Saturday, April 11, 2009

Apologia - TOS Crew - Product Review

Some curriculum just fits the user - and this is the case with our family and Apologia Science. We were blessed to receive Flying Creatures of the Fifth Day, a book we've studied (and were able to share!) and Exploring Creation With General Science, which we were planning to purchase for oldest for next year (which he started a bit early for our review purposes!).

What we love about the Elementary series ($35 a book) is that the children are able to completely immerse themselves in a subject for a period of time, instead of just "touching on it" in a cyclical fashion. Our children love the books, and read them aloud to each other during afternoon (or morning, depending on baby's schedule) couch snuggle sessions. They are deeply informative on their given topics (we've also done the Botany, Astronomy, and Marine Animals books), and they include notebooking assignments as well as hands-on activities to enhance and expand learning.

(One personal note: I highly recommend doing a web search for the companies that produce a kit containing most items for any of these given books - it really helped our family be sure not to neglect the hands-on aspect, and enriched our time so much!)

I am equally excited about the General Science curriculum, beginning middle school. It looks to be extremely challenging (needed at this age!)and extremely thorough, incorporating the subject matter into the scientific method, and not abandoning the hands-on approach. What I love about Apologia, though, is that it never abandons content at the expense of "fun," and it never neglects the "fun" in pursuit of content!

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