If you are reading this blog you should know this about me. I am not good at keeping my blog updated. That is probably obvious. I had been wanting to review our experiences with Apologia Zoology 1. It has been in my drafts for a while so I'm bringing it out even though we finished nearly a year ago. See, I told you I'm not good at updating.
The science book we are using is Apologia Elementary Zoology 1, which includes flying bugs, bats, flying reptiles, and birds. Of course there are many science programs out there, including Sonlight, but I felt that Apologia can be taught over many age ranges, which has been my greatest struggle. Since the book doesn't come with a schedule I've had to create one for us. There are plenty on the web but they are easy to create. There are 14 Lessons so we took two weeks to do one lesson. You can find schedules and even tests on the yahoo group elem_apologia_science. A few questions I had about Apologia Zoology I:
What age range is recommended? The Apologia Elementary Science is created for ages 6-12 but I believe it is recommended for 2nd-6th grade. We had a good variety of ages: 6, 9, and 12. It turned out to be everyone's favorite subject, especially the younger two.
Can I change the order around? I posed this question on the yahoo group and none other than Jeannie Fulbright answered me. So I feel certain in recommended that you should change the order depending on where you live. We began with Lesson 1 since it dealt with classification. Then, since we start homeschool in Late July/early August, we studied bugs first and the birds in the spring. The sections on bats and flying reptiles we studied in January.
Do I have to do Zoo 1 before Zoo 2? No, but you will miss the section on classifying animals. You can check out a sample of that section on Apologia's website. You can also get some flashcards and a lab list here. Before you decide to skip it, however, I would just go for Zoo 1. If we had skipped it we would have missed some joyous times together.
The science book we are using is Apologia Elementary Zoology 1, which includes flying bugs, bats, flying reptiles, and birds. Of course there are many science programs out there, including Sonlight, but I felt that Apologia can be taught over many age ranges, which has been my greatest struggle. Since the book doesn't come with a schedule I've had to create one for us. There are plenty on the web but they are easy to create. There are 14 Lessons so we took two weeks to do one lesson. You can find schedules and even tests on the yahoo group elem_apologia_science. A few questions I had about Apologia Zoology I:
What age range is recommended? The Apologia Elementary Science is created for ages 6-12 but I believe it is recommended for 2nd-6th grade. We had a good variety of ages: 6, 9, and 12. It turned out to be everyone's favorite subject, especially the younger two.
Can I change the order around? I posed this question on the yahoo group and none other than Jeannie Fulbright answered me. So I feel certain in recommended that you should change the order depending on where you live. We began with Lesson 1 since it dealt with classification. Then, since we start homeschool in Late July/early August, we studied bugs first and the birds in the spring. The sections on bats and flying reptiles we studied in January.
Do I have to do Zoo 1 before Zoo 2? No, but you will miss the section on classifying animals. You can check out a sample of that section on Apologia's website. You can also get some flashcards and a lab list here. Before you decide to skip it, however, I would just go for Zoo 1. If we had skipped it we would have missed some joyous times together.
Some science links that I have found useful
General information and help:
ApologiaGeneral information and help:
Yahoo Group
Jeannie Fulbright's website and blog
Lapbook/notebooking tools:
Knowledge Box Central's lapbook
Live & Learn Press Notebook
Experiment supplies:
Apologia Zoology kit at Home Science Tools
Ants Alive for ants, of course
Insect Lore for butterflies and other insects
Educational Science for butterflies and butterfly plants
Just for fun:
The great backyard bird count
Supplemental movies include Microcosmos, Planet Earth, Wild Parrots of Telegraph Hill and Winged Migration. Just for fun movies are Stellaluna, Bug's Life, and Fly Away Home. I can't say we watched all of them. I do remember we watched a documentary on the Monarch butterfly migration and the kids were bored to tears.
Some supplemental picture books include Stellaluna, All about Turkeys, Make Way for Ducklings, The Beekeepers, and Audubon, the Man Who Painted Birds.
Some chapter books are The Honeybee Mystery (Boxcar Children), Insects do the Strangest Things, From Caterpillar to Butterfly, and Watch Honeybees with Me.
Obviously, there are many more supplemental items but I thought I would give you a few for ideas. I'll post some pictures and more review in the next post. I'll try to be quicker with that one.
