to science for Christian homeschoolers presented in one, large, spiral-bound book. While designated for preschool, it can easily be used for kindergarten as well. It would be great to use with two or more young children in your family. The course combines heavily illustrated text that you can read to your child with plenty of activities.
There are seven lessons, but think of these lessons as units, each taking many days to complete. For instance, Lesson 5 about “All God’s Creatures” is 53 pages in length. It introduces the concept of animals, then discusses specific types of animals under various ways of grouping them, such as warm-blooded and cold-blooded animals; insects and spiders; water animals; and sky animals. There are also subgroupings under many of those headings. Periodically, an icon inserted into the text lets parents know there is an activity (and sometimes more than one) for that section of the lesson. The activity instructions and pages are included in the second half of the book, titled “Parent Guide.” Occasionally, the Parent Guide suggests questions or topics for discussion, but it’s primarily the source of activities.
There is no set schedule for working through the lessons. Parents can choose how much of the information to read and discuss with children and how many activities to use. The goal of the program is to introduce children to science and help them develop a sense of appreciation and wonder. The first six lessons cover, “God in creation,” planet Earth, the solar system, plants, animals, and people. The final lesson covers a grab bag of science topics such as measurement, energy, buoyancy, waves, and light.
The author, Rachael Yunis, has written the text as if she were talking directly to children, so it works perfectly for reading aloud. For instance, on page 100 she writes, “I think this little red panda bear is waving at you so that you can see another type of foot. It’s called a paw.” She goes on to explain about paws in a way that’s easily understandable for young children.
The course has a significant amount of content, but children are not expected to memorize terms. This is meant to be an enjoyable introduction to science.
The content is thoroughly Christian with numerous references to God as the creator. The overall tone of the course leads children to appreciate the beauty and variety of creation and God’s provisions for all His creatures.
The Parent Guide section of the book includes demonstrations, experiments, observations, cut-and-paste activities, coloring pages, and outdoor activities. Many of these pages need to be removed and cut apart or used in other ways for activities. (Some of these will need to be copied in color if you have an additional student.) The experiments and observations require many resources, most of which are household items such as food coloring, toothpicks, cotton balls, and empty egg cartons. You might need to obtain other items, such as tomato seeds, different types of leaves, a banana, and a helium-filled balloon. A few activities rely on weather (i.e., a thunderstorm for one and sunshine for another), so if you want to use them, you will need to take note and be prepared when the weather aligns with an available time slot for that lesson.
One project is ongoing throughout the course. Students will gradually create a “Window to My World” using a trifold poster board where they will add elements that belong on land, water, and sky. There’s even a recipe for creating “puffy paint” to make textured snow to adorn the mountain tops in their landscape. This should be a fun, creative project!
The publisher also provides free supplemental content online on their "Book Extras" page. There you will find links to songs, videos, activity suggestions, instructional information, games, and much more.
Summary
Preschool Science: Exploring Creation Together provides parents with a flexible, easy-to-use resource for introducing science to their young children.
