Year 7 Science with my son is going to be a bit different. He has actually already covered quite a bit of the KS3 Science just by joining in with his older sister’s Science sessions so we are going to be filling in the gaps and extending existing knowledge. (We are thinking there is a good chance he will do triple Science for his GCSE’s, just based on his area of interests so I want to make sure we have a good foundation). I am going to be sticking with 3 resources that have worked really well in the past but I am going to be doing in a bit of dipping in and out to fill gaps.

At the beginning of 2022 I heard another home educator talk about Theatre of Science, they were raving about how amazing it is and how much her kids enjoyed the sessions so we tried one, my kids LOVED it and then for the rest of that academic year we worked through her live and recorded sessions. They were honestly one of the best Science resources that we have discovered. My kids really enjoy the way Lara presents her lessons, they find her entertaining, informative and although she does not home ed her kids she is always very positive about home education (they also love how expressive she is).

She tends to explain a concept, give questions (which she then works through with the kids) and includes some sort of activity (you kids can do the activity at home while she is doing it, just watch her, or try it later). She always makes it engaging (we have never been bored or not interested in what was happening) and my kids always walk away having learnt something new, also for older kids she is good about giving tips about how to answer questions. At the end of her session she does include harder questions but your kids can choose to stay or leave the lesson at that stage.

So based on that success we are sticking with it for my son’s year 7. We are going to follow her Home-ed lessons that she does once a week and link it to our Activate 1 and Activate 2 books. And we will go back and work through some of her older recorded lessons that we missed. Just to mention you can find Threatre of Science on Facebook and on YouTube. If you have missed her, just go and watch one lesson, you will not be disappointed.

The Science books that I am planning on using are the Activate range. Normally Activate 1 is for Year 7 and Activate 2 is for Year 8 but because he has already done quite a bit of science with his older sister we will combine the 2 books and focus on the gaps. (I have no idea what I will no with him for Year 8 Science). Also to mention in the photo below I have just include the Higher workbook with the student book. But you do also get a foundation workbook. Over the past 3 years when my son linked in with his older sister’s science he would do his Science activities out of the Foundation workbook but at this stage I fell confident that the Higher workbook is the level he will be working at.

We just like the way these books are set out – we like the explanations and the way they develop the topics. And then the fact that the workbooks link in with practice questions (and the workbooks have answers at the back), it just suits us. You read, discuss and then the kids try a few questions and mark their answers. Perfect, easy to use and never had an issue with wording or errors. (For more detail look here – Activate 1 student book, Activate 1 workbooks, Activate 2, Activate 2 workbooks)

And our final Science resource will be our Oaka Topic Packs (oh and we will also be playing some of the Oaka Science Board games). The photo below is just a selection of the Science Packs – there is a massive range, covering Biology, Physics and Chemistry.

I have used these topics packs a LOT and they work for us. With our Science packs we often tend to do a topic first and then use the Oaka packs as our wrap up activity. I like the way they do the blocks of information (great for visual learners), I like that the kids then write out key words and phrases in the Notes and we all always enjoy having a go at the active learning game at the year. So a great resource and one that we will continue using this year.

Science is going to be a bit different this year but I am actually looking forward to the combination of Lara’s sessions with our tried and trusted books.

Admin – These are all resources that I have used in the past, really enjoyed the content and am now reusing them with my son. This is not paid for content. This is just me writing about my Science resources for my son.