We’re currently using Masterbooks’ God’s Design series for Science with my son who is in Year 1.
Previously, I’ve written a review about God’s Design: Life for Beginners and today we’re gonna be looking at God’s Design: Heaven and Earth for Beginners.
ABOUT MASTERBOOKS:
Masterbooks is a long-time publisher of Christian books, focusing mostly on apologetics and creationism. In 2012, they expanded to creating quality Christian homeschooling materials. They have various units for different subjects and grade levels.
Currently, we have the following (links direct to my reviews:)
- God’s Design: Life for Beginners (for K-2) and Life (for Grades 3-8)
- God’s Design: Heave and Earth (for K-2) and Heaven and Earth (for Grades 3-8)
- Language Lessons for a Living Education 1
God’s Design: Heaven and Earth for Beginners
“God’s Design: Heaven and Earth for Beginners” is a science curriculum aimed at children in Kindergarten to Grade 2. It covers the following topics:
- Weather and Water
- Universe
- Planet Earth
The other book in this series called “God’s Design: Life for Beginners,” focuses on biology. I recommend doing Life first before Heaven and Earth. You can read more about why that is my recommendation here.
Each lesson is short and very easy to understand for their age. They introduce 2-3 new key terms per topic and they have short worksheets at the end of each lesson. I think it serves as a good introduction to all these new concepts and ideas.
It’s an open-and-go curriculum in textbook format and doesn’t require preparation on the teacher’s part. I love that! 😉
How We Use It:
TOGETHER WITH GOD’S DESIGN: LIFE
We started with “Life: For Beginners” when my son was in Kindergarten but we only touched on it briefly because we used a different Science curriculum at the beginning. I liked “Life” more though, so we decided to continue with it to Year 1.
With“Life: For Beginners” having 3 main topics and “Heaven and Earth: For Beginners” having 3 as well, there are a total of 6 main topics to go through from Kinder to Year 2.
Ideally, I wanted to finish the entire “Life: For Beginners” for Year 1, but my son asked if we could do a set from Heaven and Earth as well. I obliged. Hehe. So these are the 3 main topics that we will be discussing and the rest will be for Year 2:
- Life: Plants
- Life: Human Body
- Heaven and Earth: Planet Earth
AS OUR SCIENCE “SPINE”
Just like with God’s Design: Life for Beginners, I use this book as our “spine.” That is, we read about the topic as presented in the book but we also go more in depth by reading other materials and working on more hands-on projects.
Since each chapter is very short (which I appreciate,) I usually pair it with another picture book on the same topic. You may want to check out this list of Science book sets that I recommend.
We use this on top of a living book for Nature Study, since we follow a Charlotte Mason/Classical approach in our homeschool. You can check out our full curriculum picks for Year 1 here.
Comparison to “God’s Design: Heaven and Earth”
Just like “God’s Design: Life,” their “Heaven and Earth” curriculum set is available in 2 different formats. One is their beginners, meant for K-Grade 2 and one is for older kids, meant for 3rd-8th grade.
So far, I’ve shown you guys the beginners one above. Here is a preview of the one for 3rd-8th:
“God’s Design: Heaven and Earth” comes in 2 books: a textbook and a teacher’s guide. The teacher’s guide includes worksheets, as you can see in the photo above.
Comparing it with their Beginners book, these are more in depth and offer more activities for the child. If your K-2 child is curious about certain topics, I actually recommend getting these as well because they can provide
Christian Worldview:
Here are some things to note about the material that I think you should consider before deciding if this will be a good fit for your family:
- Christian: It is made from a Christian point-of-view. You can check out the publisher’s Statement of Faith for more details.
- Creationism, Six-Day Creation and Young Earth: There are many ways to view Creationism and Evolution. MasterBooks is firm on their belief of Six-Day Creation and Young Earth.*
They have an explanation of the different views at the beginning of their Teacher’s Guide. It’s a good starting point if you are interested, as a parent educator, to also learn and familiarize yourself with the different theories.
Personal note: I am still forming my personal solid thoughts on this topic and would not like to engage in a debate online. With regards to teaching my kids, I choose to use a Christian-based science curricula (this one) but I also present them opposing theories, and discuss these with them in an age-appropriate way. After all, one of my goals in teaching is to equip my children to be able to think for themselves based on truth and sound logic.
Overall
If you are looking for a science curriculum that comes from a conservative Christian perspective, the God’s Design series by Masterbooks is a good option. It follows a textbook format with simple worksheets for younger children to work on.
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Disclaimer: MasterBooks provided me with copies of “God’s Design: Heaven and Earth for Beginners” and “God’s Design: Heaven and Earth” for review. However, all opinions are unbiased and completely my own.
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