Science Level A Homeschool Pack

This is a really fun curriculum and I really like it. The workbook is great - it has the reading, writing, experiments, etc. As a program though - I would not say that it is for the homeschool family. I am using it in coop and it is wonderful - but if I were to have bought this for my kids (I have two) I would have been very disappointed. It is (in my opinion) more effective with multiple kids in a classroom setting - at relatively the same level. Also, the teacher's manual is not overly easy to use without additional planning time. I type out full lesson plans for my classes because it is not easy to just move along with the teacher's book. All that said, I would recommend this under the right circumstances because it is really a lot of fun and very educational. [Source: Rainbow Resource, October 24, 2015]

I am a huge fan of the "Reason for" series from handwriting to science We used these science kits when our kids were little in a co op setting and it was so easy to use and we had everything we needed in the kit provided I loved how we went straight to the hands on stuff for the age group we were working with The kids had fun and were eager to do more and we did several lessons at the time because they simply loved it that much Perfect and reasonably priced for a co op setting! [Source: Rainbow Resource, November 13, 2010]

The actual curriculum is very well organized and laid out very nicely for a teacher of any level. They go as far as providing the teacher scripts to say verbatim to their student(s)! It is laid out to be done daily for a 5 day school week. Honestly, each "day" takes under 5 minutes and can be shrunk down into a once a week thing.

As far as the "meets expectations" - Ok - the bad/ugly. These are not science experiments. And this is not a "lab kit". These are craft projects. As a homeschooler - this can definitely be considered "art" curriculum and "science" curriculum. I was very disappointed at the "activities". For example, while studying caterpillars - we made a balloon caterpillar. I wasn't expecting that. I was expecting to perform experiments and that was the only reason I splurged on this and spent almost $200. If I would have realized I was tying yarn around a balloon and pasting google eyes on it - I wouldn't have spent $200. Another project is to make a butterfly out of pipe cleaners. Again, this seems awfully expensive for such basic craft time stuff.

If you are eager to give this a try - my recommendation would be to purchase JUST the Student Workbook and purchase all of the items in the kit on your own (you probably have most of them laying around) and just do a lesson a week. (There are 36 lessons)

As far as "product quality": The first batch of this kit arrived with roaches shrink wrapped inside. o_O Yes, roaches. I sent back that kit and was promptly provided a replacement kit. The Materials Kit does not adequately hold the materials. It is busting at the seems and I've had it less than a month and it is already broken.

I won't be using this next year and I wish I wouldn't have bought it this year.
[Source: Christian Book, September 20, 2016]

I had to put 5 stars on this product because it is great and we love it! I wasn't thrilled with the prospect of heavy textbooks and loaded writing journals for younger kids that other programs seem to offer, so we put off really delving into a science program until now. When researching and ultimately purchasing this one, I went ahead and chose to start at the begining, even though I have a 2nd and 4th grader because the projects looked so good. The reading is a bit simplistic for them, of course, but they are still learning and LOVE doing the projects. I'm trying to push them through it so we can move up to a more advanced level, but they don't mind at all since its one of their favorite subjects now.

The bad stuff? It is written for schools, so there is a lot of senseless repetition. What they want you to do in a 5-day week, I would streamline down to 2 or 3 days, even without my need to "rush." But this is all the better for us busy moms anyway. Also, the supply kit does NOT give any extras where you need them. It is set up for "1 group" (think group projects in schools) so when I had two kids wanting to make their own model butterfly, the kit didn't have it. This is also a problem if mistakes are made and you need more of a certain material. BUT, the things needed are pretty common (such as balloons, flour, etc.) and haven't been a problem to obtain. So it's an easy fix...but with the price of the program, you'd hope they'd be a little more generous.

Despite that, I am planning on getting the next level. Overall, a great science program! [Source: Christian Book, January 14, 2014]

All of the materials are included in this package. So far we've completed two lessons and my six year old daughter (and four year old son) enjoy the materials and writing. I appreciate that each lesson carries through for five days so the material is deeper into their memory. We homeschool so we don't exactly have "research teams" but it still is relevant and fun.

Materials are flexible for different creation perspectives. I would have liked stress on young earth, but see why flexibility for the school to teach its own perspective makes it more universally useable. [Source: Christian Book, August 24, 2012]