Elemental Science / Sassafrass

What people like-

  • ES offers an array of science programs so there is something to fit every age.
  • There is a living book series for young children.
  • There are live online classes offered for high school.
  • Offered in both print and ebook.
  • The classic series supports The Well Trained Mind and Charlotte Mason philosophies.
  • Offers notebooking and lapbooking.
  • ES is well organized and provides step-by-step instructions.
  • There is hands-on activities included. (You provide the supplies.)

 

What people don’t like-

  • The graphics are poor.
  • ES is a secular curriculum, so there is no biblical viewpoint.
  • ES requires additional books, such as The Kingfisher Science Encyclopedia and The Usborne Science Encyclopedia.

 

User tips-

  • Check out the sister site for the living book series, Sassafras http://sassafrasscience.com/
  • There are sample pages from each program on the website.

 

Try instead-

Want a similar science curriculum that is also a Christian curriculum? Take a look at Noeo Sciencehttp://www.logospressonline.com/noeo

 

Authors/Publisher/Website- Paige Hudson, Brad Hudson & Johnny Congo/Elemental Science, Inc./  http://www.elementalscience.com/

Company summary- “Elemental Science began when Paige was researching homeschool science programs for their daughter to use in first grade. In her research, she was unable to find an option that incorporated weekly hand-ons activities and notebooking that was written by someone with a degree in the field.

With her background in Biochemistry, she figured the best option was just to write her own. So she set to work putting together plans with weekly experiments, unique notebooking pages, and coordinated reading assignments.”

What Friends are Saying about Elemental Science / Sassafrass...

We've used sassafras science and we loved it. It was great for all of my boys (5,8,11 at the time). The story was fun to read together (they always wanted to hear what would happen next) and the guide book had so much information. Even my ones that weren't fond of writing were fine with filling in their data books. - Mary

 Elemental Science is another Christian author but secular text. Didn't care for elemental (science) - Jennifer

Science was the only area I felt I really needed a non Christian curriculum because of the evolution thing. Mormons fall into this weird hybrid where we follow the opinions of secular science as far as the world being older than 6,000 years, yet we don't believe in evolution and yet are Christians lol Apologia is one that comes to mind to stay away from.Elemental Science is what we went with and like very much  - Amy

We used R.E.A.L. Science Odyssey for two years and then this year I switched to Elemental Science. I like Odyssey better than Elemental so far. I switched because Odyssey didn't have physics yet for elementary ages and I was hoping to follow the 4 yr rotation suggested in Well Trained Mind. We did biology and earth/space science and I like them both. Space science semester was the weakest part of the curriculum. I had to supplement a lot with library books. - Alicia

We are using Elemental Science (Bio for the Logic Stage this year) as a loose spine to make sure we are hitting all the big topics. - Jenn

We have loved the Sassafras science books fromelemental science. We also like doing our own thing as well. Encyclopedia, experiment books and a big science notebook to write everything down in. - Mary C.

For science you should check out elemental science dot com. They have a "lapbook" series for littles. -Amy

Elemental science is a classical science curriculum. They have a fun science program for preschool and kinder (but could easily work for 1st grade). Very inexpensive, with a good focus on nature studies. We rarely did the suggested worksheets, just the different activities and nature suggestions - Sarah

 I love the Elemental Science Live Books with the Sassafrass twins. Great story line as they learn about science. This year we started from the beginning with Zoology. Next year Anatomy. - Melynnda