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Apologia's Elementary Science series by Fulbright — is it very CM-ish?
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I will just say that I’m not thrilled with Apologia’s high school science books. But the other day I got about 90 seconds to look at one of the elementary books and… well it was such a quick look, but I liked it more than I expected! Granted, I had prejudged it negatively, so maybe it’s because I had low expectations when I saw it that I thought it looked promising. But I am very curious to hear others’ impressions. Do you find it twaddlish? Is it meaningful? Do your children truly connect with it?
I wanted to love RSK (hmm.. is that the one? I think that’s it), but when I saw it ever so briefly just the other day too, it wasn’t what I was hoping for.
And if you have favorable impression of the Apologia books, what would you use if you weren’t going to do the whole series? My oldest elementary is finishing up 3rd grade, so I don’t know that I’d spend more than 2, possibly 3 years, with anything at that level.
I think it is very CM-ish. There are tons of narration questions, fun experiments, links to online videos (we also add in some youtube videos), and it’s written by someone who enjoys the topic. We skip the seperate notebooks and just use the suggestions from the book…the pre-purchased ones seem a bit like busywork to me. My DC are very excited when I pull the book out, and I think they connect with it. It covers the topics much deeper than a traditional book since it focuses on one area…instead of quickly covering many areas in one year like a traditional textbook.
We have done two of them so far…I just have my DC pick out a book. They seem to be more excited when it’s a topic they want to cover. My DC seem to like the zoology books the best. The Anatomy is supposed to be the most challenging, so many moms like to do that before they move to the higher grades. Also, if you aren’t moving on to their HS books, I see no reason why you can’t use their elementary program through 8th grade.
I ahve been trying to decide between Gen Science for my 7th grader or have him do the Anatomy book independently next year. My boys are enjoying the Apologia Science books. We are part way through Swimming Creatures.
I think they would be a good fit. Narration, hands-on projects, copywork and bible references are all part of the curriculum. Now I have some questions about Apologia myself. What ages do you start or did you start the Apologia series? I am thinking about starting next school year with DS being 7 and DD almost 9. Also, I just checked and Amazon and other sites offer the books at heavily discounted prices 30% or less compared to Apologia website. I was wondering if I should order now or do you find those offers all the time? Do you use the Notebooks and do you find them usfull or are theynjust busy work? Since we haven’t started written narration yet would it be better to get the junior Notebooks for both children or should I get the more advanced one for the almost 9 y/o ?
Blessings Christine
I don’t purchase the notebooks. The Apologia books come with a code for a link to extras including most if not all the notebooking pages (not the puzzles, copywork or other like things in the notebook for purchase) and I feel these are sufficient to record our drawings and narrations. The extras also include videos and links to other websites that are part nteresting to check out. We will usually keep my blackberry playbook on hand while working on our lessons incase there is something we would like to look up. The BlackBerry is pretty handy for other subjects, too. I like that I can just tuck it out of the way if it becomes a distraction. Much easier than trying to pull little boys with push-a-button syndrome away from a laptop or pc.
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