My five-year old loves Science. In fact, it’s one of his favorite subjects. He loves starting the day off with it. While I enjoy Science, I do need a great program that will help me teach him, and recently we have really been enjoying our new homeschool science curriculum, Introductory Science from Science Shepherd.
I received this product in exchange for my honest opinion.
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Science Shepherd Full Science Curriculum
Introductory Science is a complete 1-year science course that is recommended for ages 6-11. I feel that this age can vary as I used this program with my 5-year old that loves anything science and he did amazing with it. The curriculum consists of 35 weekly lessons, 5 days a week.
With the purchase of the course, you will receive a 12-month access to the videos on Science Shepherd. Should you work at a slower pace, you can purchase an extension if needed. Your student will watch a video daily. These videos are short in length and average around 2-5 minutes. Once the video is complete, you then go to the complete a page in the workbook or the activity (if one) for that day.
The Introductory Science workbooks are available in two different levels, which is great for teaching multiple ages. Level A (is what we used) is recommended for ages 6-8, and Level B is recommended for ages 9-11.
Creation-Based Learning
Science Shepherd is creation-based which I really appreciate. The first two weeks of this course are spent on understanding creation, dominion and the Word of God. Once you wrap up the first two weeks, the student spends a week learning about science skills and tools.
Topics Covered
Following the three introductory weeks, your student will cover a variety of topics. Your student will spend 1-3 weeks learning about a topic. The topics are:
• Meteorology
• Geology
• Oceanography
• Plants
• Astronomy
• Underwater Creatures
• Flying Creatures
• Land Creatures
• Human Beings
• Be Healthy
• Ecology and Natural Resources
• Matter
• Energy
• Motion
• Magnets
We received
For our review, we received the 12-month video subscription to Science Shepherd Introductory Science, Level A workbook and the Level A answer key.
The Level A workbook is spiral bound and contains 321 pages and includes blank pages in the back that we used for activities. The pages in the book offer a very simple layout and includes large text. This makes it very welcoming. My five-year old is a beginner reader and not one time felt overwhelmed with using this book. Each lesson for the most part is just one page and includes anywhere between 3-4 questions. The questions do vary: you can have multiple choice, fill-in-the-blank, matching, word search, etc.
Throughout the course, your student will also have activities. I admit that I can sometimes shy away from experiments. While I love science, the instructions, long list of supplies and the time spent can at times seem overwhelming. However, with the Science Shepherd Introductory Science course, I never hesitated. The activities are easy to do and for the most part the supplies are items that you already have lying around the house. I also appreciate the videos that include how to do a lot of the activities. The below picture, we had just finished up our video on Water Cycle and followed it up with an activity. 
Overall thoughts:
While this program is recommended for ages 6-11, I didn’t have any problems at all using it with my 5 year old. He’s currently in Kindergarten but has always loved science. While he tends to favor certain topics in science, I feel that this well-rounded curriculum has opened up more options for him to explore. Of course, he still has his love of astronomy, but now is even more curious about other parts such as meteorology and oceanography. 
With using this program five-days a week, I felt that it wasn’t overwhelming at all. The lessons are on the shorter side, but I fell that he is learning as we go. While we could easily cover more than one video a day, we don’t see the rush in getting finished. As we are wrapping up our current school year, we do plan to still include one of these lessons daily during our summer break. 
Pros:
• Biblically based. As I mentioned earlier, this is very important to us as a family when it comes to purchasing curriculum.
• It covers a variety of topics which is perfect when introducing the different parts of science.
• I really like the inviting look of the workbook. The simplicity of the page, large text and a fair amount of questions.
• For the most part, a daily lesson can be completed in 10-15 minutes. Some days were a tad longer depending on if they had an activity to do, but rarely did we spend over 20 minutes on a lesson.
• Activities were very easy to do and for the most part included items that we already had around the house.
Cons:
• The videos were just ok in my personal opinion. For the most part, it’s just Dr. Hardin sitting behind a desk with his hands folded talking in a calm, monotone voice. It takes me back to the days when I had a science teacher that did that. While everyone is different, I often times see my five-year old starting to lose interest. I would love to see more live action examples and more images to go along with what’s being talked about. I feel that this would really enhance the course and help keep the student’s attention. My boys are very visual, so adding that extra element and hearing him explain what they are seeing in a voice over would be fantastic.
• 12-month access to the videos. I know this works out perfectly for a lot of people, but based on our current curriculum budget, I prefer to purchase products that I can pull at anytime and go back over. This can’t be done with this particular program. I would love to have a book, DVD, or even a digital download option so that I have the ability to go back over this information once my year is complete.
If you are looking to incorporate an introductory science that will allow you to teach multiple ages, then this may be exactly what you’re looking for.
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