R.E.A.L. Science Odyssey
Everything a Science Curriculum Needs To Be
One of the best things about homeschooling is how much fun it can be and how it can help keep a child’s love of learning thriving. Science can be one of the most fun subjects if it is done right or it can be a nightmare for a parent that is not confident in the topic. Trying to find a full science curriculum that was fun, factual, memorable, and not religious has proven difficult over the years for me personally even though I love the topic. Often I felt like I had to piece together science from different sources and it was a lot of work. With 3 homeschoolers I only have so much time to dedicate to putting lessons together, I needed badly a curriculum that would work for us. Finally I have found it. R. E. A. L. Science Odyssey.
For months now my children and I have been learning and having a great time thanks to this curriculum. While it is for my 1st grader, my 7th grader has also done many of the lessons right long with us as she found them fun and a great review of things she already knew and admittedly she learned a few new things as well.
As a homeschooling parent I love this curriculum because it meets my child’s needs in this area and because it is all laid out for me as the parent. It is crystal clear what I need for the lesson and how to teach it. It has saved me so much time. It is simple enough that with no prep I can hand over the lesson to my husband do to and can do the lesson with one child as I help another. He can do it without the hours of prep it used to take me to create a lesson.
While we have done science with other secular systems (Oak Meadow Curriculum for one), this one captures my children’s attention better and is more comprehensible to me as the parent. It is hands on and fun. While other curriculum we have seen can be dry, this curriculum leads with stories the children are interested in and help to bring the topics to life. The lesson speaks to the child and helps them work through the topic in ways that they can relate to and not simply dry facts. I have found myself wishing that I could have had this curriculum in school growing up. While I had loved science as a child, and I had even loved the huge text books, this curriculum doesn’t just share information, it lets the child truly experience it.
What is in this curriculum?
This curriculum covers The Human Body – The Plant Kingdom – The Animal Kingdom
It introduces the topic sharing important information, it runs a few hands on fun labs, and it explains results. Children learn the scientific method, (speculation, hypothesis, experimentation, conclusion) develop Observational skills and Analytical skills (comparisons, forming questions, interpretation) and apply Mathematics.
I think most of us know that one of the hardest parts of science is the vocabulary. Most systems demand that they be drilled over and over again, but not R.E.A.L Science Odyssey. They include the vocabulary in their stories helping the child build an understanding of the words. They also give ideas on how we can use the words in our everyday lives to help the child connect and remember them. We have found this works wonderfully and is a lot more fun than classic, boring, vocab drills. When the words are part of our lives, they are more real, and more fun!
This curriculum doesn’t leave parents in the dark like some others, there is a master list of materials needed at the front of the book, and each lab has a list of all the things needed for it. We know that our children will have questions that are not in the book because no one book could ever answer every question every child might have, we know they have a lot! To help with this there is an internet list that parents can keep on their computers as quick reference when those questions come up. There is also an optional book list that includes a lot of fun and helpful books that your library should have. For us, we like to buy books and the book list has been very helpful as we have added it to our used book search for our own family library collection. When we can’t find the book used, or we want it right away, Amazon 2 day shipping has come to the rescue a few times. Those books are not necessary though, they are add ons. Many other curriculum will demand you buy other books and you can’t get by without them, this curriculum is not like that. Your buying the information you need, it isn’t just referencing you out to others work.
R.E.A.L Science Odyssey is just that, it is real. It is not religious in any way. It is so nice to not have to wade through mythology or dogma in trying to teach my children science. Parents who are religious could add their beliefs to it with ease as it doesn’t address religion at all, there is nothing contradicting in the curriculum. Religion simply isn’t a topic in it. It is pure beautiful science that is rare in this homeschooling world.
R.E.A.L. Science Odyssey was kind enough to send me the e-book for their Life book. I like that I can print the pages I need and reprint again when my other children are going through this book. Of course with a hard copy one could just photo copy the needed lab pages. While I love hard copies of books, I think next time we purchase from them it will an e-book because it is just so convenient and I don’t have to worry about misplacing a book as I don’t ever misplace my laptop!
You can purchase e-books from this company at this link: http://www.pandiapress.com/?page_id=14
These are flowers used in an lab experiment from this book to show how plants absorb and use water. The results are dramatic and clear.
This is an image that simply makes me smile. My son and his sisters eating his science lab project that involved making jello and fruit into representations of plant and animal cells. It was fun and interesting and had our 2 year old running around calling everyone a membrane as that is the vocabulary word she caught on to and ran with.
If your already a homeschooling parent than chances are you know how hard getting the right curriculum can be. They are often costly and if they don’t work out, sometimes your stuck having simply lost money on something that didn’t work for your child. I think that is one of the reasons reviews are so important. If you have any questions about this curriculum I am happy to answer them if I can. You can also contact the company for detailed technical questions you might have, they don’t bite I promise! We tell our children that the only dumb question is the one not asked. As adults we need to take that advice as well. I am happy to help!
Click here to go to the Giveaway for R.E.A.L Science Odyssey Curriculum!
I am all about teaching kids about Science! What a neat curriculum and a must have in my opinion 🙂
Really cool curriculum. I am not homeschooling except to get my kids ready for kindergarden but this is a great idea
I have to say that with how easy the curriculum is to teach it would be perfect for summer time fun with the kids!
Math and science are two of the big things that hold me back from homeschooling. You allayed one of those fears with this review! I love that it is secular. That is another worry, that most of the materials will be religion based.
Love hands on learning with my kids! This looks like a great resource!
FUN! My kids love science!
