If you use AIG for science...?

[eksargent]

I am still researching science options. I don't know anything about AIG. If you use it...could you tell me about it? Do you like it? Is it broken into lessons? Is it fun? Is it easy to plan and do? Pros/cons. I would really like to get this decision behind me...since it's almost time to start!

 

Thanks for your help!

Emily

[Sue G in PA]

Do you mean Answers In Genesis? The God's Design series?

[NevadaRabbit]

I am still researching science options. I don't know anything about AIG. If you use it...could you tell me about it? Do you like it? Is it broken into lessons? Is it fun? Is it easy to plan and do? Pros/cons. I would really like to get this decision behind me...since it's almost time to start!

 

Thanks for your help!

Emily

 

Emily, we'll be using AIG God's Design this year, with my 7yo and 9-turning-10yo together. I have World of Plants, Animal Kingdom, and Our Planet Earth. We're going to start with some life science, so I planned out 18 weeks of lessons from Plants and from Animal Kingdom. The lessons are each just 2-3 pages, with simple supplies and activities to reinforce observation and learning. Let's see - Animal Kingdom goes through 13 major categories of animals (mammals, birds, amphib., rept., fish, etc). The student builds an Animal Kingdom notebook as you go through the categories. There are one-page quizzes for each category.

 

AIG, you probably already know, is ardently young-earth creationist. The opening pages of these books include some help for the teacher about teaching science and specifically teaching creation vs. evolution.

 

Anything else you want to know about it?

[eksargent]

Jill, I am liking everything I hear so far. Are you happy with it? Do you think the lessons are complete and well presented? Are your kids retaining it? I like the idea of a lesson and review (perhaps that is the public school experience haunting my mind). I don't want to constantly "test" their knowledge, but I do want to "see" them retaining what they have learned.

 

I was thinking of doing science about 2 days a week...for 60-90 minutes. Since you are using the program, what works for you? Do you supplement with a lot of books and other activities?

 

Last question...what did you buy first?

 

THANK YOU much for your help.

Emily

[eksargent]

Do you mean Answers In Genesis? The God's Design series?

 

Yes.

[jina]

I want to know more about this, too. I actually just put a thread out there before I came to this one. I couldn't think of what AIG was either. I'm glad someone clarified. For those using this, did you consider Apologia Zoology - if so, why did you decide against it in favor of God's Design for Science?

 

When I looked online at Apologia it looked PRETTY THOROUGH...I'm wondering if it's a little TOO much for my 1st grader. Looking online at the AIG stuff looks a little less intense. The pdf samples are in black and white, though...is the actual text in color or is it also black and white? I hope color!

[Sue G in PA]

Emily, we used GD for Life series this past year. We didn't finish all 3 books, but most of each. I think it was a bit dry. My kids liked it enough (well, a little!) but I did feel it was a bit dry. The pages are black and white. Not that it is a big deal, but thought I'd point that out. There were some experiments and activities, but not enough for my sciency kids. Also, I think GD would be over the heads of the younger kids (first graders). We have Apologia Zoo 1 and really like the looks of it. It is color (a plus) and written less like a text book than God's Design. That being said, GD is a good curriculum. If I had to choose btwn. Apologia and GD...I would probably choose Apol. Just my opinion.

[eksargent]

Emily, we used GD for Life series this past year. We didn't finish all 3 books, but most of each. I think it was a bit dry. My kids liked it enough (well, a little!) but I did feel it was a bit dry. The pages are black and white. Not that it is a big deal, but thought I'd point that out. There were some experiments and activities, but not enough for my sciency kids. Also, I think GD would be over the heads of the younger kids (first graders). We have Apologia Zoo 1 and really like the looks of it. It is color (a plus) and written less like a text book than God's Design. That being said, GD is a good curriculum. If I had to choose btwn. Apologia and GD...I would probably choose Apol. Just my opinion.

 

Thanks Sue! I believe science is one area where my kids really need and will enjoy pictures...the brighter and bigger the better! I would imagine science in black in white would not be as inviting (at least for my kids). I will check out God's Design.

 

Thanks again!

Emily

[Sue G in PA]

Thanks Sue! I believe science is one area where my kids really need and will enjoy pictures...the brighter and bigger the better! I would imagine science in black in white would not be as inviting (at least for my kids). I will check out God's Design.

 

Thanks again!

Emily

 

Just to clarify...God's Design is in black and white. Apologia is in color.

[eksargent]

Just to clarify...God's Design is in black and white. Apologia is in color.

 

Reverse that...glad you knew what I meant. Thanks!

[FlockOfSillies]

My kids are 5th, 1st, and K. I chose God's Design because I wanted something meaty enough for the 5th grader, and something I could use to evaluate her progress, in order to give out semester grades (a new thing for us this year).

 

I also wanted an overview of biology for the littles, which is why I didn't want to do Apologia. I just couldn't imagine spending a whole semester on birds, LOL. FWIW, I used the Apologia Botany book with my oldest in first grade, and she LOVED it. She's looking forward to using it again, so I may turn her loose to go through it in addition to God's Design. The only thing that drove me nuts about it was the "Isn't it amazing how God did that?" cheerleading in what seemed like every. single. paragraph.

