We don’t recommend it for any student younger than 6th grade because the concepts will be too challenging. A high school student who has not had a lot of exposure to science would certainly benefit from the program. However, The Rainbow is not intended to be a high school course.

Yes. We are working on the Colors Program now, and hope to have it finished within the next year or two. After that, our next project is to finish Spectrum Biology and the Spectrum Physics, but those will not be completed for several years to come at least.

We familiarize the students with the theory of evolution so that they understand it and are adequately knowledgeable to discuss it with others. However, we reject it as a belief. We openly acknowledge God as our Creator.

The Rainbow is designed for the homeschool setting, and for the most part can be done by the student alone, with minimal parental involvement. We include yearly Teacher’s Helpers which help you to gauge how well your student is working through the program.

Yes, other than a gallon of distilled water, which you buy at the beginning of the program. We provide a two-year textbook, yearly Teacher’s Helpers, lab workbooks, and two laboratory kits to be used each year. The durable equipment sets contain items that can be reused by another student. The renewable kits are essentially consumable kits that would have to be replaced for a subsequent student to go through the program.

The Rainbow is designed to be used three days a week. The students work two days in the textbook, and one day in the lab workbook. Text lessons will require 10-30 minutes. Labs may take anywhere from 20 minutes to an hour and a half. There is a corresponding lab for every two text lessons.

Durell Dobbins is a Christian and a professional scientist. His own five children are homeschooled, and he wrote the program with his junior high school age son in mind. Durell runs a small environmental clean-up company which operates out of Minnesota, and currently has a new office in Bowling Green, KY.

The Rainbow curriculum is written from the perspective that an understanding of physics is fundamental. The program then builds on that foundation into a study of chemistry, which is an application of physics, and then into the study of biology. Because our program is structured to build on concepts, beginning with the Year 2 curriculum defeats the purpose. Also, our Year 2 program requires the use of many of the items from the Year 1 lab kit.

In the physics and chemistry course, there are two major reviews, which are essentially tests, written into the lab workbook. The biology and applications workbook contain three.

Because our curriculum is designed to build your child’s understanding based on concepts, rather than load them down with terminology and memorization, our text lessons are concise and easily readable. Our lessons focus more on the doing of science and grasping of concepts than on reading.

The Rainbow provides one semester each of physics, chemistry, biology, and applications of science. The course could certainly be called General Science. Earth Science is covered in the applications semester. Life Science is taught during the semester of biology. Physical Science is taught the first year of the program in physics and chemistry.