Hands-On Homeschool Science Curriculums: A Review

Although there are many hands-on homeschooling science curriculums out there, I wanted to mention a few that I have particularly enjoyed using over the years.

Stratton House Homeschool Science Kits
This is a series of kits on various topics, including microscopes, astronomy, magnetism, insects, light, and birds. Each kit comes with a unit on one of these (although you can purchase groups of units as well). Inside the kit are about 15 different lessons that all pertain to that one topic. Each lesson includes some factual information (but not so much as to bore the child) and one or more hands-on activities. Students can also record their discoveries, draw pictures of what they saw or did, etc, within the pages too, if they'd like. Best of all, each kit comes with almost everything you need!!! (In fact, they do come with everything you need, with only a very few excepts, such as a piece of bread, or some pond water.) Science was by far our favorite subject the year we did the Stratton House Homeschool Science Kits! I have since recommended this program to several other homeschooling families.

Real Science 4 Kids
This is the program that our entire homeschool group, from first graders up to middle schoolers, is using this year. Don't think that just because a couple of first graders are using it though that's it's too watered down, as there are more than one level of textbook available. The program is broken up into three main topics, chemistry, physics, and biology. Each one has it's own thin textbook with full color photos on each page and is accompanied by a student workbook. The workbooks are really way more than just a "workbook" though, as each lesson in the workbook is an experiment or hands-on activity (with the exception of only one or two chapters) that goes along with the chapter in the text book. The children in our homeschool co-op (and many of the parents as well!) have really enjoyed doing the hands-on activities! Examples of these include raising painted lady butterflies, making models of molecules with marshmallows, various plant experiments, making an electromagnet, experiments with marbles, etc. In all honesty, we did notice a mistake in the biology text. It said caterpillars turn into cocoons before becoming butterflies (they actually become chrysalises instead of cocoons. The larva of moths become cocoons.), and some of the chemistry text was a bit difficult for some of the kids (and parents?) to follow, but overall we've enjoyed this program. The science experiments we did together will make memories for years to come!

Tops Learning Systems
Tops Learning Systems makes some hands-on science books we've enjoyed in other years. Each book is related to one topic, such as: Pendulums, Floating and Sinking, Light, Green Thumbs: Corn and Beans, animal survival, etc. The books come on various grade ranges, such as grades 3 to 10, grades 7 to 12, grades K - 12, etc. We've only done a few of these, but have thoroughly enjoyed the ones we've done. Just like the other two programs I've mentioned in this post, Tops Learning Systems activities are very hands-on. I'm considering recommending that we do more of these books with our homeschool co-op middle schoolers next year!