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second thoughts on curriculum choices

Tagged: Apologia, bird study

This topic has 14 replies, 14 voices, and was last updated 12 years, 10 months ago by Britney.

Viewing 15 posts - 1 through 15 (of 15 total)

Author
Posts
August 9, 2012 at 1:04 am
bethanna
Participant
We have completed four weeks of our new term and I am a little disappointed with Apologia Flying Animals. We have only covered lesson (chapter) one and will only cover birds before the baby is born. I decided to save bugs for after when I feel more like getting outside. Anyway, the book just seems …boring? My daughter has not complained though so maybe it’s just me. Are there any living books about birds that I could add besides Burgess?
August 9, 2012 at 1:24 am
Renelle
Participant
I sort of know what you mean. I found them drier than I expected. Great information and ideas but I found them more textbook like than living book like, kwim? So yes, we found them boring at times.
We still use some of it but haven’t used it in it’s entirety. We have been enjoying other Nature Study living books atm eg Outdoor Secrets and Jack’s Insects are among some other Australian related resources.
The bird books we have are Australian like The Best Nest. We seem to have more on the ocean, trees, plants, bugs and insects than we do birds, so can’t help atm.
I’ll keep my eye out.
Blessings, Renelle

August 9, 2012 at 1:24 am
LDIMom
Participant
bethana, we used flying creatures first, and I have to say it was boring at first. I guess for me it was “are we really going to study birds for a whole year???” But then it did pick up, though it would still be my least favorite of the 3 Apologia Elementary animal books.
Having said that, I would suggest a bird ID if you have any birds that visit your yard. You could start a journal with your kids of the ones you see, and that is fun to look back over.
We have this book, which we found extremely helpful, and it is nice hardbound book.
http://www.amazon.com/National-Audubon-American-Birdfeeder-Handbook/dp/0789403374/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1344475324&sr=8-1&keywords=national+audubon+north+american+birdfeeder+handbook
Ours is the 1992 edition, but it looks like you can find newer used editions too.
I would say try to stick with it b/c it is a great book that we all enjoyed once we got going, but yes, it is slow at first.
August 9, 2012 at 1:26 am
csmamma
Participant
Have you checked the SCM bookfinder? There are lots of ideas there. The John Audobon Bio’s are good The Boy Who Drew Birds and Into the Woods . Also, our favorite way to learn about birds was to set up a bird sanctuary. We enjoyed feeding, housing, watching, drawing, and tracking them.
August 9, 2012 at 1:36 am
pianogirl363
Participant
Hi Bethanna,
We did a bird nature study a few years back, when my girls were in K and 2nd grade. I shared our favorite books and resources from that study in a blog post that may be helpful to you.
http://wheremytreasureis.wordpress.com/2010/02/16/learning-together-tuesday-birds/
We’ve used sections of Apologia’s Young Explorers Series books mostly as spines to make sure we weren’t “missing” anything, but most of our study was from other sources, because we found them to be a bit dry at times, too.
~Anna
August 9, 2012 at 2:16 am
Tristan
Participant
I agree that a field guide helps (fun to browse it!), and some picture books to keep the birds theme moving, like “When Agnes Caws”, “Owl Moon”,
even a chapter book like “The Trumpet of the Swan”.
Are there any places you can go to observe birds beyond those you might see near your house? A pond/lake for waterbirds, a bird exhibit or aiviary at a local zoo?
August 9, 2012 at 2:27 am
crazy4boys
Participant
I found Apologia to be dry and a tab boring as well. But it DID get better…or maybe our brains became numb??? We did add some living books and they loved doing a bird ID/count – we posted a list by the window and added to it whenever we saw a new bird (and counted how many times we saw X bird). We kept a field guide right by it so we could identify them.
August 9, 2012 at 3:08 am
andream
Participant
I love your blog post pianogirl! Thanks for sharing. I’ll consider that next year for my second grader and kindergartner.
August 9, 2012 at 4:47 am
Jennifer WI
Member
Both of my boys LOVED reading the Apologia books. I had started them at one point, reading aloud to them, but for some reason that didn’t go all that well. Perhaps they were just too young. ::shrug:: I dropped them at that time and when they were old enough they devoured them on their own.
August 9, 2012 at 5:21 am
missceegee
Participant
My oldest enjoyed the Apologia books when she read them on her own, but we disliked them as read alouds, too.
August 9, 2012 at 4:55 pm
Marcee
Member
ACK! I have planned to do Zoology I, Flying Creatures of the 5th Day with my 3rd grader this year. I looked at one of the books last year and absoulutley thought it was dry and BORING! But, it always gets such high ratings. I have to say, I absolutley do not like teaching science. Last year we used Properties of Ecosystems and I would have rather had a hot poker put in my eye However, we LOVED Outdoor Secrets. Hmmmmmmm…………………rethinking now.
August 9, 2012 at 7:40 pm
bethanna
Participant
Thank you for all the suggestions. I really like the idea of using the Apologia books as a spine, like other books are in history. Now to get myself moving towards that…
August 10, 2012 at 8:22 pm
4myboys
Participant
We have been using Flying Creatures and find it ok. My oldest enjoys it better than my younger, but then he enjoys reading non-fiction nature/camping/fishing/out-door survival type books and magazines. I find that it’s easy to lose the momentum of it (Flying Creatures). I am considering switching to Jack’s insects for my younger or some of the other living science selections. He’s only in 3rd grade. My 6th grader I was planing to finish Flying creatures then move on to swimming and land for the 2nd have of 6th and 7th, then move to apologia General in 8th. BUt I am looking at having him do all of those on his own. If all we do in elementary is nature study, a few living books and the occassional video and experiement, I think we’ll be fine. We can learn so much science from just every day activities and observances. It’s jr. high and high school that I am concerned about more formal science.
August 10, 2012 at 8:33 pm
MissusLeata
Participant
We are studying birds right now, too. But we are using Burgess’ book. As a supplement, we have this video: http://www.answersingenesis.org/PublicStore/product/Your-Backyard-Birding-fun-for-the-whole-family,6732,187.aspx
My kids really enjoy it and are easily learning from it.
August 10, 2012 at 11:50 pm
Britney
Member
We began Flying Creatures about 3 weeks ago with a 9 and 5 year old and they are loving it. Of course the classification section can be hard to get through. Also, because of the season we started in, we skipped to the insects section and are working on it first. (If you do this you must do lesson 1 first though) We are enjoying it. My kids have always been creeped out by bugs but they are slowing learning that they are pretty cool. We have learned some interesting things and some really gross things. Over all, they like it so far.

Viewing 15 posts - 1 through 15 (of 15 total)

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