Name: CHEC Rocky Mountain Homeschool Conference
Start: 2025-06-12T00:00:00-05:00
End: 2025-06-14T23:59:59-05:00
Location: Denver, CO

Tagged: Apologia, High school Apologia schedule, Middle school Apologia schedule, Upper level Apologia science

This topic has 11 replies, 6 voices, and was last updated 8 years, 9 months ago by HollyS.

Viewing 12 posts - 1 through 12 (of 12 total)

Author
Posts
August 7, 2016 at 11:07 am
HollyS
Participant
I’d love to hear about how you’ve handled the Apologia texts for jr high & high school. We are just starting Physical Science, and I’m a bit unsure of how to organize it.
- How much time do you spend on a daily basis?
- Do you have them write out the On Your Own questions, complete lab reports, and or complete the tests?
- Do you do the labs with them?
- How much do you help them with studying? I figured we’d do the first module together, then go from there, but I’m not sure what to expect from her.
- Do you add any extras? It looks like there are online links, as well as the multimedia CD.
- How long does each module actually take you to complete?
- What about grading?
August 7, 2016 at 8:12 pm
beccawalker2000
Participant
I have similar questions since this is our first year using Apologia. We are starting with General Science.
August 7, 2016 at 8:58 pm
mommamartha
Participant
Not that this is a perfect plan and I too flew by my seat. Last year, our 8th grade boy that reads well on his own, completed physical science apologia and this is how I approached him studying it. I took total number of pages in text divided by 100 days and thats the amount of work he completed. so 4-5 pages per day reading over it all and narrating right after, sometimes orally, others written. Then the other 80 days he completed experiments, and scm science books that related to the topics being read. We ordered the lapbook but found it really unnecessary because the questions and answers are in the textbook too. We watched some youtube videos and experiments were done with the whole family. Also still participated with his nature notebook and nature study. I can’t stress enough how much charlotte mason science books really helped with new and or challenging topics. I scoured diff.booklists and only got them if our library system had them, which were many.
Hope this helps. Martha
August 8, 2016 at 3:22 pm
HollyS
Participant
Martha, were than any favorite books you added in? We are adding Physics 101 DVDs and Ocean of Truth (Isaac Newton biography). I also have a Physics Workshop set from Thames & Kosmos, but it looks pretty intimidating! I told my science-loving DS that he’s going to have to help with it. 😉

August 8, 2016 at 6:21 pm
Melissa
Participant
Rainbow Resource sells lesson plans for around $7. Just a simple packet with what to do when. My 14yo used it last year for Physical Science and it was very helpful. I had him read the Newton book and skim The New Way Things Work. Also the Alexander Graham Bell book. I don’t think he read the whole thing but it was fun to have these living books on hand to round out the textbook.
This year he will do Biology. For the lab stuff he is going to do a 2-day Landry Academy lab intensive.

August 10, 2016 at 9:07 pm
mommamartha
Participant
Some of the things used for supplementation were the sowers series biography of George w. Carver, how its made on youtube, Who Built That, What will the weather be?,The frozen wild, 13 architects that every child should know, The big wave, The fantastic story of George Ferris, How it works: simple machines, archimedes and the door of science, Radioactive: how irene curie and lisa meither revolutionized science and changed the world., bio of sir issac newton( sowers series),the clouds ( a manual of types and then we observed them), The Way Things Work, The Birth of An Island.
He’s also in charge of reading the 7 and 10 yr old their sciencce books. His strength is science, so he does much reading in this subject. We also studied 2 months of birds, which was in addition to already work. Then, in May. our family traveled the country for a month and he read much about our national parks, famous buildings of places like hoover dam, fort pitt in, pa,
So, needless to say we did much more than the topics covered in the textbook!
All the extra books were from the public library. ‘
BLESSINGS, maRTHA
August 11, 2016 at 10:06 am
HollyS
Participant
Melissa, I have those plans too…They seem like they will be a big help!
Martha, I love the idea of having an older child read aloud the younger children’s books! We are using CKE for the younger grades, and they have lots of library book suggestions, but it’s always hard to fit them in! My 2nd oldest loves science, so maybe I could put him in charge of some readings.
Becca, I know you are just getting started too, but I’d love to hear your plans (if you’ve gotten that far).
I didn’t realize SCM had a list of books to add into Apologia (I thought they just had lists for younger grades), so I was excited to find those earlier this week. I had a couple already planned into our year, but that will give me some selections if DD has some extra reading time.
I’m still trying to figure out labs…if I should have my younger ones watch or not. Or how to go about grading, but I think that will come as I go…at least I hope it does. 😉

August 11, 2016 at 12:18 pm
Tristan
Participant
We have done General, Physical, and Biology. Makayla did all pretty independently, she would come talk with me when something wasn’t making sense to her or if she just wanted a partner. The younger kids generally loved watching her do labs, but we never required it. The first book she was much slower to progress through the first several modules while she got a textbook science under her belt. A schedule is helpful! We usually chose to skip the tests, because the study guide and tests are the exact same material. We were more concerned about getting the material into her than in working on test taking skills. Makayla generally took 2 weeks per module after she got into a groove (it was 3-4 weeks per module for the first couple modules). We do have her write out answers to the On Your Own questions, do labs, and write lab reports.
Did she love it? No. But we wanted her to get a solid start with it and she did.
This year she’s doing two online science courses through Landry Academy – Veterinary Science I and Veterinary Science II. I’m thrilled to outsource science this year! She’s also continuing her home designed Herpetology (reptile study) course she began last year, and has added a ball python to her bearded dragons she’s raising. Currently she’s deep in genetic studies to figure out what morphs would be ideal to breed with her female python to have specific pattern possibilities in the babies. (She has a Ghost morph currently.)
August 11, 2016 at 3:59 pm
HollyS
Participant
Baby snakes? You are much braver than me! I think snakes are beautiful…from a distance.
I haven’t looked closely at the tests yet, but that’s definitely something to consider. We tend to either skip tests or use them for review, as they seem to be more of a classroom tool for figuring out where the class stands.

August 14, 2016 at 7:16 am
Melanie32
Participant
It seems that we have ended up taking an integrated science approach due to following my daughter’s interests. We are working on Apologia Biology, Classical Astronomy and a living books approach to marine biology. We will work on one for a month or so and then switch to another for a month, and so on. It’s working very well for us so far. Charlotte Mason used an integrated science approach instead of working on one science topic per year. We are finding it more interesting to switch things up a bit.
Since I am down to homeschooling one, I am able to do science with my daughter so when we are working on Apologia, we read together and do the On Your Own exercises orally. I have her complete the Study Guide independently and we sometimes do the tests orally. I have also had her take a test here and there just to familiarize her with the process. I also have her keep a science notebook in which she draws various diagrams and illustrations to complement her studies.
I had my son work independently when he did Apologia science. I varied his assignments, sometimes having him complete the modules in a traditional manner, and other times having him write papers on each module.
August 14, 2016 at 7:39 am
Melanie32
Participant
I forgot to add how we schedule Apologia.
We usually just read to an On Your Own exercise, do it orally and then stop for the day. Sometimes they are spaced more closely and we read through to a second On Your Own exercise. It takes us about 2 weeks per module this way and we are able to keep lessons to a reasonable amount of time.
August 14, 2016 at 8:47 am
HollyS
Participant
Melanie, I love the idea of integrated science…I really wish we had some curriculum choices which follow that pattern. It makes so much more sense, especially with the more “math-y” science areas like balancing chemical equations or calculating vectors.
My artistic DD would love the notebook idea. She did her first lab report on Thursday, and the diagram was drawn in a comic book style. 🙂