Living Science Homeschool Books
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Our homeschool is very literature rich. We do a lot of reading together and focus a lot on classics and living books. We always have a stack of books that we are reading for school.  Last year we stumbled upon Elemental Science and got their first book in the Sassafras Science series by Johnny Congo and Paige Hudson. They are the ultimate living science books!  The Sassafras Science books are just plain cool.  From the first chapter, my kids were completely and totally hooked. I remember reading the first chapter and both of my kids said: “Read another!!” It has been the same ever since. We are on the third book now and my kids still beg to read more each time! (We did receive 2 of these for free to review, but we love them so much that I also purchased one on my own.)Â
The first book in the Sassafras series was on zoology. The story is about a set of twins, Blaine and Tracey. They are 12 and failed their school science class. It turns out they have this quirky uncle who is a scientist. Their parents, in an effort to help them do better in science, send them to visit him for the summer. The kids think it will be boring, but they are in for a huge surprise. Their Uncle Cecil sends them on a series of wild and exciting adventures all around the world. They magically are sent in an instant through invisible zippiness all the way to Africa to learn about the animals there.  They are given a checklist of things to learn about and take pictures of for their missions.
They have a special app that they use to collect all of their science data. Â When they enter all of their information into their smart phones they are automatically sent to their next destination.
At the end of the zoology book, they thought they were finished, but they were wrong!  They next got to go on a learning spree to learn all they can about Anatomy.  Then in the third book, we are on a Botany adventure. With each book, they have their missions to complete.  It isn’t easy, though. They have a lot of obstacles to overcome and have somebody trying to stop them from completing their missions, en enemy of their uncle Cecil.
They are planning on publishing 8 books total in the Sassafras living science series. I am glad there are more to come because it makes science exciting and interesting for my kids. Along with the books, there are also learning guides, experiment kits, lapbooks and data logs that you can purchase to add to the learning. We have not used them, but I am sure if you got them you could use this as a full science curriculum. Â The books are long chapter books and are written for a K-5th grade age range. I am reading them to my 7 and 10-year olds and they eat them up!
Science and STEM is our favorite! We would love to try one of the books from this publisher. Thank you
Soutdoor like great science adventures!!
They sound like a lot of fun. Thanks for sharing!
these sound pretty cool! my kids love to learn from stories.
Our children fell in love as soon as I started reading. Each chapter is exciting and leaves our kids laughing, intrigued, and wanting more! I highly recommend this series!
My kids felt exactly the same way!!!
I was curious to know, is this typically used as a science supplement to a science curriculum or could be a stand alone science curriculum?
It could definitely be used as a stand alone curriculum if you used it in conjunction with their activity guides & log books. We just have not done that! 🙂 My daughter has been asking to, though.
Do you think you could read these out of order? Or does the story line get messed up?
There are a few things that come back from previous books, but you would probably be fine if you read them out of order.
Do you think this would work for a 5th grade science curriculum? Also, do you think 1-5 would be a full year? She reads very fast? Thank you