Science: Grades PreK - 6th Grade
SciTT Kits (Science for Today and Tomorrow)
Homeschool Director: Dick Ludwig
For more information or to order: www.scittkits.com

Many homeschool moms have lamented to me that they don't have their children do science experiments suggested in their curriculum because of the time involved gathering materials or figuring out how/why the experiment works the way it does.  SciTT Kits have been put together with busy teachers and homeschool moms in mind.  Each kit includes a Teacher Manual (complete with lesson plans and answer keys), a Student Lab Book, and everything you need for every experiment in the book.  Kits meet the standards for the grade level they represent and are designed as a hands-on supplement to science textbooks.  The creator of SciTT Kits has taken the most common areas of study for each grade level and put together the manuals/supplies accordingly. To make a neat idea even neater, the materials for each of the 13 investigation activities are bagged together, so you don't have to dig through the whole box to find what you need.  I was given the 3rd grade homeschool kit to review and it contains everything you need for 13 different experiments covering gravity, chemical reactions, electricity, birds, soil samples, earth changes, volcanoes, physical science and more.  The supplies include everything from small plastic cups and baking soda to batteries and a flashlight.  In fact, the only item not included in the kits is water - everything else you need is provided!  Visit their website for a list of the experiments included in the kits by grade level.

Since SciTT Kits and the accompanying manuals are also used school systems across America, you will find lots of teaching notes, ideas for further discussion and even "homework" pages for students.  Even though these kits are designed as a supplement to textbook curriculum, they would also make a great jumping off point for creating your own curriculum using books from the library and web sites for more indepth study.  The lab books are non-reproducible so you will need one for each child.  Because similar material is covered each year of elementary science, a family with several children could use one kit and do the experiments together with each child recording their own findings based on their ability.

The creator of SciTT Kits seems to have thought of everything when assembling these kits.  They have provided homeschool moms with a painless way to add the excitement of hands-on discovery to their science curriculum.

Making the grade: A
Cost: Prices vary, but most kits are $69.95 including shipping
Value for your homeschool dollar: 9
Review provided by Cindy Prechtel, Editor