Bula Mama Posted September 25, 2011 Share Posted September 25, 2011 I've looked at this online and it looks great. It's a pretty big, heavy book, though, and since we live overseas and would have to carry this back and forth a bit, I need to know just how good this is/isn't! :001_smile: For those of you who have used it: is it worth hauling around or should I go with something lighter to carry? Thanks! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bula Mama Posted September 26, 2011 Author Share Posted September 26, 2011 Anyone? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
acurtis75 Posted September 26, 2011 Share Posted September 26, 2011 I bought it and really like it but decided my daughter wasn't ready for it so I didn't spend much time reviewing it yet. My initial impression was that it is very content rich and would stimulate a lot of discussion. I think with the age of your children it's probably a good fit. I went with Kay Arthur inductive Bible Studies for kids instead and will probably go back to the Apologia book in a few years. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bula Mama Posted September 26, 2011 Author Share Posted September 26, 2011 I bought it and really like it but decided my daughter wasn't ready for it so I didn't spend much time reviewing it yet. My initial impression was that it is very content rich and would stimulate a lot of discussion. I think with the age of your children it's probably a good fit. I went with Kay Arthur inductive Bible Studies for kids instead and will probably go back to the Apologia book in a few years. Thanks!!! I'm mainly thinking for my almost 9 year-old. Too much for him? What age is your dd? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
wy_kid_wrangler04 Posted September 26, 2011 Share Posted September 26, 2011 Thanks!!! I'm mainly thinking for my almost 9 year-old. Too much for him? What age is your dd? I used it last year with both of my dd's. They were 9 and 12. It is AMAZING! I would personally highly recommend it! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bula Mama Posted September 26, 2011 Author Share Posted September 26, 2011 I used it last year with both of my dd's. They were 9 and 12. It is AMAZING! I would personally highly recommend it! Thank you!!! I'm looking for 'amazing' so sounds good. :001_smile: Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mom31257 Posted September 26, 2011 Share Posted September 26, 2011 I started it last year with my kids. We didn't enjoy it, so we didn't finish it. I thought it was far below my 8th grade dd's level. I felt that the stories, as examples, were forced and obviously so. I felt that it was basic Christianity 101 so to speak, but maybe our family had covered the material already on our own. We only did the first 3 chapters, and I sold it. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
petepie2 Posted September 26, 2011 Share Posted September 26, 2011 I read through it last year with my 6 yr old. We really enjoyed it, but I think she would have gotten more out of it if she were a bit older. We're on the second book in the series now. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
threeofakind Posted September 26, 2011 Share Posted September 26, 2011 We use it as family bible study- ages 16, 8 and 6 and we all enjoy it. Even my 16 year old enjoys it and we get pretty good discussion out of the sections! :001_smile: Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
acurtis75 Posted September 26, 2011 Share Posted September 26, 2011 My daughter is 6. I think 9 is probably a good age. It wasn't really that it was to difficult to understand or that she couldn't do it but with everything else we are doing I felt it took a little more of my time that we could devote to it this year. I chose the Kay Arthur books because she could go through them on her own and then we could just review it together. The Apologia book seemed to lend itself more to reading & discussing the material together. I didn't go through the whole book but for what it's worth I liked the examples I read. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bula Mama Posted September 26, 2011 Author Share Posted September 26, 2011 Thanks so much, ladies!!! Gives me some good food for thought. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
zenjenn Posted September 26, 2011 Share Posted September 26, 2011 Several science/engineering people I know who homeschool (I live in a strange city where engineers make up like 1/10th of the adult population), say the science in Apologia is just plain bad science. Some use it anyways because it is what is being used in their co-ops, but have told me they wouldn't use it otherwise. They use it as an opportunity to teach their kids to use critical thinking skills to identify fallacies and such. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hedgehogs4 Posted September 26, 2011 Share Posted September 26, 2011 We did it and with a 5- and 9-yo. It was perfect for the 9-yo and led to some very good conversations. I grew tired of the wordy style of it over time, but it was very effective at delivering the material it aimed to deliver. I will tell you what we really enjoyed, and that was the Truth Project's Adventures in Odyssey series. I learned stuff from that!! It was great. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
