It is no secret how much our family uses resources from Apologia Educational Ministries. Until now, science books from them were our favorite. Now our favorite science books are tied with their brand new Exploring Creation Field Trip Journal for that top spot of our favorite Apologia book. This spiral bound book seems to have been designed specifically with my son in mind.
Our family loves going on field trips together. For us, field trips are like ice cream accompanying the cake of homeschooling. We try to plan them when my husband can be away from work so the whole family can enjoy our outings. Vacations often feature mini field trips, and most recently we even incorporated a few into a work trip. Our family looks for ways to have fun and learn together.
Our latest family trip was to Dallas. My son has talked about wanting to go to Legoland for years, and when we began discussing Dallas he was the one who found a Legoland there. It turned into a greatly anticipated event. My son even saved his money for extra purchases there. Unlike our typical whole family outings, Legoland was just for my husband and son while the girls and I spent the day at a Lilla Rose training event.
Colorful pages, plenty of room to draw, and FUN writing make Apologia's newest workbook indeed seem to be tailor made just for my son. Though not eager to sit and write long passages, the setup of the individual sections in this book allow him to complete small sections at a time in manageable chunks. He especially likes the sections for drawing pictures.
He started the "story of my day" section this way:
Before we drove home that Sunday from Dallas, my husband added another field trip to our trip. We went to the infamous grassy knoll complete with people every few steps we took trying to sell us their own versions of how JFK's life tragically ended. For that trip, because it was completely unplanned, my son didn't have books read ahead of time to add to the spot designated for that in his book (compared with his long list of Lego books.) Research after the field trip has happened extending the learning opportunities from that last minute outing.
Our latest family trip was to Dallas. My son has talked about wanting to go to Legoland for years, and when we began discussing Dallas he was the one who found a Legoland there. It turned into a greatly anticipated event. My son even saved his money for extra purchases there. Unlike our typical whole family outings, Legoland was just for my husband and son while the girls and I spent the day at a Lilla Rose training event.
Colorful pages, plenty of room to draw, and FUN writing make Apologia's newest workbook indeed seem to be tailor made just for my son. Though not eager to sit and write long passages, the setup of the individual sections in this book allow him to complete small sections at a time in manageable chunks. He especially likes the sections for drawing pictures.
He started the "story of my day" section this way:
"I built lots of cars with daddy and won all but two of the races."
Before we drove home that Sunday from Dallas, my husband added another field trip to our trip. We went to the infamous grassy knoll complete with people every few steps we took trying to sell us their own versions of how JFK's life tragically ended. For that trip, because it was completely unplanned, my son didn't have books read ahead of time to add to the spot designated for that in his book (compared with his long list of Lego books.) Research after the field trip has happened extending the learning opportunities from that last minute outing. 
Our family enjoys traveling together, and we have made scrapbooks before when we visited several states at a time. Although educational, those were time consuming. This book makes sharing memories from each state visited so much simpler. As with other sections of the book, how you have your child use it is pretty open to interpretation. They can write a lot or a little, color in states or draw each one, or draw special places to remember from each trip. There aren't any hard and fast rules with this. 
Sometimes when our family uses single use resources together, the kids all share one book and take turns writing. This book, though, was all for my 11 year old. He hasn't complained about writing in it at all. I'll continue to have him fill in the pages throughout the summer and the entire next school year.
"My special spot" provides a place for your child to share after exploring the same particular spot at least four times a year, once in each season, and that can even be done here on the farm. In fact, there are special seasonal pages. He can explore wildlife and even graph something. Joseph has been paying close attention to our often very full rain gauge lately, and I will not be surprised if that is what he chooses to graph.
This 64 page book has so much potential. I can't wait to see how my son's Field Trip Journal will look once it has been completely filled with his thoughts and drawings.
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