Are you wondering the best order in which to do lessons or units? This post will give you everything you need to know to make the right decision for your family!
Do We Need to Do All the Lessons?
No. (In fact, to our knowledge, no one ever has. We'd love to hear from you if your family has completed all of them!)
Should I Buy Full Access or a Unit?
That's totally up to you! If you prefer to try us out before committing to more, you can try a unit. You can also get a full access monthly or annual subscription and have access to all the units.
If you have full access, you can now see the lessons in three different ways! You can use a "classroom" view where your learner can explore freely, you can access any of the units currently available, or you can look at a page of All the Lessons. We will eventually be adding units that have to be purchased separately that not all families might want and in order to protect kids from wandering into them (such as human reproduction or suturing).
Intro Units vs Topical Units
There are two type of units.
We started by creating intro units for families who needed a place to start. Our first was Human Body Basics, a beginning unit that covers the basic information for different body systems. For some families this will be all that’s needed or wanted.
We also made Health and the Human Body for families who were wanting a more science-focused health curriculum. We recorded quite a few new lessons for that unit, which are now also available in the "classroom" view for families with full access as well.
We’ve now started the process of creating topical units—heart, lungs, digestive system, etc. This is also guiding our process of creating new lessons. We don’t have enough endocrine lessons to make a whole unit so we’re prioritizing topics like the thyroid gland.
Are Lessons Repeated Between Units?
The topical units have no repeats from one to another. The intro units do have repeats from other units since they are a cross section of the curriculum. If you start with an intro unit and then switch over to the topical units, you may see an occasional repeat in the very beginning lessons.
But What is the Best Order to Do the Topical Units?
There isn’t one right order but we do have some general suggestions. We’d recommend saving genetics as one of the last unless your child is really interested in genetics. Not only is genetics a challenging topic, it’s not something that students are usually personally familiar with. Most families have told us that genetics is the hardest unit currently available. The heart is also one to do later unless your child has a special interest; while the beginning lessons in the heart unit are very accessible, the later lessons are more challenging.
There are lots of options for first units.
Eight Senses is the most popular to do first as it builds on the Five Senses units that many kids have experienced already.
If your family enjoys hands-on modeling, starting with the Digestive System ends with a digestive system model but a lot of families will build their models in smaller sections. In other words, they will watch the lesson on a particular part of the digestive system and then use the first few minutes of the modelling lesson to build the model of that part before watching the next lesson.
Bones and Muscles is very tangible for kids to understand and enjoy (though there’s a dissection at the end, just a warning if you’re squeamish!)
Bugs and Drugs provides a good understanding of cells, bacteria, and viruses before launching into the specific infections discussed in other units.
Lungs starts with a hands-on lung model, includes a coloring page, and there are lessons on common problems your friends and family members may have (asthma, COPD, pneumonia).
Are There More Units Coming?
Yes! With just the currently available lessons, we're going to be able to create The Brain and Spinal Cord, The Blood, and The Head.
We're currently working on lessons for Endocrine/Hormones in order to release that in the coming months. And we're well into Human Reproduction (this one will have to be purchased separately).
What If I Want More Hands-On Activities and Fewer Worksheets?
My next post will dig into this. But for now, know that
the worksheets are totally optional
we have two sections in the classroom (for full access subscribers) with just the hands-on lessons so you can easily find them
you can also check out our Pinterest boards for crafts and projects! We just started setting those up but we’ve already found so many pins from all over Pinterest that complement the lessons. If you have other pins you'd like to suggest (including from your own blog), please let us know!