What Apologia for 3rd grade?

Discussion in 'Homeschooling' started by butlercrew4, Apr 26, 2010.

  1. butlercrew4

    butlercrew4 New Member

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    Does anyone know how I would find out what Apologia I would use for a 3rd grader? Is this a good science curriculum to use in your opinion? I have looked at reviews and they are good I just like to get some of your opinions also.
     
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  3. Shelley

    Shelley New Member

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    They aren't divided by grades in elementary. They have it set up to follow creation: astronomy, botany, birds/fish, zoology, anatomy....that kind of thing. You can start wherever you like as they don't build off one another. A friend of ours started with zoology and did birds this year. We're doing them in order, but that's just because I feel like doing it that way.

    We'll probably skip birds and go to zoology this year, though.
     
  4. JosieB

    JosieB Active Member

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    My son is taking a class at co-op next semester using Apologia Zoology 1 and they offer the class to K-4th. Zoology 2 next semester will be offered to the same grade levels.

    From what I've read/heard, it's a great resource if you want to use the same curriculum with multiple grades.
     
  5. 2littleboys

    2littleboys Moderator

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    Yeah, what they said. All 6 books are for all elementary ages. You're "supposed" to do them in creation order, but you don't have to. We've done astronomy and air zoology so far. We're doing water & land zoology next year, and botany/anatomy last. (We do them by semester rather than by year so we'll have time to do an overview in the early grades and an in-depth study for the middle grades.)
     
  6. JosieB

    JosieB Active Member

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    Co-op is 16 weeks, so I'm assuming they will kinda just touch on each chapter. (about 1 per week for zoology 1) I'm thinking if we both like it, I may buy it later, when he's older and go more in depth....
     
  7. butlercrew4

    butlercrew4 New Member

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    I guess since we are starting late maybe we will just have to crack down a little. Or get the ones that she is really interested in and spend more time on those. She likes science so it shouldn't be a problem. I just found one of the Zoology 1 books on homeschoolclassifieds for $26 not bad!! I can't wait to get started!

    Public School is almost over :)
     
  8. Embassy

    Embassy New Member

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    I don't particularly like it. I haven't used it, but I did read through their sample chapter on the sun. A couple things stood out to me in that chapter that made it easy to not go with Apologia. As I was reading it, it gave me the impression that the writer was talking down to the reader. It also presented the sun getting brighter and hotter as a fact to prove creation over evolution. Science reports that the sun is getting brighter because it is expanding and it will run out of energy in about 5 billion years. It isn't that their facts were wrong - they weren't complete and it appeared that they left out information that didn't help prove their point. I am also wary of any science text that spends so much energy defending creationism or evolution. Science is about the facts and shouldn't be about defending a theory. Let the facts speak for themselves. I was also not impressed that it told the child to use a big word to impress someone. Here is a quote explaining thermonuclear fusion and puts the idea in a child's head to use big words to impress others. "Something called thermonuclear (thur’ moh new’ klee ur) fusion is making all those little explosions. That’s a big word, but now you know it. So next time someone asks you how the sun gets its power, tell them, “thermonuclear fusion!”" Tell me, do you really think a child learned what thermonuclear fusion meant from those few sentences?

    Well....you did ask for my opinion! BTW, I am a creationist and a Christian. In my son's Kindergarten year I compiled books about dinosaurs from creationist and evolutionist sources and was shocked at how biased both sides were in their presentation of information. Both sides presented information as fact when it was only a theory.
     
  9. Mattsmama

    Mattsmama New Member

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    We are going into 3rd grade in the fall and we will be doing astronomy. If things go well we will probably continue with the others in the order 1, 2 and 3.
     
  10. rmcx5

    rmcx5 New Member

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    We've used Zoo 2 and will start Anatomy this summer (but own all 3 zoology books and astronomy and now the just released Anatomy). They are a super resource even if we don't get to all of them before the middle school General Science (which my oldest is using now).

    If Apologia doesn't appeal, God's Design (see Answers In Genesis website) is also a well-loved curriculum by many creation-based homeschoolers (that aren't wanting a more traditional textbook approach like BJU or Abeka).
     
  11. Shelley

    Shelley New Member

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    In fairness, the book does an entire section on thermonuclear fusion later on. The textbook author often introduces a term early and then explains that you'll learn more about it later on in the book.

    I'm OK with someone not liking Apologia [I personally think every single science text has its strengths and weaknesses; you have to pick what you think you can most easily work around], but I just didn't feel that was a fair assessment of the text in this regard as the book DID end up spending more time discussing the topic later on.
     
  12. Embassy

    Embassy New Member

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    Thanks, that is good to know. I'm sure you can understand how I came to that conclusion based on the quote.
     

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