Customer Reviews

Switch On, Switch Off (Let's-Read-and-Find-Out Science 2)

5 star:		(5)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

I pulled this book out when my 5 year old asked me to explain how a light bulb works. The book addresses this subject and also goes on to explain, in simplist form, what electricity is, where it comes from and how we use it in our daily lives. It includes an easy experiement that shows how electricity is created. While my child was able to understand most of what was addressed, the introduction to atoms, electrons... was probably more than he needed right now. But the introduction of generators, wires, circuits and how electricity reaches our home was great. The story format, starting with turning on a light switch, kept him interested.

When I first opened the book, I thought it would be too young for my nine year old. To my surprise, it caught our attention and explained the puzzling mystery of electricity and currents in such a way that we both understood how it works. Reading this turned on the light of comprehension. I highly recommend this book to explain the process.

Switch On, Switch Off (Let's-Read-and-Find-Out Science 2)
Another great book in this series. Teaches kids how electricity comes into your home. There are schematics showing simple wiring thru a house. It explains about the circuit and what happens when there is a broken circuits. Switching off and on is breaking the circuit. For a few days after our first reading of this book we had lots of appliances switching off and on, you know scientific experiments! Another one of those things in life we take for granted. This book helps kids become aware of electricity and how it works. Great.

I was going to buy this book for an 8-year old, and then discovered that it was part of a series, and available in the Amazon "4 for 3" plan, so I figured 'what the heck,' and bought a bunch of books from the series. Specifically, I purchased:

.. "Switch On, Switch Off,"
.. "What Makes Day and Night"
.. "What is the World Made Of"
.. "The Planets of Our Solar System"

The books are accessible to kids, well illustrated, and contain actual activities pertinent to the topic -- always a plus with kids' books. They remind me, in fact, of a series of science books that I read when I was about 7 or 8 -- the "What is a [...]" series, which contained titles like "What is a Frog?" "What is a Planet?" "What is an Atom?". and so on. I loved them, and I think kids of early rading age will love these, as well as potentially developing an interest in learning more about science.

The only down side is, the reading age of these books is given as "4 to 8," which is, I think, a bit generous. I would put it at 4 to 7, maybe, and even an especially bright 7-year old may find the text a little elementary. The 8-year old I bought these for reads at a 5th grade level, and found the text "babyish," although she was fascinated by the subject matter. I notice that these books are labeled "Science 2," and there is also a "Science 1" series geared to even younger kids and pre-readers. I was hoping that there might be a "Science 3" series, more suitable for 8-10 year olds, but if there is I haven't found it yet.

Due to the extremely simple reading level I probably won't buy any more from this series for the particular 8-year old that I got these for. However, I will certainly consider more of these titles, and Series 1 titles as well, for my friends' younger children who are rapidly approaching the early literacy stage.

I found this book for my five year old who has lots of questions about electricity and how things work. I thought it was an easy to understand explanation for the both of us and an easy to read book too.

Uesing this book to teach about magnets and electricity to my homeschool kids, easy to read for small children to understand and awesome kid friendly experiments to show electric currents

I love this book it explains in the simplest terms how electricity makes things go on and off.

It starts by telling you that when you flip a switch the lights go on and when you flip it down the lights go off, 'it is like magic' the book says but then goes on to say however it is not magic it is electricity and then the whole explanation begins.

Various electrical energy used around the house is explained. There is also a simple experiment where you get to generate some electrical energy using a compass, a magnet and some wire. It explains how electricity comes from the generators to your house and how they light up your home.My son love these books.