Happily Homeschooling

Apologia Science Curriculum

Apolgia  Educational Ministries

Over the course of the maiden voyage of this focus group, a few of the members have had the opportunity to review different science products. I had not received any until recently. I have had the wonderful opportunity to review Apologia’s Exploring Creation with Biology textbook and Exploring Creation with Zoology 1, Flying Creatures of the Fifth Day. These are incredible science books. Let me tell you a little about Apologia first. 

Apologia Educational Ministries started in 1994 by Dr. Jay L. Wile. Dr. Wile began by writing a college preparatory Chemistry course for local homeschooler’s based on the class he taught to University students. Apologia has grown into a family-owned corporation and now publishes K-12 creation based curriculum. The homepage of Apologia’s website indicates “Apologia provides fun and challenging K-12 creation-based science curriculum…Our texts are readable, easy to understand, and full of engaging experiments that can be performed at home.” And, their junior high and high school level courses are considered college prep classes.

Now on to the curriculum we received:

Apologia’s Exploring Creation with Biology Second Edition – this is a phenomenal science book! This class is recommended for high school freshman. It “provides a detailed introduction to the methods and concepts of general biology…Students who take and understand this course will be very well-prepared for a tough university biology course.” The information contained in this book is in depth and thorough. There are 16 modules in this book. You can view the table of contents here. You can also view a sample module here. It is well formatted, too. Each section has experiments based on the lesson. Many of the needed items will be common household items, which can be purchased as a set. Some lab equipment will be needed, too. A list of the lab supplies needed can be found here. Even though there is a ton of information; it is not monotonous or drab. My daughter stayed interested while learning and I was impressed with the accuracy of the language used. Sometimes science texts are so basic that nothing new is learned, and this becomes boring and uninspiring. Apologia offers curriculum that is sure to inspire your students to learn more, even those that don’t like science. You can view the Table of Contents, a sample Module, and the Lab List here. This textbook is available for $65.00 or combined with the Solutions and Test Manual for $85.00. The full course CD is $65.00 and there is a multimedia companion CD for $15.00. Apologia offers additional items for this curriculum that are available here. 

The next book we received, Exploring Creation with Zoology I, Flying Creatures of the Fifth day is, again, incredible! This curriculum is for grades kindergarten to 6^th grade. There are 14 lessons that cover birds, bats, pterosaurs, and insects. There are projects and experiments for each lesson, too. All of the experiments utilize common items, so there is no need to purchase a separate lab kit. There is a Lab List here that shows the items needed for module. Even though this book is more for my son (third grade), my daughter (ninth grade) couldn’t put it down. She read it from cover to cover! With almost every paragraph she was giving me some new fact she had learned. There is so much in this little book. The language is geared for the students, so it is easy to read and follow. But even though the words are simpler, there is still plenty of scientific information. For example: “when air flows across a bird’s wing, the air that travels above the wing moves more quickly than the air that travels below the wing…” This is only a portion of the lesson, but you can see more if you click here, along the Table of Contents and Lab List. This book is priced at $35.00. 

As I stated above, Apologia uses God’s Word as the foundation for teaching which helps students to become stronger in their faith. This, coupled with the knowledge they’ll gain by using these books, will help them stand strong and be able to defend their faith.  

I highly recommend Apologia’s science courses. There are Elementary, Junior, and High School Sciences, as well as Marine Biology and Advanced Biology, Chemistry, and Physics. The upper levels are available as hard copies or as CD-ROM’s and, this fall, Apologia will be offering live, internet courses.

You can read other reviews from the TOS Crew here.

Homeschool In The Woods Review

Homeschool In The Woods

The New Testament Activity-Pak 

We were recently given the opportunity to review a Lap book by Homeschool in the Woods. “What is a lap book?” you ask. A lap book is, for a simple definition, an educational project that is put together on a file folder. It is much more than that, though; read on and you will find out the benefits of adding these projects to your homeschooling day.  

Homeschool in the Woods (HSITW) was started in 2002 by the Pak family. How fitting the name, right? They have been homeschooling for many years and, like many of us, struggled to find just the right curriculum for a specific subject. Their subject was history. Amy Pak discovered that the “idea of timelines as a great visual resource to pull the whole idea of history together…made sense and gave a concrete foundation for fitting all the topics into place.” The Pak family studied history “through living books, drama, writing, etc.” Using this experience and research, they have created and now offer history timelines and activity paks that are both fun & educational. You can read more about the Pak family here. 

For our review, we received the lap book “The New Testament”. This pak contains 15 activities & 2 bonus activities for you and your children to do while studying the New Testament. You will follow Jesus’ life from “birth to death and life again” & complete the following activities along the way:

•  The Lineage from David to Jesus
• Triptych of the Birth of Jesus Christ
• Miracle of Jesus
• The Beatitudes Pie Book
• Fruit of the Spirit
• The Parables of Jesus
• The Last Supper
• The Crucifixion
• The Ascension
• Pentecost
• The Resurrection
• Prophesies Fulfilled
• The Twelve Disciples
• Paul's Missionary Journeys
• Postcards from Paul
• "The New Testament News"
• The Armor of God

You will have so much fun putting this together with your kids. It comes as an e-file or CD and you can print off the sections that you choose when you are ready. All of the projects are well designed and exciting, but the one we had the most fun with is The New Testament News. It’s like a newspaper and the student gets to be the reporter. My daughter thought this was “cool”. There are “article” titles given and then the students are encouraged to write the article. For example, one of the articles is titled “Herd of swine jump to their death”. There are also ads with titles and the student can draw a picture or add more words. An example is “Armor of God Military Supplies”, it reads “Guaranteed to Quench Fiery Darts of the Enemy”. It’s cute, imaginative, and fun. Students can be as creative as they want to be. And because you can print it out when you want to, you can print as many as you want to.

