FAQ
With which book should I begin?
The books do not need to be done in any certain order. I recommend you begin with which ever book you and your children believe to be the most interesting right now. Follow your interests.
If you choose to do Zoology II before Zoology I, your child will not get a detailed look into animal classification or endangered species. These two topics are discussed in the first lesson of Zoology I. However, this first lesson of Zoology I is the sample lesson available for download from Apologia and this website. You are free to print it up and discuss these topics with your children if you desire for them to learn about them before you begin Zoology II.
How should we plan to use your science course as it contains five books and my children have only three more years of elementary school?
The Exploring Creation Series will eventually contain seven books and will take the student from Kindergarten through 6th grade. Currently the series contains five books. For various reasons, many people will not have the opportunity to use all five. If you are in this category, fear not! Your child can still gain a strong and solid foundation in science even if every single topic of science is not covered in the elementary years. In fact, if he only completes a couple of books in the series, your child will be given the unique benefit that Apologia’s Young Explorer Series provides–learning to think scientifically and understand genuine science. There are numerous reports of students who scored poorly on the science sections of standardized tests before they used Apologia; yet, after completing only one or two courses, they scored in the 99th percentile. How can this be? It’s because other science courses merely skim the surface and do not teach the student the nomenclature and inherent concepts found within true science. Because The Young Explorer Series digs deep, investigating concepts often reserved for high school or college, students are able to deduce and induce more effectively when answering questions concerning fields of science they have never studied. Since the same Creator created all of science, much of the processes you will find in one field will cross over to other fields. Furthermore, the vocabulary used in every field is similar; therefore, students who are taught immersion science are able to easily understand other fields.
So, if you only have a few years left to teach elementary science, choose one of the Young Explorer titles that your family is interested in studying. Your students will come away with a strong knowledge base upon which to build their future studies. In addition, because they have enjoyed learning science in elementary school, they will be motivated and empowered when tackling harder science courses in high school.
My child is in sixth grade and will only be doing one of your books before moving on to General Science. Which book should we do?
Even though your child will only be doing one book, I still recommend you choose the book that most interests your child. Your child will learn and retain a lot more if he or she is interested in the subject. If you only do one book in the series, your child will still be grounded in good, strong, in-depth science and fully prepared to move into the General Science course in seventh grade.
If your child has no preference, I would choose botany or Anatomy, as the biological concepts found in these books are important throughout high school and college science.
My child has not had a lot of science. Should we do the elementary course in seventh and move on to General Science in eighth?
Although I think your child would enjoy and learn a lot from the elementary courses, I don’t recommend that you wait to do General Science. Begin General Science in seventh grade even if you have not done a great deal of science in the past.
Will I need to do Zoology 1 before Zoology 2?
There are some concepts explained throughout the Zoology I course which will not be explained again in Zoology II. These concepts cover topics such as, endangered species, parasites, animal classification and other important zoological areas of interest.
However, this does not mean that you cannot do Zoology II before Zoology I. It only means that you may have to explain the meaning of certain terminology if you choose to do the Zoology series out of order.
Will I need to do Zoology 1 and 2 before Zoology 3?
The answer to this question is a bit different than the above. Zoology 3 covers the land animals created on the sixth day. There are so many animals to cover and so many concepts as well. Thus, there isn’t space to review the foundational information found in Zoology 1 and Zoology 2, such as arthropods, crustaceans, reptiles, amphibians, mammals, animal classification and more. Information about the phylum should be known and understood while the student is learning of the animal class, order or family. All these foundational concepts are covered in both Zoology 1 and Zoology 2. It is recommended that you complete both Zoology 1 and Zoology 2 before moving on to Zoology 3.
What other books do you plan to write for this series?
The Physics and Chemistry textbooks and Notebooking Journals will be out in 2011/2012, possibly around winter. We also have a Geology/Earth Science book planned, but it probably won’t be available until 2012 or 2013.
Will your books be recorded into audio books?
All the books are scheduled to be made into audio books within the next two years. We hope to begin work on them this year.
What is the ideal age for this series?
Because children vary greatly in their ability to focus, listen, understand and even care about science concepts, this is a difficult question to answer. I generally recommend children ages six through twelve do this series. The six year old will not be able to grasp as much information as the twelve year old, nor remember it as long as the mature mind of a child heading into the middle school years. However, your younger students will be given an opportunity that is usually not offered a child of that age: the opportunity to learn scientific concepts usually reserved for much older students.
Some children at the age of six are fascinated with scientific information, while their older sibling may be not quite as eager to learn. The series is written at the fifth grade level, but it was written with entire families in mind. Complicated concepts, suitable for older elementary students, are explained so that a young elementary student can grasp them without much effort.
