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Apologia General Science Over 2 Years…Questions
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My dd11 will be in 6th grade next school year which will be the fall for us. Thus far we’ve used loads of living books on a wide variety of science topics both for fun and for school with narration, Apologia Astronomy, Apologia Botany and this year The Storybook of Science by Fabre. She has requested science with some experiments next year. I’ve been looking at a variety of resources and am considering starting her in General Science and taking 6th-7th grades to do it. I have a few questions as I’ve not yet held the actual resources in my hands.
- With the amount of science she has had thus far, is this plan wise?
- Thoughts on the DVD lessons or perhaps DVD with the textbook?
- How are the experiments?
- Will she be able to do it mostly independently?
- What about using either Donna Young’s free lesson plans or this plan by Schola Press? Thoughts? Reviews?
- Ideally, I’d like to spend 3 days per week on science. Would that be practical with this course spread over 2 years?
- Will she be bored to tears if we take two years to do it?
- Are there any living science books, biographies, reference books that you’d recommend to go along with this text?
Thanks in advance for your answers. I’ll be back with more queries as I start planning.
Blessings,
Christie
One more question, actually a few more …
- I read somewhere that some prefer an older edition. Is the new edition fine? I’d like to buy it with a kit from an online site easily, if we go with it.
- We are NOT a lapbooking family, but are there pre-made type things that could be used or any other go alongs you’d recommend?
- We’ve never given tests, either, except for math. Wondering about just using narration or using it in conjuction with the tests or …?
My oldest (7th gr.) is using Gen. Science also, and at the rate his is going it will probably take 2 school years to get through. Each module/lesson is suppose to take a certain amount of time (2-3 weeks, I think) but most of the time it takes much longer, for a variety of reasons. It is just taking longer than I thought it would and that was not the plan, but just the way it has turned out. To keep him from getting bored (and what has probably made it take longer) I have him attend an in-home science class approx. 1 x a month, nature study, and field trips that include science-y activities, as well.
I have not needed to help him with the experiments, other than holding something for him or purchasing items at Walmart..they are pretty self explanatory.
We have a cd-rom that has some visuals/pronounciations, which are helpful…actually the first Module’s presentation would’ve really helped him if I would’ve used it before the test 😉
I have him do the study guide ques. and take the tests. We discuss the SG ques. (after he’s completed them) and use the book to help understand the concepts the best we can, then he takes the test. I think that process is what takes the longest to get through. I have to really make time to sit with him and go over the ques. and correct the test, then go over those, etc…..it can take a bit of time, for us anyway.
I hope this is helpful. He likes it enough to continue and he’s the type that isn’t really into science all that much anyway, so even if I offered another program he probably wouldn’t care.
HTH
ETA: I believe we have an older edition. We don’t have any kits or lapbooks (not crazy about those, either, at least not anymore). I just printed out the list of needed supplies for experiments and highlighted the things we needed from the store and made a container for the supplies. Pretty much everyday items. He does the experiments as they come, I take pics, and LOL when necessary.
We do the tests, but I think there’s only 10 ques. on a test and they kind of come from the Study Guide ques. that I allow to be “open book”. I don’t allow open book for the tests, but there’s not that many ques., the Study Guide questions are longer, like 20.
We did this with my middle son over 2 years.
There are not a huge number of experiments. It seemed like a “downgrade”‘ to us after what we’d been using, which was God’s Design. It is a good solid basic first “textbook” science course, but it is not always exciting. Module 1 in particular has been accused of dullness. The topics are pretty different and have quite a range–if she likes it the first year I see no reason she’ll have trouble with being bored the second year. The experiments are OK–not jaw-dropping, but if she’s not done many it should be OK. My son read and answered the On Your Own independently; I “lab-assisted” at some of the experiments and showed him how to fill out the lab reports, and I helped him learn how to study and begin taking exams. There is a lot to really learn here–lots of vocabulary, although not as much as will be needed in biology. This is where I start taking a turn from narration-only; narration isn’t quite sufficient to learn large bodies of scientific terms. We learn how to study and then learn how to test. This course is a good intro for that.
I have no idea what the DVD lessons are. I never heard of them and don’t see them on the website. There is a CD of someone reading the book, there is a multimedia CD–those are nice, and there is the book on CD-Rom. We had that. I did not like it, we both would have preferred a written text plus the multimedia CD. I can’t answer about a DVD because I’ve never seen one and it must be made by another company to go along?
We used Donna Young’s lesson plans and cut the amount in half for each day. I never tried doing it for three days. When we hit this level, for retention purposes I believe a short amount daily is preferable so that’s when we move to daily lessons.
The supplies for General Science are really, really, really basic. Mostly just household stuff. So I didn’t buy a supply kit. Do check the lab list on the Apologia site and see if you really need it.
We’ve never done the lapbook elements, my second son would have rebelled. If we use it with #3, I might consider it, but using little dinky paper folds for basic science info seems busyworkish to me so not something we’ve tried.
We go ahead in this text and start the process of learning how to prepare for and answer actual test questions. I do narration combined with On Your Own for the daily work but we use the study questions as an assignment, go over how to answer things when asked, and do the test. In my experience the first few tests done this way are a pretty steep learning curve. Being able to use actual factual data to answer specific questions is a very different beast than just telling what you learned or remember. I personally find it a useful skill for later.
We always read a scientist bio each year and do a number of living books, especially nature-oriented, at this age as well. I’m not sure which ones you might have read in the past. We schedule in time for them separately on the schedule and I don’t try to “make” them fit the book outline. I’d just glance through the resource then go looking for things that fit the topics or people that most interest your daughter.
Thanks, ladies, for sharing your experiences with me.
The DVD I mentioned was actually the CD-Rom, I called it the wrong thing. I was leaning toward the book & multimedia cd.
We LOATHE cutting & pasting, but the kit from Knowledge Box Central has some notebooking type sheets to go with the On Your Own and the lab reports partially filled in. These looked helpful as a bridge into keeping our own lab book. We would skip the cut/paste work and simply make notes of study questions differently. These along with Donna Young’s scientist study sheet could be useful, I think.
We school 4 days a week. We could do any program daily those days, but our 5th day is spent at co-op, piano lessons, etc. That’s probably an important way to help remember those terms, etc.
Re. living books, I wouldn’t try to fit them in either, but simply schedule them separately. Just wondering of any good titles not to be missed.
Are there other science curricula that you might recommend as a good foundation for 6th/7th grades to cover a variety of topicss like this, but with more interesting experiments? Jaw dropping with well written science text would be great! I looked at R.E.A.L. Science Odyssey, Real Science 4 Kids and I wasn’t bowled over, though each had interesting points. I purchased Supercharged Science by Aurora Lipper (online thing) and I love the idea of it, but I cannot for the life of me figure out how to easily use it.
My ideal probably doesn’t exist, but I would like well-written, great labs and wide range of topics. It would be self-directed as much as possible and able to be done mostly independently. Anything out there?
After much review,
Just a quick update, I narrowed it to these Apologia and RS4K. Then I asked my daughter. She wanted both. So, we opted for the RS4K for 6th grade and will do Apologia General in 7th. This way my ds8 will do the RS4K Pre-Level of the same topics. I’ve ordered the books and the lab kits and that’s one less thing to plan for!
Thanks for helping me think it through.
Christie
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