Apologia Young Explorers - 2/year possible?

[jejily]

DS10 will be in 5th grade in the fall. This will be our first full year of homeschooling.

 

I've read so many fabulous reviews of the Apologia science curriculum ... I'd love to use it. But, we only have 2 years of elementary-level science left before he begins the General Science class (for middle schoolers).

 

So... with five Apologia Young Explorer books to choose from (at present), and only two years left... is it possible or completely unrealistic to try to get through two Apologia young explorers' books per year (which would allow us to get through four books before middle school)?

 

If we can only do two (as in, one/year), which two would you recommend?

 

Lastly, do you have to do the zoology books in order? That is, are concepts introduced in Zoo 1 that are expanded upon in Zoo 2 and Zoo 3? Or does each one stand alone?

 

TIA for your feedback!

[Paula in MS]

First, I have read that you can interchange Zoo 1 and Zoo 2, but they recommend that you print out the first ch. of Zoo 1 from their website (sample chapter) and cover animal classification. They list Zoo 1 as a prerequisite for Zoo 3 but I'm not sure how that would help that much.

 

You can definitely do 2 books per year for a 5th grader. It is certainly a lot of reading and I find that it is very manageable to do a little every day. You could probably do 1 chapter a week this way. If you do science 2x per week, there will be a lot of reading on those days.

 

You can choose which book by their interest or by what they have lacked in science. I don't really think it matters at this point. Botany is probably something that is lacking from most other science curriculums.

 

I hope this helped

 

Paula

[fivetails]

We're working through the astronomy one this year and dd11 loves it :)

 

I *do* think it would be possible to cover two of them if you have it scheduled more frequently - we didn't, she'd just come out of ps and we took things pretty slow & easy at the start of the year - and whether your child is enjoying it and 'taking in' the material....

 

A lot of people have been asking about the newest Zoology, the Land Animals one, and whether you *need* Z1 and Z2 before you do 3, and the general consensus (including the opinion of the author herself, I believe) is that yes, Land Animals can be done without the other 2, but that there's some stuff you might want to cover beforehand - I think it's mainly the classification concepts and such - because it's not 'taught' in the third (or likely the second) ....We have the Z1 (Flying Creatures) here for next year and it's in the beginning of that book.

 

Oh - and actually, we'll be using Z1 (unless dd11 changes her mind and wants the Z2 or Z3) next year for grade 7...There's no 'rule' that says they're automatically too old for them when they hit grade 7. Totally depends on the child. ;)

[FloridaLisa]

... is it possible or completely unrealistic to try to get through two Apologia young explorers' books per year (which would allow us to get through four books before middle school)?

 

Yes, absolutely. We usually do about one per semester.

 

If we can only do two (as in, one/year), which two would you recommend?

 

Well, so far we've done Zoo 1, 2, Botany and Astronomy. I liked Zoo 1, 2 and Botany equally. I'm enjoying Astronomy, but am not as wowed by the Try This! activities and experiments. I added in a planet walk to jazz up our study. http://www.noao.edu/education/peppercorn/pcmain.html The Astronomy book also seems to be written to a younger child -- maybe because it was the author's first book published and her children were younger! I've been wondering whether the 2nd edition will have a bit more *mature* writing.

 

That said, I'd start with the book that either your dc wants to read or you want to teach! When you tire of biology, throw in some astronomy!

 

HTH!

Lisa

[Christine]

So... with five Apologia Young Explorer books to choose from (at present), and only two years left... is it possible or completely unrealistic to try to get through two Apologia young explorers' books per year (which would allow us to get through four books before middle school)?

 

It is completely possible to do two books in a year, and still feel quite relaxed about it (especially at your son's age). I did so with my child.

 

I have schedules on my blog and they are ~18 weeks. . .Hmm, actually just realized I don't have all my schedules up (just astronomy and botony), need to correct that sometime. . .(but it's mother's day and I don't see it happening today).