I love science, and I try very hard to instill that love into my children as well. They are naturally curious and I take every opportunity to allow them to delve deeper into things they show an interest in. When I was given access to NatureGlo’s eScience MathArt & Science Course Bundle classes for a year I was excited to see all that was available.
Gloria Brooks teaches the NatureGlo science classes using her 20+ years of experience teaching. She has a bachelor's degree in K–12 education and describes herself as a "relaxed eclectic homeschool and unschool teacher and coach."
Sounds right up my alley . . . sort of.
I am pretty relaxed and definitely eclectic, but I do need a plan—something that puts our long-range goals into manageable chunks—otherwise, my relaxed nature will quickly throw us into a tailspin that ends with "eh, just watch a documentary . . . or 5." I had a difficult time navigating the site and finding what I was looking for, but that may just require some getting used to the way that it's laid out. Finding the dashboard after logging in required a bit of circling through links. I finally stumbled on the RoadMap, which made things a lot easier.
The RoadMap is exactly what it says. It maps out how to use the science classes as a cohesive course. That made life a little easier for me!
Science Classes You'll Find
NatureGlo's eScience is best for ages 10 and up, but can be easily adapted for younger children (with some help). There are 25 different classes available. They are great supplements for science and cover some things that most science courses don't bother with. That's exactly what we gravitated toward . . . things like:
All of these were great jumping-off points to dip our toes into a subject before deciding whether to dive deeper.
There are SO MANY more great science classes available that we haven't had the time to explore yet. Here are just a few.
How We Used It
NatureGlo's eScience is accessed through a website portal. I used my Chromebook to access the website and then cast it to our SmartTV so that we were able to watch the videos together. Before viewing, I printed the available study guide for the kids to complete as they watched the videos.
There were also extra videos, reading, and projects for some of the science classes, such as a video tutorial for Warli Art which the kids viewed to make these.
My oldest used the Chromebook to access the rockhounding course on her own. We are studying rocks and minerals in our main science program and she is very interested in rock collecting, so the Rockhounding course was a great way for her to delve a little deeper into the topic.
Final Thoughts
While we did enjoy most of the classes that we tried, my children had a difficult time with the "live" class video recordings. There are a lot of pauses and some discussion with the children that were part of the class that was recorded. Those things were a distraction for my kids. It was an effort to keep them focused at times.
The only other thing that I had trouble with was the navigation of the site. I had a hard time finding things after the initial login, which took me to the last thing that was done on the account. That was a problem when my daughter was working on the Rockhounding at the same time that we were completing Redwoods as a family. I eventually figured out how to navigate back to the dashboard where I had access to all of the courses, but it took a few clicks. If you're just working through one course at a time, you should have no problems.
Don't Just Take My Word For It!
This is only one of fifty different reviews that are available for NatureGlo's eScience! Be sure to visit the Homeschool Review Crew page to read more reviews by clicking the banner below!
