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Apologia Courses – Notebooking Journals?
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For those who use the elementry apologia courses, do you recommend using the notebooking journals? Why or why not?
Yes, I recommend the notebooking journal! It is a great way for your children to begin practicing written narrations in a small space that won’t overwhelm. My ds has loved the minibooks and crossword puzzles that are included at the end of each lesson. Although we haven’t used the copywork selections, both cursive and manuscript are included, which is nice. I would have used the copywork pages if we hadn’t already purchased a cursive curriculum. I like the review questions at the end of each lesson. Sometimes I will have my son dictate his answers to me because his hand does get tired of writing, but I still know that he’s getting and understanding the information. Although I have chosen a different curriculum than Apologia for next year, it’s not because these products aren’t worth it. I wanted to study something that Apologia doesn’t offer (Real Food and Nutrition for Kids). We will definitely be returning to Apologia in the future!
I agree. We love the notebook journals – if you can afford them, they are well worth the cost. We have both a junior one and a regular one and they are a great supplement to the material – especially because we’re not taking “tests” and forcing them to memorize names and definitions, the notebooking journals help them to learn these things in a fun way without being tedious. And there are enough activities in each journal that you really don’t even need to buy one for each child – though they are a nice keepsake… You could use one just like you would a family Book of Centuries and let each child sign their name to the pages they complete on their own.
I must be in the minority, but I really don’t like them that well. I was super excited when we got them (just started them around Christmas), but now I find it too much busy work. Often we only do a few pages in each chapter in the books and that bring in the guilt factor for me because I feel like I’ve wasted our homeschool budget on something we’re not completely using.
Anyway, for my older boys (6th & 4th grade), it’s okay, but my 1st grader I find it a waste. He even has the junior notebook, but it’s often too hard for him to do by himself. In the book extras part of the Apologia site, they have printable notebooking pages and I think I might opt for that next year. My oldest will go on to the General Science, but my younger two will start Flying Creatures. I need to look at the notebook at the homeschool store to see, but I think the printable things on the website will be just fine for us. Then again, I might change my mind, but I’m not really feeling the love for the notebooking journals right now. I really love the notebooking concept and we use that in many areas of our homeschool, but this particular item isn’t cutting it for me right now. Sorry I sound like Debbie Downer, we are all really love the textbook tho and I plan to continue using them.
P.S. We’re doing the anatomy book this year.
I’m in between the above posters:) We’re on our 4th Apologia Elem. book and this is the first year we’ve bought the journals (Anatomy). I agree about the busywork….so we don’t do everything. However, they do help keep us doing more notebooking than we were before, so I’m thankful for that. And since it’s so professional looking both my kids take the time to do their best handwriting, drawings, etc. (more so than what they’ve done in the past when I just had them write in plain notebooks). I haven’t printed pages, but think that would be a good option, too. All-in-all I’m pleased that I can just grab it on days I want to do some journaling w/hardly any prep. But if I had to let something go out of my budget, these would probably be it. How’s that for both sides of the fence? :)Gina
I agree with Gina — the journals can be nice especially for kids who really enjoy writing, drawing, crossword puzzles etc. I am using them for my 6th and 7th grade sons this year and it hasn’t been a big hit. For kids who would rather just read it and then do an oral or written narration, they’re really too much, and then you end up with lots of empty pages. Some other options are the free notebook pages from the website or you could do a lapbook. A Journey Through Learning has lapbooks for the Apologia science books. We haven’t tried those, but have used others from them and they’re good.
I’m a bit late chiming in here, but I thought why not? We have been using the Apologia Science books for quite a few years now, and I agree on the “busywork.” My kids moan, groan, & complain about the crosswords & the minibooks. They dislike most of the notebooking journal activities. And, truthfully, with all of the experiments laid out in the textbook, it’s a little difficult to get to it all. I also feel guilty about not using the entire book, so I’m changing up for next year. While I enjoy the copywork, the rest of it is just a time waster for my kids. They really don’t get that much out of the rest. They can quote from the textbook, but they rarely get excited about the notebooking journal. So, in the upcoming school year (grades 4 & 6 for my kids), I am planning for them to use a plain composition notebook for jotting down notes & important facts.
On a different note, I do highly recommend spending the extra $$ on the lab materials. It saves so much time & headache. Practically everything you need is included, and what is not can easily be found around the house.
It’s got to depend on the student. My 6th grade ds loves his notebooking journal. He doesn’t do each and every page or mini book but it helps him to feel like he is doing more with the text besides just reading/narrate. We did the Swimming Creatures some time back and my biggest regret is not having a journal for him. And, I second the lab kits (rainbow resource). One of my better purchases in 9 years of homeschooling!
We used the purchased notebook for Astronomy and agree it was too much. At the end of the course there were many pages that we didn’t use. We have used the free notebooking pages offered on their web site for Swimming Creatures and now Botany and love them! I print them double side and bind with Pro-Click binder. These printed sheets are the type we were using from the purchased notebooks; they usually have a space to draw a picture then a space to write about it. My kids really like looking back over their work and it is great review. I like the review questions too, but they are in the text and we go over them orally. We read a little from the text four times per week and use our notebooks 1-2 times per week.
We have gone three different ways on this: with the purchased notebook journal, with the free notebooking pages and on our own with just oral and some written narrations. I agree that the purchased journals included busywork and most of the journal didn’t get completed. Of the five children I am currently homeschooling, one of them would LOVE to do the complete journal, the others …. ‘meh’. This year (Anatomy) I took uncompleted pages out of the journal, (they were left over from older kids) combined them with some of the free pages and bound new journals for my younger kids. It gives them four or five pages per chapter and it’s perfect for us. I would be thrilled to be able to purchase something like this, but I hate buying the complete journal and then ‘wasting’ over half of it.
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