Customer Reviews

Exploring Creation With Botany (Young Explorers)

5 star:		(15)
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2 star:		(2)
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This fabulous book and the others in the elementary series perfectly lay the groundwork for later success in the unparalleled Apologia Science books.

The philosophy is that, rather than be given a quick shot overview of a scientific subject, young students will thrive best with an exciting, intensified study that thoroughly peaks their interest beyond trite summaries.

Written in the typical user-friendly Apologia style, these books are readable by the students. An in-depth study of the Plantae Kingdom is covered with continually fun activities that are teacher/parent friendly. The students learn Latin terminology that will aid them with more advanced vocabulary study, as well.

We are using this in a homeschool Botany class where 6 families meet weekly in various settings to amplify the theme. We met at the park waterfall to study mosses and at a berry farm to pick blueberies together during the study of fruit plants. A visit to the bee farm and butterfly pavillon will provide visual integration of the pollination chapter. The students each made their own light hut to grow herbs which will later be made into their own herb soap.

A free downloadable workbook is presently on their website, along with a multitude of internet links for each chapter. This is an effective and exciting study ~ well worth every penny!

I must express an opinion different from all the other reviewers so far. I purchased this book for our daughters to use, and came away very disappointed. Granted it has lovely pictures, and good diagrams and the activities are interesting....if you can make it long enough to get to one. The writing style is not what Charlotte Mason would have approved of. She had no patience for twaddly textbooks that moralised everything, which unfortunately this book does. The style is boring and pedantic, and even my younger children disliked it. I personally want to give the glory to God for His creation, but stressing every few lines the awesomeness of His creation soon becomes hollow. His creative glory should be self-evident to your children, because they are actually out there looking at it. This textbook requires you to read portions for days before you ever come to an activity. It especially bothers me that the book is written in a sing-songy conversational manner, as if the author were in the room leading a class. This annoys my kids, because when the text asks them if they've ever heard of a botanist ("BAW - tan - ist") they look at me like, "why are you asking us such a dumb question Mom?". Obviously, as their teacher I know what they've already studied, and it sounds really silly to be speaking to them as if I've never met them before.
Charlotte Mason would have had the children read a PRIMARY source work, not this kind of predigested moralised stuff, she would have had the children go outside and look at a flower, draw it, observe its changes, not sit for days on the couch reading from a textbook. We finally gave up on this book, as my girls were becoming very bored, and starting to dread "science" time. We decided to change to actually doing science, with activity based explorations they will remember as they grow up and will truly know that God is awesome from what they see before them. Reading eight pages and then doing a quiet notebook page is not doing science. If you decide to use this book, I strongly suggest you read it aloud, skipping all the pedantic nonesense, and get to the real subject matter, and then right away do an activity that will engage your children. I wish I could be more positive about this book, I had such high hopes for it.

My 11 year old daughter chose this book after looking at several science books over a variety of topics. She enjoys reading it, growing her own plants in the light hut she made (all detailed really well in the instructions), and notebooking the information she is learning. She enjoyed the "shoe" experiment, which enabled her to easily understand and memorize taxonomy. She is looking forward to making her own herb soap as soon as her plants are big enough.

I like Exploring Creation with Botany because I was looking for a science book that would explain God's creation with much more interest than a textbook. Jeannie Fulbright's book does just that and my daughter can even teach herself since it is so well-written. My original plan was for my daughter to learn botany on her own, but it is so interesting that I am learning with her and enjoying it. I wish I'd had a book this interesting when I was in school. I like that it is written directly to the student and that each topic is covered in depth. The supplies for the experiments are easy to find, too.

We already have Exploring Creation with Astronomy by the same author and we are looking forward to more learning adventures with it!

