A year and a half ago we switched from A Beka to new science curriculums.  DD completed Apologia's General Science last year and is currently studying Physical Science.  We are halfway through the book.  The second half of the book is all about physics.  One of the things I love about Apologia, along with Dr. Wylie's Young Earth Creation teaching, is the experiments.  We can actually be successful with most of them.  He has us use common household objects and explains what we should be looking for.  Here are some pictures of an experiment dd recently did on velocity.

She released 2 eggs simultaneously, one behind the other, and noted that not much happened.  BTW, see that top book on the stack?  Here's a close up.  The kids thought it would be a hoot to use this specific book on top!

On to the next step!

Then she released one at the top of the ramp and noted what happened when it collided into the egg at the bottom of the ramp.  Don't worry. There was minimal damage.

Finally, she released these two eggs simultaneously.  Prepared for the predicted mass of destruction????

After completing the experiments, she does a KWO (like she learned with Institute in Excellence in Writing-I'll share more about them later) then writes a lab report.  The action of the experiment helps her to experience what Dr. Wylie is trying to teach her in the book.  The write up of the lab report causes her to think through the connections of the whys and hows of the experiment.  This helps her to cement information for the test.

Another thing I like about Apologia are the multi media discs.  She gets to watch cool movies and graphics that pertain to her studies. That's more than I got in public school, even in honors classes!  In addition, while reading her text book, which Dr. Wylie has written to the student in an interesting and personal manner, she listens to it being read aloud on an mp3 file on her pc.  There are also supports on the Apologia web site to help her with her studies. 

When we first got these tomes, I feared how she'd ever succeed, since she's had her share of learning struggles.  With the above helps, she also needed to learn how to study for the test.  She has learned to always study vocabulary.  In addition, at the end of each chapter is a study guide.  After completing that and checking her work, she knows the ones she missed are the things to study for the test.  Dr. Wylie writes excellent tests, I feel, and also gives study tips in the book.  She has done quite well!

12yos on the other hand, won't start Apologia until next school year.  Because he has a naturally inquisitive mind, I sort of let him loose.  Recently he built a model engine from a kit.

He also watched The Magic Schoolbus I had taped when he was a toddler, viewing the episode on engines.  In addition, he read about engines in dd's old 6th grade A Beka science book.  Then he needs to write a summary in his science journal on engines.  

Here he is, giving me a 5 minute demonstration on how engines work!  His next field of study will be Galileo.