Apologia Zoology Resources

Poogie is doing Apologia Zoology 2 Swimming Creatures this year.  We are enjoying the curriculum even though it does include more religion than we would like.  When I purchased the curriculum I bought the text, notebook journal and lapbook cd-rom.  I like the Charlotte Mason approach to the curriculum however I still need to test and quiz Poogie on the material.  So during my search for free materials I found two great sites.  The first one is a Yahoo Group for the Apologia Elementary Science curriculum.  Just search for it on Yahoo Groups.  Great resources.  The second one I love, love, love it is a blog Homeschooling is Fun.  Excellent resource!!  These great finds make my school years so much easier. 

Great find!

I have been spending a lot of my down time looking for next years curriculum. I thought I had found what I wanted but the kids changed my mind. They are so burned out on the textbook learning. Both of them want to enjoy science and history, their two favorite subjects. So I began to search for secular literature based curriculum. I like Sonlight and still plan on using it for Poogie for reading. But while searching through several new web sites and blogs I found a wonderful curriculum suggestion. It's called Otter science and Otter history. It is a free literature based science and history curriculum for Poogie and can even be adapted for T. There are tons of books with the history curriculum, some to purchase and some to get at the library. Many of the ones that needed to be purchased I have already found really super cheap on Vegsource and other sites. In other words I just wanted to let you all know about this little curriculum so you can check it out.

Summers almost here. Only a few more weeks of dance, yay! Then we can have some fun. Poogie has become obsessed with basketball and art. I purchased her a great little sketch pad, watercolor pad, drawing pencils, charcoal, and brushed to start her own nature journal. She was inspired by a book I picked up at the library, A Diary of an Edwardian Lady. I believe that is the title anyway, I can't find it at the moment. Poogie hasn't put it down since I brought it home. We also purchased her a new basketball goal since a storm a while back destroyed hers. That should keep us busy for a while, lol.

Well, I must go for now. Have a great day.

Learning as we go

Beginning the school year with new curriculum is always a learning experience. After 2 and a half years of homeschooling I am still amazed at how long it takes me to learn all the ins and outs of a new curriculum.

Take for example TT's new science curriculum. Apologia General Science. I never thought I was an Apologia person. I had looked at it several times, but since I'm not a fan most Christian science curriculums I always passed on it. Well that was until this year. I finally gave up hope of finding a: 1) inexpensive and decent secular curriculum and 2) a good Christian curriculum that I could afford and liked. I have to say I am so glad we gave Apologia a try.

The first Module has been tough to say the least. Poor TT has been very understanding through all my trial and error. "Write out the summary." "No, write out the study guide." He just smiled and took it. I ended up joining a Yahoo group for Apologia users and it has been so wonderful. First, I found a fill in the blank for the summary. Now, I know it says in the book that the student should write out the summary to help with studying and memory. But to my son it was horrible. The fill in the blank worked wonderful for us. Then I found some great flash cards that followed the study guide. He answers the questions on the cards and then can use them to study. Those were just what we needed. He is flying through the cards. I have to admit the first mod is overwhelming, but he seems to be taking it in stride. Today while discussing some of the answers on the study guide I was amazed at how much he could recall from memory. Now just to get through the test and then we can move on, finally!