We have had the opportunity to review products from Apologia many times over the years, and each time we've been thoroughly impressed. From science curricula to daily planners to biblical worldview courses to grammar and writing resources to heart-convicting books, their products are always top-quality and highly sought-after. In fact, they consistently earn awards for their resources, specifically their elementary science courses.
This Christian company believes "that every educational subject in your home school can and should be taught from a biblical worldview built on the solid foundation of God’s Word and centered on Jesus Christ." It's always best to use products that reinforce your beliefs. That is one of the many reasons I was excited to use Exploring Creation with Human Anatomy and Physiology in our home.
This Christian company believes "that every educational subject in your home school can and should be taught from a biblical worldview built on the solid foundation of God’s Word and centered on Jesus Christ." It's always best to use products that reinforce your beliefs. That is one of the many reasons I was excited to use Exploring Creation with Human Anatomy and Physiology in our home.
Apologia was extremely generous and sent us the entire set of this curriculum:
- Exploring Creation with Human Anatomy and Physiology Text
- Exploring Creation with Human Anatomy and Physiology MP3 Audio CD
- Exploring Creation with Human Anatomy and Physiology Junior Notebooking Journal
- Exploring Creation with Human Anatomy and Physiology Notebooking Journal
There are 14 lessons that cover an intro to anatomy and physiology, the various systems of the body, health and nutrition, blood, and growth and development. Your students will learn everything from the strongest muscle in the body to which vitamin the bacteria in your colon produce to the purpose of dendrites to why you get dizzy after spinning in circles and more. The hands-on experiments get the students exploring about taste testing, learning Braille, testing fruits and vegetables for vitamin C, analyzing a chicken bone after vinegar exposure, crafting a stethoscope, creating a trivia anatomy game, completing a science fair project, and other fun ideas.
The textbook makes it simple for the parent to teach the curriculum. The text is written directly to the student with a conversational tone. The book is engaging and gives multiple opportunities for the students to stop and retell what they've learned. The narration is written at the students' level (ages 6-13), but incorporates many more advanced terms that are relevant. More complicated words include a pronunciation guide and definition in the text. Like the other books in the Young Explorer Series, this one is full of hands-on activities and scientific experiments. The pages are sprinkled with Try This! boxes that encourage the students to explore what they've been learning in a practical, interactive manner.
An MP3 Audio CD is included to accompany the text. The author of Exploring Creation with Human Anatomy and Physiology, Jeannie Fulbright, reads the textbook. She has a pleasant, easy-to-listen-to voice, which makes it enjoyable for the students to follow along in their books. The Audio CD replaces the need for a teacher or parent to explain the book and would be helpful while driving or other times when a parent may not be able to instruct. Jeannie references pictures, illustrations, and diagrams, so it is beneficial to be looking at the book. Because the parts of each lesson are divided into tracks, you could use a combination of parent-led portions when you have the time and CD-led lessons when life is too busy.
An MP3 Audio CD is included to accompany the text. The author of Exploring Creation with Human Anatomy and Physiology, Jeannie Fulbright, reads the textbook. She has a pleasant, easy-to-listen-to voice, which makes it enjoyable for the students to follow along in their books. The Audio CD replaces the need for a teacher or parent to explain the book and would be helpful while driving or other times when a parent may not be able to instruct. Jeannie references pictures, illustrations, and diagrams, so it is beneficial to be looking at the book. Because the parts of each lesson are divided into tracks, you could use a combination of parent-led portions when you have the time and CD-led lessons when life is too busy.
The curriculum follows a Charlotte Mason methodology. Instead of depending on typical workbooks that need to be filled in with answers, it focuses on notebooking where the students can uniquely express themselves as they learn and record the information in way that they personally will retain. Apologia offers two notebooking journals for the course. The Junior version is designed for younger students or those with limited writing skills. It has coloring pages and fewer spaces for written text, but also includes other interesting pages, like labeling parts of the body, simple crossword puzzles, vocabulary puzzles, copy work pages, extra experiment ideas, and more.
The second notebooking journal is for the older kids. It has more places to personally record notes and incorporates some short answer question pages. It includes copy work pages, labeling activities, and crossword puzzles like the Junior book, but at a slightly more difficult level. The additional experiment pages are identical to its counterpart, making it easy to do with multiple kids of all ages.
This study (which is the same format as the Exploring Creation with Chemistry and Physics study that we've enjoyed) has been perfect for our family! We prefer to do as much schoolwork as a family as we can. I love these times as it often leads to deeper discussions, whether about the text or a parallel topic. I read the lessons to all the kids (ages 12, 10, 8, 6), but only the middle two work through their respective notebooking journals. It's funny, because the two without the books are happy not to have to do extra work, and the two with the journals are happy because they enjoy the activities in them.
Of course, everyone's favorite part is the experiments! The book is filled with all types from simple activities like trying to complete tasks with your fingers taped together to more involved experiments like mummifying apples. There are easier small exercises throughout the lessons and then one big project at the end of each one. There is a list of all the necessary items at the beginning of the book and thorough directions that accompany each activity.
This video shows just a portion of the activities that are included in the first 4 lessons of the book:
We're having so much fun Exploring Creation with Human Anatomy and Physiology!
The second notebooking journal is for the older kids. It has more places to personally record notes and incorporates some short answer question pages. It includes copy work pages, labeling activities, and crossword puzzles like the Junior book, but at a slightly more difficult level. The additional experiment pages are identical to its counterpart, making it easy to do with multiple kids of all ages.
This study (which is the same format as the Exploring Creation with Chemistry and Physics study that we've enjoyed) has been perfect for our family! We prefer to do as much schoolwork as a family as we can. I love these times as it often leads to deeper discussions, whether about the text or a parallel topic. I read the lessons to all the kids (ages 12, 10, 8, 6), but only the middle two work through their respective notebooking journals. It's funny, because the two without the books are happy not to have to do extra work, and the two with the journals are happy because they enjoy the activities in them.
Of course, everyone's favorite part is the experiments! The book is filled with all types from simple activities like trying to complete tasks with your fingers taped together to more involved experiments like mummifying apples. There are easier small exercises throughout the lessons and then one big project at the end of each one. There is a list of all the necessary items at the beginning of the book and thorough directions that accompany each activity.
This video shows just a portion of the activities that are included in the first 4 lessons of the book:
We're having so much fun Exploring Creation with Human Anatomy and Physiology!
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You can read more reviews of this curriculum set on the Homeschool Review Crew blog.
