Science has been an interesting subject to my boys. Our main books we use throughout most of the grades is A Beka books. In junior high we used their Science in Action book to guide us through a complete science fair project, including a research report, experiment, and display which was entered into a science fair.
The boys kept Nature Notebooks in which they wrote about various plants, animals, rocks, astronomy, copied quotes, pasted photographs and small specimens, and drew and painted pictures.
We’ve done many labs using a borrowed microscope and buying dissection specimens and supplies from Home Science Tools, and watching more labs via YouTube.
In high school we switched to Apologia for chemistry and physics. They are written especially for homeschoolers in an easy conversational style. Mom doesn’t have to know everything about science to teach it.
For an especially fun supplement, we use the Holt Anthology of Science Fiction, which includes short stories categorized by the field of science they involve. There are discussion questions and activities at the end of each story.
For health, we again used many of A Beka’s books. They have books for every grade, but we only did health every other year. For little kids, Proper Manners and Health Habits, written by Mennonites was helpful for teaching manners. And for older kids Growing Up: Gospel Answers About Maturation and Sex is a most complete and respectful book in teaching that subject. We believe it’s the parents’ job to teach about the subject of sex, and I appreciated having such a valuable resource for that.
Science can be a fun subject for homeschoolers. We enjoyed using a weather kit from Real Science Made Easy during the summer. They make several kits for different types of science. And for old time’s sake, we got some DVDs of 1950s school films from the Bell Laboratory Science Series. Good times right there!
By the way, I do NOT buy all these things new. I have saved hundreds of dollars over the years by finding deals on good, used copies of curriculum. I’ve always been happy with what I’ve found.
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