Our family has loved using Apologia Science for several years. I happened upon Jeannie Fulbright's Young Explorer series while searching for astronomy at Morgan's request the very first year we began homeschooling. We spent a year thoroughly enjoying Exploring Creation with Astronomy, and naturally moved on into Zoology 1, Flying Creatures of the Fifth Day the next year. We actually spent closer to three semesters on Zoology 1, because we explored many of the subjects and chapters in more depth. We started with the introduction, and then skipped to do the insects before the birds due to the season and area we were living at the time. I love the way these texts are layed out to be able to do them in any order you wish to fit your particular situation.

Zoology 1 was really my first taste of complete success with homeschooling for Taylor (She was 6 when we started Zoo 1) . You see, she was a complete Bug-a-Phobe before we began, squealing and screaming, even bursting into tears, at the mere sight of a big fat tomatoe worm, or really anything of the creepy-crawly sort. She was reluctant to participate at first, but remembering  the great experiments, notebooking assignments, and beautiful illustrations we did the year before in the Astronomy book, she agreed to try it out. She soon found out that the creepy-crawlies she had been so scared of were really just God's creatures too, and He created each and every one to be unique and awesome in it's own way. We did so many "extras" when we used this study, that will be lifelong memories. We attended a show called "BUGS" at the local planetarium played on the large 3-d screen on the ceiling that went along with the praying mantus and beetles we were studying. So many extras like this really provided an awesome learning experience. When we got to the bird section,  then the bat section, we did many hands-on projects as well.

I love the notebooking approach with science, because they love having the notebooks they made to look back at and show friends and relatives. We finished up Zoology 2:Swimming Creatures this year with much enthusiasm, as Taylor has always been interested in marine science, and still says she wants to be a Marine Biologist or Vet. She continually uses the book to look back on for reference, so I'm not sure we can say we really "finished" it, LOL.

 We will be beginning Zoology 3: Land Animals of the 6th Day after we are finished up with our TOS Crew projects. Can't wait, it looks awesome!

Two years ago I bought an Apologia General Science set when Morgan was wanting "more" from science. She began, but the textbook approach was not quite what she needed at her age (she was 9 or 10 at the time.) So, we decided to put it aside and just enjoy the Elementary Apologia books until a later time. We were really excited when we received the newest edition of General Science to review! She really enjoyed starting in it again, but this time it seemed to really work for her. She enjoyed going through the history of science, learning a little about ancient times, and many early scientists and their theories. Module 2 covered Scientific Inquiry, which she already had a pretty good handle on, though this presented a few new ideas for her. She is currently working in Module 4 which is all about physics: simple machines, levers, wedges, etc. I didn't know if she would be so interested in this, but she really loves the way this book presents and explains concepts. The quality of illustrations and text is awesome.

You can purchase a multi-media companion cd to compliment the Apologia studies, and we do have the General Science one and love it.

Apologia is definitely our choice for science, and I have recommended it to everyone I know in the homeschool community! I have collected many of the upper level courses already in anticipation of using them later, and have looked through them myself.

You can purchase a General Science set for $85.00 on Apologia's website along with some extras for the study. You can also see sample modules, lab equipment and table of contents there.

You can purchase the Zoology 1, Flying Creatures of the Fifth Day for $35.00 on the Apologia website along with the other elementary series.

Included in the Elementary books are "book extras" on the website where you can access numerous resources including websites, articles, pictures, etc for each chapter you are studying.

Jeannie Fulbright, author of the Elementary Apologia series, also has an awesome website full of information  here, as well as a great yahoo group which discusses using the books.

I can't imagine science without Apologia.

Go learn some science with your kids!!

Chris