Real Science 4 Kids Pre- Level 1 Chemistry

Product: Real Science 4 Kids Pre-level 1 Chemistry
Subject: Chemistry
Levels Used: Level 1, ages 5 and up
Dates Used: June 2008, a 10 week program

Likes:
My 2 children (ages 5 and 8) thoroughly enjoyed this program about chemistry. The text book was informative and easy to understand--unlike standard school text books. The pictures were engaging drawings, that directly correlated to what was discussed about atoms, molecules or reactions.

The teachers manual helped me prepare the experiments and informed me as to what was happening along with potential answers the children may have when answering questions.

The workbooks, I got one for each child, really helped my children understand the process of science: how to make an educated guess, then write what happened and why they think it happened.

The experiments really worked and were easy to do with objects that I had around the house. Only a few extra items from the store were needed. My children loved this program and both were able to follow along. It is a 10 week program but we did it twice a week. So, we were done in about 6 weeks.

Personally, I was thrilled to learn why soap actually works! I am not going to tell you how though.

Dr. Keller, has really made sure to produce a quality product that makes sense for even the youngest child. For example, in the discussion of atoms, she explains that atoms follow rules. There is a picture of an oxygen atom and 2 hydrogen atoms. Dr. Keller has drawn the oxygen with 2 arms and each hydrogen with only 1 arm. Then, they all link arms. Oxygen can attach to 2 other atoms but hydrogen can not and that is clearly depicted in the drawing and discussed in the text. This takes, what is to many people, a difficult topic and made it easy to understand, and explain!

I am looking forward to the biology program this year.

Dislike:
I would have liked a reference to some books about molecules and atoms that I could read at the age level I was teaching. I doubt many of these exist, which is what makes this program so unique. These additional books are not necessary, my family just enjoys reading stories about what we are learning on all topics. The KOGS program involves the literature piece of the curriculum which we did not use, since it was not released at this level at the time I purchased this program.