Sometimes it's nice to change things up a bit. Add a little something different to the day and help reinforce some learning. And truly - what child doesn't love getting regular snail mail?
Science Weekly is a subscription based "newspaper" for kids that covers a variety of different scientific topics at various levels.
Science Weekly costs $19.95 per student for less than 20 subscriptions and drops to $4.95 per student for subscriptions of more than 20. It is geared towards grades K-6. You receive 15 issues a year.
The levels are:
- Level Pre-A = kindergarten
- Level A = Grade 1
- Level B = Grade 2
- Level C = Grade 3
- Level D = Grade 4
- Level E = Grade 5-6
I was recently given a chance to try this out with my boys. I was given one issue each from each level covering the topic of fractions. Included in the packet was also a "Teaching Notes." The TN includes background on the topic, "initiating questions" for each level to help reinforce the concept, answers to any questions asked within the level, and hands-on activities to help reinforce the concept being taught. At the end of the TN there are also additional resources to use included books and websites.
Since my boys are so spread apart in age, we were able to test out most of the different levels. My youngest son, who is 7, tried out the Pre-A and A levels while my middle son (grade 4) completed Level B and my oldest son (age 14) did Level E.
What I liked:
Each level explained the concept throughly not only through words, but with hands on activities as well. There were cut & paste activities for the younger ones and all levels included some sort of "experiment" to try out. By making the concepts very hands on, they are more likely to be retained.
I thought this would also work great in a co-op setting. There is not a ton of information that needs to be taught but a lot of fun things that sometimes works great with more than just a couple children.
Overall I thought this was a really fun resource.
If you'd like to try it out for yourself, Science Weekly has four different topics on line for grades 1-4. You can check out Pyramids, Living in Space, Kites, Hurricanes, and Dams.
Be sure to head over to the TOS Homeschool Crew blog to see what the other Crew members had to say about this product. We were all given different topics to check out.
Disclaimer: I was not paid for this review. All opinions shared are my own. TOS Crew Members are given the product free of charge in exchange for our unbiased opinion of the product.
Years ago, we subscribed the Science Weekly for a year. I think we did Level A or B to challenge my oldest son. He enjoyed them. I'd forgotten all about it!
ReplyDeleteJessy