My name is Windsor and I'm using my mom's account with permission.
I wanted to say something about this book. I really like it because I can understand it. I had to do this kind of science again this year because I didn't understand it last year in Abeka. I really like doing the projects with my mom and sister. Science is so cool and I really like how the book sounds in my head when I read it or my mom reads it to me. It's kind of like hearing somebody that really knows how to explain something say stuff that I need to know. I keep a notebook and am learning to draw cool nature stuff. I just wanted to say thank you to Mrs. Fulbright for writing something I can understand. Thank you. From Windsor a 9 year old science learner.

I have been reading textbook after textbook trying to find a publisher that could meet my son's needs. My son is enthusiastic about science. He is entering the third grade, but reading on a fifth grade level. We are an observant Jewish family and I had not found what I was looking for in any secular text, but was skeptical to purchase a text from a Christian perspective.

My son wanted to study botany, so I decided to purchase this book and evaluate it myself before telling him about it. I devoured this book over one weekend. It was an interesting read. I know that it will captivate my son and keep my interest as well.

Since my son is going to be the one to do the reading of the text, I wanted to ensure that this was taught from the Jewish perspective. There were only a couple of changes that I made to the book to fit our families needs perfectly.

I am SO happy with this one, that I am going to purchase the General Science text for my 7th grader!

We used this book last year for elementary Science, and thoroughly enjoyed it. Exploring Creation with Botany is a great introduction to the topic of plant life and nature study. We continue to use it, even after the school year was over, and my youngest daughter (age 8) has read it to herself several times in the last year because she loved it so much. Now, when we see plants and trees at a nursery or while on a walk, everyone can answer basic questions about that plant or tree.

Mrs. Fulbright has done it again with her Exploring Creation with Botany book. This was the second book we have used by this author & it was just as fun as the first. Written in an easy to follow manner, Exploring Creation with Botany helps a young student (and his mother!!!) understand completely the wonders of the plant life surrounding us. My favorite thing about homeschooling is that I get to learn right along with my son & this book makes it so easy to do.

The style is very easy to follow. It is written at a 4th grade level, but my eight year old son understood it very well. Science quickly became one of his favorite subjects & he begged to do it daily - which we often did. This allowed us to complete our Botany book in half a year rather than the year it is recommended.

Each chapter reads like a wonderful storybook. Prompts throughout encourage you to ask your child what he remembers. At the end of each chapter are more prompts to help your child create a one-of-a-kind notebook for everything he is learning & doing. Easy to do experiments that use everyday household items are included as well.

I was quite comfortable just opening the book & picking up where we left off from the previous day. Little to no prep time was needed to get the most out of this book. I highly recommend this for anyone who has been struggling to find a rich science curriculum that their child will enjoy.

My name is Gregory and I'm 9 years old. I have always been interested in flowers so my mom ordered me the Botany book. I love learning all about plants and flowers. Some of my favourite experiments were trying to grow beans in different environments, disecting a flower, and collecting all different types of leaves. Reading the botany book has helped me understand so many things I have wondered about before. I have always wondered how venus fly traps knew when there was a fly and why ferns had all sorts of little bumps on the bottoms of their leaves. Now I know about the sensitive hairs that cause this carnivorous plant to snap shut and that little bumps on non-vascular plants like ferns are called spores. I have even started my own venus fly trap from seed. I'm amazed more and more about God's creation!

This book sparked a huge interest in my young son for science! The experiments were fun and well laid out. The support from the author is great(Jeannie Fulbright) and there is a Yahoo group to help when you have questions. BY far this is one of the best investments in homeschooling we have made! We are off to do the Astronomy book next!
This book is worth every penny I paid!

Claire, Hs'ing mom to one

Based on the Charlotte Mason notebooking approach to learning this book by Fulbright will keep your children engaged. The text employs an emersion style approach to learning, which will really aide in the retention of the materials presented. The book is quite detailed yet able to keep the interest of the older student without overwhelming a younger learner.

In addition the labs are quite do-able, and the materails needed are nothing obscure. If you aren't a lab or notebooking person, buy the book anyway it is a fantastic read aloud that you and your kids will both enjoy.