Dreams, or How I Came to Title This Blog

I’m a dreamer. Anyone who knew me as a child will laugh knowingly because I was infamous for my staring-out-the-window episodes. I can daydream so deeply that I won’t even hear someone talking to me. I am extremely gifted in blocking out the world. (Which is awesome, because sometimes the world stinks.)
But I also dream vividly. Only recently was I given tools for interpreting these dreams. (Side note: For those Christians who are going to balk at my belief of God speaking in dreams and dreams being interpreted by other Christians, you can pick up your Bible and read all the accounts in both the Old and New Testaments of this actually happening. Cessationist theology is something I won’t entertain.)

Apologia: General Science (7th grade)

When transitioning from elementary to middle school, the jump can be steep in a few areas. To help with this transition in science I had my son choose whatever elementary Apologia book he wanted and complete it on his own in 6th grade. Previous to that, science was a subject I taught to all my children at one time, using the method of reading out loud from a text, discussion and experiments. He chose Astronomy and this proved to be a great decision as it gave him a taste of following a lesson plan independent of me.

Apologia Overview

Lately, I find myself recommending Apologia in a lot of different places. We started using this last year and I plan on my children using it straight through high school. I actually have a plan written up outlining which books we'll be using from now til 2024. It's impressive.
There are many reasons we all love this curriculum. I'll outline my three biggest loves:

The Phonics Road to Spelling and Reading: Introduction and Level 1

This will be long. Bear with me.

I find myself recommending this program frequently, and since I have much to say about it, typing the same things over and over again. I'm going to put all my thoughts here as a place to send folks who are interested in Phonics Road.
In 2005, my oldest son was finishing up second grade. I had taken a very relaxed approach to Language Arts up to this point. My son had learned to read with virtually no effort on my part, quite literally by watching Between the Lions. By second grade, with no formal phonics lessons, he was reading books like My Side of the Mountain. But he couldn't spell to save his life.

Phonics Road: Level 2

(For review of Level 1, see below)
Level 2: With each level of Phonics Road, you can expect to have the workload increase slightly. I find the transition between the first two levels to be the easiest. I am working through this level with my 7 year old boy now. The spelling/grammar portions take a half hour or less, and we spend a half hour on the literature study, which is mostly completed on his own.
Blueprints: You continue with the five words a day dictation model, not much changed from last level except the difficulty of the words. This usually takes us just a few minutes.

Phonics Road: Level 3

(For Levels 1 and 2, please scroll down! I don't know how to get these in a different order.)
Level 3: We're in the big leagues now!
It is this level that my son #2 has taken two school years to complete. This way we could really focus on the areas he needs extra work on.
Spelling Log: There is a big jump this year as the student goes from 5 words a day, to between 15-20. This is why we spread the work out more than the lesson plans suggest. Dictionary work is really stressed at this level (though not immediately) as the student begins to connect the spelling words to the grammar work, understanding what jobs an individual word can do in a sentence.

Phonics Road: Level 4

Level 4: This is the tour de force of the elementary series. Although intended for a fourth grader, I've never had one genius enough to do work of this caliber. Instead, son #1 used this in 6th grade, as will son #2. This level contains a new section -- Sentences to Analyze -- and eliminates "Building Codes as there should be no further need for reviewing the phonics rules at this point. That will be done through daily spelling words in the Spelling Log. Something I don't want to fail to mention is this level requires quite a bit more preparation on the teacher's part than previous levels. I would always watch the teacher's DVD on Sunday afternoons; this level found me in front of the computer sometimes for an hour. The grammar concepts tackled here are complex; I have a BA in English Language Arts and Literature, and sometimes the lessons hurt my head. But thoroughly understanding it will pay off for your student. I don't want to discourage you, but I also don't want anyone heading into this level without fully realizing the level of commitment required.

Review: Christian Kids Explore series

We used these books (published by Bright Ideas Press*) when my oldest sons were in 2nd/3rd grade and 4th/5th grade. The first year we used biology. I'm pretty sure I had won the book from The Old Schoolhouse magazine back in the days when they had their "count the apples" contests. I miss those contests.
This was a great fit for my then second and fourth grader. At this age, I believe reading to them is the best style. These books are written to be read to a range of ages, and the concepts were easy to understand for both my boys. The reproducible coloring pages with each chapter are wonderfully detailed and a great activity for the children while you read. The reinforcement activities are simple and rarely require a trip to the store.
Being so pleased with Biology, we moved on to Chemistry and Physics the following year. The books contain 30 lessons each. By completing 2 to 3 lessons a week, we easily finished both in one school year. Let me just say, I am NOT a science-y person. I was an English major. Shakespeare? Yes. Physics? No. (Unless you count all the times I trip and fall, furthering my understanding of gravity.)
These books took concepts that I struggled with as a junior and senior in high school (and I was no slacker), and explained them on a level my 3rd and 5th grade boys understood, without watering down the subject matter. Each time we did a chapter review (which I did orally) they blew me away with their comprehension of the subject matter. The chemistry book in particular really struck a chord with my oldest son who still reads about chemistry, has a periodic table on his wall and would love to study chemistry in college.
Again, the experiments were very easy, and the only items I had to go out of my way to purchase (side note, having to go to the store is "going out of my way" in general) were Styrofoam balls for building models of atoms.
If you ascribe to a Charlotte Mason, living books sort of style, you will enjoy these books. They are written very conversationally, leading to easy discussion with your children. I never read a chapter ahead of time. When it was time for science, I just cracked the book and we dove in. I did glance ahead to prepare for experiments and make copies if necessary, but I did not spend a lot of time planning.
I highly recommend these books because of their ease-of-use and affordability. You buy one book, no matter how many children you have, and can make copies of the experiment and coloring pages. So for $40, if you have two children, that's $20 a year for science, or $40 for a year if you use two books.
You can't beat that with a stick.

*Disclosure: I am a Bright Ideas Press affiliate, meaning I will earn money if you purchase anything from them using my link. I became an affiliate AFTER posting this review and only agreed to do so because I really do endorse their products.