Homeschool Curriculum Review: Exploring God's Creation, 2nd Edition by Christian Liberty Press

I have been homeschooling for about 9 years and have tried a variety of science curriculum over the years: Real Science 4 Kids, Rod & Staff Science, CLE Science, Lifepac Science, Science in the Beginning, and probably others! Never have I found a science curriculum that I really loved...until now!

Exploring God's Creation, 2nd Edition is the third grade science curriculum published by Christian Liberty Press. We have only been doing this curriculum for two weeks, but already I can tell that this is my absolute favorite!

While we love nature study, my almost 8 year old has grown out of that a bit. We live on some acreage and he has spent hours and hours in nature. I've never wanted to make his free time part of "school" by giving him a notebook to draw pictures or take notes. Studying nature is just part of our life (though with how hot July and August have been lately we have sadly spent less time outside than we used to!)

However, he finds simple science concepts fascinating! What I love about this third grade science curriculum is that it gives a brief overview of some very important science concepts without dumbing down the teaching, but also without making the text too difficult. The actual text portion of each chapter is very short, and most of the text consists of detailed steps for carrying out simple experiments and demonstrations. All I have to say is that whoever wrote this book has a gift of writing! We have tried many curriculums and had failed experiments, or have gotten overwhelmed by the guesswork involved in vague instructions. Today, I was actually able to carry about not one, but two science experiments that worked properly! The instructions are so well written that we actually had fun doing the experiments and really got to learn the concepts well since the experiments are simple, use many regular household items and are designed to work. Today we learned about mixture, solutions and compounds. We ended our experiment today with a solution of water and sugar sitting on the counter to observe after the water evaporates.

Exploring God's Creation, 2nd Edition is divided into 30 chapters. The 30 chapters are divided into 4 units: 1) Physics and Chemistry 2) Geology and Botany 3) Astronomy and Weather 4) Biology and Health. Each chapter should take a week to get through, with doing science twice a week, about 15 to 25 minutes each time. There are tests to go with the curriculum if wanted also. If you plan to do the tests, you might want to do science three days a week with the third day being for reviewing learned concepts. This curriculum is definitely for families who enjoy changing science topics frequently throughout the year. This is not a mastery style curriculum or a deep dive, but perfect for advanced 2nd or 3rd graders to get an overview of major science concepts.

Sadly, in this series, there is only a 1st, 2nd, and 3rd grade available. I have not used the 1st or 2nd grade levels.

If you are looking for a Christian, easy-to-use, science curriculum, I highly recommend Exploring God's Creation, 2nd Edition