Reviews of Apologia Zoology 1 - Flying Creatures

[Mom2TheTeam]

I'm thinking of doing this in conjunction with MFW Adv and tag along K'ers (twins). I have heard these two go well together and it seems like they will. I am thinking of getting junior notebooks to go with the text.

 

If you use Apologia Zoology 1 - Flying Creatures, what did you think? Love it? Hate? Tolerated it? Thanks for your thoughts!

[staceyobu]

I did it with my oldest for second half of first and first half of second. We really enjoyed it. The junior notebooks may be too hard for the k'ers. I wonder if you could just do bird coloring books for them?

[Danielle1746]

We love it. However, because I was worried that we would get tired of just one or two types of animals, we are doing all 3 books simultaneously. So we have jumped from one book to another to another throughout the year. I am looking forward to getting back to the first book though, because we are going to get a butterfly kit to observe while we study insects.

 

After using the notebooks with my kids (ages 11, 8, and 5), and at the ages your kids are, I would only get the jr notebook for the oldest one, if that. I'd probably prefer doing it more as a read aloud and just enjoy doing the experiments and more of the fun stuff listed on the website. Even though the jr notebook has less space to fill with writing, it is still a lot, and a lot of the stuff they would be writing is hard to spell. Even with my 8 yr old, I have ended up mostly writing down what he tells me, as opposed to him filling it out himself. I am sure we would have enjoyed just spending more time looking at the supplemental stuff on the course website and watching documentaries than doing the notebooks, but I already bought the notebooks, and I'm a little OCD like that, so we're going to finish them. And we are still enjoying the books immensely.

[Mom2TheTeam]

Thanks!! I'm glad to hear you are both enjoying it. :)

 

Maybe I'll skip the notebooks completely. The biggest reason I was going to get them for all 3 is because I know the K'ers will really be upset if the older has pictures to color and such and they don't. My kids really LOVE to color. But, that is too much to spend just on a coloring book.

 

I appreciate the feedback and advice.

[Guest elmies]

We are just starting Flying Creatures and it is our first Apologia book. Is this a good one to start with, or should I have chosen an 'easier' text or subject first? Thanks.

[Danielle1746]

The biggest reason I was going to get them for all 3 is because I know the K'ers will really be upset if the older has pictures to color and such and they don't.

 

I hear ya. That's exactly why my K'er ended up with a jr notebook. I knew if her brother's had them, she would have to have them as well. But since your oldest is still pretty young, I would just vote for not doing the notebooks at all. It is easy to find simple coloring sheets you can print off for them to color instead. :)

 

[PachiSusan]

We tried the book in 3rd grade and didn't finish it. It was super interesting to her at first, but then she just decided that she'd had enough talking about birds and that was it.

 

We did Astronomy this year and she loved it.

[Spetzi]

My dd enjoyed Flying Creatures. Jeannie Fulbright is not a scientist and it shows a bit, but we still enjoyed her books for the most part. A few years ago, Jeannie had free notebooking pages on her site, but it seems they've been taken down. You could purchase a lapbook for Flying Creatures for your older and then you could print off some of the pages suited to the k'ers.

[Stayseeliz]

The junior notebooks will be WAY above a k'ers head. My 3rd grader doesn't even complete all the activities in them. I'd copy the coloring pages our for your younger kids.

[Down_the_Rabbit_Hole]

Loved it. We actually love all the Zoology books. The first time we did this we just used the free notebooking pages but we will be doing it again using the Lapbook from A Journey Through Learning. Depending on the ages of your children, this book can be done over the course of the year with you doing the reading or they can do it independently. When my son did it he was in 4th and covered the book in half a year. I found the experiments doable without breaking the bank. Common supplies for the most part. I will recommend doing the 1st chapter and then the insect ones followed by the rest because depending where you live the insect chapters might fall during winter or early spring where insects are not available.

[cdrumm4448]

Loving it!

