I was wondering if anyone has tried the Fulbright "Exploring Creation" books and not liked them or feel less than excited about them. I am pretty nuetral to be honest. I was so impressed with what I saw in the Jr and High school level books that I jumped in on buying the Astonomy book. Logically I can see that it is well planned etc, but I just simply did not get into the Astonomy book when we tried it this year. Perhaps this is because I am not into astonomy, or because, we were already in a different pattern with the lessons we were doing. I would hate for my student to miss out because I am not a motivated teacher when it comes to this topic. Perhaps I just need to sit down and read the book through then check out some other books on the topic to read from the library and get more comfortable with the subject matter. We only did a little of this book then reverted to what we had been doing despite my initial enthusiam about this book. I am considering using it next year, or maybe getting the Botony book since my dd seems pretty into that topic right now. Or perhaps I could get two more and Rotate between them. I actually think that it is the submersion concept that bugs me the most. I have a hard time envisioning staying on topic all school year. Any suggestions are welcome, and you can tell me to grow up and quite whining if you like.
I did "Exploring Creation With Astronomy" with my dd this year. There were a lot of neat experiments, and we liked it! She really enjoyed the concept, and could work a lot on her own with it. We made a notebook with a title page for each planet then put the notes and experiment/lab pages in there. Any tidbit she read that had to do with planets, she wrote down and put it in there. It certainly wasn't a full year for us though---MAYBE about a semester long. We're working on a lapbook thing about the moon now, to go along with her notes and lab reports from the book. This is the only one we've done, so I don't know how long the other books take.
We are doing it right now. My ds LOVES it. Which is fine with me because he didn't like the McGraw Hill science books. So...I reviewed a friends books and then let him decide if he wanted to use them or not. He said he did so....away we went. I like that the activities are easy to do and ds can read and plan them out himself. I just have to do the "adult" type things. But...I think he likes the independence of it. My son is only 8 but...academically...much higher. I thought I'd throw that out there since I'm not sure the age & level of your kiddio.
I have done botany this year and liked it. I haven't tried the one you are talking about but good luck. Lorna
I really like it, too. Although it has taken us all year, we have taken breaks here and there to study other science. I'm thinking of trying to get through more than one next year though.
We did botany last year and loved it. The immersion thing was actually a very neat concept to me. However, this year my daughter chose Astronomy~ because she had other astronomy resources and a bit of knowledge~ and we just haven't gotten into it at all. She's a 6-yr-old second-grader and it just seemed confusing to me. So, we've just been doing our own thing this year. I think we're going with the Zoology I book for next year~ maybe put Astronomy on hold for a few years......
Did I read that right, that when you use these you study the same topic all year? I'm probably just bleary eyed from running off lessons all evening...
Yes, you stay focused on a particular topic. So..instead of doing a zoom fast skim over the top of many things from animals, plants, human body, the way things work, etc... you would spend several weeks - year on the same topic. The kids love it because they get their thirst quenched on the topic before leaving it. With Astronomy we have done a general overview, learned about the Sun, Mercury and we are now on Venus. We make a notebook and do activities. When you buy the book she gives you a website & password for the activity pages. http://www.apologia.com/bookextras p/w Godcreateditall That might help you decide if it's for you or not.
I didn't get a website or password for activity pages?! Huh. My dd is (was) 9 when we were doing the Astronomy. She went into quite a bit of extra detail with stuff she did, and kept notes and stuff, as I said, but it wasn't hard, so she went through it quickly. The ones that are younger could focus on it more and take a bit longer to go through it, and that would work great too!
the password stuff is in the book. One of those updated perks that we were talking about on another thread, eh?
Maybe I just didn't look in the right place! DD did most of the book on her own, so I didn't look at it much at all.
I also forgot that OF COURSE they have a yahoo group. Subscribe: Elem_Apologia_Science-subscribe@yahoogroups.com
My dd seemed to like it also. I guess that it was just hard for me to change gears in the middle of the year. I will use it next year. I am sure she will enjoy making another balloon solar system. Overall it is one of the better "homeschool" science cur's I have seen. I was also under a great deal of pressure from my job and other things about that time and making adjustments was likely part of the problem. Ironically I visited J. Fulbright's website and read articles about teaching attention and short lessons and the fallout of not doing so and was reminded that I need to stop slacking so my dd wont be a scatter brain like me. LOL I am the one who has the problem with submersion, not the student.
We tried the balloon solar system, and for some reason our balloons wouldn't stay up. I think I got a quick picture before they deflated. So, we already had a foam ball solar system craft thing, so she painted those and we set that up. Since she's 9, a little older, it was a more detailed project, so it was good for her to do.
Here is a great link for Astronomy ( and other Sciences) lesson plans, articles , video, etc. http://science.nasa.gov/Astronomy.htm In the RIGHT HAND CORNER it says: Search site via Google , type in Thursdays Classroom , that will bring up a link to EACH lesson plan. All the lesson plans are Adobe PDF format ( scroll to the almost bottom of the page and there is a yellow box, sometimes white, with instructions on most activities if they are not posted already in the plan) . It is for grades 6th-12th. We have done a few of them and they are fun.
