I have been looking at Apologia science...

[Lovedtodeath]

tell me the good, bad, and ugly. I thought I had science figured out... but this looks good without a bunch of books, and like something DD might enjoy reading.

 

Don't tell me it isn't real science because they don't teach evolution. I am not interested in those type of thoughts. We do generally believe in an old earth, directly created by God and a young human race. You might let me know if it would be okay with those beliefs, or if I might want to supplement in addition to the young earth teachings of Apologia, which are fine, as I am interested in those.

 

And you know, I can't stand not having an active thread on here. :tongue_smilie::lol:

 

Thanks!

Edited March 14, 2010 by Lovedtodeath

[Guest]

:lol: - We were both on Phonics the other day and now we're both on Science. I can't wait until I can just order everything and then that's that! Oh, and I'm more than happy to revisit Apologia . . . :bigear:

[Brindee]

My dd did the Astronomy book, and really enjoyed it. We are ye creationists, so I didn't have problems with the way it was presented. It does need LOTS of supplementing if you want it to last a year though. If I would've known, I would've done 2 of the elementary books in one year....

[Lovedtodeath]

I have no problems taking 2 and 3 years to finish a one year curriculum, so I doubt we will have trouble with that. :tongue_smilie:

[TCB]

I can't speak from a lot of experience but we have been using the Astonomy book this year and we really like it and have been impressed with how much we've learned - me and the kids. :)

 

We plan to use the Flying Creatures book next year. It is taught from a Young Earth stance but only mentioned a few times and not in a way that makes you feel other views are ridiculous or anything like that.

[Chris in VA]

I tried so hard to like Apologia Zoo 3--I used it for about 2 weeks for my then-second-grade dd. She loves science, but it was too much for us. The experiment was a loser, too--something like crumpling 24 pieces of construction paper into a basket and then putting M&M's in it, then timing to try to find them--it was about camouflage. It was little expensive for an experiment that could have been done another way--tho, in general, we like any experiments involving M&M's! :lol:

 

Anyway, the text was easy to follow, but it just wasn't for us. We've used the hs texts, tho and liked them for the most part.

[....]

We've done Apologia's Flying Creatures of the Fifth Day and Swimming Creatures of the Fifth Day. It looks like a textbook, but doesn't read like one. I have a Bachelor of Science in biology and have been VERY impressed with the info in the two books. My kids are animal-obsessed, though...

 

OK, so there's religious references in it. I don't care and we usually don't add religious discussions into our science (I went to ps and am not used to religious references showing up in my science textbooks)- maybe a little sometimes. I usually just get to the nitty-gritty zoology in the book. As a graduate with a science degree, I do let my kids know about EVERYBODY's theories - because I know everybody's theories are going to show up again later in college classes.

 

There are a ton of pics and they are very cool. My kids spend a lot of time looking at the pictures.

 

I think the text is written at a lower middle school level, so they're not going to remember everything at age 7, but it's good exposure.

 

We do the Try Its! and the Notebooking. My kids like this a lot.

 

If your kids are very science-y, you can tailor the religious parts to your beliefs and you like the Charlotte Mason approach for science, you'll probably be fine with it. The book is about $25 and it takes several months to get through one book.

 

BTW - we went to a herpetology convention and my son blew us away with how much he knew... he actually corrected me once and the vendor confirmed it. :001_huh:

[HollyDay]

I've got Astronomy, Swimming Creatures, Botany, Flying Creatures, and Land Animals.

 

My oldest found them to be VERY boring. She did pretty well with Astronomy because dh has a telescope and is very knowledgeable about astronomy. He really made it come to life. But, it was a LOT of extras that made it so much fun: solar system models, star gazing nights, extra dvds, etc.

 

She did not tolerate the others at all. She loved BJU with the different topics every chapter.

 

Now, youngest liked Flying Creatures - to a point. She loved the birds. She started a journal and is becoming an avid bird watcher. The bats and bugs were not a hit at all with her. By the way, I seem to recall the text states that bats do not carry rabies.

 

Botany was probably the most boring text I have attempted to use in quite a while. We did not like that one. I would think if you supplemented with an herb garden or seeds in a cup or something, it would help.

 

Swimming Creatures was really neat. But, we were combining it with a trip to the GA Aquarium. That helped a bunch.

 

We just got Land ANimals last week. I had planned on using it next year. But, dd has started reading it already and likes it!!

 

We could do 2 books a year easily. But, the sky's the limit if you want to expand with supplemental materials. Overall, I was not terribly impressed with Apologia Elementary. That is probably just my style or my dc's style of learning however.

[....]

:iagree: I think there is a VERY specific learning style that likes the Apologia series. My friend took one look at it and I could see the fear in her eyes. :lol:

[johnandtinagilbert]

We've done them all.

 

Pros:

Super easy to read aloud. It flows nicely and you can tell it was created to be read aloud. We all enjoy that part.

 

Gentle CM style notebooking. Very easy to use. I saw my friends Astronomy NB, the ones recently added, and found them a nice compliment, although not using the WB was always fine for us.

 

I appreciate the connections made to God and Creation. We learned some new things there and it was cool for my kids to hear about God, with science, in a gentle way. Skipping the Creation Confirmation would be very easy for someone who wanted to.

 

Great yahoo group with many, many free printables. We ended up with a very solid notebook by using our own stuff and the freebies.

