*I receive the BookShark curriculum in exchange for sharing our Homeschool journey with you. All opinions are my own. See my full privacy policy for details.*
Here in the Bishop house, we are ‘hands-on’ learners. I’ve shared multiple times how Steven has to be moving… all of the time. If he’s sitting still, he’s focusing so much on not moving, that he doesn’t take information in. But, if I’m reading to him while he: wanders around, rolls a toy car around the floor, draws a picture, or just bounces in his seat- he takes everything in. A Science curriculum that only includes reading and no fun stuff- he would not go for that!
BookShark Level D Science is perfect for families that like to get their hands dirty! We are using it for our 3rd grade science class this year and it has been so much fun! The TOPS: Green Thumbs books and their coordinating experiments got us through the crazy winter that we experienced here in Arkansas this year (more snow than they’ve had in over 100 years!) We got to do all kinds of fun things with plants- and we learned so much about how they grow. The best part? BookShark sends you a Science Kit with pretty much everything you need to do these experiments- making it much easier on me when I do our weekly planning.
We got to grow plants, observe how they grow, and even do experiments to see how they would react in different scenarios. Being able to hold and observe all of this up close really helped me teach my hands-on learner, and it helped him to really be able to understand what I was teaching him. He retains my teachings so much better when he can see something tangible and get his hands dirty in the process.
It also just makes our lessons that much more fun. We both enjoy it more! And honestly, the teacher enjoying the actual teaching is a big plus when it comes to this curriculum.
More Science!
Now that we’ve finished up all of our experiments with the TOPS books, we’ve taken on some new projects as fun Science-y extras.
I’ve never had much of a green thumb before- but watching my son’s wonder and excitement over seeing things that he planted grow into produce that we can use, has been a blast. We are now the proud owners of an herb garden. (Thanks to the previous owners of our house for installing this raised bed planter!) We’re growing some different onions and lettuce varieties as well.
Then we added in some tomato and pepper plants for good measure…
Steven gets up every morning and goes to check the progress of his plants and updates me on any new sprouts he sees. He loves helping water them and use the herbs when we’re cooking. It’s been one of my favorite little rabbit trails that we’ve followed from our main curriculum and I’m already looking at expanding into growing more things next year.
Homeschool is just such a blessing for our family! We take what we learn and put it into actual practice- and I’m so thankful that our Science curriculum gave us another hobby that we really love. BookShark Science has been such an amazing tool the last 4 years and even more so this year.
Yes, sometimes it can be a little extra work for me as a teacher- having to get the experiments ready. But, it pays off in spades. We really love it and we’re learning so much- together.
If you have a hands on learner like I do- I highly recommend the BookShark Level D Science Curriculum for your homeschool classroom. It’s been great for 3rd grade Science, but is for any kids ages 8-11.
What is something that you did in school that you ended up really expanding on? As always, if you have any questions about our 3rd grade Science curriculum, or any of the other resources we use- feel free to email me or send me a DM.
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