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Apologia Science for 1st and 3rd Grader


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I posted a version of this message to the K-8 board, but then realized it might be more appropriate here, since I got a lot of responses about it being too advanced, and I'm not sure it completely applies to my 5.5 year-old first grader who has been reading/writing since she was 3.

 

I did Apologia Astronomy this past semester with my second grader and we loved it. Science is her favorite subject so she was just eating it up. I had planned to follow TWTM order and go with chemistry next, but thanks to the forum, I just learned that Apologia will be releasing Chemistry/Physics in 2011, so I've decided to hold off until then.

 

My kindergartener tuned in and out of our astronomy sessions, so I know it can at least partially hold her interest, and hopefully moreso in a few months when we start a "soft" first grade.

 

...So I'm wondering which of the other Young Explorers books would be best to start with for both of them, and how many we could realistically cover in a year. I refuse to do two sciences, histories, etc. so I'm determined to learn how to consolidate them, just as so many of you have modeled for me!

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I do not think it is too advanced either. We did Zoology 3 this last school year with my ds for 1st grade. He will be 7 on Monday. He loved it. My dh just started Zoo1 with ds(almlost 7) and dd (4.5) They both sat and listened fine.

 

That's encouraging. I talked with my girls and I think we're going to try

Botany for the first semester and Zoology 3 (land animals) for the 2nd semester. I would love to get the whole set and peruse them before choosing, but I just can't afford to do that all at once. But that gives me an idea to check in with my homeschool group, in case any of them have the books. Not many of us, though, so not likely.

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I started the series with mine at age 3. I like to take them two books per year (one per semester), and it's best to do them in creation order the way they're written (astronomy, botany, zoo 1-3, anatomy). That way you're able to do all 6 books twice before middle/high school. The first time through is an overview. You certainly wouldn't expect a kindergartener to learn on the same level as a 6th grader! Expect a K'er to learn the major points of each lesson and help you and/or a sibling with the projects given (you don't even have to do all of them). The next time through, you'll get the "hey! I remember that!" response, it'll spawn questions, and you'll be able to dig deep without overwhelming. You'll basically be doing about one lesson per week unless it's a longer one and you decide to take 2 weeks to cover it.

 

I love the series, but then I'm a science person myself. Still... I think it's age appropriate for any elementary kid whether they're accelerated or not. Perhaps the first time through, you'd read the text yourself, take notes, and then paraphrase your teaching to the child. The second time through, you could read the entire thing together or have the child read it alone.

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I started the series with mine at age 3. I like to take them two books per year (one per semester), and it's best to do them in creation order the way they're written (astronomy, botany, zoo 1-3, anatomy). That way you're able to do all 6 books twice before middle/high school. The first time through is an overview. You certainly wouldn't expect a kindergartener to learn on the same level as a 6th grader! Expect a K'er to learn the major points of each lesson and help you and/or a sibling with the projects given (you don't even have to do all of them). The next time through, you'll get the "hey! I remember that!" response, it'll spawn questions, and you'll be able to dig deep without overwhelming. You'll basically be doing about one lesson per week unless it's a longer one and you decide to take 2 weeks to cover it.

 

I love the series, but then I'm a science person myself. Still... I think it's age appropriate for any elementary kid whether they're accelerated or not. Perhaps the first time through, you'd read the text yourself, take notes, and then paraphrase your teaching to the child. The second time through, you could read the entire thing together or have the child read it alone.

 

I'm not a science person (or wasn't before homeschooling), but we loved Apologia astronomy, which I did with my then 7 yr-old daughter (and aspiring science teacher) just this past semester. I didn't read it through first - we just read it together. She definitely retained more than me though :D

 

I think we're going to go in that order, since we've already started that way, and my younger daughter seems the most interested in doing botany next. I'm hoping to pack it into one semester like we did for astronomy, and then we'll do flying creatures in the spring. My 3rd grader won't get through them all twice, but at least once by the end of her 6th grade year.

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I don't think it will be too advanced either. We did Zoology 3 in first grade and Zoology 1 in second grade. We didn't have any problems whatsoever. We plan to do Zoology 2 and maybe astronomy this year. My daughter loves the books. She is such a science kid that we do an Apologia book and another type of science each year.

 

Suzanne

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Botany was "too advanced" for my 5 yo ds. (will be 6 in Sept.) He did listen in as I read to the older boys and I'm surprised at the things he remembers. But the Notebook would have been too much for him last year in K.

 

I bought Zoology 1-3. I won't be expecting him to do all of the notebooks in detail but I'm sure that he'll be able to glean a lot more from the Zoo books then he did from the Botany book (just a lot more technical jargon then the zoo books). I like the creation order just because it makes things a little more simplistic for us.

 

We plan to do two chapters a week rather then one; having looked at the materials we opted for a quicker pace. But we'll see as we go. I've learned with my little light bulbs to assume they will do twice what I think they should (thus 3.5 books instead of 2). Last year was very frustrating (for them) finishing our science in November. :lol:

 

At the end of the school year and into the summer we'll do Anatomy. I was going to have my 3rd grader do a separate science- Chemistry and was going back and forth until I realized that Apologia was coming out with a Chem. book next year. So he'll be doing Science with his older and younger brother...should make things really interesting this year.

 

Now I just have to decide if I want him doing Ancients with them as well. Hummm

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Last year I did Astronomy with my 2nd grader who loves science. My 3 years old son who was playing around was consuming a lot of information. He answered questions much quicker than his sister, 95% of which were correct. I think if you have a gifted 5 years old, try it. She might not get all concepts so what. You can repeat again later if you want. We are going to do Zoology II this year and my son is going to participate by listening and doing lapbook projects with his sister. We are planning to make a lapbook on Animal Classification and study "Coral reef" topic this summer with several lapbooks to go.

Edited by SneguochkaL
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