Christian Kids Explore Biology

Christian Kids Explore Biology ($34.95), by Stephanie L. Redmond, is part of Bright Ideas Press’s Christian Kids Explore Science Series.
From the Bright Ideas Press website: This user-friendly, unabashedly Christian, one-year science curriculum for elementary students includes teaching lessons, gorgeous coloring pages, hands-on time, memorization lists, review sheets, creative writing assignments, and an awesome supplemental book list! Written for 3rd through 6th graders, it can easily be scaled down for younger students, making this an excellent choice for teaching all your elementary-aged kids together. The schedule of 35 weekly lessons calls for teaching twice weekly, allowing a family time for projects, exploration of resource books, field trips, etc. The conversational style gives students the basic information they need, making this an ideal first course in life science; especially useful for those following a classical approach!
Our experiences: As stated above, each lesson contains two parts, a day for reading and a day for hands-on activities.  Many of the lessons also contain a short quiz or review questions that can be written or discussed aloud. Some of the hands-on activities we have enjoyed thus far have been making flashcards for the phyla of the Animal Kingdom, making a cell model using jello,  making a clay model of the earth, and researching biomes. The activities we have done so far have been easy to do, with not too much preparation required. At the same time, they are cementing the topic in Emily’s mind and are not “fluff.” When used as written, two lessons could be easily completed in a week since the lessons are short. Many of the lessons, however, lend themselves well to further research or activities. For example, the cell is studied for only one week. We added some additional books and worksheets on this topic.
We have found Christian Kids Explore Biology to be easy to use, interesting (and fun!) Just the right balance for us of information and hands-on activities.  The material is thorough enough for use for third to sixth graders. We liked this enough that we will be continuing to use it all year!

I received this book free for review purposes.