The SharpScience book

Several years ago, when I first started home schooling (E13 was going into first grade, M8 was still a baby) I looked to find an elementary science curriculum I liked. Nothing I found at the time appealed to me. It was either too dry, or tedious or plain uninteresting. 
At that time I was also working on my Masters' in science education and I figured I could write something myself, "how hard could it be"? Famous last words!
This lead to the birth of SharpScience, an elementary age science curriculum using picture books.  After having many conversations with parents and teachers, I discovered that many were afraid of teaching science because "you had to be really smart" or "it was too hard" or "kids just weren't interested in that stuff".  My belief and experience told me that elementary-aged children have a natural aptitude for scientific inquiry, which needs to be encouraged, nurtured and stimulated. 
 I also discovered that many people who went in to elementary teaching and to a lesser degree homeschooling tended to be arts majors in college. They didn't like science because they had either not enjoyed their science classes or felt or been successful in the sciences in school.   
 I wanted to create something with a low threshold, that every parent or teacher would feel comfortable in using and picture books lend themselves well to this.
I choose good books based on several criteria: they were well written, had beautiful, interesting of exciting art work and had an engaging story, which would illustrate a science topic well.
Next I added demonstrations, crafts, field trip ideas and even snacks to the mix.

children working on a SharpScience activity

I wrote, then tested all the lesson plans found in Volume 1 with groups of children at our co-op. Many of the illustrations, booklets, charts and other items found in Volume 1 I drew myself. I am not a (graphic) artist,  but the children still found the illustrations easy to follow.
While editing some of the lesson plans I also added some special needs modifications.
I then started giving away several copies for people to "test" for me and tried offering it to publishers. I had initially planned to write three volumes but life took over and volume 2 remained in its' loose leaf binder (yes I actually wrote the lessons plans on paper).
About two years ago, when I started teaching M then 6, I pulled SharpScience back off the shelf and worked very hard to finish it.  You can read some of the results here.

SharpScience Volume 1 books