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How do I CMize Apologia General Science?
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Do I just have him narrate very small portions? Did you use the test or have written narrations?
Has anyone used the Live and Learn notebooking resource that go along with these books?
My younger kids are narrating from The Nature Study Handbook and Christian Liberity Nature readers, but my oldest is ready for some prep work for moving into HS science.
I would greatly appreciate finding out how others used it.
Great question, Caroline, as I myself have wondered about this.
It was very easy to CMize Jeanie Fulbrights Elementary Apologia courses because of the notebooking assignments and suggested narration portions already in the course. However, I found once my son hit the General Science this year for 7th grade, it wasn’t as easy to incorporate CM.
What we’ve done is oral narrations in place of the tests. He also keeps a science notebook where he logs experiments and writes out the “on your own” and study guide Q & A’s.
I look forward to hearing what others have to say too. 🙂
Blessings,
Heather
We thought about “adjusting” the course CM style. However, on reflection, I decided not to for my family. All my sons are very science-oriented and are headed to college, where I seriously doubt any of the professors will be altering their courses to suit CM style. So I decided to make this not just a science course, but a “how to get learning from a textbook and how to take chapter tests even if it’s not the best way to learn” course. It’s not perfect, but I feel it is preparing them for “real life” later. Obviously someone might come to a very different conclusion if their sons are not headed for science majors at a college, but just in case someone else’s might be, I wanted to toss out the possibility that a great time to “get used to” texts and tests might just be Apologia. We still discuss ways we could get living learning going on, such as reading a bio or observing an animal or something, but I am finding that they are making the adjustment fairly well, all things considered.
Just a thought!
I agree with Bookworm. I used the Apologia science books as an introduction to how to use a textbook and take tests. I felt it was important for my boys to learn this as they will be taking at least some college classes. As Bookworm stated, college professors are not going to alter their courses to fit a CM style. It’s better for my children to learn how to use a textbook in the home than in the college class.
Another thing to be aware of is that although Apologia is “textbooky” it is much better than most textbooks out there. My son found that out this past year. He has been studying for CLEP exams and has had to read a few textbooks. One textbook was for a science test. He started reading it, but ended up setting it aside and grabbing the Apologia books to study. He realized how much easier they are to read than the standard textbook.
Thank you ladies! I think I am going to get the lapbooks that you can make to go along with the texts. It looks like a good way to review questions and grill without it being too painful. I see your point about getting used to text books too. Maybe I will slowly transition from narrating to test taking.
Thanks!
I should have mentioned that my dh thinks it would be good to have our ds start taking the tests next year too – because he plans on going to college for engineering. This year has been a transition for him to ease into the science textbooks, so we have left the tests out.
However, next year he will be taking the course (as Michelle stated it so beautifully)”…how to take chapter tests even if its not the best way to learn”. I was glad to hear the others share. 🙂
Have a great weekend!
I wanted to add a funny story my husband told me yesterday. He said in his college biology course that his professor used CM–although he probably didn’t know it! He would have the students read a chapter and then would randomly call on students to narrate what they read. It terrified them. No one could hide behind pre-formatted answers.They also had to do written essays on what they learned.
I doubt many profs will use this method, but I thought is was interesting.
Caroline, we are using the Live and Learn booklets for Zoology 2. It’s really bogging us down. That may be because my guys are younger and I would not necessarily have them do all that writing, if not for these booklets. They do enjoy the look of their notebooks, though, and are willing to persevere on. I would not say that doing the books results in more comprehension, per se. However, they like to look at them and so that makes them review it. I’m thinking I’m going to switch from having them write out the answers to illustrating them as much as possible. Also, it’s a lot of ink and cutting.
My daughters that are in Biology are also using Live and Learn. I thought the same thing as far as retention because they ‘handle’ the information more. It’s not really resulted in that. 😐 For them, there is no bogging down though, because they would be doing the same amount of writing; it’s just a matter of where they are writing it. They do think it’s a little juvenile, but they are being very good sports.
For both of these levels, I wish there was a little more individuality in their work. Everyone’s stuff looks the same. That could be overcome with additional work put into the notebook, I suppose.
Blessings,
Cindy
Thank you Cindy,
Your info has really, really helped. I was thinking that the class would be more “fun” if I added the notebooks, but I can see how it would just add up to extra work. I, personally, am not too crafty and didn’t really want to do it, but I was trying to hard to make a text book more fun.
I am thinking that narrating small portions and slowly moving into the more typical lessons and testing will be the best route.
I appreciate your candor on this. Hearing how it goes in the trenches really can help prevent mistakes.
I greatly appreciate this post, especially since I am trying to locate CM styled science material for middle grades. I am glad to finally see people admit that Apologia is a textbook curriculum and not CM styled.
I can understand the desire to prepare children for college courses that use textbooks, but do you do the same thing for other topics? Why exactly do you single out science versus, say, history?
I attended a liberal arts college, and we actually used a lot of living books in our courses — original works by theologians, philosophers, politicians, poets, novelists. But we had our share of textbooks as well.
