Exploring Creation with Human Anatomy and Physiology

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.

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.
    

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!

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You can read more reviews of this curriculum set on the Homeschool Review Crew blog.

Funtastic Unit Studies Review

My kiddos love science. They thrive on experiments and hands-on projects. They long to understand how and why things work. They enjoy examining and discovering just about everything. My little ones, like their daddy, are naturally drawn to all things science. I knew they'd be excited to use the Science Unit Studies for Homeschoolers and Teachers this summer. 

This book, written by Susan Kilbride, is part of  Funtastic Unit Studies. Susan, a homeschooling mother with a degree in biology, started the company to help other parents feel comfortable teaching science. She used the methods that she applied when teaching her own son and the unit studies book was born.      

Science Unit Studies for Homeschoolers and Teachers is broken into 2 sections: studies for ages 4-7 and studies for ages 8-13.

Ages 4-7

• Our Senses
• The Human Body
• Dinosaurs and Prehistoric Life
• Animals
• Insects and Their Kin
• Fun with Magnets
• Stars and Planets
• Health
• Beginning Plants
• Animal Ecology

Ages 8-13

• Insects
• Microscopes and Invisible Creatures
• Atoms and Molecules
•  Matter
• Chemistry Fun
• Weather
• Force and Motion
• Simple Machines
• Light and Color
• Plants II

Each chapter starts with a list of materials needed for that topic. Then, it's broken into parts or subtopics for the unit. Each part lists activities for learning. For instance, we started with Chapter 1: Our Senses. The unit is as follows:

• Part 1: Introduction
• Part 2: Taste
• Part 3: Touch
• Part 4: Sight
•  Part 5: Sound
• Part 6: Smell
• Part 7: Review of Senses 

This book is very simple to use and makes teaching science fun. Since we do science together as a family, I like to find activities that include all the children (9, 7, 5, 3). The chapters for the younger group work perfectly for us.  I've done a study on the 5 senses with the kids before, but this one was even more exciting for them. We did activities like read "Goldilocks and the Three Bears" and pointed out every time one of the senses was used; tasted some yummy treats and discussed whether they were sweet, salty, bitter, sour, or savory; took turns hiding objects from around the house in a paper bag and tried to guess what they were by feeling them; listened to different pitches of sound on glasses of water and even played "Mary Had A Little Lamb;" took turns picking things from the kitchen and tried to guess what they were just by the scent; played Mad Libs in which an orange turned into a popcorn machine; and experimented with many other activities to learn about our senses.

 

The activities for the older group are more in depth, of course. They include using a microscope; writing a research paper; decoding physical and chemical properties; classifying objects; and using materials like a pulley, cellophane, a carnivorous plant, iodine, colored marshmallows, and more. There are also accompanying tests and worksheets along with the answer sheets.

This book is packed full of activities and experiments that could easily keep your kids busy all year. Most of the materials are things that you probably already have around the house.The activities are easy to prepare and take just minutes to set up. In fact, I know that I could hand the book to my 9-year-old and allow him to preform the majority of the activities on his own. This book truly is written to make learning science as simple as possible.

Science Unit Studies for Homeschoolers and Teachers is thorough, affordable, and fun, and one that you'll want to utilize in your homeschool. If you can't wait for your own copy to arrive, you can start with the 2 free PDF units from the book that are offered or use one of the other freebies on the site. 

My kids ask every day if it's time to do science. We're all enjoying this book and will continue using this wonderful resource.

If you'd like to see how other homeschool families used this book, please read the reviews on the Schoolhouse Review Crew blog.

Science4Us.com Review

My kids love science. They love it so much that I think they could spend all day exploring and experimenting. I knew they'd be excited to review a 6-month Science4Us.com online subscription.

