God's Design for Science

Last year at OCHEC, I was intrigued by a new science curriculum I found, and decided to give it a try. Since then, I have talked so much about it that I get emails often asking which "cool science" I was talking about and which books I'm using next year for Cycle 1. So here it is....my favorite science curriculum (to date)...God's Design for Science.

In CC last year, we were studying anatomy so I chose the set that included a book on the human body. In that series, God's Design for Life, it also had a book on plants and another on animals. At the conference, I bought all three as a set and received the teacher's guides too (phew!). It also included a CD with all the printables you need for the curriculum. I liked that I just printed the ones I needed and also that I could print multiples when all three kids wanted to do something.The books are not consumable (another plus!) so being able to print out worksheets as needed was a great idea.

I am all about a curriculum that I can use for all three of my kids together and feel like all their needs are being met....and this is one of them! Right off we loved the pictures. Real photographs - not cheesy sketches. It was bright and just beautiful. Then we started reading and I fell deeper in love. On the copyright page it claims to have "easy-to-use lessons that will encourage children to see God's hand in everything around them." Yes! That is it in a nutshell. It is easy to use with minimal prep....so we actually DO it. And I do love that it shows how God's hand really is in everything around them.

Each lesson starts with a beginner section (for 1st-2nd graders). We always read that first and get an overview of the lesson. P will sometimes wander off after that and I still feel like she has heard a full lesson, on her level. Then it repeats all the info, going deeper (for 3rd-5th grade) and concludes with even more info for 6th-8th grade. We do it all. It may end up being just me and C at the end, but we go through it all. I feel like by the end of the lesson, we know what we were supposed to know!

Mixed in the lessons are activities and experiments. Here is a picture from one of them where we labeled T with all the new vocab words we had just learned. You know they loved that day in science class!

The entire set is $299 and although the curriculum junkie in me would love to have them all lining my shelves, I am just buying them as I need them (you're welcome, Big Daddy). Individually the books are about $25 each, which really isn't bad considering it is science for all three kids (I've definitely paid more for less - lol).

And for those that have asked....This year, for CC Cycle 1, I am going to use The World of Plants and The World of Animals, which I already have from the set I bought last year and Our Planet Earth to finish up Cycle 1 next spring.

What curriculum do you love? Have you tried any of the God's Design series? I'd love to hear your feedback and opinions as I'm always open to new ideas.