Apologia Exploring Creation with Zoology 3: Land Animals Review

Josiah LOVES science and he LOVES animals, so when I had the opportunity to review Apologia Educational Ministries Young Explorer Series Exploring Creation with Zoology 3: Land Animals of the Sixth Day and the Junior Zoology 3 Notebooking Journal, I was super excited! Over the last month, we have been completely enjoying our study about the animals created on the 6th day of creation. Josiah looks forward to doing the projects in his Jr. Notebooking Journal and I look forward to reading the day's textbook pages, as well as discussing what we've learned!

 

 

The Zoology 3 textbook is meant for elementary age students (grades K-6), but it surely can be enjoyed by all ages.... from 3 to 103! Each "lesson" is broken down into chapters. They expect you to complete one chapter over two weeks time, if doing it two days per week. The first chapter gives a summary of what will be encountered throughout the book/year and says to imagine we are on a safari to learn about animals. It explains how the livestock, wild animals, and creeping creatures were created on the 6th day of creation. It refers to the scripture throughout the first chapter and continues this theme throughout the book. One or more new animals are introduced with each chapter, along with fascinating facts and so much more. The chapters end with asking What Did You Learn?, Map It!, and Track It! (where on the map can you find the animal, and what does their track look like). There are also experiments and projects, as well as additional resources listed to dig even deeper into the chapter's subject. Periodically, throughout the chapter, it will ask the student to tell someone what they have learned so far (to narrate). There are some big words, but it gives the pronunciation and meaning along with them, so it's a great way to teach vocabulary. An older child could probably read the textbook themselves and do most of it independently, but I wouldn't recommend it, since it is such fun to do together!

You have the option between two notebooking journals. The regular Notebooking Journal is geared towards students who have good writing skills, while the Jr. Notebooking Journal is toned down for the beginning writer or child who isn't yet writing well. We chose the Junior Notebooking Journal for that exact reason; Josiah is not yet writing well. In fact, I do most of the writing while he tells me what to write. Usually I have him write at least one sentence per writing requirement. The front of the Notebooking Journal has an intro and a laid out lesson plan you can follow, if you'd like. It tells you exactly which textbook pages to read and which Notebooking Journal pages go along with them for each day. I found it very helpful. The Junior Notebooking Journal has lined writing sections and plenty of boxes and spaces for drawing pictures. Each chapter is started with coloring pages that the child can work on while the text is being read. There is also scripture and copy work of Bible verses included in the Notebooking pages. You can choose between cursive or print copy work. There are also spaces at the end of each lesson to paste in a "cut & paste" mini booklet that the student puts together using templates from the back of the Notebooking Journal.

Josiah coloring while I read the text for our first lesson.

The little kids enjoyed listening, as well.

Jr. Notebooking Journal and the textbook.

The following photos are Josiah doing the experiment for the first lesson. He enjoyed it very much! It taught us about camouflage and "natural selection".

Sorting candies according to color, to match their environment (the construction paper)

Filling out the "Scientific Speculation Sheet"

Searching for the candies to determine which ones had the best "camouflage" to live in their habitat, he had two minutes to find as many as possible. It was hardest to find the green candy, which means they would be most likely to survive long-term. The orange and blue were tied for the easiest to find which indicates they would easily die off and become extinct in this habitat. 

The Zoology 3 textbook is listed for $39.00 and the Jr. Notebooking Journal to go with it is $24.00. Both worth their cost, in my opinion! I'm sure you could get by without the notebook, since the textbook gives you directions and details for each experiment and project, but the notebook gives your child a great place to record all they are learning and gives a sense of accomplishment. Josiah loves having the Jr. Notebooking Journal.

My favorite aspects of the textbook and Junior Notebooking Journal are that they are creation science based, give lots of great info in a conversational style, have full color photos, have easy-to-do and fun activities/projects/experiments-using common household items, and you can choose to do the very basics (which still covers a lot!), or you can go much deeper and spend more time on each topic using their suggested DVDs, books, and projects!

Between myself and Josiah (who I used it with), we have no complaints or anything we can think of that we would liked change. On a very personal level, I would prefer KJV for the scripture references, but that is easily remedied by looking up the scripture in our own Bibles if we feel the need! At the front of the textbook, it states "Unless otherwise stated, all Scripture quotes come from the New American Standard Bible (NASB)". Just sharing for your information.

Disclaimer: I received a free copy of this product through the Schoolhouse Review Crew in exchange for my honest review. I was not required to write a positive review nor was I compensated in any other way. All opinions I have expressed are my own or those of my family. I am disclosing this in accordance with the FTC Regulations.