Questions about Apologia Exploring Creation With

[Elizabeth86]

I got Apologia's Exploring Creation with Astronomy for science next year.  He was really excited about it, so we already started this year, the end of his second grade year.  He loves it so far, I love it so far.  Here is my problem and wanted to see how other handled this.  I have been told by many it works best for 3rd grade and up and I agree.  So, that bugs me.  I want to use Apologia, I want to do all the courses with him, but how do you fit in each course if you only use it from 3rd to 6th grade.  Also, how do you make up for the fact that they leave out earth science?  Where do you fit that in and with what curriculum.  Is there anything else left out I'm not thinking about?  I know up to 6th grade it is no big deal if we don't cover everything, but it does matter to me and ds.  We like to do it all with everything.  Not an issue with my second one, he just does what school I put in front of him, but my first ds, he sees there are such and such courses to cover and he wants to do them and so do I.

[2_girls_mommy]

You can use them higher than 6th grade, then move into biology in 9th grade. 

We did an Earth science unit study one summer to get some in one time. 

Each of my kids had a slightly different path. One never did any of the exploring creation series for elem. or middle school. In 7th grade she went into Apologia's physical science, then biology in 8th, chemistry in 9th, anatomy in 10th, and Astronomy in 11th grade. (She only used Apologia for biology and physical science since that's what co-op was using those years.)

The next kid did a lot of Apologia Exploring Creation series with co-op classes. She did the Flying Creatures in 3rd grade. In 4th we did MP astronomy, and the Tiner biology book. In 5th she did the Exploring Creation Anatomy/Physiology, in 6th she did the Exploring Creation with Chemistry and physics book. In 7th they did the new Wile series for something new-Science in the Age of Reason along with a self study of marine life and animals at home. We did the unit study from Reasons to Believe on Earth science one summer. In 8th grade she did a co-op class using public school texts, kind of a general science year. And in 9th she's using a public school texts for Physical science. 

She'll move into biology next year.

So you can see, I haven't worried about following any publisher's exact plans. My kids have been well prepared for high school science.

In fact, I wouldn't have messed with so many textbooks at all except that my kids liked doing science in co-op with friends. I actually would gave preferred to stick with WTM style elem. and middle school spines and experiments. 

 

 

[Junie]

I didn't use the elementary books with my older kids.

Dd12 has enjoyed them, but I don't think she will finish before moving on to the General Science book.  She and I actually had a discussion about this the other day.  There is one more book that she wants to do; she will be starting that in a few weeks and work on it through the summer.

My littlest two girls *might* be able to finish the series.  We have found that the audiobooks really help to speed up the pace.  We don't do most of the activities, but I listen with them and they tell me the answers to the discussion questions.

 

[Dudley]

You could do more than one a year ... we are doing astronomy in 20wks this year 3- 4 days a week.  We don’t do any writing, but lots of activities.  I spent the rest of the year on earth science 5wks on weather and 7wks on rocks/plate tectonics. , I just pulled together resources -picture books with some Gods design lessons and Janice van cleave activities

I haven’t used much of the other books they may require more time 

[RenaInTexas]

We used Christian Kids Explore Earth Science and did it at the same time as Apologia Zoology - but my kids love science. So two sciences a year is normal for us.

[withgrace]

 

My daughter is year 6 and we are just starting these books this year, so don’t feel restricted by the suggested timeline. Admittedly, I don’t intended to get through the whole series, it’s just too late at this stage! We are doing 2 this year and 2 next year then moving onto the next series. I’m focusing on a mix of her favourite topics and a couple of areas of her study that has holes in it.