Lions, Tigers, and Homeschool, Oh My!
Science. If you're anything like me, that's a dreaded word in the home school vocabulary. Seriously, it was a STRUGGLE to decide on a curriculum that fit our household. I want to make it educational, first and foremost. I need it to be secular, because I feel that religion and school belong in two separate places.
For the Monkey, I needed it to be challenging and changing, as he tends to be inquisitive by nature and a bit ahead of the curve in that subject. For the Monster, I wanted it to be fun and engaging. Hands on, as well as educational.
I really feel like I hit the jackpot when I wondered onto the Elemental Science Website. It quickly became an easy decision to choose this for the Monster. I started with the Biology for the Grammar Stage, because, well, that's where they told me to start. Here is where the decisions started. Did I buy it all pre-printed, or invest in the pdf version andhave to sell a kidney spend a fortune on ink?
Guys. I am the kind of person who has no free time. So naturally I wonder down ALL the rabbit holes. I did find a great deal on the recycled ink cartridges on Amazon, and decided to give them a try.
A. My printer is old, cheap, and already half crappy. If they hurt it, I'd buy a new cheap half crappy printer.
B. The price for 5 was comparable to the price for two, so even if they sucked and I only got half the printing they were supposed to be good for, I'm still not out anything extra.
C. It was just so easy to add them to my cart with the bajillion other thingsI didn't need had to have.
SPOILER ALERT They work wonderfully. FYI.
I also definitely did not use up anyone's work resources to print a huge portion of this with a laser printer and company supplies. Nope nope nope.
via GIPHY
So now that I had a whole tree sliced and printed on my table, what on earth do I do with it? I found that the best way to organize was to put the sections into little binders for the Monster.
Boom -->
As for me, I used an expanda file folder to organize all the teacher supplies. Easy peasy, lemon squeezy. -->
Then, the folks over on Elemental Science have put together this pretty epic list of books to go along with their curriculum. All easy to findin the rabbit hole on Amazon and they even had handy dandy two day free prime shipping.
Some are required, some are recommended. I had zero problems with this, because they all made for a great addition to my kids library. Besides. I'm a book hoarder and this was so much more than enabling. It was required reading!
To make it more budget friendly, I did only buy the books needed for the animals section. I'll invest in the rest as I get closer to needing them.
This is definitely not an independent program, it is very hands on. But seriously, how can you teach a 7 year old science without it being hands on and parent led? What is so awesome about this particular program is that it comes with intense parent guides. It gives you a break down of your schedule, depending on how many days a week you prefer to work on science, along with when to add the supplemental reading and what pages to read! It also comes with a list of books that go well with each week's unit, books that I could probably find easy enough in our local library if I couldbe bothered to get off my ass find time to go browse.
Bonus: It has some sort of little experiment or project for each weak, to the delight of the Monster.
Bonus Bonus: All these projects/experiments use easy and cheap to obtain items, if they weren't already in my house.
Bonus Bonus Bonus: Listening to my 7 year old stumble over the word "precipitation" as we studied habitats was worth all the trouble!
For the Monkey, I needed it to be challenging and changing, as he tends to be inquisitive by nature and a bit ahead of the curve in that subject. For the Monster, I wanted it to be fun and engaging. Hands on, as well as educational.
I really feel like I hit the jackpot when I wondered onto the Elemental Science Website. It quickly became an easy decision to choose this for the Monster. I started with the Biology for the Grammar Stage, because, well, that's where they told me to start. Here is where the decisions started. Did I buy it all pre-printed, or invest in the pdf version and
Guys. I am the kind of person who has no free time. So naturally I wonder down ALL the rabbit holes. I did find a great deal on the recycled ink cartridges on Amazon, and decided to give them a try.
A. My printer is old, cheap, and already half crappy. If they hurt it, I'd buy a new cheap half crappy printer.
B. The price for 5 was comparable to the price for two, so even if they sucked and I only got half the printing they were supposed to be good for, I'm still not out anything extra.
C. It was just so easy to add them to my cart with the bajillion other things
SPOILER ALERT They work wonderfully. FYI.
I also definitely did not use up anyone's work resources to print a huge portion of this with a laser printer and company supplies. Nope nope nope.
via GIPHY
So now that I had a whole tree sliced and printed on my table, what on earth do I do with it? I found that the best way to organize was to put the sections into little binders for the Monster.
Boom -->
As for me, I used an expanda file folder to organize all the teacher supplies. Easy peasy, lemon squeezy. -->
Then, the folks over on Elemental Science have put together this pretty epic list of books to go along with their curriculum. All easy to find
Some are required, some are recommended. I had zero problems with this, because they all made for a great addition to my kids library. Besides. I'm a book hoarder and this was so much more than enabling. It was required reading!
To make it more budget friendly, I did only buy the books needed for the animals section. I'll invest in the rest as I get closer to needing them.
This is definitely not an independent program, it is very hands on. But seriously, how can you teach a 7 year old science without it being hands on and parent led? What is so awesome about this particular program is that it comes with intense parent guides. It gives you a break down of your schedule, depending on how many days a week you prefer to work on science, along with when to add the supplemental reading and what pages to read! It also comes with a list of books that go well with each week's unit, books that I could probably find easy enough in our local library if I could
Bonus: It has some sort of little experiment or project for each weak, to the delight of the Monster.
Bonus Bonus: All these projects/experiments use easy and cheap to obtain items, if they weren't already in my house.
Bonus Bonus Bonus: Listening to my 7 year old stumble over the word "precipitation" as we studied habitats was worth all the trouble!
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