Abeka Homeschool Science Curriculum: A Detailed Review

My daughter just finished second grade and since we’ve used both first and second grade Abeka science, I’m now ready to share my Abeka homeschool science curriculum review for elementary. I do have the advantage of having been homeschooled myself with Abeka’s entire K-12 science curriculum, so I’m very familiar with Abeka’s scope and sequence for science. This will be a more detailed review following a post comparing and contrasting the science curricula we combined for second grade.

What is included?

For the sake of having a comprehensive Abeka homeschool science review, I went ahead and looked up the companion materials available for first and second grade, even though I didn’t use them. At the elementary level, I don’t believe they’re necessary.

For Abeka’s first grade science, you have the option of getting lesson plans, but they only come included with the history and health lesson plans. It only really makes sense to get if you’re using all Abeka curriculum, or just really desperate for lesson plans.

When it comes to their second grade science however, you not only have lesson plans (still, combined with health and history) but also an activity book and a teacher key for the activity book. The only problem? The activity book is for history, health and science. All together. Again, if you’re using all Abeka curriculum, this isn’t a problem. But if you’re only looking to use one of their subjects, they make it very difficult. The entire Abeka program is so intertwined – you’ll either love it or hate it.

How much does it cost?

Abeka is notorious for increasing prices every year, so if you have a catalogue that’s from last year, the prices won’t be accurate. For 2025, when this blog post is originally being published, the 127-page 1st grade reader was $25.05 and the homeschool lesson plans were $21.90. The 199-page second grade reader was $25.05. This is relatively cheap for a science textbook. But if you continue reading, you’ll find that I believe “textbook” is a bit of a stretch when referring to these graded readers.

What does Abeka’s 1st Grade Science Cover?

The first grade science reader, Discovering God’s World, covers a variety of topics (listed below) and has 22 hands-on activities, from simply using a magnet to watching a tadpole grow into a frog. In which case you’d need to obtain a tadpole. So to be fair, you really could take this small textbook and use it to go in depth where your and your child’s curiosity takes you. In all honesty, I don’t know what Abeka’s lesson plans look like for their 1st grade science curriculum and how much they guide you to other resources. I just know that having this textbook alone, if you want a robust science curriculum, you’re going to need to prepare a lot and supplement.

• The Five Senses
• Forces
• Machines
• Animals
• Insects
• Plants
• Seasons

What does Abeka’s 2nd Grade Science Cover?

The second grade reader, Enjoying God’s World, follows the same basic outline as first grade but goes slightly more in depth. There are 17 activities, but 3 of those activities are repeated from first grade: watching a plant grow, observing water move up a stem and watching a caterpillar grow. This isn’t necessarily a bad thing though. You might not have done all of them in first grade, and even if you had, these are probably enjoyable enough to repeat. And of course, a second grader will understand and absorb more on a second go around.

• Anatomy / The Five Senses
• Botany
• Animals & Habitats
• The Scientific Method
• Physics (Forces, Machines, States of Matter, etc)
• Weather
• Astronomy

TLDR: Pros vs Cons

To conclude this Abeka science homeschool review let’s just list the pros and cons when it comes to their 1st and 2nd grade homeschool science textbooks.

PROS

• It’s aesthetically pleasing. I love a science book with lots of beautiful color photographs and in true Abeka fashion, this doesn’t disappoint in terms of aesthetics. Kid-friendly, but not overly juvenile and cheap-looking.
• It doubles as a graded reader. Your first grader can actually read the first grade textbook herself, which makes this a great way to get in extra reading practice as well as motivate your student to pick up the textbook on her own to peruse.
• It has a Christian and specifically Creationist perspective.
• It’s budget-friendly compared to other curriculum choices if this is your only science textbook and you don’t supplement. If you’re looking at it as just a graded reader though, it’s kind of pricey.

CONS

• It’s broad but shallow in its approach to science. The textbooks cover several different topics, but never go into much detail about anything.
• The textbooks are short. Like, if your student is a decent reader for his grade, you’re going to go through this material so fast. Especially if you have a kid who likes to read science every day. Then just forget about it. This will barely last you a semester.
• The activities are really very simple, especially compared to the other science curriculum options available, even for elementary students.
• They’re preachy. If you’ve decided to use Abeka’s curriculum, you already know science is going to be taught from a Christian worldview. So the constant insertion of lines like “didn’t God design ___ so well?” again and again comes across as mindless repetition rather than simply a factual acknowledgement that God did indeed create all things. Add to that the many verses and it comes across more as a devotional book with a side of science. We already have a theology curriculum, so I’d rather have my student actually learn more science, thank you.

Who Would Enjoy Abeka’s Science Curriculum?

• The homeschool mom who wants to round off the year with science, but doesn’t really have a lot of time for activities and experiments. Fun, engaging, yet very simple is the name of the game.
• The homeschool mom whose student doesn’t particularly enjoy science, but it’s a box that needs to be checked for whatever reason. Quick and painless is the point here.
• The homeschool mom who isn’t concerned about actually teaching science, at least not with Abeka’s textbook. Rather, she is just looking for some fun books with a Christian worldview to give her young science enthusiasts that they can read on their own.

All that to say, we won’t be continuing with Abeka for our science curriculum. Because I know from my own Abeka science studies that this format continues until high school. Only then do you get to study one subject at a time in more depth. To be fair, Abeka’s science curriculum can definitely have its place depending on the season of homeschooling you’re in and depending on how much your student enjoys the subject. What would you add to this Abeka homeschool curriculum review? Are you using Abeka science? What do you think?

Keep Reading About…

Reviews of science curriculum for second graders: Building Blocks of Science and Science in the Ancient World (Berean Builders)

Combining multiple science curriculums for second grade: 2nd Grade Homeschool Science Curriculum Review

More Abeka curriculum reviews: Abeka’s Arithmetic 3 and Abeka’s 2nd Grade English