Science Weekly

Being a member of the TOS Homeschool Crew I always look forward to which products I will receive next.    This year I had the privilege to discover a product that I never heard before called Science Weekly.

I was curious about the product as my kids are getting more and more into the age of discovering science.   Now, please note that I loved biology when I was younger but chemistry and physics didn’t go well with me.    I survive though and I am willing to discover anything that would help me teach science to me kids.

So one bright February day, I received through the mail (regular mail that is) the Science Weekly pages.   What is Science Weekly?   Well it is a supplementary instructional tool that will help your child to enhance his/her skills in science, math, reading and writing.   Yes contrary to the name of the product, it isn’t just all about science in the issues you will receive.

Notice I said the word issues.  Why?  Simply because you will receive on a weekly basis an issue on the theme covered.    As part of our product testing, I have received The teacher’s guide as well as the issues for grades K-6 on the subject of the flu.    Interestingly enough, when I received these documents, there was a small outbreak going on in our city.  Fortunately for us, nobody in the family had to deal with the flu this year…

The Kindergarten level includes vocabulary and tracing letters, discovering how a sneeze can pass the flu to someone else, a time activity on how long you need to wash your hands as well as coloring, placing in order some images and a story telling time.

The grade 1 level is a bit more explicit in the description on how a sneeze can pass the flu to someone else and in the activities like vocabulary (rhymes), mathematics (signing the alphabet and timing how long it takes), writing  and more.

The grade 4 level contains even more information and the activities are harder to do.   For example, the vocabulary section has a word bank and sentences to fill in the blanks.    The weekly lab is also more complicated to performed and there is even a writing assignment to complete.

These were the three levels we did as I had a child in each of these grades.   However, I also took the time to look into the grades 2, 3 and 5-6 of the science weekly I had received.    As you might have realize, as the child is higher in grade level, the document will contain more information on the topic, harder exercises to do as well as a more complete science project.     The topics for the year 2010-2011 include pulleys, cats, the flu, glass, fractions, composting, the science of movies, the science of money, scuba diving, poisonous animals, caves, teeth, deserts, green buildings as well as the moon. 

The teacher’s guide will present all the various levels available on the topic and help you to guide your child in learning more on the subject covered.   I found that it contained enough information for me to be able to assist my young scientist on his weekly discovery.  

My two youngest sons enjoyed doing their pages but found them a little bit easy.   My oldest son, who is in grade 4, probably had more fun to do his sheet than the younger ones.    He was able to discover more about the flu and how it can affect your life if  you get sick with it.   The experiment was also more challenging and the exercises more interesting.  Personally, if I had to choose a level to purchase I would go with the higher grades as if would also provide more information on the topic covered.  

To discover Science Weekly, you can visit their website and download the pages on the topic of coral reef.  Go to  http://www.scienceweekly.com/downloads.html to access the files.

Each Science Weekly you will receive contain 4 pages and will be delivered through your mailbox on a weekly basis.  Science Weekly is available for the price of  19.95$ per student per year which includes 15 issues.    Considering that there are six levels available, I would strongly suggest that you combine levels together when ordering for a family with multiple children.    If not it would get expensive in the end…

Disclaimer: Thanks to Science Weekly for sending me to above mentioned products for review purpose through the TOS Homeschool Crew. I was not monetarily compensated for this review. Please note that the review was not influenced by the Sponsor in any way.  All opinions expressed here are only my own.