Apologia or Science in the Beginning?

[avazquez24]

Apologia Young Explorer Series or Science in the Beginning series...which would you recommend using with a 1st, 5th and 6th grader?

[Insertcreativenamehere]

I haven't used Science in the Beginning, but I have used Apologia and it was not a good fit for us. Far too wordy; far too narrowly-focused for a year's study. I know others love it, but it just wasn't for us. 

[avazquez24]

Thanks. .a friend of mine said the same thing about it being too wordy. I was also concerned about us getting 'burn out' from studying one topic all year long.

[SebastianCat]

I haven't used Science in the Beginning, but have heard good things about it.   We have used almost all of the Apologia Elementary series, and based on our experience, I would recommend picking two separate curricula - one for your 1st grader, and a different curriculum for your 5th & 6th graders.   If your older two want to move more quickly through a book, or delve deeper into a particular topic, let them do that together, without the 1st grader being completely bored, disconnected, or holding them back.   If you do choose Apologia, I would pick one of the more advanced books for the older two, either Chemistry & Physics or Anatomy & Physiology, while choosing one of the easier books, either Astronomy or Botany, for your 1st grader.

 

My kids are only 2 years apart but very different in personality.  We combined them for science (and some other subjects, like Bible and history) until around 4th & 2nd grades.   That year, my DS asked if he could move faster through the book than what I had scheduled, and would I get him a 2nd book if he finished early.   Letting him move faster through the material, which he loved, worked well for him AND for DD, who wasn't as much of a science-lover.   (Fast forward 6 years, and they both love science, and both seem headed toward STEM-type careers.)

 

As for the "burn out" factor of studying one topic for the entire year, I think it would depend a lot on your kids and their personalities.   My DS has always loved all types of science, and he never burned out on anything.   My DD got a bit burned out on the Zoology books (which we did when she was around 2nd-3rd grades), but really loved the Botany, Chemistry & Physics, and Anatomy & Physiology books from Apologia.   If you think your kids might be burned out by studying one topic all year long, then maybe Apologia isn't the right choice for you.

[mom2scouts]

I've used both the Apologia Young Explorer Series and Science in the Beginning. With your age range, I would choose Science in the Beginning. I think it will be easy enough to keep the first grader's attention while offering new information for the older children. There's a simple experiment at the end of each lesson and we liked those too.

[KrissiK]

We've done Apologia for the past couple years and I've used it with all my kids. Last year we finished Swimming Things earlier in the year than I wanted and since someone had given me Science in the Beginning we went through that for the last 2 months of school. I think they liked the Apologia better. And I think the reason is that Apologia has those nice notebooks and the kids enjoyed working with that, we had to do our own notebook with Science in the Beginning (although I see they have notebooks pages you can download). I think, also, my kids enjoy learning about biology.

[nixpix5]

I think if really comes down to whether or not you like to do a single, deep focus on one topic or you like a varied study of scientific topics. I have Science in the Beginning and have read through most of it myself when we were considering using it this year. I really love the science experiments in them. They are fun and not overly involved or difficult. We did a couple of them that looked interesting. I think it could easily meet the needs of all of your students with just a bit of tweaking needing to be done to make sure your 1st grader is grasping the basics.

[jaredluvsjoanie]

We have used both and prefer Science in the Beginning, etc. Dr. Wile's final book in the series (#5) was just released last week! It is Science in the Industrial Age.

[ExcitedMama]

I can't speak to Apologia but we love SIB here. DS loves science and I've tried ES and RSO and SIB is by far the favorite for both of us. I really can't say enough great things about it. I am very science averse and usually cannot answer any of DS questions about science. SIB is great because first of all it makes sense and it's easy. The text is actually well written, really explains a topic, and is not at all boring. The reading is short, like a page or less that introduces a concept and then there is a demonstration/experiment that actually does something related to the concept, and it's followed by another short reading that further illustrates the concept. It's not just an experiment to do something but has meaning. DS has really gotten a lot out of it. It's super easy and quick to use so we usually do a couple of lessons at once, which is great since I often slack on science! Plus I love that it's a variety of topics so it keeps it interesting and fresh. It also requires no extra supplementation. With our other science I have to flesh it out with books from the library, and then get around to reading them, but with SIB everything is explained so well in the short passages that I don't need to add onto it. I think it's also great for a variety of ages. He recommends notebooking and has questions for younger and older grades. Even my 4 yr old enjoys tagging along and doing the experiments. She's definitely not getting as much out of it as DS but she's having fun and I know I wouldn't mind doing it again for her when she's older where I would hate having to repeat ES or RSO!

[kbutton]

I haven't used Science in the Beginning, but I have used Apologia and it was not a good fit for us. Far too wordy; far too narrowly-focused for a year's study. I know others love it, but it just wasn't for us. 

 

We used it one year for co-op, and I liked the information in the book, the tone of the author, etc., but yes, it was narrowly focused. I also felt like it was completely disorganized, and the notebook itself made it hard to organize, whether you were using it for narration, a learning record, or note-taking (lots of wasted space, for instance). I feel like you could read the textbook for information and even for fun, but teaching from it drove me bonkers, and notebooking about put me in a straight-jacket. 

 

The notebooks didn't correspond well from one age-group to another. There were times that the notebooks and the book divided things up differently (we did Flying Creatures, and the nest things in the notebook didn't correspond to the same categories in the book--there were a different number, and some really looked like they could be one of two different kinds of nests that were very similar). If I hadn't been using them in a group, I would've quit by week three or earlier with the notebook. 

 

I have not used Science in the Beginning, but I have heard really good things about it. 

 

We are also liking the looks of Considering God's Creation. It's a general life science curriculum. It has a notebook, but it's very user-friendly (but not open-ended if that matters). I was given the set I have, and I had to look it over a number of times before I "got" it, but now I like it a lot and plan to use it up next year (we pulled from it here and there last year). 

[2_girls_mommy]

I have done almost all of the Young Explorers series with my ydd for co-op classses. One year I got drafted into teaching it at co-op and had the same complaints as kbutton. But science isn't my thing to teach to many, so the regular co-op teacher has a better flow and rhythm to hers than I do. Thank goodness I was a one semester sub for that class! 

 

We did Science in the Age of Reason last year instead of the Apologia series for something different, and it was a breath of fresh air after Apologia all of those years. 

 

For you, I think 1st is too young to get much out of the Apologia. FAR too wordy and long winded. You would basically be finding library books to cover the material with a first grader. But there is nothing wrong with that. The notebooks and jr. notebooks for Apologia are great IMO. One year for the flying creatures, we didn't even use the Apologia text at home. My 3rd grader and I used books we already had from the Memoria Press bird unit and ones I preferred from the library and just used her notebook as a guideline. That was actually a really good Apologia year for us. 

 

But my dd has learned a lot from the Apologia books over the years. She loves the notebooks. I think once she was a bit older, like 5th grade and up they were a better fit for us, when she could read them and do the work on her own. Before that it was too much for her, and I did a lot of the reading and writing with her. But for 5th and 6th grades, they were really good. For 7th, I liked the change to the SIB series (Science in the Age of Reason for us,) even though it is designed for K-6, it was a good fit for our 7th grade year. I think I would have liked it better alongside SOTW when she was younger and will consider it for my next one when she is that age.