Great choices for Elementary Science Books. I have mentioned the Highschool books before. I consider these for middle school as well. These are authored by someone else, Jeannie Fulbright. Here is a quote from the apologia website: "Well, it has finally happened! After years of searching for an elementary science curriculum that is truly God honoring, user friendly, and scientifically sound, we were introduced to two books by Jeannie Fulbright. It’s no wonder that we want to publish her books. As one of the parents who has already used Mrs. Fulbright’s astronomy book says, "It reminds me of Dr. Jay Wile's Apologia Science, only yours is on an elementary level while his is written for high school age." We couldn’t have said it better ourselves."
I really do love the way in which these books are set up in a Charlotte Mason fashion. They are organized in a way that I can use them. I don't have the kids do them on their own, there is just too much work in them. I think they might be overwhelming to a young child to be handed the text and told to complete. Depending on your family situation and your child you can be very specific as to what needs to be accomplished and give in small doses.
That isn't how I use the books. I love them because I can use them to lecture from. I have the younger kiddos right now working on the Flying Creatures. I read it out loud, we discuss the pictures and notes in the book, they copy notes into their notebooks. Then they are given assignments based on their ages. Each one completing a notebook in the end. We are not on a set school year with this. We will just continue until we finish.
My family loved the astronomy. Botany was a tad to much for my little one and my older ones at the time found it boring. The older ones were probably ready for General Science but I hadn't moved them on yet.
Some love that these are one topic books that last the entire school year others do not like it. I find that children learn more when they can dive into one topic and cover it fully as opposed to touching on a million different topics each year. I love these books and was so happy to have found them.