C&R Posted September 27, 2011 Share Posted September 27, 2011 Several science/engineering people I know who homeschool (I live in a strange city where engineers make up like 1/10th of the adult population), say the science in Apologia is just plain bad science. This is off the Bible Apologia topic, but I haven't found Apologia elementary to be bad science at all. In fact, it is quite good. This is coming from one who did science, rather than engineering, before kids. Just thought I would add a little FYI. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
acurtis75 Posted September 27, 2011 Share Posted September 27, 2011 I also don't find anything wrong with the Science in the Apologia elementary books (the only one's I have experience with so far). I wonder if those who think it's bad science are referring to the science or the worldview that is clearly evident in the material. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Wyndie Posted September 27, 2011 Share Posted September 27, 2011 My dd10 is using it in co-op right now and we both love it. They do have an audio version of the book which I purchased (but have not listened to since we enjoy reading it together). We don't find it too weighty as it's broken up by her teacher and she reads it in little bitty chunks. :) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bula Mama Posted September 27, 2011 Author Share Posted September 27, 2011 We did it and with a 5- and 9-yo. It was perfect for the 9-yo and led to some very good conversations. I grew tired of the wordy style of it over time, but it was very effective at delivering the material it aimed to deliver. I will tell you what we really enjoyed, and that was the Truth Project's Adventures in Odyssey series. I learned stuff from that!! It was great. Are you talking about the audio stories Adventures in Odyssey or something else? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Geo Posted September 27, 2011 Share Posted September 27, 2011 I started it last year with my kids. We didn't enjoy it, so we didn't finish it. I thought it was far below my 8th grade dd's level. I felt that the stories, as examples, were forced and obviously so. I felt that it was basic Christianity 101 so to speak, but maybe our family had covered the material already on our own. We only did the first 3 chapters, and I sold it. :iagree:....somewhat. It is basic Christinity 101, definitely. I'd say 9yo is a good age to consider using it. However, if you've been conscientious at all about theology with your children...you've probably already covered the contents. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bula Mama Posted September 27, 2011 Author Share Posted September 27, 2011 (edited) I really appreciate all the feedback! I am so thankful for this forum so I can have a relatively good idea of what I'm getting before I get it because I usually have to stick with it regardless because of postage, etc. I didn't want to make my first post too overwhelming to read but the reason this is so important to me is that I haven't been homeschooling for the last 2 years since we came here. Our work in India is with women so I need to be involved, too. For a number of reasons, however, over the next couple of years we will have to spend chunks of time in New Zealand (dh's home country) and I will get to homeschool my youngest again through the changes. I am so excited! Dh and I are just noticing that since our youngest hasn't had as much homeschooling as the older kids, that even though we do daily family devos that he doesn't have the same foundation in the faith for his age that the others did. I see these next 2 years as my window to change that and am trying to plan it very intentionally. So far for the first year I plan to have him do some daily Bible reading on his own as well as scripture memory. We'll be using Victory Journey Through the Bible to go along with our study of ancient history. We'll use Apologia Elementary Science (I've used it before). He's very bright and, for example, before we stopped homeschooling when he was six he wasn't overly impressed with Leading Little Ones to God because he kept informing me that he already 'knew all that stuff'. I guess I'm looking for something that he will like that will yet again reinforce the basics with him and challenge him to think a bit while being interactive with me about it. While the story part is a bit silly to me in the chapter I can see online of this book I do like the content of the rest of the chapter but it's hard to say that it's exactly what I want without seeing the rest of the book. I'm open to other suggestions as well! I do like the looks of the Herein is Love children's commentaries but people seem to say their heavily Reformed and that's not the only slant I want to present to my ds. Thanks!!! Edited September 27, 2011 by Bula Mama Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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