Elementary Science – A Science4Us.com Review

February 28, 2014 by Leave a Comment

Science4Us Review
If you are looking for a great science program for your elementary child then you will be interested in checking out Science4Us.com and their great, interactive, online science curriculum.  Our kids love science so when given the opportunity to review Science4Us.com and their Science4Us.com Online Subscription program we jumped at the chance.

What is Science4Us.com

Science4Us.com is a K-2 online, science curriculum. Though designed for kindergarten through 2nd grade, 3rd and 4th graders may find the curriculum fun and helpful to review. This unique, complete science curriculum is one that the child can use on his own and move through assignments scheduled by his or her parent.

Science4Us Review
What Science4Us.com Gives Its Members

Science4Us.com come begins with a teacher account which gives you access to lesson plans, teacher strategies and instructional videos to help you use the site to its max potential.  In the reports section, you see what you child has been work on and how the children are doing on the various subjects. When you first get your account you sign up for the Teacher account and then add your students.  It seems it has been designed for classroom use; however, it is very homeschool user-friendly.

Science4Us Review
How We Used Science4Us.com in our Homeschool

We used Science4Us.com about 4 days a week with our Pre-K son and 2-3 times a week with our daughter.  The online notebook was one feature that my daughter liked that our son had trouble using but otherwise they both liked the Science4Us.com online subscription program.

We tried assigning lessons from the parent area, which worked fine for my daughter for review but did not work out as well for our son.  He liked to just explore the lessons. So we would sign on together and then chose the topic he was interested in exploring and then we would read the 3 interactive learning session first and then I would turn him loose on the games to continue his learning. He found games he really enjoyed.  Some were more difficult for more second grade science or third grade science students and those games we skipped over but the rest were pretty easy to use for even a learned as young as he.

I liked that there was a wide variety of games to help the child work with the information that had just been learned.  The video lessons were interesting and kept the interest of both children.  The user area was easy to maneuver and understand for the kids and for the parents.  It was very colorful and interactive. My son was happy that there was full-screen mode for the videos.

20140205_121358What We Thought of Science4Us.com

We really enjoyed Science4Us.com and the Science4Us.com Online Subscription program.  My Pre-K son really enjoyed it and our 3rd grade daughter enjoyed the simplicity of reviewing topics we were covering or have covered in the past. The colorful, interactive setup of the program makes it easy to use with a lot of variety for learning and review.  Our Pre-K son is 4 years old and he was able to utilize the kindergarten science curriculum on his own and though I did not have assist I did go through it with him, which was fun for both of us.  I did not do it with my 3rd grader. She was able to use it completely independently. I think that there were parts that were difficult to understand for my Pre-K son. Since he is a non-reader, he had to have things read to him. But that wasn’t a problem for him, he quickly caught on how to play the games and go through the videos.

Pros: online, easy to use, colorful, interactive, complete, reasonable cost

Cons: not everything reads to the user, only goes through 2nd grade, no hands-on

20140205_124745How You Can Check Out Science4Us.com

The Science4Us.com Online Subscription program is available for $7.95 per month per student.  This means that you can have a full year of science curriculum for your elementary school child for less than $100 for the year.  This is a good deal for just about any science program.

Check them out on social media:

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/

Read what the rest of the TOS Crew has to say about Science4Us.com here.

Crew Disclaimer
 

Filed Under: Reviews, Science · Tagged With: , , , ,

The Reason that Math is a Subject We Continue to Struggle With

February 10, 2014 by Leave a Comment

math_02Though I’m sure many people feel the same, I find the subject I struggle teaching most is MATH.  The funny part is that I don’t really “teach math these days, the DVD does.  However, it is still a difficult subject in our homeschool.

Now i’ll tell you a little about why its such a sore spot in our household. Let’s back up 3 years. Yes, 3 years — that’s when it started.

20130226_175247We started homeschooling in Kindergarten and things went fairly well. I mean, how bad can they be while you are teaching your little ones to count. But then things went a different way when we hit 1st grade.  In first grade math quickly became a difficult subject. The curriculum we were using was just not working. It was what others were using and others were having success so we thought it would work for us too — it most certainly did not.

So, we started down the path of finding something that DID work. We even got to a point where we stopped math all together after three curriculum’s were used with little progress and a LOT of tears.

After the break we started in on our FOURTH curriculum and, as luck would have it, it actually clicked. I have never been so thankful. But i must say…though the curriculum worked, and is the one we are still using today, math STILL has its difficulties.

However, after 3 years and 4 curriculum’s I now have learned to read my daughter and know when we are due for a break or a change and have found some fun ways to keep up with math review WITHOUT burning her out when she needs the break.

How is it difficult?

20131004_103744Well, in addition to the curriculum presenting math in a manner that simple didn’t work well with my daughters learning style and preference, she is a perfectionist and has a difficult time being satisfied with less than perfect worksheets and therefore no matter what curriculum we use, she will never truly be happy. However, we have learned through our years of homeschooling that this is her personality and she is slowly learning that its ok to miss something, ask for help, and practice some more, and I am learning how to present topics better and give her breaks and games to mix it up some when she needs it most.

What have we both learned from this subject?

  • There are many curriculum’s out there. There is a reason for that. If it isn’t working for you, try another one and don’t be concerned with a setback. If you find the right curriculum, things will go much more smoothly and, soon, you will be caught up but happier.
  • It’s important to know your child’s learning style and learn to work with it instead of forcing through it.
  • There’s nothing wrong with a break. If things aren’t going well, try something else or take a break for a while and come back to it.

And the last thing I learned is, as we spend the majority of our 1st grade math year switching curriculum’s, we did not make the progress through a curriculum like we should have. I had to come to terms with the fact that we would be “behind” in math but that it wouldn’t matter because we would eventually “catch up.” But, incidentally, at the end of  our 1st grade year we did standardized testing and found, that though we were “behind” in my opinion, we were right where we needed to be according to the testing. This was some reassurance that helped us realize that its ok to do what you need to do to make things go smoothly for your subject and don’t be as concerned about getting where you feel you SHOULD be. You will likely find it will all work out.

What’s your most difficult subject to teach?

Read about what the other Crew members find to be difficult to teach here.Subject Struggle

Filed Under: Math · Tagged With: ,

National Static Electricity Day – What’s Up Today (Other than your Hair)

January 9, 2014 by Leave a Comment

Avarie static hair 0112January 9th is National Static Electricity Day. We LOVE LOVE LOVE to celebrate National Static Electricity Day. Come on — why not? It’s just fun!!! What kids doesn’t love studying static electricity.

We will be doing some of our old favorites. Ya know, balloons on the hair, bending water, and making a spark. See our old post here where we did these experiments.  If you haven’t taken the time to do some of these with your kids, you will want to try some. They are pretty easy, pretty interesting, and fun for the everyone. The kids had a great time and, I must admit, I have a good time with this one too.

We will also be watching some fun videos about static electricity on Discovery Streaming and on You Tube including Bill Nye the Science Guy Electricity (and his quick 2 minute Static Electricity segment) and Magic School Bus. We love Magic School Bus and always enjoy using Magic School Bus along with our science. You can get the full episode of Magic School Bus Gets Charged below.

What are you doing for National Static Electricity Day?

Related Posts Plugin for WordPress, Blogger...
Filed Under: Adventures with Our Curriculum, Science · Tagged With: ,
Next Page»
%d bloggers like this: