Rainbow Science

Rainbow Science is a two-year middle-school physical-and-life-science program from Beginnings Publishing House, written by Durell C. Dobbins. It is one of the few homeschool science curricula that ships with a comprehensive lab kit included, and that single decision shapes everything else about its tradeoffs.

Last updated: 2026-04-24 · Every Homeschool Editorial Team

At a glance

Method	Subject-specialist / textbook-and-lab
Worldview	Christian-evangelical (Christian-authored; the text is critical of evolutionary theory but does not commit to a young-earth or old-earth position)
Grades	7-8 (publisher target); the program can serve as a general physical-science credit at high-school entry
Formats	Print textbook, teacher guide, lab workbook, and physical lab kit
Cost tier	Premium
Parent intensity	3 (lab-day prep is real; reading days are largely independent)
ESA-common	Varies (eligible on most marketplaces; physical materials simplify reimbursement)
Accredited	No (single-subject curriculum, not a school)
Established	Beginnings Publishing House, with the Rainbow Science Curriculum first published 1998
Website	beginningspublishing.com (redirects to eternityscience.com)

Our scoreboard (1-5)

Criterion	Score	One-line reason
Academic rigor	4	Substantive content for middle school; lab work is genuine, not demonstration-only
Ease of teaching	3	Lab days require setup; readings are independent for a competent middle-schooler
Content quality	4	Carefully written by a working scientist; coherent across two years
Flexibility	2	Designed as a two-year sequence; pulling individual units underdelivers
Value for money	3	High upfront cost ($430+ for both years' kits); strong if used by multiple students
Worldview scope	3	Christian framing is consistent; evolution is presented as a theory the author rejects; non-Christian families adapt
Visual/design	3	Clean, traditional textbook design; not visually showy
Support resources	3	Teacher's Helper guide is thorough; thin online community

Who the publisher is

Beginnings Publishing House is a small Virginia-based science publisher built around the work of Durell C. Dobbins, the author of Rainbow Science. Dobbins is a working scientist; the curriculum reads as having been written by someone who has done lab work rather than someone synthesizing a textbook from secondary sources. The original Rainbow Science Curriculum was first published in 1998, and the program has been continuously published, revised, and supported since.

The company appears to operate under a parallel brand (Eternity Science) for newer materials; the Rainbow Science line itself remains the publisher's flagship middle-school product. Beginnings Publishing has not pursued the wide-distribution conventions presence of larger Christian science publishers (Apologia, BJU Press) and has remained a smaller, focused operation. The product is sold direct from the publisher and through Christian homeschool retailers.

The Christian framing is present but unusually restrained for a middle-school Christian science program. Per Cathy Duffy's review and the author's own statement of perspective, Rainbow Science presents evolutionary theory as a theory and states the author does not accept it, but does not commit to a young-earth or an old-earth position. This is a real distinction in the Christian science publishing market: Apologia and BJU Press are explicitly young-earth; Novare Science is explicitly old-earth. Rainbow Science occupies a middle position by declining to take a stance on the age of the Earth and engaging with the evidence rather than declaring a conclusion. Families looking for explicit young-earth science instruction should weigh that.

The core pedagogy

Rainbow Science is structured as a two-year course running three days per week for thirty-two weeks per year. Year 1 covers physics and chemistry, with the publisher framing it as one high-school physical-science credit; Year 2 covers biology and applied science (human anatomy, physiology, and applied life-science topics), with the publisher framing it as one biology credit. Each week includes two reading-and-discussion days and one lab day. The textbook reads at a competent middle-school level, accessible to a strong seventh-grader, comfortable for an eighth-grader.

Pedagogically, the program leans on the lab work to do the conceptual lifting. Where many middle-school science programs treat lab as a demonstration of a concept already taught in the text, Rainbow Science uses lab as the primary site of student inquiry: the student observes a phenomenon, records what happened, and then the text helps them generalize. The lab kit is consequential. Year 1's complete kit runs about $271 and includes safety glasses, a marble roller assembly, resistors, magnets, light bulbs, glass tubing, syringes, PVC tubing, dyes, and the chemistry-and-physics consumables needed for the full year. Year 2's biology kit ($162) provides microscope supplies, anatomy materials, and the lab-work equipment for the second year. A family that wants to do middle-school science with real lab work, but does not want to source equipment piecemeal, is buying that solved problem here.

Signature mechanics: (1) Two-year integrated sequence, physics and chemistry in Year 1 lay the foundation for biology in Year 2; the program is designed to be done in order and underdelivers when split. (2) Lab kit included, every consumable and most reusable equipment for both years comes with the kit; no shopping lists, no ordering off-cycle. (3) Three-day weekly cadence, two reading days and one lab day produces a predictable rhythm. (4) Christian framing without explicit creationist commitment, the text presents evolution as a theory rejected by the author but does not advance a specific creation chronology, leaving that question open.

A day in the life

A seventh-grader using Rainbow Science Year 1 typically spends 45-60 minutes per science day, three days a week. On a reading day, the student reads the assigned textbook section (15-25 pages, typically), works the end-of-section comprehension questions in the lab workbook, and discusses any unclear points with the parent in a brief check-in. On a lab day, the parent or student gathers the day's lab supplies from the kit (already in the family's possession), the student conducts the experiment with the parent present for safety, and records observations and results in the lab workbook. Lab days run 60-90 minutes including setup and cleanup.

The parent's role is closer to safety supervisor and discussion partner than presenter. A competent middle-school student can read the text and complete most lab work largely independently. Where the parent's expertise comes in is at the discussion-and-correction stage: reading the student's lab-book entries, asking probing questions about observations, and connecting back to the text. A parent who once took high-school chemistry will be sufficient.

