Our family loves science and our favorite science curriculum is Apologia Science.
The textbooks are conversational and are loaded with scientific information without overwhelming the student. I love that the textbooks not only present science from a creationist viewpoint, but also arm your students with facts to disprove evolutionary science. I have really enjoyed learning the apologetics of science!
Another great feature of this science curriculum is the selection of projects to do in each chapter. There are small projects and big projects that are worthy of using for a science fair.
Apologia also offers notebooks to go along with each of the textbooks, which makes this lapbooking girl very happy 🙂 The notebook is great for reinforcing what the student has learned. This year they are offering a Junior Notebook in a few of the subjects, with less writing and more coloring. We will be doing Anatomy next year and I have purchased the regular notebook for my 3rd grader and the junior notebook for my K/1st grader. It will be nice to work together on one subject but have age-appropriate activities for each of my boys.
Heidi, a contributing author here at Habits for a Happy Home, is a homeschooling mom to three boys, ages 7, 5 and 3. Find her sharing a mixture of couponing, cost savings strategies and more on her blog, Heidi’s Miscellany.
We used Apologia’s Human Anatomy and Physiology curriculum this year and loved it too! (the first part of the year we studied Chemistry) so we’ll be completing the book the first part of next year! I agree, it’s a fabulous science curriculum!
I will be using Apologia for the first time this year. I am not a science person and it’s always been hard for me to fit it in the school day! Do you find that this is somewhat student led?
Most definately student-led for older kids! It is so easy to understand, even my second-grader enjoys reading it! I like to work with him on the notebook to make sure he understands everything he is reading, but for the most part, Apologia covers everything in an easy-to-understand way for the kids. After you start Apologia, you will become a science person!
Oh, definitely! =) I (and consequently, my students) always dreaded science until Apologia! Now, we like it! My 12 year old can follow the lessons and instructions easily without any help from me (although I check on her). Most importantly, she is actually learning about God’s creation, not just cramming facts into her head to be forgotten after the next test.
We’re bringing Apologia’s astronomy course to a close in the next few weeks, too, and have loved it! Have you blogged more about that science project anywhere? I’d love more details, the display looks beautiful! We do an “open house” at the end of the year to show family what we’ve been working on this year. I’d love to make some type of display like this in addition to letting them browse through his notebook. Thanks!
He did this project before I started blogging so I do not have a post about it. The project centered around the question “Why did God create the solar system”. He learned about each planet and the role they play in the solar system – that is what is written under the colored flaps. The pictures at the bottom help explain the role the solar system plays as a whole, such as the calendar, Bible story telling, etc. We got the styrofoam planet kit from Hobby Lobby and he painted the individual planets. The base is a large piece of styrofoam and worked great with the wooden skewers attached to the planets. He painted it black and added some silver star stickers to make it look nicer.
Hope this helps and gives you some ideas for your display!
I’m new to homeschooling and we’re not ready for science yet, but your post encouraged me to look into Apologia, and I have to say I’m more excited about science than ever! And, for those of you shopping for next year, all Apologia elementary curriculum is 30% off at christianbook.com until the end of May! 🙂
So glad to offer some encouragement, science is definately more exciting at our house now! I always buy our Apologia supplies from CBD during their wonderful Apologia sales…such a great deal!
GREAT Heidi!! I also love these Science books. We will be using Swimming Creatures of the 5th day next year. Really looking forward to it!
Heidi,
Thank you so much for your kind words about the astronomy curriculum. Such a precious photograph of your son–it’s so rewarding to see our children learning about God’s Creation and then sharing it with others. I like the way he did his solar system with the Styrofoam base, we had opted to hang ours from the ceiling. But that is a neat way to adapt the activity to make it portable!