A Journey Through Learning Lapbooks (Review)

Lindsey is studying botany this year, both at home and in a co-op setting.  One of the resources we'll be using is the Apologia Botany.  Fortunately we were able to review the Apologia Exploring Creation with Botany Lapbook from the Apologia Curriculum Page at  A Journey Through Learning Lapbooks, and I'm hoping that this will add a nice hands on aspect to our class work at home.   (In order to use this product in a group or co-op setting you need to buy a Classroom/Co-op license.)

This product is one that you download, and you can either get the black and white version or the color version.   We received both for the review, but I don't have a color printer, so we've obviously used the black and white version.  Also coloring the components is one of Lindsey's favorite parts of lapbooking, the writing, not so much.   The download includes a supplies list, clear instructions on creating and folding the various components and on assembling the lapbook itself.    There is also an additional reading list, enrichment pages (book log, plant book report form, What I Have Learned/narration pages) and an answer key at the back so the instructor can make sure students have the correct information to put into each individual booklet.   There is a total of 84 pages to print to complete the lapbook, not including the extras and instructions.

The product is broken up into units, Lessons 1-3, Lessons 4-6, Lessons 7-9 and Lessons 10-12.   On each page, for each lesson there are instructions that tell you exactly what pages to read in the textbook to find the information covered, see below for example.

We did not work hard and fast on this review, since the school term starts close to the end of the review time and that is officially when we'll be learning about botany.   What we did was work on getting the items printed and sorted and grouped by lesson and assembling the file folders so that it will be easy to hit the ground running.  Lindsey worked on getting the unit cover pages colored and in place.  We then slowly started working our way into the first lessons.    The content information in the text book is covered well and it's easy to find the required information and answers, and again their is an answer section in the back of the download if you are ever unsure of what is being asked.

The grade range listed for this product is 2-7, even though the text book is for grades K-6.  My personal opinion, and that of my 7th grader is that it would work best for the lower age range, as it tends to be a bit on the younger side with both the graphics and the amount of work required. However, if you incorporate the additional reading and the book reports, I'm sure you could easily bring it up to grade level.   It's still a wonderful learning tool that I highly recommend, just not for you typical 7th grade students.

To read other reviews of this and other vendor products, click here.

The Book of Trees (Review)

There aren't a great deal of curriculum products geared toward botany, so I was thrilled to have the opportunity to review The Book of Trees from Memoria Press.  I received a copy of the reader, student book and teacher guide for this review.   This set is specifically geared towards grades 6-8.   The vendor recommends (and references) The Tree Book For Kids and Their Grown-ups, and the Peterson First Guide to Trees of North America to accompany this class and sells it with the curriculum package.  However, you can easily use the internet to research what you need to know if you prefer to take that route.   These two items were not included with my review package, so I went the internet route.

The reader contains 82 pages, broken into 9 chapters of information.   The last two chapters are considered "advanced work" and cover photosynthesis and respiration.    Black and white graphics and photos are spaced throughout the book as well.    Both the teachers guide and student book follow the same chapter/topic layout and offer a total of 21 lessons.  The teacher's guide is basically an answer key with complete copies of the student book with answers already filled in.   There is also a goals page and model lesson plan page in the teachers guide.

In addition to worksheets, quizzes and final exams, the workbooks/teacher guides also contains 15 tree observation reports.   The teacher guide has these filled out to show you how they should look when completed.   This gives a nice opportunity to get outside and do some nature study.  One thing that I don't like is that there are not blank quizzes in the student workbook.   The quizzes must be copied out of the teacher guide, and for those of us who don't have access to a copier without a trip to a copy center, this is a hindrance.

I decided to have Lindsey work through one lesson per week, and also complete one tree observation per week.  However a student could easily complete one lesson per day.  Each lesson in the workbook is only two pages, typically one page is reading and questions, the second page is diagramming and activity suggestions.  Activities range from lesson to lesson, such as collecting leaves, dissecting a flower, and a leaf pigment experiment, to name a few.  Lindsey and I both like the straightforward style of writing, and the graphics are easy to understand and label.    The tree observation sheets have space for her to doodle what the trees and or leaves look like and that gives her a nice little artistic break in the middle of the science work.

