Science in the Beginning Review 

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Apologia has excellent courses but I'd encourage you to use Science in the Beginning. We loved it especially since each lesson STARTS with a science experiment. My little ones, who only sat in on the experiment and then went off to play, learned a lot just from doing the experiments with us. You can read the entire text for each lesson or skim and summarize. My kids enjoyed all the different topics that were covered. Just when they got bored with one science topic, it was time to move on to a new one. Of course, if you have kids who love astronomy and would be happy learning about it all year long, then Apologia might be a good choice. Honestly, they are both excellent. I just happen to have a bias towards Science in the Beginning because I have so many fond memories of us using it together as a family. Hope that helps. And, I learned something new from you! I didn't realize that they had matched the books up to Veritas Press curriculum. :)

I have started formal history/geography as early as 1st grade and as late as 3rd grade. I find that most of my kids are still needing to focus on learning to read in 1st grade so that is always my focus in kindergarten and 1st grade. Formal history curriculum usually started in 2nd grade. Of course, reading books from the library, locating where family members and missionaries live etc. are great ways to introduce history and geography through reading and everyday life. I hope that helps! Blessings in your homeschool journey.

When using Science in the Beginning, we do science 3 days a week (one lesson each day) and it usually takes around 20 minutes.

Take 2 or 3 years to go through it. If you kids are enjoying a particular lesson/topic then stop the textbook and grab some library books on that topic and just enjoy learning about what interests them for a few weeks. Then, come back to Science in the Beginning when they are done exploring the topic. If you and your kids enjoy the textbook, then you can go through it again. Your kids will be older and will get new information from the lessons a 2nd time through. If you would rather move on to another science book then Apologia's elementary curriculum is a good option. Here's a link to Apologia's curriculum (affiliate link) www.apologia.com/?ref=24607 Hope that helps!

You could probably get by with just the textbook but I think the Help and Hints books is very helpful especially because it has the answer keys.

The first time I used it, we took 2 years to work through it. Then moved onto other curriculum. Now I am using it again and we are working through it in one year. Next year we will do something else. There are other books in the series that you can do if you like this one. I haven't used any of the other ones in the series though so I can't tell you what they are like.

@@JanelleKnutson Hi Janelle, may I ask what curriculum you ended up switching to and why?

You could definitely make it work in a co-op setting. 1st and 2nd grade would work but you'd have to summarize the lesson for them. I'd say 3rd grade and up would be able to handle you reading the lesson straight from the textbook.

I think it would work fine for a middle school student. You will want them to do the extra, more advanced lessons and make sure they are doing the experiments. It might be a good idea to have them do the tests as well. You can use the tests as worksheets if you don't like to give tests in middle school.

Perfect! Thank you!!