Stick with Apologia Young Explorers or switch to Elemental Science?

[mom32boys]

This may seem silly, but...

 

This is our 2nd year homeschooling - my boys are 2nd grade, 4th grade, and 5th grade. Last year we used MFW ECC - nice curriculum, but not a good fit for us. I am much happier picking my own curriculum for each subject :).

 

My kids had very little science in public school; last year science was mostly ecosystems. My plan this year was to do Biology: Apologia Zoology 3 for the 1st half of the year and Apologia Anatomy for the 2nd half - basically 1 lesson per week. I've been reading the lesson aloud to all 3 boys 1 or 2 days per week and then doing the experiment. One another day each week we've been doing the notebooking/ map work/ activities. I think I'm doing it wrong - reading the lesson to them and having them take notes seems so, well, boring! The experiments also seem really simple (to be fair, I guess there's not a lot you can do hands on with zoology).

 

Maybe I'm just doing it wrong... How do other people do this? Do you have them each read separately (and maybe take notes or just come tell you when it says "go tell an adult what you just read") and then just "meet together" 2x per week to review and do the experiment and activities?

Should I just slow down and/ or read the book to them more frequently?

 

Then I wonder... maybe Apologia's style is just not my thing. I like the way TWM suggests doing science - an experiment and going through the scientific method, then doing further research and narration on the same topic. I've looked at the samples on Elemental science's website and it looks like it has more experiments and more guidance with written activities/ notetaking - plus Biology encompasses plants, animals, and humans versus an in depth year on one of those topics like Apologia does. I've been considering ordering it instead of Apologia. But... if I do that, maybe I should skip Biology (since it's mostly for 1st and 2nd grade) and try Earth Science or Chemistry and go back to Biology later once they have their logic stage science finished.

 

Any advice or suggestions would be greatly appreciated.

 

Thanks,

Julie :)

[Pata]

Julie,

 

What do your kids think about science? If their enjoying it I would stick with Apologia. Sometimes what we think is boring, our kids love. I'm not familiar enough with Apologia to give any advice on the day to day routine of getting it done.

 

As for using Elemental Science, if you decide to go that route, with your age range, I'd probably start with Chem or Physics and just let the 2nd grader tag along.

[mom32boys]

Thanks Paige,

I like reading out loud, but I feel like I'm losing them while I'm reading. They do try to listen :). They think it's OK, but aren't loving Apologia (not that they have to love every subject). Thanks for the recommendation on where to start with Elemental Science.

 

Julie