With this in mind, the best books to choose for younger learners are: Astronomy, Botany, Zoology 1 and Zoology 2. I would not recommend Zoology 3 or Anatomy for students below third grade.
What age should use the Notebooking Journals?
The Notebooking Journals are ideal for older elementary but we are considering creating Junior Journals for the younger ones, which we hope to have out this summer or early fall.
What is the difference between the Notebooking Journals and the free notebook pages?
The free notebook pages are very plain compared to the journals. They are pages that you can download with boxes and writing lines for your child to complete the notebooking assignments found in the book. The Notebooking Journals also contain boxes and writing lines for your child to complete the notebooking assignments in the book. However, they are more elaborate and contain a great deal more. For the Anatomy book in particular, there are many textbook activities that will be made quite a bit easier by the journal, such as the Personal Person project. The journal has all the images of the organs on transparency paper and templates for a human body for you to create your Personal Person. This will make creating your human body in the Personal Person project a delight for your children and less difficult for you as finding images of every organ and resizing it for your Personal Person may prove challenging. You can see samples of the Notebooking Journals on the apologia.com website next to each book title. Apologia.com also has the free notebook pages.
When is the Zoology 3 Notebooking Journal going to be released?
By the end of September 2010.
When is the Anatomy Junior Journal going to be released?
It will be available sometime in late August or early September. I do not yet have the exact date.
When is the Junior Journals for Astronomy, Botany, Zoology 1, Zoology 2, Zoology 3 going to be released?
They are expected to all be released by next school year. Some may be out earlier, but I do not have a date on these at this time.
What if the material seems too difficult for my child?
With young children, I recommend you begin reading and when you feel that you have covered enough for that day, stop for the day. Have her narrate back to you what she learned. Don’t require writing or any extra activities unless she wants to do it. Just let her enjoy it, building up a love for science. Also, keep in mind that the first lesson of a new subject hard for young students. You may want to read through it first and just pick out the major points of the first lesson. The second lesson will flow much more smoothly for a younger student than the first lesson.
Is repeating subjects recommended?
I don’t recommend repeating a book unless the child wants to. As educators, we are not seeking to make sure they have as much information and data as possible before they enter high school. We want to inspire a love for learning and a love for science, which will enable them to excitedly venture into the high school and college sciences without fear and trepidation. Do keep the book around as a reference, though.
Do you have a schedule? How many times a week should I do science and for how long?
The Notebooking Journals contain a schedule for doing science twice a week. These are also available for download when you download a sample journal on the apologia.com website.
The books are designed to take a year with the typical family doing science a couple of days per week. Some families can listen to longer reading sessions while others aren’t able to listen to reading for more than fifteen minutes at a time. Some families do science every day. Some only do science once a week. Every family is unique. You will need to determine what is best for your family.
The reading sessions in these books have many natural breaks. When you feel your family has read enough, simply place a book mark in the book and set it down for the time being. When ready to resume your science studies, pick up the book and begin where you left off. It’s as simple as that.
You can end each reading session with the creation of a notebook page if you wish. At the end of every lesson are notebook page projects, activities, and ideas for you to complete.
I’m aware that many homeschoolers prefer to work from a schedule that ensures they will finish within a given time frame. On the Elementary Apologia Email Loop (join from my home page), there are many ladies that have published schedules. You are welcome to join the loop and look through the files section to find these schedules if you prefer to work from one.
Do the books take a year to complete?
The answer to this question is determined by each and every family. Some choose to immerse themselves in the topic, adding in field trips and other projects to make the subject a year long pursuit. Others prefer to complete the book in less time. The books are designed to allow flexibility for your unique family to do whatever is best for you. Spending a year on the book will allow maximum retention, while spending half year will allow you to complete more books in this series before you begin upper level science.
Some people believe their children will get bored with the subject over a year. Yet, each lesson provides brand new material, with new information and interesting creation arguments, as well as completely new hands-on projects and experiments. Most children do not get bored with subjects in school unless those subjects bore mom. We define life and reactions for our children. Our excitement for a subject is contagious. Our children will love the subjects we love. If your eyes light up, so will theirs. If you smile and show excitement and interest in the subjects you teach them, they will adopt the same attitude. Think back to your childhood; do you remember a class that you enjoyed in high school? What was the teacher like? Most likely, he or she loved the subject matter they were teaching, and you learned to love the subject matter because you “caught” the teacher’s excitement for it. Our children will retain excitement as long as we do.
However, if you are anxious to learn about more science topics and wish to do two books in a year, there are many who have chosen to do the same. They will either switch back and forth every other month or so, or complete one book and begin the other.
