Apologia Science & CM?

Apologia’s books are not living books in the CM sense of the word, however they are written in a conversational style. They present all scientific terminology and at least the upper level books are very thorough in presenting the material. I have a strong science background and I have been impressed with the material covered in the books.

Though you may be able to find some good living books covering some of the material taught in biology, it would be very difficult to find living books on chemistry, for example. As far as the General Science and Physical Science books are concerned, the material covered in each of these books is very general. If you have been very broad in your living book selections for science to this point, then these books will probably be mostly review. They do introduce some scientific terminology that is not usually presented in living books. So, if learning the correct terminology is important to you, you should start with at least the Physical Science book.

You can easily fit them into the CM style by continuing to read living books. You may not be able to find living books that correspond with the material being taught but that shouldn’t stop you from enjoying living books!

If your child is planning on attending college, then I highly recommend that he complete a course in at least biology, chemistry, and physics. However, if your child has no plans for college then continuing with just living books and maybe some experiments might be okay. That is entirely up to you and what your state requires.

I know that the books can be expensive but they are non-consumable and can be used for all the kids in a family. The cheapest place to buy them right now is Christian Book Distributors.

Hope that helps.

We just bought our first big fat “textbooks’–Apologia Biology. It sure did give me a turn when I unpacked the box–it looked like my old high school/college texts I hated! LOL But when I went through it, I found it wasn’t so bad. I like Karen, feel it is important for my sons to have a “traditional” science course. He wants to become a veterinarian and is very science-oriented. He’s enjoyed all the living books and nature study we’ve done, but he needs a good grounding in lab science courses to succeed in college. So we have a big fat textbook! LOL We plan on adding in several living books as well. I think that once the basic desire to learn is in place, that a student can then “make” his learning interesting himself, even if he has to cope with textbooks–which will surely happen for the college-bound. I know I did that in college myself by rewarding myself with M&M’s for successfully reading and outlining a boring chapter in something. 😉

Michelle D

Hey! I thought that this might be helpful to somebody. Barb, aka. “Harmony Art Mom” just posted a link (on the AmbleRamble yahoo group) to a web page she’s created to share how she made Apologia’s Biology course more CM friendly, even coordinated the modules to Comstock’s Handbook of Nature Study. I’ve bookmarked it to use when we do this Biology course in a couple of years. Here’s the link. http://www.squidoo.com/apologiabiology

😉

This is so cool, Linda; Thanks!

Cindy

That’s OK, Cindy. I must admit I was wondering about your comment until I saw your second post. I understand now…… (grin)

Linda

Hi Heather,

My dd just uses the textbook and test booklet. We actually have the companion CD but keep forgetting to use it (duh). It mainly contains support material for the text. You can also get a CD with the whole textbook on it, but I prefer hardcopy. My dd has been chatting on for days now about incline planes, wedges and mechanical advantage so she definitely is gaining from this course….. 🙂

Glad to help.

Linda