Tuesday, April 17, 2012

Christian Kids Explore Science-Earth and Space (TOS Review)


Christian Kids Explore is published by Bright Ideas Press.   There are a number of books to choose from:

Chemistry~$39.95
Biology~$34.95
Earth and Space~$34.95
Physics~$39.95

Each book contains 24 lessons and 6 unit reviews.  Each lesson is scheduled to be completed in one week.  You will need to schedule enough time in the week to complete the lessons, about 60-90 minutes for 2 days.  Every lesson has a teaching time and hands on time.  It is best to separate the days, one for a teaching day and the other for hands on activities.

Teaching Time:
Depending on the level of your child...you can read the lesson to them, or they can read it themselves.  After the lesson is read have your child complete the "Daily Reading Sheet".   Each lesson has a vocabulary list.  You can place these on 3x5 cards for easy review. 

Hands On Time:
Most children learn best with hands on activities.  It is hard for the children to just sit and listen to facts being read off of a page.  Making the lessons fun is key.  This section is where you will do the science experiments.

Timeline Activity:
These are shown at the beginning of the unit.   These are used to add to your child's knowledge of what is being studied.  This will also give you a start for extra research if you so desire.

Coloring Pages:
There is one page per unit.  The drawings are full of detail.  Everyone will enjoy coloring these pages.

Unit Wrap-up and Show what you Know!:
This is just what it says, wrap up.  Here you will find review and a quiz.  The review will give the students an opportunity to write a short summary of what was learned.  There is a form in the appendix section for this as well called "Write About it!".  After writing out what they have learned they can place it in their science notebook.

Reproducibles:
There are a number of forms for you to copy as you wish.  "Daily Reading Sheets, Checking it Out, Write About It!, Coloring Pages, Show What You Know." 

 Our Thoughts:
We thoroughly enjoyed this study.   When we first got the book in the mail I thought WOW this book is huge.  It has about 360 pages of science goodness to it!!  We followed the schedule suggested in the front of the book (page xxviii).  We reviewed the memory work, discussed what we had already learned, covered the new lesson, filled out our reading sheets to put in our notebooks, reviewed vocabulary and read library books on Tuesdays.  Then the next science day we pretty much reviewed the lessons again and were able to get our hands dirty with experiments.  My favorite part of the whole book...S.C.R.I.P.T.U.R.E through out!!  The lessons are very simple and easy to teach. 

Disclaimer: As a member of TOS Review Crew I was sent this book free in exchange for my honest review.

To see what my other crew mates are saying go on over to The Homeschool Crew blog.

1 comment:

Kate said...

Love this! I really like the way you did this review. Thank so much!

Warmly,
Kate