Home Schooling Resources

For the elementary grades I always recommend using picture books for homeschool Science. You can use boring textbooks if you want, but you will have more fun and your child might remember picture books better than a textbook or workbook.

Ideally going outdoors and doing lots of experiments is the best way to learn about Science, but that is not always possible in a normal homeschool day. We try to make the most of our garden in the summer for teaching about Science but in the middle of Winter, no one wants to go outside!

That’s were these great picture books come in handy.  Here are a few of our favorites although I am sure there are many good choices out there.

In the Small, Small Pond by Denise Fleming – This is a very simple book that shows you what happens with many different animals in a pond over the course of a year. This book goes through all 4 seasons. There are just a few words on each page, but your child gets the message about what happens in a pond during a year.

The Song of Six Birds by Rene Deetlefs is a sweet story about a little girl living in Africa that gets a flute. She loves music, but her flute does not make very pretty music. She goes around and finds different birds in her area that make different sounds and pretends to let the birds songs fill her flute so that it will make beautiful music too. Your child will be introduced to 6 different birds and will understand the different sounds that birds make.

A Rainbow of My Own by Don Freeman – This book is written by the author of the famous Cordoroy books. Although Cordoroy is not featured in these books, the story is equally as sweet. A little boy desires to have a rainbow to play with for his very own. The story follows him around and shows what he would do if he had his own rainbow. There is a neat ending to this book that you’ll have to read for yourself:)

Fall is Not Easy by Marty Kelley is a simple story about the yearly cycle of a tree. You get to use your imagination in this book about the different leaf patterns that a tree could have. It is written from the perspective of the tree but in a sweet way.

Pancakes, Pancakes by Eric Carle is another cute story written only as Eric Carle can write. You follow a boy through all the steps he needs to make a pancake – from gathering the wheat, to grinding the flour to  gathering the eggs and butter, and more. This gives children a better perspective than expecting that all pancakes come from a box in the store.

Where Do Puddles Go? by Fay Robinson is a great story that easily illustrates the cycle of water and how puddles evaporate and turn into clouds and then into rain. My son was asking all kinds of questions throughout this book. Any of the Rookie Read-About Science books are good.

What’s Inside My Body? by McCourt & Bernstein is a complete book about the body. You can get as detailed or as simple as you want with this book. There are great pictures that help make the text more understandable. There is a lot of text here, but we just read what we were interested in and left the rest. If your child is really interested in the human body, then you could read more detail.

We prefer to just read books and discuss them a little, but if you wanted a more comprehensive guide with ideas for activities and lesson plans, then you could use Teaching Science with Favorite Picture Books.

Those are just a few of the favorite picture books we use for Homeschool Science. Maybe I’ll share some more later. Do you have any you like?

Originally posted 2009-03-16 23:20:27. Republished by Blog Post Promoter