We've both really enjoyed this product.  It's thorough but not overwhelming or tedious, and like I said, it allows for some creativity in the tree observation sections.   Those of you who live in more urban areas may need to look a little harder to find 15 varieties of trees for the tree observation section, but you can always google if you don't have a park nearby.   The layout of the program and the  ease of teaching the course also lends itself easily to a co-op setting.

For more Crew reviews of this product, click here.

Exploring Creation with Astronomy (TOS Review)

Today's product review is Exploring Creation with Astronomy, 2nd Edition from Apologia Educational Ministries.   For this review, I received the student text, Notebooking Journal,  Jr. Notebooking Journal and Audio CD.

In comparing the two different notebooking journals, I noticed that they both contain the same suggested daily schedule, graphics, puzzles and lapbook components.   There are really only two differences that I spotted, and I've listed those below.   We will be using the Notebooking Journal, as Lindsey is in 6th grade and doesn't need the younger version.

1) At the end of each chapter the Notebooking Journal has a "What Do You Remember" section, whereas the Jr. Notebooking Journal has a coloring pages in place of those questions.   (See the photo below, Jr. Journal at top.)

 2) At the very end of both journals is a final review.   The Jr. Notebooking Journal has fewer questions, with larger writing spaces than the Notebooking Journal.  (See photo below, Jr. Journal at top.)

This is my first time using the MP3 Audio Book.   Lindsey and I both enjoyed the way this was done.   Author Jeannie Fulbright is the orator, and she has a wonderfully pleasing voice.   The bits of background music/sound effects are very complementary without being distracting.   The Audio Book also helped Lindsey to pronounce some more difficult words, as she followed along in her text book while listening to the audio portion.

The textbook itself is beautifully done, with lots of color photos of actual space study.   Graphics and diagrams are clear and easy to understand and help solidify concepts being taught.   The front of the text book has a detailed table of contents of the 14 chapters.  Each chapter is meant to be studied over approximately two weeks.   In the back of the text book you'll find a supply list, by lesson and answers to the "What Do You Remember?" portion of the text.

During our review period, we worked through the first two lessons, "What Is Astronomy" and "The Sun".   This gave us a great overview of where we're headed in this year's science.  *Note, I had another science curriculum on schedule for this year, but we've since decided to shelf that and use Astronomy as our main science for the year.

In our first lesson we were supposed to make a model of the solar system using balloons, but since we mad a styrofoam model a couple years back, I improvised and she did a banner of the solar system instead.

The second lesson, on the Sun, was a bit longer and had more activities.   I was really impressed, and surprised by some of the information covered in this chapter, and at how well Lindsey grasped and retained the information.   The hands on activities and notebooking journal are wonderful tools.   Below you'll see Lindsey using her magnifying glass (we've since bought a better one, ahem) to use the sun to cut a chunk of butter into pieces.

Lindsey and I are both really enjoying this science curriculum.   Starting the program when we did was perfect, as we got to watch the Perseid meteor shower, and understand what we were looking at!  As always, Apologia has done a great job of combining science with scripture to produce a top of the line course.

To read by other TOS Crew members, click here.

Science Shepherd - Introductory Science (TOS Review

Today's review features the online Introductory Science from Science Shepherd. Because of Lindsey's age and grade level, we are using the Level B workbook.

This curriculum is unapologetically Creation based.   Chapters 1 and 2 are introductory and focus on God's Word being true, and that He truly created all things by speaking them into existence, and then moving into the 7 days of creation.   Chapters 3 and beyond then move into a systematic 35 week science study.

Each lesson begins with a brief (2-5 minute) online video, and Lindsey really likes those.   One reason that I shy away from online classes is because of the slow buffering that sometimes happens for those of us with slower speed Internet.  This has been an issue with this product, but since the lessons are so short, it's not as agonizing as I'd expected.

The online instructor has a pleasant voice and as both girls stated "He seems quite knowledgeable."   The student workbook is very straight forward, black and white with an occasional lesson related graphic.  Each lesson has a related Bible scripture at the top of the page.  For example Day 1 Week 1 has "In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth." Genesis 1:1 listed.

The workbook works as a review for the video.  Whatever topic the video covers for that day is in the student workbook.    There are fill in the blanks, word searches, circle the best answer and matching questions.   The weekly reviews are crossword puzzles.    There are also activity pages, some of which have corresponding activity videos, that reinforce the lesson.  For example, in week 4 the video activity shows the student how to make a bird feeder from pine cones, nut-butter and bird seeds.   The workbook lists the items needed and numbered steps to complete the activity.  You can then watch the video and complete the activity.

