Apologia Science - these look like a lot of work - am I crazy?

[hmsch4me]

I looked through Physical and General Science last year and it seemed like a lot of work for the student as far as answering the questions, doing the labs, etc. Don't get me wrong, I think it looked great, but thought it would take up a lot of time in our days.

If you use Apologia do you use it as written? If not, where do you make changes. Quite honestly, this looked to be quite a jump from what we have been doing - WTM methods for 7th & 8th.

[Gwen in TX]

He worked approximately 25-30 minutes a day, four days a week, and did the labs in a co-op setting on the fifth day (one hour). The good thing is the student works independently. The book is written to the student, walks him through every step, every equation, explains why things happened in the lab (and every lab worked, which is a nice surprise). I check his practice problems, his review questions, his lab notebook, and his tests.

[Sophia]

and no it was not alot of work.
We followed the schedule from Donna young's site, and ds managed quite well-and his work ethic when it comes to schoolwork is unfortunately, not the best.

We didn't continue with the series, switched to Prentice-Hall Science Explorer for chemistry.
I would say he has been more challenged this year.

[periwinkle]

In fact, we usually finish them a few weeks before our school year ends.

However, you do NOT need to use the 7th (Gen Sc) or 8th (Phys Sci) grade courses prior to starting Biology in 9th grade...they are not prerequisites for the high school courses. We do delight-driven, relaxed science through seventh grade. We have found it is helpful to ramp up in 8th grade using the Physical Science text (or some other middle school science program) in preparation for high school.

[Jill, OK]

They read the sections on their own, and then I may or may not have them answer the "On Your Own" questions in paragraph form. (This doubles as a writing assignment)

I have the supply kit from Sonlight, and we only do the experiments if it's something that only needs what came in that box, lol.

It's really pretty easy. We sit down and chat about what they've learned, but I haven't been too consistent about giving them the tests. I'll probably do that more with Physical Science, next year.

I'd say it takes a half hour to do what they do, not counting informal discussion, between the three of us, later.

[Beth in TN]

I used General Science last year on our own. It took no more than 30 to 45 minutes per day including labs using Sonlight's schedule. This year we are using Physical Science 4 days per week for 30 to 45 minutes per day plus the labs on Tuesday for 90 minutes.

It is not a lot of work, but there is a learning curve if your student has not used a textbook, studied for tests, or taken tests before. You can use the first and second modules to practice these skills and get over the transition.
The text is easy to read, the labs take regular supplies (nothing expensive or hard to find) and the tests challenge the students to think instead of just memorizing. You have had success using these texts and plan to continue to use them.

[Kelli in TN]

I think that they are an appropriate level of work. Not too much, but enough.:)

[Michelle in MO]

and Dr. Wile really writes to the student. I've read portions of my oldest daughter's chemistry book, and for the first time I can actually understand chemistry, i.e., balancing equations.

The physical science book does have a lot of experiments; however, you can always modify those and pick out one or two per module that seem very worthwhile to do; at least, that's what we've done. It's worked for us!