This is great! Love that he’s eating the science project, haha!
We’ve used R.E.A.L. Science Odyssey Chemistry Level 1 this past year and really enjoyed it! Who knew 2nd and 4th graders could learn real chemistry concepts. They’ve loved it and you’re right, it’s very easy to teach with great experiments that really relate to what you are doing. And, as a Christian, I can equally say that I have found nothing offensive from a secular standpoint. And that can be just as hard in science, as it’s usually very biased to one side or the other (creation or evolution concepts). I won’t be using it again this year, just because I’m a curriculum junky and like trying new things and kind of want to go back to a living book format for science this next year (studying anatomy), but I could see us using it again in the future at some point depending on our focus for that year.
I am glad to hear it met your science needs too without crossing any lines into religion. I had not even thought about that side of it! I think I might try Chemistry over the summer with the kids it sounds like it has a big reach for ages. They have a space curriculum that I think we will work on with our second grader next year. The Bio 2 just came out and is having some revision done to it but hopefully I will have in hand soon to finish out our year with for our oldest. They also have history curriculum I will be posting a review for soon too! Over all I am just so impressed with the company.
This is so awesome. I love seeing how different curriculum work and what is available. Just shows the greatest thing about homeschooling are all the great options and fun to be had learning new things!
Wow! This sounds like a great resource. I would love to try it out!
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Is there a lot of prep work? I have to admit… I don’t like a lot of prep work. 😉
The least amount of prep-work I have seen in a science curriculum as it turns out! Just have to make sure you have the materials for the lesson and follow the lesson when you do the lesson! Simple!
My little one is still a few years away from this, but this sounds exactly like how I want to teach her science.
I have been looking into this curriculum a lot lately, thank you for sharing your review. I enjoy reading reviews from other home schooling moms. 🙂
This looks incredible. We’ve been doing a lot of research for a Science curriculum over the past few months and this is one of the coolest ones I’ve found.
We have been struggling to find a science curriculum that fits the needs of my boys and myself. RSO is on our short list!
This is already on my list to purchase for next year! Only one question–do you find the order to work well with the seasons (we live in Maryland), or would you recommend moving some of the topics around? I’ve read that each lesson builds on the previous one, but I’ve also read that some folks will move the lessons around so human body is in the winter and animals in the spring. Thanks!
We did move things around a bit but mostly because we teach subjects in blocks, in a waldorf way. We didn’t find that it effected things much!
Thanks for such a detailed review!
I am looking for a new science curr. This looks interesting. I will check it out some more
I am looking for a new science curr. This looks interesting. I will check it out some more
Anything hands on is awesome for my girls. They love doing experiments. Would love to win this curriculum.
I love that the curriculum introduces the topic through an engaging story that grabs a child’s interest right at the beginning. Thank you so much for your review and the opportunity to win this!
Thanks for the review! I’ve been looking for a good science curriculum for the kiddos and had looked at this one at some point. Glad to hear that it’s low prep, as that’s one of my complaints with other programs.
This looks like fun. I have three homeschoolers in this grade range, one high schooler, one sixth grader who will love it, and two baby guys who would use it later…
I’d seen R.E.A.L Science Odyssey in my search for a secular science curriculum, but I was hesitant to use it. I was doubtful about how engaging one person’s take on a topic could be. Nice to know that kids of various ages have enjoyed it. Is working other books/literature into the lessons difficult? How difficult would it be for someone who follows a child-led philosophy, considering that there is a particular order to the lessons?
Adding other sources is encouraged and there is an outside book list that comes with the curriculum for ideas to help with that. While it is meant to go from start to finish we found our kids wanted to do just that, though we did jump around a bit for resource reasons and because of travel.
We are searching for a new curriculum and would love to try this!
I would so love to win this,a good science and math curriculum would be so helpful and I love the look of yours!
We have been using this curriculum this year as well. My kids love all the hands on activities, while I enjoy the easy implementation. I prep in the summer by collecting most of the supplies and the program becomes open and go for us… Easy!
Thanks for the great review of this curriculum, the jello project looks like so much fun.
We are using R.S.O life science level 1 this year too. We love it! We did the echinoderm lesson today with the banana peel, and my daughter asked for a banana for dinner, just so she could show her daddy all over again. Plus she named 4 of her leg bones and 3 arm bones in the bath the other day, and that lesson was MONTHS ago, so I know she is retaining a lot.
That is great to hear that your daughter is really absorbing it too. I love all the hints about how to keep the lessons alive in every day life! So cute about the showing Dad her banana science!
My kids love using History Odyssey. I can’t wait to give REAL Science a go!
This is just what I want! I would be extremely thankful!
So glad you are having this giveaway! I might not have found your great blog without it! 🙂
I LOVE this curriculum, and have used LIFE with both my children. I am looking forward to starting Bio 2 with my daughter next week!
We’re going back to homeschooling, after a 2 year hiatus which only confirmed we need to go back to homeschooling. I have been looking at this curriculum for my upcoming 3rd grader!
Love your blog! Can’t wait to read more..
Hi i am really considering trying RSO chemistry this year . I am a bit concerned that we don’t have public library near us and would be a problem finding the suggested books . Do you feel doing the program with the added literature would be enough for a grade 1 and grade 3 students ??
viv
Thank you for e-mailing me about this. I hope my reply there was helpful! I think you will do great even if you can’t get all the suggested books. We didn’t use them all!
Do you think the student notebook pages are necessary? I noticed they are Almost $40…so am wondering if we could get by without them in your opinion.