Both the videos and workbook components are brief, easily digestible lessons that aren't overwhelming to young students.   However, for those older student who are wanting to go deeper, there is enough given to spark the urge to research. While Lindsey isn't a "science geek" at all, I do feel like I need to add a bit extra to the lessons.  I asked her opinion and she agreed that while she does like it, it's not very involved.   Hands on projects, outdoor exploration and living books would easily allow older students to explore more in depth.  I'm sure I'll be adding those items as this will be our actual science curriculum for the upcoming school year.

The Answer Key, is a pamphlet style, with the outer cover being made of the same paper as the pages.  This key lists the content by week, with a brief explanation of what is covered.  Here is an example:

Week 6:  Earth Science Meteorology
Storms, thunder, lightning, wind, tornadoes, hurricanes, the Great Flood

Answers to all questions, puzzles and diagrams are included in the 41 page teacher key.   There is no instruction in the answer key, only answers to the workbook.


Other Crew reviews can be read here.

Exploring the Wetlands

I’m trying to incorporate more nature study and outdoor learning opportunities this year.   We’ve already been camping and will hopefully get to go again before the cold weather sets in.

We went on a little morning excursion to a local wetlands area.   It’s been pretty dry here, so the wetlands weren’t very wet.  We’ll try again in the fall after the rains set in.   We were able to find some of the mosses, fungi and liverworts that Lindsey has been studying in science, so it was not a lost cause.

We went off the beaten path and found some old relics hidden in the underbrush, like this old car.

This old irrigation system was pretty interesting.   The rock lined walls have partitions built every so often.   The partitions can be removed to allow water to flow through the walls to get from the pond (at the top of the photo) to be other side of the property.

The elevated pathways were lovely, and the views were great.

We followed the sounds of flowing water until we came to the underground spring made it’s way above ground.  As you can see, it’s very dry here too.

If you look REALLY closely in the bottom left corner of this next photo, you can see some minnows that were stranded in the shallows.

The signage along the trail said the wetland area is home to beavers, black bears, heron, snapping turtles, foxes, possums, bull frogs and a host of birds and insects.   On this trip all we saw were some crazy squirrels and lots of swallowtail and monarch butterflies.   Hopefully we’ll have more luck running into animals next time…except for the bears.

Weekly Wrap Up–Robots and Aprons

Whew, it has been a scorcher in Virginia this week.  I’m so thankful we got the AC fixed before this heat set in !   Too bad the van died again, and I’ve had to drive the husbands non-air conditioned car all week.  (First world problems, right?!)

We’ve had a busy week.   Both girls have been at camp during the day.  Olivia goes from 9-3 in one location and Lindsey is from 9-4 in another place.   I’ve had to rush to drop one off early, then drive like wild 15 minutes back in the other direction to drop off the other.  Ballet camp starts at 4:40, so we’ve just been eating a snack in the van and then the girls get changed at the ballet studio.  They have had a great time, I’ve been a bit rushed.

Olivia has spent the week at her Mechatronics Camp.   The local news even did a little coverage, you can see the link here, and see how quickly you can spot her.    Although she has enjoyed this camp, she has determined that this is not the field she wants to go into when she grows up. 

The girls built and programmed their Boe-Bot (Board of Education-Bot), designed their own mazes and worked in teams on a PowerPoint and oral presentation.   That’s a lot in a 30 hour week!  They also got to keep their Boe-Bot and manual so that they can reprogram and do other things with it at home.

Lindsey has spent the week at a history camp at the same museum Olivia works at.   She was mostly on the 1820’s American farm.  She’s never been a huge history fan, but working in costumes has really sparked her interest and she’s now wanting to join the JLS when she’s old enough.

On the last day of camp, all the various farms (and countries) prepare a feast and gather for a midday meal.   Parents are invited to come during the preparation time and stay for the feast.   Lindsey’s group made apple pies and a huge salad.  The pie was delish!

Preheating the Dutch oven (below).

After about 35 minutes, this lovely pie was cooling by the hearth.

The shoes obviously weren’t authentic and it threw the ensemble off a bit, but it’s still a good look, grins.

That’s our incredibly busy week in a nutshell.  I hope you’ve had a great week!

Linking up with the Weekly Wrap Up!