Monday, April 16, 2018

Apologia Review


Apologia always has excellent curriculum choices for homeschoolers to use. The Exploring Creation with Human Anatomy and Physiology does not disappoint. We received the following items for this review:
  • Exploring Creation with Human Anatomy and Physiology Text
  • Exploring Creation with Human Anatomy and Physiology Junior Notebooking Journal
  • Exploring Creation with Human Anatomy and Physiology Notebooking Journal
  • Exploring Creation with Human Anatomy and Physiology MP3 Audio CD
When my oldest three girls were younger, we used this curriculum for them while they attended a coop. My son was only in second grade and while he listened along way back then, he didn't remember much. However my 16 year old clearly remembers this study and all the fun they had doing the experiments with their friends at the coop.
My 16 year old was also happy and willing to take over the science teaching for me. You can see that she enjoyed reading the text to her 12 year old brother. I hope this enthusiasm continues. As a homeschool mom to four kids, it's always good to have some of the older ones assist the younger ones.

Like all of the Apologia elementary texts, this one is a full color hard back text. The reading is interesting and engaging. As we were reading about the cell in the first chapter, I was impressed at how accessible the author makes this information for children. She really talks in a sophisticated way that is easily understood by younger ages, but it isn't babyish at all.
Of course no science curriculum would be complete without hands on experiments. OK this is where I totally FAIL as a homeschool mom. I do not like doing science experiments. It's really a shame too because my son LOVES to do science experiments. However I do have to say that the experiments in this book so far have been completely simple and do-able. 

Throughout the text you will find TRY THIS boxes with quick and easy little things to do. I don't think these are full blown experiments, but they really help to make the abstract concepts more concrete and hands on. For example in lesson two when talking about the skeletal system, one of the TRY THIS segments focused on a simple activity to show the kids how the cartilage works in your joints.

At the end of each lesson is a full experiment. There is a list of materials that you need as well as step by step numbered procedure steps. The end of each experiments concludes with an explanation of what the student observed. The lesson two experiment has the students analyzing a chicken bone. Students evaluate the bone and then break the bone to see what the inside of a bone looks like. This experiment ends with the student putting two of the bones in jars--one filled with water and one filled with vinegar. They are to observe the bones after three days. The notebooking journal has a page for them to record their observations from the experiments.
The Notebooking Journal has a large variety of activities for the students to complete. There are note taking pages, lapbook elements, questions to answer, copywork, crossword puzzles, and even a personal person. The personal person is a really cool feature. As the different body systems are learned, the students cut out the corresponding parts and tape them over the person shape. The body systems are printed on clear plastic material, so you can literally see all of the body systems as each one is layered on.

We did not use the Junior Notebooking Journal simply because my 12 year old was too old for that product. It was good to be able to look inside the junior journal and see how it differed from the regular notebooking journal. For instance, the junior journal includes larger, dotted lines for writing. There are coloring pages throughout each lesson. It does not include a crossword puzzle or questions to answer. However the Junior Notebooking Journal does include a personal person and it appears to include all of the little folder books that are included in the regular journal.
The MP3 audio is also an excellent addition to this fantastic collection. I love being able to listen on the go or simply put the disc into the computer for my son to follow along with the text. This is usually his preferred way to learn. He loves to listen to audio narrations as opposed to reading. I love that Apologia makes their materials accessible to a wide range of learners. This also frees me up to allow him to read to a certain point in the book, and then I can simply follow up with him.

Curious what other reviewers had to say about this product? Head on over to the Homeschool Review Crew blog to read all the reviews.

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