Apologia Educational Ministries’ Exploring Creation with Chemistry and Physics is part of their Young Explorer Series designed for children in K-6^th grade. The textbook ($39) covers a wide variety of topics including various types of matter, atoms, compound chemistry, mixtures, mechanics in motion, dynamics of motion, work, sound of energy, light, thermal energy, electricity, magnetism, and simple machines. There are 14 lessons in all, with each lesson taking approximately 2 weeks. The textbook can be used as a stand-alone product, or it can be supplemented in a number of ways. For younger children, parents can choose to supplement with the Junior Chemistry & Physics Notebooking Journal ($27). This journal has simpler activities such as pages to color with a Bible verse underneath, Bible verse copywork, and vocabulary crossword puzzles using words from the lesson (for instance, in the first lesson, students place words like “matter”, “volume”, “mass,” and “density” in the crossword). In addition, there are ample lined pages for students to write down what experiments they did and what the results were. There are also mini books students create and glue into the notebook. For older children, parents can supplement with Chemistry & Physics Notebooking Journal ($27). This journal follows the same format and contains much of the same activities as the Junior Notebooking Journal, but there are not coloring pages, the crossword puzzles are more challenging, and there is a “What Do You Remember” section at the end of each lesson for students to review what they’ve learned. It’s important to note that each journal contains a two day a week schedule for the course that parents can follow; that information is not found in the textbook, so parents may want to consider purchasing the notebooking journal for this reason (in addition to the supplemental reinforcement they provide). The last supplemental item is a Chemistry and Physics MP3 Audio CD ($29), which provides a complete recording of the textbook.

Like all of the science texts in the Young Explorer Series, this book was designed specifically for the homeschooling family. It can be used by a family to teach all of the children at once, making the course easier or more difficult in part based on the notebooking journal that is chosen. Almost all of the experiments use items that are already in the home or that can readily be found in the grocery store. In addition, this program is good for many different types of learners. Those who are auditory learners or are slow readers or have disabilities can use the MP3 Audio CD. Those who are kinesthetic learners can learn through the experiments and the activities in the notebooking journal. Charlotte Mason homeschoolers will enjoy the copywork. There truly is something for everyone in this program. The schedule in the front of the notebooking journal breaks down assignments on a two day a week basis, but this is flexible. In general, each of the days’ work is a mix of reading approximately 4 to 5 pages in the text, doing an experiment or two, and writing in a page or two of the notebooking journal. This course is very manageable for a family with a busy schedule. I used both the text and the Chemistry and Physics Notebooking Journal with my 6^th grader. Although I tend to think of chemistry and physics as “difficult” subjects, this book explained the concepts gently, and my son was not intimidated by the subject matter. In fact, this is his favorite science book now! We chose to do science three to four days a week, so we completed the suggested amount of work for two days over three to four days. Using the program this way, science took less than 30 minutes a day.

My son is not a fan of science, so motivating him to do his science work can be difficult. Exploring Creation with Chemistry and Physics is the first Apologia science book we’ve tried, and we both enjoyed it. For the first time in the three years that we’ve been homeschooling, my son didn’t complain about doing science! He’s a visual learner, so he loved that the book was filled with many colorful pictures. He also really enjoyed doing the experiments. His favorite so far was creating a lava lamp. (He still has it in his room!) We both loved that the experiments were meaningful but short and quick. I enjoyed that the supplies needed were basic supplies. For instance, for the lava lamp, all we needed was an empty plastic bottle, water, food coloring, a large bottle of vegetable oil, and Alka-Seltzer tablets. I also appreciated that there were so many experiments to try out that we could easily skip one if we didn’t have the ingredients, and we wouldn’t miss out on learning.

Not that we’ve tried this program out, I plan to continue using Apologia Educational Ministries’ science books with my younger daughters. However, as with any program, there are a few minor issues my son had with the program. Specifically he didn’t enjoy the mini-books and flip books he was to create in the notebooking journal. He didn’t like them because they were too open-ended for him. They asked him to simply write what he learned, but he would have preferred more direction or to answer specific questions. While I liked the program over all, there were a few science experiments that were much too messy for me, but this is personal preference. Many families enjoy the hands-on aspect of some of the experiments.

Exploring Creation with Chemistry and Physics provides a gentle introduction to these challenging fields of science and will be enjoyed by most elementary students. The experiments are fun, the book is visually appealing and easy to understand, and there are many different activities for hands-on learners. We’re delighted with this book and plan to use more books from this series with our younger children.

--Product review by Melissa Batai, The Old Schoolhouse® Magazine, LLC, July, 2016