Textbooks are dull. But is understanding them really harder than understanding a living book? I’ve been really thinking about this question. The skill sets may be slightly different, but I think that using a textbook is actually easier in the sense of the headings and bold text and glossary and such. If you can learn how a textbook is laid out, you can figure out easily what the key points are and study them. However, with a living book there is more of using your own mind to find the key points. Is the transition to textbooks really that difficult? I mean, if you take the boredom factor out of the equation. On a purely comprehension level, aren’t textbooks actually easier? All the engaging narrative is taken out and all that’s left is the factual guts.
JIMMIE:
Hi i was going through the CM Science posts and found this topic and wanted to bring it up again,you were going to put together one of your own possibly if you couldnt find one out there, i was wondering if you did that or if you found something out there? I keep searching and searching and cant find anything except very old science reading books(yesterdays classics)(old fashioned education) and textbook items,,,,I would like up to date science reading books in the style like the old ones (reading books) and no textbooks.Did you find anything (if you did, what is it?) or if you made up your own (How did you start one if you did)? Im teaching 7th grade boy and girl, 4th gr girl, so im thinking general science (all topics about it)for 7th gr, and the 4th gr im using CLP nature readers and library books. Any help you could give me would be appreciated, thanks so much billiejo
And anybody else who found something like im looking for you can post too, i would like all the info i can get, Thanks billiejo
Hi Billiejo,
My son just finished using the Queen Homeschool guide for doing a nature study using “Pagoo”. He really enjoyed this, so much more than most of the science we’ve done. It involved researching topics and writing summaries, using field guides to find information, sketching/drawing, defining science terms, and more. He ended up with a really nice notebook. They have several titles available, although this would just address the life science portion of a general science curriculum. My son will be doing a high school textbook biology next year (unless I somehow come across a living books based high school science…not holding my breath, lol!), but I plan to have him complete at least one more of the Queen nature studies next year, to add some variety and “life” to the program. Anyway, you may want to check out the Queen guides to see if they would be helpful. 🙂
Dawn
Jimmie,
I for one do think that texts are usually harder to read. One big problem for me and for my children is attention. Disembodied facts are so dull! It is a constant effort for me to read most texts, as I have to make a real effort to “connect” the facts I am reading with something I “know” I suppose it is a skill set one can learn, but for me it is one that goes so much against my natural grain that I really struggle. I have so many living books in my memory bank to compare to that when I read something dry on nearly anything, it suffers so much in comparison! All the headings and all that business are actually mind CRIPPLERS, IMO. In my experience with both younger and college students, most students see a heading, a definition, a chapter question, and assume they now “know” They quit thinking. They “learn” this short-term, and then lose it, as it never touched their real minds, the place where we sort out and mull over what we learn. How many textbook captions, titles and “comprehension questions” do you remember from college? I went to a liberal arts college too, with a mix of living and textbooks, and I scarcely remember a single thing about my textbooks. The living books, on the other hand–I remember them. I remember how they looked. I remember where I was when I was reading them. I remember their authors. I remember characters, events, plots, and all because all those “facts” WERE embedded in the “engaging narrative” Now, I remember the narrative, and because I do, I also have the facts intertwined.
A good test for me is to watch Jeopardy. Really. LOL I try to answer the questions (it amuses my kids) and I know, often, that I’ve been EXPOSED to something, that at one time, I knew that little fact–but since it never really entered my imagination, now it’s gone. However, if I read a REAL book about it, even if I was only 9 or 10 at the time, I often can instantly remember.
So, yes, I do think that before college our kids have to learn to learn from textbooks. However, I think the necessary task is to have them find a way to take that dry as dust factual junk and find a way to “embed it in a narrative” and that takes work. It also takes a nearly superhuman effort to focus the attention on something so mind-numbing. I still struggle with it today, and my “attention” is pretty good when I’m reading a living book–sometimes my difficulty is coming OUT of the book–but after working on textbooks for 30+ years, I still struggle to maintain attention.
JMHO!
DAWN:
Hi thanks for mentioning Queens guides i do have there catalog and just got some nice things from them. I will check those out too! thanks so much.
BOOKWORM:
Thanks for the post above, i totally feel exactly the same as you!! I remember nothing from texts and i was on honor roll in public school through the high school years and dont remember much!! My son is in public school end of 10th grade now and cant remember anything after The TEST is taken, he memorizes and then forgets! and he is honor roll also! Goes to show what are they REALLY learning! I love too that he is in FRENCH 3 and cant tell me much in FRENCH!! What are they remembering then??? (he is in public school cause of sports since 7th grade,(no sports available otherwise for his age) says he’d be homeschooled again in a second if it wasnt for sports!)(been on Varsity Hockey team since 8thgr and looking for prep schools etc for a better education and to get into a great college, he wants to be a engineer)so i know what you mean!thanks again.
ALL:
I was thinking that maybe i could just look up the topics covered in any General Science program and just find living books about those topics but i dont know which would be from a creation view and which wouldnt be?? so to find christian base books about each topic will take quite awhile to find i think! I was thinking also to just buy a text (BJU etc),use it as a spine to make sure i do have something about each topic and use living books that i do find. My DD doesnt have much interest in science (we used Abeka textbooks till 5th gr) (then MFW this year gr6) and she did love MFW science more! She isnt going into a science field for her career choices so far so i only want to cover what our state says she has to. Any more advice would be great, i see alot of people looking for a CM style Science for the junior/high school years, maybe someone will see it is big want for people and make one! 😀 thanks again billiejo
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