My children enjoyed the opportunity to dissect plants and learn more about them. They wish there were more activities included. The chapters were well organized and easy to adapt to our needs. We went at a slower pace, and did not finish the book in one school year, but my children still gained more knowledge than I thought they would from the course. A year later, they still use the light hut that they built as one of the experiments and refer back to things they've learned. I have mixed feelings about the junior notebook. On one hand, there were great mini-books to assemble and activities to fill in, but on the other hand, there were more pages that we didn't find helpful, like the copy work.
I highly recommend Apologia Botany. The text is written in a conversational tone and the experiments are fun. We really enjoyed making a light hut to grow herbs.
Apologia has the most in depth elementary science program on the market. This book covers concepts I did not learn until college botany classes. The student notebooks and experiments were a fantastic way for my girls to stay focused and apply what they read. Only issue I have with this curriculum is that it is visually not engaging. It looks like a home-printed book. However, the content makes it well worth purchasing.
This was the science for our curriculum this year (My Father's World). We loved it and we enjoyed science this year. I just wish I had known about the notebooks/journals. I would have used them. They definitely would help to improve a child's understanding!
Grade levels used
3
5
Pros
This is very easy to use!
Cons
I wish I would have known about the journals and have an experiment kit.