 

Solid scientifically. Full of interesting to read, well presented science.

 

If you only use this for one full year, you'll have a very light science schedule.

 

I continue to be amazed at what my children learned! A LOT!

 

There are middle school complimenting schedules for some of the books at the yahoo group. That was pretty cool for me this year...no lesson planning needed to beef it up for my dd.

 

Cons:

We found dragging the entire book out for one whole school year was toooooo boring for us. We have found our zone in 16 weeks. This allows us to complete Noeo, RS4K, or something else to compliment in the classical science areas of Chemistry and Physics. That actually turns into a pro for our family :)

 

If you spend the entire year, you will surely have to supplement with living books OR really focus on nature study...which is not a bad thing, if you're not me and very bad at nature studies :)

 

Of them all, I admit that we preferred the animal studies. I'm not sure if that's a topical preference, but I *think* it is. Don't get me wrong, the anatomy and botany were good works, we just didn't want to spend so long on those areas of study.

 

Other thoughts:

We're actually, probably, not using Apologia for high school. Too text book for my gang.

 

I saved the crumbled up papers from the camo experiment. There is no kinda way I'd throw that out!

 

I can't wait to use the anatomy!

[2cents]

We did Flying Creatures, Swimming Creatures and Botany. They were interesting but we found adding a lot of other resources was needed to get what I considered a more complete/rounded science. They are a quick read and it is easy to do at least 2 in a year. I'd consider them a good jumping off place. The kids opted to switch to the higher Apologia Science this year (General Science) and they are enjoying that text. Some of the experiments are too simplistic but that is ok. We will still supplement but I don't feel as compelled to do as much as I did with the Fulbright texts.HTH!

[ChicoryChick]

My girls love the Apologia Science books. We usually cover 1 book in semester (2/year)

[TXMary2]

I love the Apologia elementary series. We love science at our house so we did one book a semester with the exception of Zoo 3 which took a whole school year. I supplemented with DVD's from Netflix...they have great Discovery Channel, Science Channel and others that tie in nicely with the topics covered in the books. The DVD's will definitely not present young earth.

[Birkenkathy]

I love these books. We have done Botany, Astronomy and are finishing up Marine Biology this year. My kids all say that science is their favorite subject. You could do it in a semester, or take a year or more depending on how you pace it. Her experiments and activites are wonderful, and I consider myself awful at such things. But most are very easy to do. We do skip some, but you can. She even has her own personal website with notebooking pages you can just print off and have the kids fill in.

[Lovedtodeath]

Thank you for all of the experiences! I think I will print some samples off.

 

I was just thinking of reading this and not doing the experiments. Then everyone is saying the experiments are great. :001_huh:

[christielee7278]

We just finished Astronomy and didn't do many of the experiements. We learned a lot just by reading the book and supplementing a little with YouTube videos, the book extras on the website, notebooking pages, and a couple library books.

 

We're going to start Botany in a week or so. We'll probably do more of the experiments. It's almost spring here so we're taking advantage. I did purchase the notebook journal for Botany, mostly to see what all the fuss was about. I think it's ok. Nothing incredibly awesome or must have, imo, though.

[bluemongoose]

We are doing Astronomy right now. I purchased the lapbook CDs at Rainbow Resource with it so I could print of a lapbook for each of my kids. They love it!

[Maureen]

We have done all the Apologia books except for Zoology 3: Land Animals, which we will start in about a month. I think your kids are probably a little young for them. We do 2 a year. I'd save them for the upper elementary years and just let your kids explore outside and get books from the library about things they're interested in.

I did like Abeka science for 1-3 grades if you feel you need more of a curriculum.

[Teachin'Mine]

I just wish I had known about the Apologia books years ago. My daughter would have loved the books about animals and astronomy! Instead, she went into this year thinking she hated science. She no longer hates it, and although it's not her favorite subject, she likes it. We're doing Physical Science this year. Would definitely recommend them for the elementary years. You can easily supplement with library books and even videos.

 

The book reads easily and the experiments have been fun. It's nice that they use mostly household items - we've only bought a few things we didn't have. We'll be using this series for high school as well. I'm so glad another hsing mom told me about these books! :)

[Lovedtodeath]

We have done all the Apologia books except for Zoology 3: Land Animals, which we will start in about a month. I think your kids are probably a little young for them. We do 2 a year. I'd save them for the upper elementary years and just let your kids explore outside and get books from the library about things they're interested in.

I did like Abeka science for 1-3 grades if you feel you need more of a curriculum.

Thank you. I am realizing that my main goal of Apologia was reading. She reads at an advanced level but is not motivated by much and seems to prefer non-fiction. Everyone was talking about the experiments and I am intrigued, especially for swimming creatures and astronomy.

[LaissezFaire]

I love the Astronomy book, enjoyed the Swimming creatures book and did NOT enjoy the flying creatures one. I think for me that stemmed from SO much detail about birds and insects and I really do not like either one. I think my dislike had more to do with my own interests vs actual book quality. They were VERY detailed though, more than I think anyone needs to learn unless they are really interested in the subject.

[JESSICAinMD]

We are doing astronomy now. I like that it doesn't dumb down science. I thought it might be over their heads but they both enjoy it. I don't like how it is spread apart. I want to cover physical science and chemistry in elementry too but the majority of the books are biology.