Apologia

[heksb]

I have to say that I had never used any of the Apologia books for Science until last year. Last year, I decided that I just hadn't found anything that I like to teach from, which of course reflected in how much my children liked to study Science. I Love Science! It was never one of my greatest subjects for grades in either highschool or college, but I loved to learn about the earth sciences and ecological systems. I never really was into the Chemistry, Physics types of science nor the Genetics and such, but my children were really starting to show a dislike in studying Science altogether and that bothered me. I spoke to one of my friends who had two grown children, one was an RN and one was starting her Physical Therapy Program and I ask her what Science she had used because for her kids to have gone into medical occupations, I knew that they must have had a good program of study. She told me they used Apologia during their highschool years and she felt it was wonderful in preparing them for further studies after highschool. So, I ask the girls the next day when they came over for dinner how they liked using Apologia and if they felt it prepared them and they both said yes without a doubt. I then decided to try it and went all out and ordered Physical science for my 8th grader, Biology for my 9th Grader and the Astronomy in the younger childrens books that Apologia offers for my 4th graders. I have to tell you that I enjoy teaching Science again and my children began to start enjoying it again as well. It may not be for everyone, but these books are just so full of information and we did more labs last year than we have ever done before because they were layed out step by step and they didn't take a million dollars to come up with the supplies needed to do them. We are using the disection kits this year to see if it makes the labs go easier in Biology for my new 9th grader and we have switched from the textbook to the CD-rom version of the course which for us has been nice. She reads everything on the computer which gives a little more table space at our house for me to work on the more hands on projects for my 2nd and 5th graders, then she comes back to the table for other subjects. I would reccomend the books we've used to anyone that likes to teach and study Science, but if you aren't sure, order them off ebay cheap or borrow someones to look through before you buy them. I don't think you will be disappointed. We had purchased Abeka science this year because I felt that maybe more general science than indepth would be better for my boys getting ready to go into 6th grade next year, but the boys already one week in to school are complaining about science and they ask why we couldn't just go back to Apologia because it was more interesting and not so general, so I think I am going to re-evaluate my choices and stick with Apologia from here on out unless I find something that keeps my childrens interest in learning as well or better than Apologia does.