Do any of you ladies use the God’s Design series for science from Answers in Genesis? We are doing living books right now, but I am looking at doing something different in fall. My kids will be 9, 7 and 5. Is it very CM friendly, or is Apologia better?…any feedback would be greatly appreciated!!
We do this, and we love the solid content and stories and biographies. I’ve heard people who think Apologia is more CM but I don’t care for them as much myself. We’ve liked the God’s Design series since we first encountered the original authors, long before they were bought by AIG. I don’t usually start them until about third grade, though, as we mostly just do nature study before then. Then we run through the God’s Design series, then begin Apologia General Science.
We have been using the God’s Design series this year. It has been a hit for DD9 (4gr) who is very interested in science and her-not-so science oriented mom, me. 🙂 I also added in a science kit for more experiments/activities although that is not necessary. I really like having the biographies included in the book. We are planning to continue the series over the next few years. Also, Bookworm’s other posts with positive comments about it have encouraged me to use it!
Heather, I was wondering if you ended up using God’s Design series and if you enjoyed it? Any other thoughts from anyone else? I have a 9, 7, 5 year old as well. Looking for something Christian based, teacher friendly, CM – like. I really want to open an go. Not a Science person myself, but have boys who are.
Queenybell, I jut saw this question from you. I ended up using Apologia since I found it to be cheaper than the AIG. The children enjoyed it, but I found the AIG materials used for a wonderful price a couple of months ago and I purchased the whole set. I’m looking forward to using it with the kiddos this upcoming year!
We tried Apologia Flying Creatures but God’s Design is just so much more friendly for my kids (8, 6, 4, 3 … well the littler two don’t really participate much, especially since the 4yo speaks little English ). Apologia was quite wordy and the lessons were crazy long for us … maybe it was just us. We’ve started with World of Animals … I love how it breaks it down by level so the littles get a good amount for THEM while the olders don’t get held back. The blue boxes are appropriate without needing a lab kit and I find it much easier to narrate from than Apologia. Just my thoughts, but I do plan on this with living books for all of the series.
I have not used it yet, but just picked up one of the books from the chemistry series. I really like the inclusion of scientist biographies as well as the efforts to include the various learning styles. I believe this will be a much better fit for my kinesthetic ds than the apologia has been. They also encourage you to find books on the topic for each lesson in order to dig deeper. From what I can tell so far, this can really work well with CM. He’s been begging me to do experiments so I was thrilled to find this at our local used curriculum sale. I think I will want to use some of the other series in the future.
I’m considering using the God’s Design series with my 11- and 9-year-old (sixth and fourth grade, respectively). Do you think it would it be okay to mix and match the topics. For instance, I was thinking of using The Human Body, Our Planet Earth, and Heat and Energy, in a trimester fashion, to keep the interest level balanced. How does this sound?
My little guys aren’t in school yet, but I’ve been researching curricula, and AIG’s website actually recommends mixing and matching the texts to fit whatever works for you. For instance, they suggest you could talk about simple machines and the human body in the same year and point out how many joints in your body form simple machines, like levers.
For those who have used this; is it possible to just go with the teacher manual or just the student text and not the whole kit and kaboodle? I want to keep costs down but I didn’t care for Apologia (not really sure why) and this AIG sounds good.
I’m looking for something for science for my youngest three, ages 8, 9 and 11. I’d like something that I could do with all of them, and yet I feel as if the 11 year old should be doing the reading on his own to prepare him for the upper level sciences. How does this curriculum work for that?