Offering a systematic presentation of skills, Apologia’s Exploring Creation with Mathematics curriculum by author Kathryn Gomes provides a creation-based, hands-on approach to math education. Through the lessons, children are pointed to the Creator and shown the connections between math and science. Each lesson is presented in a 4-step progression: Project and/or problem, pictorial presentation, abstract presentation, and application. Levels are theme-based, following the same topical themes found in Apologia’s Exploring Creation science series.
For each lesson, concepts are first introduced with a hands-on activity and then applied using practice worksheets. Lessons often end with an additional challenge that may be a game or project. Daily lessons are interactive and will take 30 to 45 minutes per day, including 5 to 10 minutes of review. Most activities use common household or easily found items, although a few math manipulatives are necessary. For your convenience, we have put together Activity Packages and Add-On Activity Kits. Activity Packages include supplies to complete most activities. You will still need to supply a few household items. We also offer Add-On Activity Kits for families who have already purchased the previous level kit and only need supplies for the next level.
Required for the program are the softcover Teaching Guide & Answer Key and the spiral-bound all-in-one Student Text and Workbook. The Teaching Guide & Answer Key include a suggested 4-day-per-week schedule, lesson overviews and teaching suggestions for struggling students, ideas for further exploration, tear-out activity pages that will be used throughout the year, a project and manipulative supply list, and reduced student pages with answers to all problems.
The hefty All-in-One Student Text and Workbook provides lessons, activities, and consumable worksheets. It also includes a weblink and password to Book Extras, which offers a variety of helpful links and additional practice sheets if needed. If teaching more than one child, each child will need their own copy. Core components are available separately or as a set.
Available for both Exploring Creation with Mathematics Level 5 and Level 6 are optional Skills Practice Workbooks. Each workbook contains 6 units with a variety of activities that align with the progression of lessons in the program. These perforated, grab-and-go activity pages are designed to supplement lessons and provide extra practice to ensure mastery of concepts. No instruction is included in these workbooks, as teaching is from previous lessons or levels.
This Christian math curriculum offers homeschool families an engaging, hands-on program that focuses on mastery of math concepts. Parents will be pleasantly surprised at how manageable the interactive lessons are to teach, and children are sure to be won over by the projects and the application of math to the world around them.