Tuesday, April 17, 2012

Here's A Bright Idea!

I find it very easy to teach things like botany and anatomy, but I don’t particularly like chemistry.  I only passed my organic chemistry class in college because the curve was 80-100 was an A, 60-80 was a B, and 40-60 was a C.  I got a C.  L

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Lower level chemistry is easy enough for me, but I don’t like it as well as the other sciences based on my background.

Bright Ideas Press publishes Christian-oriented curriculum “that will fit into your hectic life, curriculum that is both affordable and easy to use with children of different ages at the same time.”  www.brightideaspress.com

There are many different subjects available through Bright Ideas press such as geography, history, science, and literature.  This is the company that publishes The Mystery of History.  They also have a collection of over 350 different maps available to go along with the various curricula they offer.

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The Christian Kids Explore Chemistry book is geared towards kids in 4th through 8th grade.  It is $39.95.  It has a resource CD that includes lesson plans, material lists, a bonus literature study guide, and all the reproducibles that are in the book.  Scripture is used throughout the book.  There are 30 lessons grouped in five units.  Each unit includes vocabulary and material lists.  Each unit also has hands-on lessons to help the student better understand what has been learned during the reading.

The Bright Ideas Press website makes sample pages available for this book so you can get an idea of what it is like inside.  The sample pages include the table of contents, sample pages, materials list by unit, and the answer key to the Review It questions for each lesson.

The units included in the Chemistry book are “The Basics of Chemistry,” “Atoms and Molecules,” “The Nature of Chemistry,” “States of Matter,” and “Organic Chemistry.”  There is a glossary and coloring pages in the back of the book. 

There are unit wrap ups that could be used as tests or to just simply ensure your child has an adequate understanding of what has been presented in each unit.

Most of the materials needed for the experiments can be found at home.  There are some experiments that require items most folks probably don’t have sitting around like different size Styrofoam balls, but they aren't expensive nor are they hard to find.

My daughter really wanted to work through this chemistry book because she was excited about doing the experiments.  The first few hands-on activities in the book are about understanding basic chemistry facts like the tools and taking measurements, etc., so they didn't excite her; but the experiments definitely got better and were more interesting to her.

These books are very interesting, well thought out, and illustrated well.  I would encourage anybody interested in this book to also search the rest of the Bright Ideas Press website for additional science curricula, history, and also an all-inclusive curriculum covering Bible, language arts, science, literature, music, art, geography, history, etc., called Illuminations.

Bright Ideas Press can be reached at 877.492.8081.  If you click the Contact button, you can find many different ways to reach Bright Ideas Press besides their phone number.  Their address is Bright Ideas Press, PO Box 333, Cheswold, DE 19936.  They can be reached by email at contact@BrightIdeasPress.com.    

They can also be found on Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/BrightIdeasPress.

Be sure to check out their monthly specials!!

DISCLAIMER:  I received this product free of charge in order to use it and provide an honest review.