Disclaimer: I received a FREE copy of this product through the HOMESCHOOL REVIEW CREW in exchange for my honest review. I was not required to write a positive review nor was I compensated in any other way.
My boys love learning about science, however, it was never my strongest subject! I am always looking for resources that provide good quality science information and activities. I want resources that help me give my kids a good solid foundation in science. We also all enjoy doing science lessons and activities as a family, but with the age range of 5-10 that can be challenging sometimes. That’s why when we had the opportunity to try out Journey Homeschool Academy‘s new Experience Biology: Elementary course I was thrilled.
The Experience Biology: Elementary Course
The Experience Biology: Elementary Course provides your homeschool with an entire year’s worth of fun biology video lessons, hands-on activities, memory work, copy work, quizzes and book suggestions. It is all taught from a Christian Perspective going to the beginning of life at creation and reading in Genesis. The course is also very simple to use. It provides you with everything you need for an in-depth fun biology study for any elementary student! The videos explain biology concepts very clearly, and review important terms and vocabulary to remember. Each lesson points out key concepts to be added to memory work.
The lessons are laid out so you can easily watch one video lesson each week. Then you can spread out the activity, book suggestions, copy work and practice memory work the rest of the week. The course is ready to use but flexible so you can make it fit within your family’s needs. The course begins with a good introduction to what biology is, and teaches an understanding of how to classify living and non-living things. Then your students learn about cells, dna, classifications, biomes, fungi, plants, animals and more. I appreciated that each video lesson uses correct scientific terms and defines them clearly for elementary students.
Our Experience Biology Experience!
My boys have all enjoyed using Experience Biology: Elementary by Journey Homeschool Academy. All three of my boys (5, 8, and 10) have enjoyed watching the video lessons. We also have all enjoyed several of the book suggestions in the supplemental reading. My older sons complete the copywork and memory work. Ethan (5) has fun with some of the hands on activities by working with his brothers. Daniel and Caleb are enjoying learning biology facts and vocabulary and also memorizing verses from Genesis 1. This course has been so much fun already for us! They look forward to the next lesson each week, and are excited about learning science!
How We Have Used the Course
There are 30 total weeks of lessons for this course. With it being a new course some are still a work in progress. 15 of the lessons are there now available and ready. Journey Homeschool Academy is adding more lessons as they prepare them each week. To help in my preparation for our school year, I have printed all the supplemental pages for both my older kids. I punched holes and put them all in their science notebooks. Now, I know that each week everything is ready to go for our science lessons. Each week we usually complete everything in the lesson in about 15-30 minutes each day. (Sometimes a hands-on activity takes a little longer, and some days we spend less time.)
We easily log on to the Journey Homeschool Academy page and view the weeks lesson. Then throughout the week we complete the activities that are already prepared in our science notebooks. I also like that they provide a complete list of materials needed for the hands-on activities in the resources section, so I can plan ahead. There is also a complete list of supplemental reading suggestions. It makes it much easier to search for them ahead of time and try to borrow the books from our local library.
More from Journey Homeschool Academy
Right now Journey Homeschool Academy has several more science courses available for elementary and upper level students. After how much we have loved Experience Biology, I hope to try more courses in the future! The Experience Biology is also offered as an upper level course. There is also an Experience Astronomy course offered for both elementary and upper levels.
If you are looking for a full in-depth science curriculum you should definitely check out Journey Homeschool Academy’s courses. Other families of the Homeschool Review Crew have each had the opportunity to use these science courses just like our family has. If you want to hear about more courses from Journey Homeschool Academy click below to hear what other families have experienced!
