Homeschool Review: Apologia (Exploring Creation with Chemistry and Physics)

I LOVE Physics! I’m not all the good at it, but I think it’s loads of fun. Chemistry is cool too. I didn’t do so well in chem class though. So being able to review Apologia’s newest text in the Exploring Creation series was exciting because I knew this would be a solid informational book that I can use. Apologia did not let me down!

I received the Exploring Creation with Chemistry and Physics text ($39.00) as well as the Junior Notebooking Journal ($24.00). The covers are beautiful and bright! They make you want to dig right in to all of the science goodness found beyond!

The Chemistry and Physics text is claimed to serve children in grades K-6. The Junior Notebooking Journal is for younger elementary students and for older students who struggle with writing. My children are in kindergarten and 1st grade.

How We Used the Product:

I started by looking at the chart in the beginning of the notebooking journal. It shows how to break down the chapters for younger children. We started out reading about matter. The journal began with a coloring page, so I had the kids color while I read the first few sections. The kids listened well, and the text was simple enough for them to understand. I did find that I started skipping sections here and there to hit the main topics and skip some of the details. These two topics of chemistry and physics are totally new to my kids and I wanted them excited about the science and not bogged down in the details.

The experiments and activities are great! We floated eggs, and boats. The children pretended to be atoms as a solid, liquid, or a gas. (Being a gas was their favorite!) We slid water around on wax paper.

I love how versatile the text is. I do think the notebooking journal is too difficult for my children. I have a 1st grader who does not like to write. So giving him the wonderful writing prompts or experiment journal pages was not going to go over well. There were pages that included “lapbook” style activities which are great, but they were frustrating for little children who can’t write well, or are still learning how to form letters. There was also
simple copywork, mini-books, and vocabulary puzzles. So instead of doing the writing, I would ask the question or say the prompt and the the kids would tell me their answers. And actually, this works out well, because now I can save the rest of the unused journals for  when they are a few years older and are writing better so they can gain ALL of the benefits of the journal. It is so packed with activities that I don’t want them to miss any of them!

Because of the ages of my children, we ended up working slowly through the first chapter as I learned how everything worked. Then we picked up a little speed as I figured out how to adapt the book and activities to younger children. I have to admit, the experiments are worth the book. There are so many! They are simple, and most use household supplies.

It was fun to watch my kids be excited about science. As a teacher in the Christian classroom, I always had to deal with moans and groans when it came time for science. I really wish I had had the Apologia texts in the classroom. The worldview of the science curriculum is solid Christian creationism and that is so needed in the Christian world.

Pretending to be atoms in the solid state.

Watching water move on wax paper.

Recommendation:

Overall, Apologia’s Exploring Creation with Chemistry and Physics earns 5 water molecules out of 5 water molecules for homeschool friendliness!