Science4Us.com Elementary Online Science Curriculum a Review
We’ve been thoroughly enjoying reviewing a Science4Us.com Online Subscription from Science4Us.com Science curriculum program for the past month.
Science4Us.com is an elementary online science program for Kindergarten through Second Grade. Even though my daughter (The Sweet Peanut) is in the 3rd grade we wanted to give this product a try to reinforce some of those science concepts that just seem to take a little bit more effort to stick. And since it’s also mentioned on their site that this program maybe good as a review for 3rd through 5th graders we gave it a run.
How We Used Science4us.com in our Homeschool
As I said I felt we could use some added reinforcement for understanding some specific concepts when it comes to our Science studies.
In the past few years Science has been one of the subjects where the Sweet Peanut has a hard time retaining all the facts. She may get the general idea but when it comes to test time things can get turned around and she may not remember how they all go together.
I admit there are a lot of details in Science and when it comes to test time it was just hard for her to get them all straight.
It was like remembering a bunch of facts without the interest behind them.
If you’re not interested it just doesn’t take root.
We’ve had a few fun experiments sprinkled here and there but whole units were flying by like the wind without taking root.
I knew I had to build more of an interest in Science somehow and this was where I was hoping Science4us.com would help us out.
We jumped right in at Earth/Space with the Weather unit.
When we started Science4us.com we were right in the middle of studying about the weather in our regular Science homeschool program so it made sense to use the site along with our normal class and text reading.
After each regular day’s TSP would log on and do a few Activities.
I’ll show you where Activities come in…
Science4US.com website has four Science Books
- Physical
- Inquiry
- Life
- Earth/Space
Which break down further to Units which are then broken down into Modules…
Physical: Matter, Energy, Force and Motion
Inquiry: Science Skills
Life: Living Things, Balance in Nature
Earth/Space Science: History of the Earth, Materials, Features, Weather ; Exploring the Universe, Space
The Activities we started with came under Earth/Space – Earth/Space Science – Weather
Once in the Weather Module there are about (there maybe one or two more or less) 12 activities to go through. This is where the action happens and your child is learning. I would personally suggest one activity a day but it is fun so you may find your child wanting to ONLY do science for the homeschool day!
Some of the Activities in the Modules
- Engage
- Explore
- Explain
- SillyBulls (my favorite mostly because of the beginning)
- Alphabetize
- Investigate
- Take Note
- Evaluate (Quiz)
Setting Up the Science4us.com Online Science Lessons
Back behind the scenes in the Teacher’s Tools logon of Science4us.com there is a wealth of materials to use when teaching your child including Lesson Plans, Teaching Strategies, Reports on your child’s progress, Assignments to give them and a Notebook area where you can draw diagrams and such for further explanation of Science concepts.
There are also videos to describe in more detail each section of the Teacher’s Tools.
Teacher’s Tools
For example our first Module was the Weather (under Earth under Earth/Space).
In the Lesson Plans I could find out how long each activity in the module should take (an average of 30 minutes) what would be covered, the objectives for the session and, any carryover skills such as Math and English.
There are also printable materials for your child to do away from the computer.
There are separate printables for Kindergarten, First Grade, and Second Grade.
You can see reports for how much time your child has spent in Science4Us.com and what activities they have completed in the Teacher’s section also.
The cost for Science4Us.com is $7.95 per month per student.
Science4Us.com is a K-2 program but can be used for children 3rd through 5th grade for review (as we did).
How Did We Like Science4us.com
Well if the big smile on the Sweet Peanut’s face was any indication Science4us.com was a hit for her. Any if the scores on her tests are another indication Science4us.com IS effective.
In the Weather Module my favorite Activity was the Weather Report which was a report eerily similar to one famous weatherman. Although I’m not fond of rap I still found it funny.
Many homeschoolers will tell you that they cringe when it comes to Science. It’s one of those subjects where more than just reading a text is necessary to really get it (for the kids that is).
My sister still fumes when she thinks of all the heavy hitter experiments that were suggested for her to do when teaching her son science and she’s an engineer and he’s about to graduate from college! The bad feelings linger on.
It’s not always easy to do all those experiments but this online program seems to be the next best thing. The interactive Activities reinforce and create more interest.
Also taking the quiz at the end of the different modules really boosted Sweet Peanut’s confidence when it came time to take her class tests. She has been acing them.
And not only has good test grades but she has been retaining an interest in the different science topics.
In addition to checking and updating us on the weather DAILY she has become keenly interested in outer space. Since then we’ve watched a few documentaries on outer space, set up the telescope (on loan from her cousin), and had deep discussions with her grandfather (who is a retired outer space engineer deeply disappointed in his daughter who would yawn when he talked about his work).
Science4us.com is a secular curriculum. We didn’t find that to be a problem in using it so far. I preview each module before using and we skipped the History of the Earth module under Earth.
Student’s View
All in all I say Science4Us.com is a good value for your money. Science is one of those tricky subjects. It helps to open your young child’s eyes to the world around them but Science4Us.com delivers it in a fun engaging manner and that’s a plus for me.
You can link up with Science4Us.com online here…
Twitter: https://twitter.com/Science4UsSays
Pinterest: http://www.pinterest.com/science4us/
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/Science4Us
G+: https://plus.google.com/u/0/b/112259351657747584252/