What they do exceptionally well

Genuine lab work without sourcing burden. The most common failure mode of homeschool middle-school science is the parent who intends to do labs and discovers that ordering thirty-five separate items from three suppliers takes more time than the lab itself. Rainbow Science solves this by shipping the entire two years of lab supplies in two kits. A family that follows the program does real chemistry, real physics, and real biology lab work, which middle-schoolers retain in a way they do not retain textbook narration.

Coherent two-year arc. Physics and chemistry in Year 1 set up the biology in Year 2 in a way most general-science programs do not. A student who has studied basic mechanics, energy transfer, and chemical bonding before entering biology has a meaningfully better foundation for understanding cellular respiration, neural signaling, and digestion. The integration is the program's intellectual signature.

Restraint on doctrinal commitments. For a Christian-authored middle-school science program, Rainbow Science is unusually disciplined about staying close to the science. Evolutionary theory is engaged rather than dismissed; the age-of-the-Earth question is left open; the Christian framing is present in the choice of voice and the occasional reflection but does not crowd out the chemistry of acid-base reactions or the physics of inclined planes. Families who want their middle-schooler to learn how science is done, in a Christian-authored text, will find this calibration valuable.

What they do poorly

Upfront cost is real. Year 1 complete at $271 and Year 2 complete at $162 means a family is in for $430+ across two years before consumables. For one student, this is at the high end of homeschool middle-school science pricing. The cost-per-student declines meaningfully if a family runs multiple children through the program in sequence (the kits are largely reusable; only consumables need replenishing), but a family with one child is paying a premium.

Two-year commitment is not optional. A family that wants Rainbow Science for the chemistry but plans to use Apologia for biology is in an awkward position: the two-year integration is the program's design, and Year 1 alone delivers physics-and-chemistry without the biology payoff the integrated arc was building toward. Mixing publishers across the two years works mechanically but leaves Rainbow Science's design value on the table.

Visual presentation is dated. The textbook design reads as competent rather than current. Diagrams are hand-drawn and clear; photography is sparse; layout is straightforward. A family choosing science programs partly for visual appeal will find Apologia, BJU Press's recent revisions, and Novare more visually engaging. Rainbow Science's bet is on the lab work and the integrated arc, not the page design.

Who it fits / who it doesn't

• Pick Rainbow Science if: you want a complete middle-school physical-and-life-science program with the lab kit included; you have multiple children who can run through the program in sequence (amortizing the kit cost); you want a Christian-authored text that engages rather than dismisses evolutionary theory; your child is a competent reader who can work largely independently; you have one science day a week with 60-90 minutes available for lab work.

• Skip Rainbow Science if: you have only one child and the upfront cost is binding; you want explicit young-earth science (Apologia, BJU Press, Master Books serve that better); you want explicit old-earth Christian science (Novare); you want secular middle-school science (Real Science-4-Kids, Building Foundations of Scientific Understanding); you cannot commit to the two-year arc.

Cost honest assessment

Year 1 complete set runs approximately $271, Year 2 complete set runs approximately $162 as of April 2026 per the publisher's pricing. The textbook alone is $85; the Teacher's Helper guide is $20; the lab workbook is $23; lab materials begin at $40 for partial sets. Total two-year program cost for one student is roughly $430-475.

Compared to other middle-school Christian science options: Apologia General Science / Physical Science runs roughly $80-130 per textbook with lab kits sold separately at $80-200 (less integrated, two single-year courses, explicitly young-earth); Real Science-4-Kids runs $50-100 per textbook (broader topic spread, lighter labs, secular-leaning Christian framing); Novare Science General Science runs $50-80 per textbook with separate lab kits (Christian old-earth, very strong on methodology, more mature reading level). Rainbow Science is at the upper end of pricing for what it delivers, justified primarily by the integrated lab kit.

A realistic family running one student through both years pays approximately $450 in materials plus consumables. A family running three children through the program in sequence over six years pays approximately $500-600 total, at which point Rainbow Science is among the lowest per-student costs in the middle-school Christian science market.

ESA eligibility notes

Rainbow Science is eligible on most state ESA marketplaces that permit Christian science materials, including Arizona's ClassWallet, Florida's MyScholarShop, West Virginia's Hope Scholarship, and Iowa's Student First Scholarship. The lab kit is a physical product, which simplifies reimbursement in states that prefer physical materials over digital. Some states restrict reimbursement for materials with explicit religious content; Rainbow Science's restraint on doctrinal commitments may make it less likely to trigger review than more explicitly creationist programs, but families should verify in their specific marketplace.

Alternatives

• Apologia General Science, a family would pick Apologia over Rainbow Science because Apologia is the most widely used Christian middle-school science line, offers explicit young-earth framing, and has a deeper online support community.
• Novare Science General Science, a family would pick Novare over Rainbow Science because Novare is explicit old-earth Christian science with a stronger emphasis on the methodology of scientific inquiry and a more mature reading level.
• Real Science-4-Kids, a family would pick Real Science-4-Kids over Rainbow Science because RS4K offers single-year, modular books (chemistry, physics, biology, astronomy as separate texts) usable in any order, lighter labs, and lower upfront cost.

How we verified this

Our editorial team reviewed Beginnings Publishing's product pages and the Eternity Science storefront to which the publisher's site now redirects, the publisher-stated pricing for both Year 1 and Year 2 complete sets, sample chapter materials posted publicly, and the author's positioning statement on evolution and the age of the Earth. We cross-referenced against Cathy Duffy's published review of Rainbow Science, customer pricing on Rainbow Resource and Christianbook.com, and Amazon listings of the original 1998 textbook and subsequent revisions. Prices and program details verified April 2026.