This week, the girls just finished doing a special unit study on electricity.  Ok STOP!  Before you think I am some superstar-brainy mom, let me tell you about this study.  I did it the EASY way.  I received this wonderful kit called:

Electric Circuits by Ed Basconi and David M. Jones.

The girls (ages 8 and 10) sat down together, read  the lessons and did all the experiments ON THEIR OWN!  Yes, they did this complete study on electricity with no help at all from me.

Each chapter had introductory materials on the topics to be covered and experiments to bring the lessons home.  Along with the book came an amazing, self-contained kit that had all the materials needed for every experiment.  My children LOVE hands-on experiments, and this is one area where I fall short.  I do not like gathering up little things from all over the house to do a science experiment from a book.  For a busy mama, this book was a true blessing. 

The chapters covered some very interesting topics including:

• What is electricity
• Simple Circuits
• How batteries work
• Conductors and Insulators
• Switches
• Series Circuits
• Parallel Circuits
• Electromagnetism.

As part of the study, they conducted experiments including:

• Building circuits including:  Simple, Series, and Parallel 
• Lighting a lamp, a buzzer, and a fan
• They used  jumper wires to test conductiviry of different substances 9copper, rubber, etc)
• Making switches work, including push and slide switches.
• Electromagnetic experiements. 
  

This book also had them analyze their environment to look for practical uses for each concept they learned.  This book was a terrific blend of taking the theorectical aspects of science, and immediately applying it to the real world.

I would be remiss if I did not talk a bit about the layout of the book.  Each page is written in a large enough typeface that it was easy for my younger reader to enjoy,  The diagrams and pictues in this book are in full color.  Nice, large margins make it easy on the eye.  Also, the pages were not "too busy."  My daughter, Anne Mary is very bright but does not enjoy books that have tons and tons of busy pictures all over the page.  She finds them distracting.  This book had such a good balance that both girls enjoyed reading it and doing the experiments together.

I know you are just dying to see some pictures of my girls working with this amazing kit, so keep going!  I should mention that they actually keep getting this book and kit off the shelf to "explore" when they have down time.  Apparently when working through the kit, they took turns on the experiments, and now they are going back to the experiments and doing their favorites all over again. 

In case you are planning  your curriculum, this is geared for grades 4-6.  I would say though, if your older children have not yet covered electricity, this would be a quick, fun study for them as well.  You could easilly do this together with a younger child as well.



 

From Dec 2008 Jan 2009

From Dec 2008 Jan 2009

From Dec 2008 Jan 2009

From Dec 2008 Jan 2009

This book was comprised of 8 short chapters. I would say for planning purposes, you could plan this as a four week study. Or, if your kids like to get totally engrossed in one subject for long periods of time, you could cover it much quicker. I am going to find out if this company has any more kits, because I am sold! Well done, KitBook! See their site: www.kitbook.com