[AmyontheFarm]

My kids got so frustrated with me when I wouldn't do every single page in the Jr Notebooks. So, this time I decided to build my own interactive notebooks. Ok, this is my quick list.

 

I bought the lapbook pack for Apologia books from Knowledge Box Central as a basis.

 

I then found tests for each chapter at Quizlet.com

 

We are building interactive-like notebooks in our science binders. We can insert our Science Speculations Sheets in the binders, any articles we find in the newspaper that relates to our study and pictures we find from discarded magazines. We will also be adding other things from the list below:

1. You can find free flashcards here: http://shop.apologia...-zoology-1.html
    
   
2. If you own the textbook, You can find free worksheets on the website, just look for the password in the front of your book.
    
   
3. Sign up for the yahoo group and check out their files section: http://groups.yahoo....ologia_Science/
    
   
4. http://pinterest.com...ol-sci-zoology/
    
   
5. http://pinterest.com...lying Creatures
   

[TracyP]

My kids LOVED this book. They are very into birds and they chose the topic, so that makes a difference. I had the Jr. notebooks for my 8yo and 6yo. My oldest probably should have had a higher level notebook, but she just used the dotted lines as separate lines to write on. They both loved all the notebook activities and still pull them (and the text) out frequently to look at.

[texasmama]

Doing it this year with my 1st grader and enjoying it. Sahamamama started a thread in which she got some good feedback - sorry I don't have time to hook you up with it, but I'll bet a search would get you there. Sorry if that has been mentioned before in the thread.

[Hedgehogs4]

We LOVED Flying Creatures. We did it a few years ago before they had the notebooks, and it was still great. I will disagree with the pp who said that you don't need more than the jr. notebook for your oldest. My ds 11 is doing the Anatomy notebook now and my dd 7 is doing the jr. notebook. Neither does every single page, because there are a variety of exercises and activities, but they do most of them. The jr. notebook would be a joke for my 11yo, but is just right for my daughter. The regular notebook has been perfect for him.

[trudence1]

I am glad so many others found this book exciting. My kids LOVED it to start, but then, before half the year was over, was bored to tears of birds. Science has never been their favorite subject (that would go to history) it that makes a difference in how you take our review.

[TracyP]

I am glad so many others found this book exciting. My kids LOVED it to start, but then, before half the year was over, was bored to tears of birds. Science has never been their favorite subject (that would go to history) it that makes a difference in how you take our review.

 

I made my kids finish the book w/o me. They were still all gung-ho about flying creatures, but *I* was bored to tears, lol. One thing that may have made a difference is that we scheduled it for only half the year. I know they are designed for the whole year, but I knew that would be too much for me.

[2queens&1princenmyhouse]

I'm glad to hear that most everyone likes it. DD10 picked Flying Creatures and Swimming Creatures for next year. We are doing astronomy now and I tolerate the notebooks. I'm not getting the notebooks for Zoology. We'll do notebooking pages and I'm checking out the links that pp listed above. Hopefully I can come up with some nice complementary activities.

[sweetpea3829]

We have it on our shelves but will be doing it in conjunction with the rest of the Apologia Biology series next fall, winter and spring. This spring we're doing Apologia Botany and I intend to have the kids use their JR notebook (ages 7 and 6, but an advanced 6). We will also be putting together lapbooks. We are just finishing up the Apologia Anatomy book, which we started last fall. I was going to have them do the jr notebook, but the writing required was well above their level of writing ability. And to be honest, the anatomy book itself was quite a bit above their heads. I simplified it quite a bit, and I think we'll revisit anatomy in the middle school years. Anyways, there is one aspect of Apologia that I personally do not like at all. The author's style of writing, where she inserts her own chit chat dialogue which tends to make the text run on and on needlessly. I feel like...these are science texts...and I want science information and facts. Not some story about how the neighbor's dog bit the author's son, even if the story WAS relevant to the topic being discussed. I felt like her "voice" was at times overpowering of the science material itself and it wasn't really necessary. I actually found it a bit inappropriate, if you will. I'm here to learn about science, not your family's stories, kwim? Aside from that, we do otherwise enjoy the books and materials.

