Science Curriculum

I’m so excited to have found BioLogos and especially this forum! We are a home schooling family of 5 years and I’m needing some recommendations for science curricula - I definitely fall in line with the values of BioLogos. Might you kind people offer a couple suggestions for me? My sons are 6 and 9. Thanks so much and God bless!!

2 Likes

Hi Sunny, glad you found us!

There isn’t really science curriculum “from an EC perspective” like you would find “from a YEC perspective.” The main reason is because the science is not any different from mainstream science and there are plenty of resources out there, so no need to reinvent the wheel. So mostly I would just be looking for curricula that use mainstream educational publishers like Usborne, DK, National Geographic, etc.

With my own kids I have done Bible and I have done science and when questions come up about how the two fit together, I answer them as best I can, but I don’t try to teach science in light of the Bible. We try to recognize God as the source of life and beauty and everything good and awe-inspiring that we see in nature, and be thankful for his provision for us, but if you are not trying to argue with science at every turn, your kids won’t grow up with the idea that their faith and science are contradictory. Most of our discussions in that area have happened because of things their YEC friends have told them, not because they have their own concerns.

I have used Sonlight Science for grades K-3 (Science A-D) and skipped a couple of the books and videos I knew were YEC or ID and filled in the gaps with different books. Bookshark is a secular version of Sonlight that doesn’t have any overtly Christian books, so you wouldn’t have to weed anything out. I liked Sonlight for the younger years because it was a lot of colorful, engaging books about the basic elementary school topics (the body, space, plants and animals, weather, life cycles, etc.) and they had one experiment or project a week. We did a year of Exploration Physical Science, which my kids liked because it had a lot of neat projects like a solar powered fan and a little car that you built to do a lot of tests with. In middle school we have used CPO Earth Science and CPO Life Science and Hewitt’s Conceptual Physical Science with some unit studies and lab kits. That has been more of a challenge because I basically pulled everything together myself instead of following a ready-made schedule/lesson plan set.

I could give you more detailed recommendations of things to check out if you give a little more info about what you are looking for. Do you want to keep your boys together for science class? Do you like going in depth in one topic or do you like to just get a taste of lots of things in a year and keep coming back more in depth the next year and the next? Do you have a good library near you that can get books for you or would you be looking to buy your materials? Do you like notebooking and lapbooks and that kind of thing? Do you want lots of hands-on activities? Are you on a tight budget?

1 Like

Sunny,

Welcome to the Homeschool Forum! There is not nearly the volume of messages here that you’ll find on the open forum, but there are some wonderful people who have great resources and experiences to share. I trust you’ll be helped and encouraged.

In addition to Christy’s excellent response here, you may want to check out the comprehensive overview she posted a few years ago: The deal with homeschool science materials.

My son is in 8th grade, and he is going through Novare’s Earth Science textbook. I definitely recommend checking out Novare when your boys reach their middle school years.

I don’t have much to suggest regarding curriculum for the elementary years. My son has been in Classical Conversations since 2nd grade, and science consisted mainly of memorizing science tidbits and some simple labs. But this is the first year he is using a dedicated science textbook. We’ve lived in the DC area, so we also made lots of visits to the Natural History Museum, Air and Space Museum, National Geographic, etc. I think experiences like this and the conversations they engender can be an invaluable part of elementary science education. But I also understand the desire to have a formal curriculum to use, and I realize that not everyone lives in proximity to great museums, especially free ones.

If you have time, please add a note about your homeschooling story on the introductions thread.

Bruce