Science Courses: Elementary Kiddos

 Which science courses should your elementary child take?  I like the Young Explorers Science series.  Often families begin with Zoology 1, 2, and 3 and go from there based on interests.  Astronomy, Human Anatomy, and Chemistry and Physics are more challenging. We use them for Middle School. However, all are designed for children 5-11.  I have taught Human Anatomy to a group ages 6–11.  It was a challenge!  The Young Explorers program has Notebooking Journals for both younger and older kiddos.  (We’re using both types of journals with Chem and Physics this fall.  Some of the students need an accommodation.) I do think the Notebooking Journals supply plenty of work.  I do loads and loads of activities.  We only review orally, rather than formally test.  When the kiddos do the crossword puzzles, I ask them to do as much as possible without the textbook before consulting the textbook.

When I home-schooled Paul, we enrolled him at Kolbe Academy, which uses Harcourt Science textbooks. Here is the description of the Grade 5 textbook.  This elementary series has sections with Life, Earth, and Physical Science.  Kolbe recommends using Grade 1 level for grades 1-2 and Grade 3 level for grades 3-4.  Grade 5 is used for grades 5-6.  Each textbook does have a great deal of material and are more academic than the Young Explorers series.  You can buy these books used at Thriftbooks, Amazon, or eBay, which has textbooks for all six grades.  

We did science twice a week; even at that pace it would have been difficult to finish the entire, Harcourt textbook in one year.  We didn’t.  At the elementary stage, it’s more important to focus on English, math, Faith, and History, especially since English means phonics, reading, handwriting, composition, vocabulary, and spelling.  I get it.  Make Fridays science days.

I’ve reviewed other textbooks and programs.  However, these two are my favorites.  In another life, at the private school where I taught, the upper school teachers set the curriculum for the lower school teachers’ science programs.  We assigned hands-on modules  with simple books and labs, similar to Home Science Tools’ Science Unlocked  program. Each grade had four  Life, Physical Science, and Earth Science modules. Yes, these units are expensive!  Which brings us back to a textbook.  See why I like Young Explorers?  If you want to challenge your kiddo try Harcourt!