[Mom2TheTeam]

Thanks everyone!! I've really enjoyed reading your experience and hearing your advice. I'm not sure what I'm going to do with regard to the notebook. I may wait till the conference in June to see it in person and then decide. (But, I was hoping to start by May since we have slacked off on science this year and we school year round anyway.) I've looked at the lapbook too. Making my own like a pp suggested sounds good too, but I'm very short on time with 6 kids 7 and under including toddler twins and an infant. But, my children really do LOVE to color and keep notebooks/journals.

 

I also like the idea of combining the Zoo books. Honestly, I'm not excited about an entire year of birds (I know it has insects too), but I know it will mesh well with what we are doing. But, I'd like to do Swimming, personally. So, I was thinking of trying to go through Flying a little faster and do Swimming after that. Maybe I'll think about combining them. How do you do this? Do you pick and choose a chapter from each book and just alternate them?

 

Thanks again for the ideas!

[Danielle1746]

We are completely jumping around within the 3 books. Each child takes a turn picking what type of animal they want to study. We do any chapters relating to that animal. Usually, it's just one chapter, but recently my daughter wanted to learn about horses. Horses are in the chapter about ungulates, and since there are two chapters on ungulates, we did both chapters. Then, my oldest son wanted to learn about beavers, so we did the chapter on rodents, after which my middle child chose sharks, so we did the chapter on sharks and rays.

 

We've done it like that all the way through, and so far we haven't had any problems. There have been a few times where the author referenced something covered in an earlier book or chapter that we hadn't done yet, but it's never been an issue.

 

 

[2_girls_mommy]

Haven't read the others, but here is my experience. We did it this year for co-op. It wasn't my plan, but that is what our co-op was doing for my younger child's age group, so I thought we would join in, since we are in a biology year w/WTM rotations.

 

I LOVED the notebook. I didn't get her the jr. She is in 3rd grade, so I bought the regular notebook. There are no coloring pages, but it basically had the same cut and paste activities and notebooking pages, but with regular lines instead of the dotted learning to write lines. Plus the vocab. work page was harder. I took care of that by just highlighting the words I wanted her to learn in the puzzle each week, and didn't make her do them all. We used the "Flying Higher" pages out of the notebook extensively, and basically did the year w/out touching the text much. I checked out all of the extra books from the lists and she notebooked about them in the notebook pages. We did lots of experiments, some in class, some at home, watched videos, joined our Audobon Society for a meeting and a bird census, and we dissected owl pellets. We are going to hatch chicks next month.

 

So I liked the course, but not the text LOL. I did read it some and used it for a guide. I ended up having to teach the last semester at co-op, so I had to read it. Before that we attended the lecture from the previous teacher and just did the notebook activities at home. But dd8 didn't listen to a lot from the text. Most was more interesting in the library books.

 

**** Since this is her one "biology" year for grammar stage, we also did Human Body at home this year w/other resources.

[2_girls_mommy]

Thanks!! I'm glad to hear you are both enjoying it. :)

 

Maybe I'll skip the notebooks completely. The biggest reason I was going to get them for all 3 is because I know the K'ers will really be upset if the older has pictures to color and such and they don't. My kids really LOVE to color. But, that is too much to spend just on a coloring book.

 

I appreciate the feedback and advice.

 

I would get them some nice nature/animal coloring books and let them cut and paste into a composition book. You could do the same for the older instead of the notebook, but have her do other work too. But I did really like the "Flying Higher" pages w/experiment ideas and book lists. Like I said, I liked that better than the text book.

[nurse_kris]

We used flying creatures with DD9 and DS6 for the first half of this year. It was good for DD9, but way over my son's head. I can't understand how so many people use this with little ones. Even as a read aloud, the content is much better suited for later elementary. We will revisit it again, but to finish out this year we switched to Purposeful Design Science. It was a much better fit for my first grader. He was getting totally bored with birds.

