Homeschool Science Curriculum Options

 

We tend to create our own units and I’ll highlight some of our most popular posts below, but first I wanted to share some of the science curriculums available to homeschoolers. Once again this is not an exhaustive list, but it gives you a place to start.

Real Science 4 Kids

NOEO Science

R.E.A.L Science Odyssey

Building Foundations of Scientific Understanding (by B. Nebel) – K-2 Science Curriculum

Elementary Science Education: Building Foundations of Scientific Understanding, Vol. II, grades 3-5

Science Detective

Adventures With Atoms and Molecules: Chemistry Experiments for Young People – Book I (Adventures With Science)

A Reason for Science

Janice Van Cleave’s Science Experiment books

 Free Middle School Chemistry Curriculum

Free High School Chemistry Resources about Energy

What has our family used?  We have used the Real Science 4 Kids student textbooks. I like the way they are written. They are clear and easy for the kids to follow.  In my opinion, they aren’t long enough to cover an entire year, but they are the perfect length for our family because our units tend to last 2-5 weeks. I always heard great things about NOEO science, so we tried out the chemistry unit. The kids were a bit on the young side, but I loved the books the suggested. We’ll return to NOEO for their resource suggestions when we get back to chemistry.  We use Janice Van Cleave’s books all the time in our homeschool. She has books on most every topic of science and has wonderful, hands-on activities to help bring science alive!

I’ve heard people rave about Real Science Odyssey as well. Since our family is now in the groove with our science units and materials that I pull together, I haven’t checked it out.

Creating Your Own Science Curriculum:

I don’t have the space here to cover all the units and topics that you might consider. I’ll paste in the links instead. What works best for us at this point is to choose a unit or topic, pull out 15-20 books from the library, find hands-on activities and science experiments and delve in!  If you browse around our blog (select the categories button in the right side bar and look at our Human Body posts, Astronomy Unit posts, Rocks and Minerals Unit, Ocean Unit, Earth Science posts and so forth. (Just remember that this is a blog so the posts are not in chronological order!)

Click here to see an expanded list of some of the topics and units you may want to cover with your kids:

Creating a Homeschool Science Curriculum — Ages 4 to 6

Creating a Homeschool Science Curriculum — Elementary

There are some of my most popular science posts… They”ll give you a flavor of the kinds of materials I make for my kids (after reading through all those books from the library and stuff!)  We did a lot of hands-on science activities with each of these units. Some of these are free; some of them cost a $2-4.

Number 7

Weather Packet 

Free Water and Water Cycle Resources – This is a post I put together with lots of colorful posters and printables.

Number 6

The Three Types of Rocks– Our Activities and a Free Worksheet Packet about igneous, sedimentary and metamorphic rocks

Number 5

Free Rocks and Mineral Packet

Number 4

Simple Machines Unit

Number 3

Digestive System Free Worksheets:

Number 2

Human Body Systems: Free Worksheets

 Number 1 

Earth Science Packet: 50+ pages of notebook pages and hands on ideas

Just as with history, there are lots of resources available if you plan to create your own science units. For example, I’ve bought a number of lapbook and notebook units by Homeschool Bits. There are pre-made science experiment kits such as those by Thames and Kosmos.

If you have a particular science curriculum you use and love, come tell us over at our Homeschool Facebook Page and I’ll add your suggestions to the list!