Exploring Creation With Botany (Young Explorers)

It took me a while to actually pick this book up and use it with my kids. When I did, I was pleasantly surprized. With multiple ages of elementary age children, it was a nice way to study a subject together (which you just can't do with readers and math). I or my eldest would read several paragraphs then have someone tell back what they understood from the passages as we went along. I tended to break up the lessons with the appropriate activities or notebook pages rather than wait until the end of the chapters. The author has free downloadable notebooking pages on her website (there are also several companies who produce fun notebooking pages/games/activities to go with the appologia science series). The author gives choices of experiments to do that use common household items (there again there are companies who sell kits with all the experiment items included to make this easier for the parent). My children loved doing these projects. I have to say that I'm a big fan of nature walks and exploring science hands on.. the notebooking lended itself to this perfectly. I truly was amazed at what my children were able to retain (and use in casual conversations months after the fact!). Notebooking was an idea we had not tried in our schooling, but we have been won over by doing our science notebooks. Looking back over their notebooks (sketches, pictures, stories, experiments, journaling, etc.) has been a highlight of our school year.

We have already purchased our next science book written by Mrs. Fulbright to use this upcoming school year.

This is our first experience with one of Fulbright's science books, but it will not be the last. We all learned so much about our world and our God. The depth of the subject and the style it was written in made this study totally enjoyable, and we couldn't wait to learn more. Who would have thought that plants are so interesting? The kids seemed interested and thoughtful and I was totally fascinated. We can't wait for Astronomy!

We used this book last year for elementary Science, and thoroughly enjoyed it. Exploring Creation with Botany is a great introduction to the topic of plant life and nature study. We continue to use it, even after the school year was over, and my youngest daughter (age 8) has read it to herself several times in the last year because she loved it so much. Now, when we see plants and trees at a nursery or while on a walk, everyone can answer basic questions about that plant or tree.

My name is Windsor and I'm using my mom's account with permission.
I wanted to say something about this book. I really like it because I can understand it. I had to do this kind of science again this year because I didn't understand it last year in Abeka. I really like doing the projects with my mom and sister. Science is so cool and I really like how the book sounds in my head when I read it or my mom reads it to me. It's kind of like hearing somebody that really knows how to explain something say stuff that I need to know. I keep a notebook and am learning to draw cool nature stuff. I just wanted to say thank you to Mrs. Fulbright for writing something I can understand. Thank you. From Windsor a 9 year old science learner.

Not a bad science curriculum, but you do the math. 13 lessons total. There are normally about 36 weeks in a typical school year. We tried to stretch it out as long as possible but we've already finished with this book in about 26 weeks....now what do we do for the other 10? Also, most of our projects either didn't work out (stuff died or didn't grow in the hut) or were so (yawn) that we didn't bother to do them. ( I find this to be true with most homeschool science curriculum, frankly.)

In northern climates, best to do this one over the spring/summer when there are plenty of materials available and the weather is fav for outdoor exploration.