Science Curriculum

Science curriculum seems to be one of the hardest things to choose when it comes to homeschooling. Every page I have ever been part of is full of people looking for a good science curriculum. Maybe it’s because there are so many options for curriculum, but also the tons of options for the kind of science you want to study. Some people swear by nature study, others by unit studies, and some prefer the typical textbook-style learning. I love the idea of nature study, and we have done this to some point just naturally, but for me it isn’t enough for our homeschool. My oldest especially is interested in space, and even more interested in things like black holes. I can’t really teach him that through nature study. He has taught himself quite a bit through youtube videos and what we like to call “smart shows”. I did get to take him this last school year to a talk to a scientist day. He was able to sit and talk to a scientist who fully understood what he was asking and had a conversation with him about all kinds of topics that were a bit over my head. I would love to be able to do that more often, and we will try to get that done, but that also can’t be our main science curriculum. So, once again I am on the hunt for a science curriculum for the upcoming school year. Right now I am looking at Noeo Science https://noeoscience.com/ and Elemental Science https://elementalscience.com/. I have used Elemental Science in the past and didn’t really care for it, but I think that issue has been fixed. One of the main books they were using in previous years was out of print, so I had it on the iPad, and it just didn’t work well at all. With the middle school years all the books look great. My concern with Elemental Science is that it’s a lot of workbooking. I hate anything that feels like busy work. I understand science has a lot of record keeping and you need to know how to fill out a lab report, but I get really nervous when it comes to a lot of note pages and vocabulary forms. Basically when it has a ton of writing. That seems to be the thing that can bog kids down. They don’t mind learning the information but filling out multiple worksheets for every subject gets tedious over time. This was something I wanted to avoid in homeschooling in the first place. There is no real need for busy work in homeschool. We have the time to sit around and chat and really divine into something so there is no need to keep anyone busy. On the other hand, Elemental Science has gotten good reviews in multiple places that I have checked. I even read one page where people said it was better than Noeo in their opinion. So, for now, this is the way I am leaning. We will be getting experiment kits as well, just to add to the whole learning process. Even though I am leaning toward Elemental Science, Noeo is still in the running. Noeo Science has a lot of experiments, which I know my kids will appreciate. It also uses a bunch of books rather than one textbook. I really liked the way it looks online, but I have never been able to see it in person. Both curriculums are on the Cathy Duffy Reviews as recommended options. I don’t think I can really go wrong either way, but I am not sure what’s going to be the better fit for our family. If I am still on the fence I may go with Elemental Science for one simple reason, it’s much more affordable. I just hope whichever one I choose works well for us this upcoming school year.