Apologia questions

[lgliser]

Tonight I briefly visited with a lady who is lending me her Apologia books to look at. I asked if it mattered what order you do them in and she said no.

 

I don't understand. I don't know how many books there are total but can you really use the same astronomy book for a first grader that you might also use with a 6th grader? Help me understand this!

 

My husband wondered if it was to be done SOTW style - like in 4 year sequences. ?? Is it like that? If not, and we did anatomy for first grade and they do fine with it and then we're done and then when they're in 6th grade we do astronomy, does that mean that they'll have a first grade comprehension level of anatomy and a 6th grade level of astronomy and that's just that?

[TengoFive]

Yes, you can do them in any order. The only hang-up is the zoology books. If you want to do them out of order, you need to print out the first 6 pages of the 1st chapter of Zoology 1 and do it first. It covers classification of animals. You can get it for free from Apologia's website. You can also print free notebooks on their site for each book.

 

I have found that at different ages they do have different comprehension. They're all learning something, but my 5th grader gets a deeper understanding of the topic than the K'er. However, the K'er is learning a lot more than I expected. If I forget to do science, he's the one who brings me the book and asks to do it. This is the same kid though, who sits beside his sister doing biology waiting for her to read a page and explain it to him.

[staceyobu]

The books range in difficulty. Astronomy and Zoology 1 are supposed to be the easiest. Botany and the other Zoology books in the middle. Anatomy is the hardest.

 

They are difficult for a first grader. Sometimes I skip over scientific names for things or technical sections with my 2nd grader (we started Zoo 1 last year in first grade). However, I have learned tons from the book, so I definitely think it is enough for a sixth grader.

 

I do think, yes, they are going to wind up with a first grade level understanding of astronomy and a sixth grade understanding of botany. I think it's okay though. I think it's more important to learn the general ideas of science.... investigating the world around you, making hypotheses and testing them, etc.

 

There are also junior notebooks and regular notebooks to go along with the books. We've been using a junior notebook and have really enjoyed it.

[skeeterbug]

They don't follow the SOTW rotation. Right now there are six books with two more planned (chemistry/physics and geology/earth science).

 

Here's a link to the author's faq, it might answer more of your questions. I'd highly recommend the junior journals to go along with it.

 

One of the great things about these books is that they are great to have as references. So even though you would complete some of them at young ages, you will have them on your shelf for your kids to pull out and look at anytime.

 

Personally I would not start with Apologia until second grade because the books are so wordy. I'm glad we didn't start sooner, only my 8yo does the full curric, the younger two just join us for experiments/activities. That's just us, many do start with 5 or 6yo's but it would have been too much here.

[tomandlorih]

I don't know about the rest (haven't seen them) but it is recommended to do Astronomy first and I would.. It is repetitive(overly wordy-says the same thing 5 different ways before moving on) and boring my 3rd grader to tears. We are dropping it from our Earth and Space mishmash and continuing on with our other programs. Good luck to you.

[Holly]

I expect more from my older DC than my 5yo. My oldest is able to narrate back quite a bit and do more writing in her notebook pages. My 5yo does a little narration, enjoys the experiments and looking at pictures, but skips the notebooking. My 7yo is in the middle...He does the same things as the 10yo, but I help him more with writing and don't have the same narration expectations. It works well for our family. We are using Zoo 2. We tried using Astronomy years ago (when my oldest was 6) and it wasn't a good fit. I think it actually helps to have an older child in the mix.

[curlylocks]

The books range in difficulty. Astronomy and Zoology 1 are supposed to be the easiest. Botany and the other Zoology books in the middle. Anatomy is the hardest.

 

 

:iagree: -- I don't think I'd start with Anatomy if I were in your shoes. (I'd probably choose either Astronomy or Botany.)

 

I agree with the previous poster who recommended the Junior Journals. :)

[Hedgehogs4]

:iagree: -- I don't think I'd start with Anatomy if I were in your shoes. (I'd probably choose either Astronomy or Botany.)

 

I agree with the previous poster who recommended the Junior Journals. :)

 

:iagree: we are doing Anatomy now with a 2nd and 6th grader. My 2nd grader gets about half of the material, my 6th grader grasps all of it. It is perfect for 4th - 6th. My dd7 is doing the Jr. notebook, which she loves! Even so, if you want full comprehension, wait on that one.

 

Anatomy is the easiest and shortest, followed by Botany, followed by the Zoology books, followed by Anatomy. That is the order I would follow. I have all of them, and have used all of them to some or full extent. No, you don't HAVE to do them in any particular order, but if I were starting from 1st grade, that is the order I would choose, based on the difficulty of the books.