Science. It can either strike fear in you or make you giddy with delight. I tend to be in the latter group. One of my main goals is to instill a love of science in my children as we travel along our homeschool journey. Exposing my children to as many science disciplines and letting them find their niche is one of the perks of homeschooling as we are not boxed into a particular sequence.

Novare Earth Science was written by Kevin Nelstead,of Novare Science & Math. They are a relatively new science and math company. The Earth Science program is intended for middle schoolers as a mastery program. What I mean about that is that the company has set out to change the way our children learn math and science by “promoting a teaching philosophy based on the core principles of mastery, integration, and Kingdom perspective.” In fact, several well-known homeschool companies, including Memoria Press, use Novare Science in their school curriculum packages.

The Earth Science program from Novare is solid and jam packed with everything your middle schooler would need to know. The complete curriculum set includes a hardcover textbook and a resource CD that contains all the quizzes, exams, experiment instructions, weekly review guides, and answer keys for the course. Within the pages of the hardcover textbook style curriculum you will find fifteen chapters on everything from Earth in Space, Plate tectonics, Rocks, Volcanoes and Earthquakes, Erosion, Weather, Oceanography, and more! Each chapter is broken down into subsections that pertain to the main chapter topic. With lots of color photo examples the pages are broken up so it doesn’t seem to be too much reading for your middle schooler.  Throughout the reading there are also Learning Checks for each sub section that contain anywhere between two to four questions.

Important vocabulary words are printed in italic print throughout the chapters instead of bold print as we are used to. A complete list of chapter words is given at the beginning of each chapter as well as a through objectives list. Vocabulary words should be defined in complete sentences or in paragraph form whichever you prefer for your homeschool. The chapters also chapter exercises where you can do some hands-on learning by showing what you know. Some of the activities are written work while others are experiments.

I have enjoyed using this Earth Science curriculum with my 5th grader. While she is on the young side, we have taken our learning slowly so that she can master the information and not cram. This curriculum is actually written for seventh or eighth graders but we have been able to learn together with only a few modifications. Since my daughter’s reading and comprehension is on the level of a seventh grader, I had her read the sub-sections out loud to me. We would then work on outlining the sections and defining any vocabulary words we came across.

Novare is an up and coming curriculum program that ranks up there with the other well-known textbook curricula. It has my vote of confidence and we will be switching to their curriculum fully next year as we continue our science studies. Novare Earth Science has been a breath of fresh air within our homeschool. I am excited to dive into the world of Novare Science next school year with my then 6th grader along with my 10th grader completing the Chemistry program.

-Product review by Jacquelin Caffey, The Old Schoolhouse® Magazine, LLC, February, 2018