Apologia Exploring Creation with Chemistry & Physics { Review }

Apologia is a widely known name here in the homeschool world. If you're looking for homeschool science materials you should totally check out what Apologia has to offer.

The latest addition to the Apologia family is the Chemistry and Physics book for K - 6. This is in the Young Explorer Series. I actually mentioned this review on Facebook when I knew I was getting to review it and it started a huge conversation about Chemistry for my children because my friends knew they were only 8, 10 and 13 so I told them yes Apologia was going to help me out with that and the ages where in line for my children. So if you're thinking like my friends on Facebook did - just understand that Apologia has this broken down for elementary ages to enjoy.

The Chemistry and Physics book is using the Charlotte Mason educational style which is another popular way to teach in the homeschool world.

What did we get?

My family received a physical copy of the Chemistry and Physics text book along with a notebooking journal and jr notebooking journal to use with my babies.

How did we use it?

At first Apologia is overwhelming to me. This isn't the first Apologia book I've reviewed or owned but still every time it gets me. I honestly think I've figured it out, Apologia intimidates me! They have so much information it just overwhelms but when you start slow and go with your children's pace that feeling subsides.

The book contains 14 lessons. Each lesson we broke down into several readings and activities. That is one great thing about Apologia and homeschooling - You go at your own pace. We tried to stick to each lesson taking 2 weeks as suggested in the Journals but some lessons took us a little longer and one lesson didn't take us 2 weeks so there again if you just start and go along with your children at their pace you will have fun and move along without messing anything up.

We started out by simply reading aloud the Chemistry & Physics book. I normally am the main reader; however Kyle (13) would ask to read some parts of our lessons. Each lesson you will have a "What do you remember?" section with a few questions to help the kids remember what you have been reading. I naturally stop and ask questions anyway just to keep my kids engaged so this isn't a must for me.

We normally read until my smallest starts getting active, then we will just take a break and if we are at the right spot the older kids just does an activity in the journal while Zachary (8) gets up to go play or something else. 

The Notebook is always a favorite of my daughter. She loves notebooking so very much but my boys on the other hand aren't very good fans. My daughter is 10 and used the Jr. Notebook and my oldest son Kyle is 13 and used the regular notebook journal. 

The Jr Notebook is just a younger version of the regular notebook so that they too can be involved with hands on material to help reinforce learning. The Jr. Notebook offers coloring pages, copy work, vocabulary and cut and paste activities.

The regular Notebooking journal provides older kids with more challenging activities to help aid in the learning process. This version has space for lots of things such as using some of the pages for the "What do you remember" questions. It has room to record the projects and experiments that go with each lesson by writing what they did and maybe how the project turned out. My son actually liked the crossword puzzles included.

The Notebooking provides an extra way to help your kids retain what the lessons where about. Notebooking is so much funnier than worksheets! I personally think Notebooking helps with the child's creativeness.

The Projects and Experiments are always fun and I normally have the items around the house. Which is always something I enjoy about Apologia! They offer a supply list on their website but also in each book near the back.

So far for just our 3 lessons I've had to buy Alka-Seltzer which was an easy buy at Wal-Mart. 

Some of the TRY THIS projects and experiments we have had fun with so far are:

I spy 

Learned about volume by using water and items that didn't adsorb water 

Floating Eggs! The kids and I have done this before so they already knew what was going to happen but this is always awesome!

Sink & Float Game

Magnetic Guessing - This was so much harder than my kids thought. We actually ended up doing this several times because the first time they nearly missed all of their guesses!! 

Lava Lamps! Fun - My kids loved this best.

Wax Paper Spots - Easy and actually fun.

Bubble Blowing - Oh how I wish I would have recorded this!! My kids can't really blog bubbles but oh man did they try! We ended up going through an entire package of bubble gum because the gum always ended up on the floor or table!! No joking! This was hilarious and they will remember this for years to come.

Earth's Water Cycle Project - We had done this before so we just reviewed what we remembered from our terrariums from the library.

What were our final thoughts?

So far we are in lesson 3. We have worked at our own pace and tried to have all the fun possible. With Apologia they provide so many hands on activities and that is really my family's favorite part.

I have wiggly boys and without the hands on aspect of Apologia's projects and experiments this would be a huge fail for us.

I love how the supply list is broken down so I know what I need by what lesson. 

We have learned about matter, density, buoyancy, atoms, solids, compressed gas and so much more. I never knew that teaching my kids Chemistry & Physics would be so fun!

The last and final thought about this book is that I absolutely love getting a book that I know my God is all through out. They explain it from the view I need and expect because I teach my children about the Bible and Christ. I am never going to be let down from Apologia's view.

The only thing I would actually love to suggest to Apologia is to make an MP3 or CD reading version of these books. I would love to be able to have something reading for me and pronounce the words and save me time by having the reading done for me!

Audio Books Apologia - PLEASE??? 

How Much? 

The Chemistry & Physics text book is $39.99 and both Notebooking Journals are $24.99.

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