Science4Us.com is an online, interactive, standards-based curriculum made by the creators of VocabularySpellingCity.com. Although it's geared toward kids in grades K-2, students in grades 3-5 can utilize the lessons for review. Their mission is to provide a solid foundation of scientific concepts to early elementary students and to equip the teachers with the support and resources necessary to ensure that it happens. 

There are over 350 lessons that are divided into books of science: physical, inquiry, life, and earth/space.

Physical

This book teaches kids how the world around them works. It focuses on matter (materials and mixtures, observing matter, states of matter, changes of matter), energy (sources, light, heat, sound, electrical, transformations), and force and motion (location and perspective, motion, force, magnets, simple machines). It teaches the student the name and reasons behind concepts that he already understands (gravity, energy, friction, perspective). It makes learning these new terms fun by teaching with hands-on activities, games, and interactive lessons.

 

Inquiry

This book consists of two units: science tools and think like a scientist. These lessons use a student's natural desire to play and experiment, begins to show how observations can be analyzed, and builds skills toward the scientific method. It uses tools such as quantitative and qualitative observations, the 5 senses, rulers, balances, scales, and hands-on activities. It helps students understand that there are different ways to solve problems, compare and contrast, and evaluate data. The student will study graphs, table and charts and even language skills. This book allows the student to learn valuable science skills at his own level.

Life

This book is divided into two units: living things (living/nonliving, plants, animals) and balance in nature (food webs, habitats, eco awareness). In this branch, the student will practice classifying, categorizing, observation, and record keeping. He'll learn to distinguish mammals, birds, fish, reptiles, amphibians, and invertebrates. He'll also study how living things interact with the world around them. Using animated characters, engaging activities, and fun games to master vocabulary terms such as omnivore, herbivore, carnivore, predator, prey, extinction, and endangered and invasion species.    

Earth/Space

These complex topics are also divided into two units: earth (history, materials, features, weather) and space (exploring the universe, earth in space). This study involves both tactile exploration and abstract concepts. It starts with building a timeline of the student's life and works through imagination using concrete activities to teach about abstract concepts. It studies, rocks, water, landforms, thermometers, gauges, patterns, cycles, and seasons. Using example a young child can understand now, will build the foundation for further study of our planet, solar system, and universe. 

Considering the elaborateness of the program, you'd think it would be difficult to navigate. It's not. Not at all. There is a section for the parent/teacher. There, you can choose specific modules for the individual student's lesson plans, review the students' reports, learn teaching strategies, watch explanatory videos, and download corresponding worksheets. Once the student is logged in, he knows exactly what is on the lesson plan for the day. 

Though the option of specifically setting the activities for the day can be very beneficial, we chose not to follow that route. My kids Jake (8), Alyssa (5), and Zac (4) can log-in to the program and completely navigate it by themselves. They choose which books and study of science they want to learn. Because we have two computers and three children old enough to use the program, I often have two children sitting and "playing" science and one child running back and forth between the two. Eventually, I'll hear, "Is it my turn? Can I play now?" None of them ever get off without my telling them to--that's how much they love this! They would sit and play for hours, if I'd let them. They have so much fun watching the videos, playing the games, singing the songs, and learning valuable science skills. They ask to play even on days that aren't typical school days. To my kids, this isn't just school. It's fun!  They have the option to save the tasks in their notebooks. Because they enjoy this so much, Alyssa has started to write things down in a real notebook. She draws pictures and makes notes of the things she's learning.

To say that we're enjoying Science4Us.com would be an understatement. I love its complexity of information, yet simplicity of use. The kiddos reference the program many times a day in their vocabulary and observations. It's not simply a fun way to bide their time, it's truly teaching them scientific facts.

A Science4Us.com membership costs $7.95 per child per month. If you'd like to see if this program would work for your family, read their scope and sequence or check out the demonstration lessons. Even before we received our subscription, my kids played the demos many times. 

You can connect with Science4Us.com through Facebook, Twitter, Google+, and Pinterest.

To see how other families used this program, click to read more reviews from the Schoolhouse Review Crew.