kentuckymom Posted March 14, 2016 Share Posted March 14, 2016 I'm now in the investigating curriculum stage for my son, who will be homeschooled for the first time next year, for 6th grade. He really enjoys science, and is probably heading to some kind of STEM related career (right now he says engineering because that's what Dad does, but his love of animals and the outdoors makes me think he might eventually head in the direction of biology). I'd like to give him a good science foundation in middle school. Our current plan is to homeschool for only middle school and put him back in school for high school. If I can give him a strong foundation at home that allows him to test into advanced science classes in high school, I think that would be greatly to his benefit. All that said, I don't have a strong science background so I feel like I need a curriculum that will hold my hand. It's not that the science I had in school was sub par, it's just that I was never particularly interested in it. I learned enough to get good grades, but not enough to have a great understanding of science. So I'm looking into programs designed specifically for homeschoolers. Apologia looks great in so many ways, except for the whole YEC thing. I'm a Christian. I firmly believe that God created the universe. However, I don't believe that He did so in 6 24 hour days less than 10,000 years ago. I'm totally okay with my son learning this viewpoint. I'm okay with explaining why I don't agree with it (and, yes, while I'm not a big science person, I'm pretty passionate about this issue and have done a lot of research, so please don't try to convert me). What I'm not okay with is needing to do this with every single lesson. Just how dependent on the YEC worldview is Apologia? Is it something I can work around and use as a way to educate my son that sincere Christians have a variety of views and we can agree to disagree and all love Jesus? Or is it something that will have me pulling my hair out and banging my head against the wall? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
GailV Posted March 14, 2016 Share Posted March 14, 2016 My kids were so appalled by various aspects of the writing that the YEC worldview was just another eyeball roll for them -- they laughed about it and moved on. For example, older dd began circling every time the author used a superlative when comparing 2 items. Both decried the wordiness (a friend had to drop Apologia due to the wandering text -- her daughter found it too confusing and exhausting). And a major outcry occurred in our house when "poisonous" was used to describe a venomous creature. We used Apologia because a really excellent teacher at a local homeschool learning center used it. If not for her classes we would've tossed it; she brought a lot to the course. The middle school years we didn't use that learning center we used CPO Science, but that took work on my part to figure out how to do labs at home ... but, wow, the text was so much better than Apologia. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Posted March 14, 2016 Share Posted March 14, 2016 (edited) You could look into using K12's Advanced Science courses as an independent. Guy 2 used all 3 and learned so much. Worth the money! Apologia never made it past the first few pages of any of the books we tried multiple times. I really don't know why they are so popular. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk Edited March 14, 2016 by Paradox5 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kentuckymom Posted March 14, 2016 Author Share Posted March 14, 2016 I appreciate the views from people who don't like Apologia, since it gets so many glowing reviews. DS has little tolerance for wordy informational texts, so it sounds like it would probably be a bad fit even without the YEC. Now I just need to figure out where else to look. I do really like the looks of RSO Biology 2, but I'm concerned that there's their only middle school level text. If we love it and they don't have anything else at that level out by his 7th grade year I'd be back at square one. On the other hand, my foremost concern right now should be for this year, so I should probably give it another look. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TX Pilgrim Posted March 15, 2016 Share Posted March 15, 2016 You might want to look at Novare - Christian, but not young earth, for middle and high school kids. The author is still in the process of writing books but he taught for 15 years in a classical school and before that I think he worked in a lab, so he has great background. My kids aren't old enough for his materials yet but I was so glad for an option other than Apologia. His newsletters give you a good sense of his science philosophy and implementation. http://novarescienceandmath.com Missy 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SoCal_Bear Posted March 15, 2016 Share Posted March 15, 2016 (edited) Try Dr. Wile's new series which explores science chronologically. It's written for K-6. It's published by Berean. He starts with Science in the Beginning (covering the 7 days of creation) I'm doing Science in the Ancient World...I really like how it pulls in history, math, philosophy, theology and the arts so you really understand the context of when and where these discoveries were made and how they built off of each other.For example, we learned about Heron of Alexandria whose work with the steam engine was potentially ground breaking...but he never pursued it further. It was absolutely fascinating to think about how the course of history would have been radically different if the Industrial Revolution happened to the Greeks. My son (7) is very STEM oriented and loves all things science which is why I actually cover multiple curricula in a year to feed the beast so to speak. He is really looking forward to the next one Science in the Scientific Revolution which covers some of his fave scientists like Copernicus, Galileo, and Newton. While Dr. Wile is YE, he is quite neutral on it in this series as he takes the position that you do...we are all Christians, etc. I believe that he left Apologia (which he founded) of this direction that Apologia has moved towards. He even wrote a new high school Chem text because the changes that were made in the 3rd edition of the Apologia Chem textbook bothered him a lot. My co-op is switching away from Apologia for Chem because the 3rd edition is that bad.That being said, as you can see from my siggy, I do use Apologia (Botany, Astronomy, Zoology 1 so far), I just edit around it when I think it is a little heavy handed. I am using Noeo Chem 1, but I don't really love it. Only doing that because he is obsessed with Chemistry right now. Edited March 15, 2016 by calbear 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Momto6inIN Posted March 15, 2016 Share Posted March 15, 2016 While Dr. Wile is YE, he is quite neutral on it in this series as he takes the position that you do...we are all Christians, etc. I believe that he left Apologia (which he founded) of this direction that Apologia has moved towards. He even wrote a new high school Chem text because the changes that were made in the 3rd edition of the Apologia Chem textbook bothered him a lot. My co-op is switching away from Apologia for Chem because the 3rd edition is that bad. Just agreeing and putting in a plug for Dr. Wile. We love him as our science teacher around here! :) I am YE myself, but the Apologia books that are not by Dr. Wile have a tone that doesn't appeal to me. The tone of the books that still have Dr. Wile's name on them is much much MUCH different than anything else Apologia puts out. The middle school books include YE material, but are not dogmatic about it and you definitely wouldn't have to edit every day or even every week. The physical science book in particular is pretty challenging, I'd say, even for my science/math kid. We do use the high school books too and they've been excellent so far. Anything with Dr. Wile's name would be very easy for you to edit, IMO. As always, YMMV. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kentuckymom Posted March 15, 2016 Author Share Posted March 15, 2016 You might want to look at Novare - Christian, but not young earth, for middle and high school kids. The author is still in the process of writing books but he taught for 15 years in a classical school and before that I think he worked in a lab, so he has great background. My kids aren't old enough for his materials yet but I was so glad for an option other than Apologia. His newsletters give you a good sense of his science philosophy and implementation. http://novarescienceandmath.com Missy I only skimmed the website, but this may be just what I'm looking for - a book with a Christian perspective that's actually close to my own. Thanks for chiming in! 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts
Join the conversation
You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.