Review Detail

The text is well-organized and easy and flexible to implement. We were able to work at our own pace, skimming some sections and spending more time on sections that my children were more interested in. There was plenty of information to make this a "meaty" course for the upper grades and yet, it was accessible enough that my younger children stayed interested most of the time. It does have a good variety of pictures, but I also got books from the library for each chapter so each child could look at the animals while I was reading.
We also used the Junior Notebooks alongside the text, which have some nice activities to supplement the book. There are even some mini booklets in the back of the notebook that are printed in full color. My children were frustrated that some of the spaces to write in were too small (and used the primary dashed lines) and they were overwhelmed when I tried to make them complete every activity, including the copywork. It works better when you pick and choose a few activities.