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Reviews of Answers in Genesis


MotherGoose
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I know this is a controversial topic, so please be nice. I personally believe that one's opinion about the age of the earth is not a salvation issue, so whatever you want to believe is fine with me. My question is about the quality of the science instruction in answers in Genesis texts. My 5 th grader can take science at coop next year but I'm not sure If I want to send her. Will my child know what she needs to know? There seems to be no reviews of the texts that I can find in Google or in here that are separate from the age of earth issues: they all say it's wonderful for for Christians. I'm a Christian, but I'm old earth. How is the quality of science instruction, in elementary and middle school levels, as compared to other texts? Assuming we take out the age of the earth issues and just focus on the noncontroversial science?

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I think this was addressed in a thread recently, and the person mentioned you could skip the portions about the young earth. Are you saying this is going to be done in a co-op setting though?  If so, I am curious how the instructors will handle the material.  Does your co-op take a position on YE vs. OE? If not, it may vary on the instructor.  

 

Off to see if I can find that thread . . .

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I'm trying to upload some photos for you, but it's not working. You can check out samples here, though: https://answersingenesis.org/store/product/gods-design-physical-world-complete-set-2016/?sku=13-1-067

 

I don't think that you will have many problems with the physical science set. Also, you can usually find used editions of the student books on half.com or amazon for pretty cheap if you want to sample one before you commit to the full set.

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I know this is a controversial topic, so please be nice. I personally believe that one's opinion about the age of the earth is not a salvation issue, so whatever you want to believe is fine with me. My question is about the quality of the science instruction in answers in Genesis texts. My 5 th grader can take science at coop next year but I'm not sure If I want to send her. Will my child know what she needs to know? There seems to be no reviews of the texts that I can find in Google or in here that are separate from the age of earth issues: they all say it's wonderful for for Christians. I'm a Christian, but I'm old earth. How is the quality of science instruction, in elementary and middle school levels, as compared to other texts? Assuming we take out the age of the earth issues and just focus on the noncontroversial science?

 

I would talk to the teacher, and to parents whose dc have taken the course previously.  Specifically, I would ask why the teacher chose this text over others on the market, how she uses the text in the course, and what other materials she incorporates into her teaching.  And I would ask about the topics she intends to cover, and her overall goals for the course.

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We found them to be a poor fit for our family, and it had nothing to do with OE/YE. They're trying to reach too wide of a grade spread and not serving any of them particularly well.

 

We started the life science books. If I recall correctly, I had a 1st, 3rd, 6th, and 7th grader at the time.  The fact depth was appropriate for the little ones, but the writing was aimed more at the older kids. The older two kids weren't learning anything new, and I switched them out nearly right away. The little two finished the first book, with me reading it aloud and changing the text to be more palatable as I went. I never picked up another AiG science book after that experience.

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We found them to be a poor fit for our family, and it had nothing to do with OE/YE. They're trying to reach too wide of a grade spread and not serving any of them particularly well.

 

We started the life science books. If I recall correctly, I had a 1st, 3rd, 6th, and 7th grader at the time. The fact depth was appropriate for the little ones, but the writing was aimed more at the older kids. The older two kids weren't learning anything new, and I switched them out nearly right away. The little two finished the first book, with me reading it aloud and changing the text to be more palatable as I went. I never picked up another AiG science book after that experience.

Thanks for this feedback, anyone else with experiences like this good or bad?

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We're using the life sciences this year and they've been a good fit for my 2nd and 4th grader.  I feel like they are less dry than then Apologia elem. texts, but I've only seen samples of those.  We read a lesson and discuss, then write in a journal (drawing pictures and labeling or writing key words).  I plan to use the series for (at least) the next year or two.

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I just got them (the newly updated version) for my to-be 3rd grader. We will do life science next year, and continue with the rest of the series through 6th grade if they do turn out to be a good fit. I am YE myself, but I am uncomfortable with curricula that are dogmatic about that issue, and I haven't seen anything in the life science books that give me pause. I think they have good, solid info in there and fun, engaging activities/experiments. But I've only looked through them, not actually used them yet. HTH.

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We've used the heaven &earth series and 2 of the 3 life science series.  They're concise, I wouldn't say dry.  I like that aspect--it's easy to add living books on to flesh things out.  The heaven and earth ones are a little meatier than the life science ones I think.  From what I've heard there were quite a few differences in the older editions, so some reviews might be from people who tried the older edition ones.  These have three sections, one for 1st & 2nd grade, one for 3rd-6th I think it is, and an advanced/extra section for 7th & 8th graders.  This is all we've used for science so I can't compare them to anything else.

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