I have to say that, though we have looked at lapbooks and contemplated purchasing a few, we have never put any together. They seemed intimidating, for whatever reason. But HSITW (the Pak family) has given detailed instructions and provided all the necessary graphics and such for each activity. You do have to gather basic supplies: printer/ink, paper, glue, scissors, etc. Everything else is right there with the click of your mouse. Lap books, or at least HSITW’s lap books, really aren’t as threatening as I once thought.

We did like all of the activities in this lap book. They are all fun, and educational. The postcards from Paul are really fun, too. You even get a mailbox to put them in. There is just so much. You can look at the completed projects here. I highly recommend getting this for you and your family. You will all have fun while learning about important scriptural lessons.

The download is just $18.95

The CD is just a $1 more at $19.95.

They are both very affordable.

You can read more reviews from other Crew members here.

Noah's Ark playset by one2believe Review

one2believe – Noah’s Ark Playset 

Just before Christmas, I wrote a review on the Nativity Set (see my review here) by one2believe. We received another great product from one2Believe that I would like to tell you about.

The Noah’s Ark set is part of one2believe’s Tales of Glory figure set. Each of the sets comes with a mini story book and 3” PVC figurines. There are 14 animals in this set, 7 pairs (1 male and 1 female), and Noah. This set also comes with a “BIG ark” that all of the animals and Noah fit inside. The ark floats, too! We discovered this about 15 minutes after receiving the box. “It’s an ark, it has to float,” said my son, and it did. The ark itself has 3 pieces: the base (main part of boat), the deck, and a ramp.

As we discovered with the Nativity Set, the one2believe products are fun to play with and durable. The parts are big enough to enjoy and not easily lost. Also, because of the size, there is less risk of a choking hazard. Although, there is a warning for this product on the website that it is not for children under 3.

I am going to add part of my review for the Nativity Set because I believe this is an important point:

Also included with this set is a guide called “Spiritual Stepping Stones”. This guide helps parents to understand the importance of developing a child’s spiritual life. It explains, by age level, the “stepping stones” to take to guide your child to The Lord Jesus Christ. I believe this is the most important aspect about this company and their products. A portion of their vision states: “one2believe's passion is to help children learn important Bible lessons and to have them come to faith in Jesus. Our goal is to provide fun ways of teaching children about the greatest people who ever lived. Through the toys that we design children will learn and play out exciting stories about real people. Our toys teach children that there are real superheroes they can believe in!”

The Noah’s Ark set can be purchased through one2believe’s website for $29.95. I think you’ll find this worth the price and your kids will enjoy it, too.

You can read other crew members reviews here.

Schleich Review

When we heard that we were going to be reviewing Schleich products, the kids were so excited. They have been collecting a various assortment of Schleich toys for some time now. Let me tell you about the company first. 

Schleich GmbH was founded in Germany in 1935 and is a “leading manufacturer of animal figurines and imaginative playworlds”. Schleich sends their products to over 50 countries around the world and can be purchased in specialty toy shops, Target, and Toys R’ Us. You can also buy online through Schleich’s website. We have purchased most of our collection at the TSC (Tractor Supply Store).

Now on to the toys! We received several animal figurines for our review. We have several others from previous purchases. All of our figurines have been constructed very well. They are durable and lifelike. The colors are natural and realistic. This is a nice feature. I don’t like to purchase toys that look “fake”. The kids will even point out flaws on some products they see in stores because they’re so blatant. Even though they’re kids, they still like quality, and we definitely see this with Schleich. You will, too.

When we were at Disney recently, we were able to view many Schleich figurines and playworlds at Epcot in Germany. We could have stayed in there forever. I was fascinated, too. Our local Target does have a large selection, as does TSC (TSC sells mostly animal figurines).

According to Schleich’s website, all of the figurines have these characteristics: true-to-life modeling, meticulously handpainted, in compliance with all relevant safety regulations, and are equipped with the Schleich tag bearing the red S symbol for highest quality. As I said above, we had several of the figurines already prior to this review, and all of these characteristics are present (see pic). It is evident to me that Schleich takes pride in their products and maintains a standard of quality not often seen in today’s mass produced, high priced, low value world. Whether you call them toys or figurines, they will survive play and will become collectibles that can be passed down to the next generation.

There are several product lines that Schleich has created. The picture here shows just a few of the animals that are available. From farm life animals to dinosaurs, from Knights to elves, there is a theme for everyone. They even have Smurfs, which we were able to see at Disney. They also have playworld accessories for farm life and wild life. You can view them here. Another fascinating area to the website is the playground. This is a semi-interactive “game world” where you can explore the Schleich figurines within the playworld setting. It’s not a real game, but it’s interesting.

I know that you will love these products. Check them out at your local Target, TSC, Country Max, or Toys R Us. There may be other places, too. You can locate retailers here. The prices vary but start as low as $2.49. Most individual animals are less than $10.00 each and accessories are priced a higher. To me, with the excellent quality, the price is great.

You can read other members reviews here.