A great Chemistry book to share

My friend Mandy has started Friday's Homeschool Feature and I thought I'd jump in to share one of our favorite homeschool books.

Since science is my favorite subject, we have a lot of science books. It's hard to pick a favorite, we have many good ones. Today, I'm going to share one with you that should be in every home library in my opinion.
Super Science Concoctions by Jill Frankel Hauser is hands down one of the best science experiment books we've found. There are fifty experiments, all centered around various aspects of chemistry. All of them use simple household ingredients that you will either have on hand or can get easily without too much hassle or expense. The experiments are short and simple, most children 8 and up can likely do many of them with no assistance. There are some that require adult help, but they are clearly marked. Along with each experiment there are short easy to read explanations of the chemistry behind the experiment and sometimes ideas for other things you can do to learn more.
Here's an example...
On page 111, you will find "Tubful of Tension". The experiment is designed to demonstrate surface tension. On the left side is the experiment, on the right is a feature called "More to explore" and it gives four more things to do that will further investigate the same concept. Turn the page to find a feature called "Super Fun!" and for this particular concept it uses a plastic tab and liquid soap to demonstrate how soap weakens the surface tension of the water. Jerald demonstrated this for his siblings today and it was "Super Fun!", they did it multiple times! Finally, at the bottom of page two, you find "Principle of the Thing" and that further explains the principle behind the experiment.

Some of the experiments have other features like "Let's get practical" which helps relate the experiment to things in everyday life and "What on Earth?" which gives details about ingredients found in nature and how they can be used to create substances, carry out experiments, etc.

Jerald has read this cover to cover and has done several of the experiments. I have only glanced through it, but I like what I see and I know he and Rocklin have learned a lot just from reading it. Doing the experiments has helped cement several things in their minds. It's not something I would use as a stand alone for basic chemistry, but it is definately worth the money. It's a fun and simple intro to chemistry for upper elementary and could be the sole "lab" portion of lower elementary in my opinion.

If you have a great homeschool tip to share, a great product you'd like to feature, or just a great homeschool focused idea to share jump on over to Mandy's page and link up with Friday's Homeschool Feature!