 

I'm planning to use GD as a spine, so I'll be supplementing quite a bit. The lessons in GD are only two pages, anyway. The first time we did bio, when my oldest was in 1st, we did it a la WTM. So I'll be pulling out all those books I used before -- the My Body Book, Usborne encyclopedias, etc. I also found a bunch of used books for the littles. Even if they tune out the GD spine, they'll get a lot out of the supplement books.

 

That's my pair o' pennies. HTH.

[NevadaRabbit]

Jill, I am liking everything I hear so far. Are you happy with it? Do you think the lessons are complete and well presented? Are your kids retaining it? I like the idea of a lesson and review (perhaps that is the public school experience haunting my mind). I don't want to constantly "test" their knowledge, but I do want to "see" them retaining what they have learned.

 

I was thinking of doing science about 2 days a week...for 60-90 minutes. Since you are using the program, what works for you? Do you supplement with a lot of books and other activities?

 

Last question...what did you buy first?

 

THANK YOU much for your help.

Emily

 

Emily, you're welcome - and let me clarify - we're just getting started with these. Haven't used them yet to know if they love it and retain it or not!

 

I purchased them at a HS Conference bookstore where I was able to flip through the God's Design series as well as the Apologia elem science books. For whatever reasons, after handling them both, I chose AIG's God's Design.

 

AIG is indeed in black-and-white, but to me that's not a big deal; it's more about the doing, and we can look up color pictures. :) I liked the simple activities, smaller books (I took them to Kinko's and had them spiral bound for easier opening), and variety of choices as opposed to Apologia's fewer-but-larger volumes. The lessons in AIG are well-organized, with info, activity(ies), a "What Did We Learn" section of discussion questions, "Taking it further" questions to further explore the topic, "Fun Facts" of interesting trivia...it just looked like it would draw us all in to DO and TALK, enjoyably. Not to bag on Apologia - this is just what I remember as I chose them!

[NevadaRabbit]

For those using this, did you consider Apologia Zoology - if so, why did you decide against it in favor of God's Design for Science?

 

Looked at both in a HS Conf bookstore. This isn't a thorough review from having used both - this is just a side by side comparison as I stood in the aisle leafing through them.

 

I chose AIG because they had more, smaller volumes as opposed to Apologia's fewer, larger ones. As someone upthread said, Apologia seemed more in depth (a semester on birds) while AIG's volumes seem more like an overview which would be better for the youngers in my family.

[siloam]

Emily,

 

We have used the Earth Science series. I wouldn't really recommend them for younger children. Only my oldest did them. Maybe if you used it more as a spine and supplemented with Magic School Bus level books. They do have a nice rhythm though. Lessons, activity, lesson activity...with an occasional extra essay on a person or event of interest. Each lesson is about a page long.

 

We are currently doing Apologia Zoo 1 (which is only about 1/3 bird by the way, the rest is bats, dinosaurs, insects, ect...), and have done Botany in the past. These are not quite as easy to schedule. They do have notebooking and activities at the end of every lesson, but it takes us several days to get through a lesson. Sometimes they will have a little activity break in the middle of a lesson....you can see how it isn't as clean ad GD to schedule. A sub heading can be anywhere from a paragraph to a couple pages long, though usually they are on the shorter side and we do 2-3 a day.

 

For the younger kids I prefer Apologia. The color texts and the way the topics build work better for my kids. Though with both I have had to repeat what the big words mean every time they come up. Both programs use correct terminology, and generally only give the definition the first time. Apologia is probably a little better about repeating the definition if it was a few lessons ago. I think mostly I prefer the conversational tone of Apologia. I think it connects with the younger kids better.

 

My favorite series for younger kids though is Real Science 4 Kids, and you can view their books page by page at their website. Here is the Biology pre1 and Chemistry pre1. I think the Physics pre1 is due out this spring. The preview feature is in red above the picture of the book.

 

The biggest problem with RS4K is that each books only has 10 lessons, generally 10 weeks unless you add literature, and it is not cheap. I do appreciate the fact that they let you look through the lab, teacher manual and student texts in full before you buy.

 

Hmmmmm the only other program I have used that I would recommend is Winter Promise Animals and Their Worlds. But it is a full Literature program, and might be way more than you need.

 

Blessings,

 

Heather

[tullyfamily]

We used AiG's "Human Body" book this year and have used some of Apologia's "Botany" and we will use the space book this year. All of our littles are young- almost 8 and under doing 4th grade and under. Here are some our thoughts about these two programs:

 

- AiG & Apologia both are young earth & Christian-based- LOVE THAT!

- We bought Apologia before AiG came out… we really like both but found AiG easier to teach to younger students. I do think that Apologia is more thorough but maybe too much for younger grades.

- HATED spending some amount of money for AiG- their pics were black & white & it was paperback book (Apologia has color pics & is hardback) I have heard from a rep that AiG is coming out with color & hardback versions.

- We have only used SOME of Apologia's books b/c, in the past, they were too in depth for our littles... this year I plan on reading it aloud to everyone & then have my 8 & 6 year olds write 2-3 sentences about what they read (illustrate?) in a notebook; projects will be done w/ Daddy; we will spend every other week just getting books from the library to read. (I totally stole this idea from a friend!)

 

HTH,

Heather