Product Description
224 hands-on science experiments and ideas with step-by-step instructions delight and amaze children as they experience nature, the human body, electricity, floating and sinking, and more.

CUSTOMER REVIEWS (Average Customer Rating: 4.0 based on 7 reviews)

Lovely homeschooling book

I've read reviews that there's nothing "new" in this book. I'd argue that. As a homeschooling mom, I've read every book out there and was pleasantly surprised to find some new ideas or neat twists on old ideas. Sure, the lessons aren't real in depth and you may wish to supplement with other texts to further explain the experiment, but, it was written for preschoolers! I'd say we'll use this book for K and 1 too and fill in any holes with other books from the library. My daughter is gifted and finds these experiments to be "pretty neat". She's 4.
June 30, 2008

Wow! How fun is this!!

This book is great for all ages, despite the age recommendations.
Great illustrations, detailed explanations and LOTS of fun! You can skip around or if an experiment (or topic) strikes your fancy look it up and fire away!
NOT textbooky, which is a huge plus!
These are the kind of books your kids will want to pick up and read just for the fun of it! (My kids are teen to toddler)
An excellent addition to ANY homeschool library.
April 13, 2008

Not Bad, Just Okay

I checked this book out from my local library after seeing its recommendation in The book, The Well-Trained Mind. I would not say this is an ideal book for homeschooling families as two of the nine chapters are titled, "Science Center Activities" (pgs. 27-44) and "Circle Time Activities" (pgs. 61-74). The book was written for a preschool or elementary school classroom setting.

In addition, the book is comprised of your basic science activities for preschoolers. If you want something new or phenomenal, you won't find it here. There are activities such as watching a scab heal, observing the full moon and making pennies shiny again. These are very basic activities that you may feel discouraged you paid for, but for people who have a hard time finding something new to do every day or for teachers who want a written curriculum, this book is well organized. Also, those who have not had much exposure to science in their lives, or do not remember it, may not know how much fun it is to play with an amorphous solid (Magic Matter p. 91) and would need something such as this book to remind them.

For each activity, you are told if it's appropriate for ages 2+, 3+, 4+ or 5+. These suggestions are coming from college professors and can give confidence to those parents or caregivers who are unsure of what is & isn't appropriate for the average child.

Preschool science is very simple and I feel that a book is unnecessary, but if you feel you need one, this isn't a bad choice. For homeschoolers, though, I'd also recommend Janice Van Cleave's Play and Find Out About series because they skip the classroom style activities. Amazon sells Janice VanCleave's Big Book of Play and Find Out Science Projects for $13.57. With 224 pages, that ought to keep you busy for a while! = )
February 23, 2008

Disappointing

So disappointing! Like a lot of people I bought this on the recommendation of the Well Trained Mind (which I do like), but I just bought this book and the other book Every Body Needs a Body that it recommends for PreK/K science. I am very disappointed in both of them. So, before you read any farther, if you can go see a copy of this before buying it, I would recommend it--then you would know what you're buying. These books would be good if you were in an actually preschool setting, but a lot of the materials called for are not readily accessible at home and the preparation for a lot of the lessons takes time and space. I liked a few of the ideas that I will integrate into my curriculum, but overall I felt the books were wordy and over the head of my daughter. I am planning to use a book from Totline called Toddler Science and Science Arts (which goes up to ages 7 and 8, but the activities are rated as to their age appropriateness). But, really, all of the concepts that these books address are addressed in Slow and Steady, Get Me Ready, which I highly recommend. It does a much better job and is much more age appropriate--even if you do the activities at an older age than they are recommended for. So, if you're looking for a preschool science homeschool curriculum like I was--I think Slow and Steady and something like Toddler Science are much better choices.
June 05, 2007

Preschool curriculum

This book is just okay. There are some good experiments in here (maybe 10-15)and I had hoped to find at least 30. A lot of this stuff is just plain goofy, but maybe that's what you need for preschoolers, goofy stuff. I wanted implement it into my son's kindergarten homeshool curriculum and there just isn't a lot of good hands on science books out there for this age group (4-6). Well, not without spending a lot of money. I'm using several sources for science. But I did get this book for just a few dollars, so it was worth that price.
July 06, 2005

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