I'm just finishing Considering God's Creation with my 3rd and 4th grader. I'm interested in both God's Design or Apologia for next year. I'm not sure about teaching on the same topic for an entire year; however, I've heard that Apologia is wonderful...and the workbook is great. If you've used either of these, please share your feelings about them. Do you have to do God's Design in order...b/c my son is eager for chemistry...while my daughter is happy with animals all the time. Also, I'm wondering if God's Design is written in a text book format, b/c I'd rather stay away from that. Thanks
I've never used God's Design. I love Apologia, though. I actually PREFER learning/teaching one topic at a time. I always hated books that jumped from topic to topic. I learned way more in high school and college (science minor) than I ever dreamed of learning in elementary. My son is learning a lot, too. There is no elementary chemistry book in the Apologia series. The high school chemistry and advanced chemistry courses would be way over the head of someone with a 3-4 grade knowledge of math. It requires at least Algebra II to be taken at the same time, if I remember correctly.
I alternate by semester between Real Science 4 Kids [3 in a series - biology, chemistry, physics] and Apologia. You might like the look of Real Science 4 Kids as it uses a font that looks like the cartoon fonts and it uses cartoon pictures/illustrations to explain stuff. At least, the pre-level series does; I haven't yet looked at the main series.
We are really enjoying apologia right now. I'm not sure that we will spend an entire year on the one book though. Sometimes we move thru it slowly...and others more rapidly
