Science in the Beginning Set

When we first started homeschooling I had this dream of being that homeschool mom that did all these cool science experiments and getting the kids involved in the process a lot. I was never really able to do that... Until now! This book makes science so easy to set up, easy to understand, and makes a huge impact. Not only has this curriculum been a dream come true for myself, but both my kids love it and beg me to do more daily. On top of that it is great at discussing the Bible while doing it. This is an absolute must have for any homeschool classroom (or dinning room table 😉).

We have decided to stop using this book. My first grader is not enjoying it at all and science has become a chore for him. We are just about done with the first day of creation, and while I do appreciate it, my son has had enough of learning about light. He told me he wants to learn fun and interesting things, and learning about light and how it travels, bends, reflects, etc is just not interesting for him. I’ve had to re read things multiple times for him to get it. To be honest, I find myself being bored too

This is great but for some reason, it's a lot for my littles to comprehend and there's a lot of going back and reading it. My 2nd and 3rd grader don't have a problem with this. I bought them the Evan and moore science workbook for them to do and we use science in the beginning here and there throughout the year.

As a science teacher, I do admire this curriculum's rigor and hands on projects/activities. If I was in first grade, this would have been perfect for me and would have helped me greatly in my science career - I would have sponged all the facts up. However, I deeply question using this curriculum in first or second grade for non-science fanatic children. Why? Well, because the book covers all 7 days of creation and that premise forces them to cover all the science fields and practically the entire universe from the start to end of the book. That premise makes the book too exhaustive and too rigorous especially for first and second graders who are just trying to master writing, reading, and basic math. My kid excels in reading, but struggles in the other two so we have to do a lot of supplemental curriculum and activities. We just do not have time for a rigorous science curriculum with 3 experiment set ups a week. Yes some of the experiments are as easy as shine a flashlight in a mirror (so not all of them have a huge prep time), but if you want to finish this entire book, you need to do 3 lessons a week with those experiments/activities. Even as a science teacher, I was intimidated. Lastly, the book is not written in a fun engaging way. Its pretty bland which science focused kids will eat up, but those who are more ADD might get lost. I will most likely use this book in 3rd grade instead. I am going to pick up some Good & Beautiful units on Birds, Mammals, Geology, Arthropods, Ecology, etc. to use for 1st and 2nd grade. That is going to be a better fit for us for 1st and 2nd.

We received this in our 1st grade curriculum and tried it a couple of times. I do love the content but I feel it’s a lot for my 6 old to sit and listen and grasp. We tried some experiments and although they are fun I think we will put this aside until next year so she can better appreciate the reading portion along with the experiments.