[tammieb]

We've been "flip flopping" back and forth between Zoology 1 and Zoology 2 (swimming creatures). I agree with the immersion method Apologia uses at the elementary level, but for a youngster, staying on one topic for several months gets daunting! We'll do a couple of lessons in one and then do a couple in the other. We're about halfway through both books right now.

 

I agree it should be done as a read-aloud. If you have an advanced reader, they can get the jest of it reading independently, but reading aloud opens the door for alot of discussion and better understanding of the terminology.

 

We didn't do the notebooks. Looking at the previews, the junior appeared too young but the regular notebook had ALOT of writing in it! Knowledge Box Central, A Journey Through Learning, and Homeschool Share have SEVERAL free lapbooks regarding birds. I'd look at the chapter we were about to start and download the corresponding lapbook. My son's not into "artsy" kind of stuff (decorating lapbooks!), so I downloaded the projects and he put them in his science notebook. He seems to be enjoying it.

 

We've been LOVING it!!! Hoping to finish up with Land Animals over the summer and ds is chomping at the bits to start Human Anatomy! He's been looking through it, almost MEMORZING the entire text! You gotta love it as a parent when your kids get more enthralled by a new science textbook than the newest video game!

 

Hope that helps!

 

Happy Homeschooling :001_smile:

[Amy M]

:lurk5: I was thinking of adding this in as well for MFW ADV which we're starting next February. I have the text already, and was wondering about the jr. notebook. Listening in. :)

[mommyto4QT]

We are using Apologia Flying Creatures with MFW Adventures this year. It has been an excellent fit. The science that comes with Adventures is just WAY too light in my opinion. It is the type of science my child used in Kinder in public school, he already knew all of it!! We do 2 days a week of Flying Creatures (usually about 1/2 hour), and the assigned MFW Adventures science ( 1-2 days per week, takes about 10 minutes). My kids prefer the Apologia Science and CHEER when I get it out.

We are using the Junior Notebook. I make copies of the coloring pages/copywork pages for my 4 & 5 year old to complete. However the rest of the notebook is just completed by my 2nd grader.

[QueenieReighn]

My K and 1st graders have the regular notebooks and love filling them out...but they both like to write and memorize things so take that into consideration. They also love to draw pictures on the pages and color them of the different birds/insects. It has worked great for us and they have learned so much. Two weeks has seemed to be the perfect amount of time for them to complete all the pages for a chapter in the notebooks and we love it.

[Guest MNSally]

The decision was made in our co-op to do Apologia's Flying Creatures this year.  To save some (okay, a lot of) planning time, I am looking for a syllabus for a 24-week co-op.  If you have done this with a group, would you share your schedule?  (Donna Young conveniently has a 22-weeks co-op plan by Cynthia Lawrence, but it only includes the second semester!) Thanks!

[homemama]

we used it several years ago and DS loved it! He retained almost all the info, as well. I thin that would be a wise choice with your other curricula.

 

homemama

[3rugrats]

We are not doing flying creatures, but astronomy, but as for the notebook question---you might like lapbooking for that age. I have a 5 and 6yo and we use this lapbook series. It is great, and the kids love it. I think it does a great job bringing the text down to their level b/c honestly, I think it is a bit above even my bright 6yo. 

 

http://www.ajourneythroughlearning.net/apfuyoexscla.html

[TracyP]

The decision was made in our co-op to do Apologia's Flying Creatures this year.  To save some (okay, a lot of) planning time, I am looking for a syllabus for a 24-week co-op.  If you have done this with a group, would you share your schedule?  (Donna Young conveniently has a 22-weeks co-op plan by Cynthia Lawrence, but it only includes the second semester!) Thanks!

 

You might want to start a new thread. Sometimes when you ask a new question on an old thread, posters answer the original question and miss the new one. :)