We had seen Apologia in the vendor hall and heard them speak at our homeschool convention. We sort of drooled over the Apologia curriculum, but in keeping with tradition we continued with our ‘boxed curriculum’ that we always used. “Why change?” Well let me tell you, once the Young Explorer Series Exploring Creation with Human Anatomy and Physiology showed up in the mail, it was like Christmas at our house, ripping and tearing of the mailing bag, paper flying all over! Our son was just going crazy over the color pictures, upcoming fun experiments and the activity pages in the Anatomy Notebooking Journal.
Young Explorer Series Exploring Creation with Human Anatomy and Physiology (hardcover) by Jeannie Fulbright and Brooke Ryan, M.D. Grades 4-6.
The student textbook is hardcover and looks as thought it would hold up well for use by more than one student.
Young Explorer Series Anatomy Notebooking Journal for Exploring Creation with Human Anatomy and Physiology (spiral bound) by Jeannie Fulbright. Grades 3-6.
The Journal is spiral bound with a soft cover and it has yet to tear by the spiral, most of our spiral bound textbooks/workbooks from other companies seem to fray quickly and eventually tear at the first few spirals. 
Even though our student is in the 7th grade, I felt that this would be a good fit for him since science has always been a struggle for my normally sharp student. The boxed curriculum that we had been using pretty much focused on memorizing terms and answering questions: BORING! Apologia Exploring Creation with Human Anatomy and Physiology teaches from a different angle. “This K-6 science curriculum uses the Charlotte Mason methodology to give young students an introduction to the incredible human body.”
Things that our student liked about Apologia Exploring Creation with Human Anatomy and Physiology:
2) I like the full color photos and crisp pages.
3) “You always get to do something fun in the Try This section. ”
4) The course website book extras were GREAT!!! “I had fun going to these websites to read more about what I was learning in each lesson.”
Things that our student did not like about Apologia Exploring Creation with Human Anatomy and Physiology:
1) "NOTHING, I LOVED IT AND CAN'T WAIT FOR TOMORROW'S LESSON!"
What this Momma did not like about Young Explorer Series Exploring Creation with Human Anatomy and Physiology:
1) I thought that the MP3 audio would be great, until I found that it would only play in our computer. The MP3 does state that “you must play it in an MP3-compatible CD player or on a computer”. I was thinking that it would have been great to take it on car trips or for our student to be able to listen to it in his room on a CD player.
2) I did not care for some of the printing fonts used in the Anatomy Notebooking Journal, I thought that they were very hard for me to read. And might be especially hard for younger children that are not yet seasoned readers. The fonts used on many of the pages are bubbly or squiggly shaded fonts that are really hard on the eyes, otherwise the rest of the type is fine throughout the journal. I get that the digestive system is squiggly because it's the intestines, but for a struggling reader, this might be hard to read. They are very cute and fun though.
Things that this homeschooling Momma liked about Apologia Exploring Creation with Human Anatomy and Physiology:
1) Penmanship, it always seems like such a chore in the homeschool, read just about any homeschooling blog or website and you will see Mothers chatting about handwriting. The Anatomy Notebooking Journal incorporates copy work right in to their lessons. It’s all blended together in the learning process and as an added blessing the copy work consists of Bible memory verses!!
2) I like the answer key being in the back of the textbook, it’s nice not to have an extra book (answer key) to hunt for when grading work. The lesson planning guide is included in the Anatomy Notebooking Journal, yet again one less thing to have to hunt for :O)
3) Love, Love, Love the different skin tones of the paper dolls to pick from in the Personal Person project.
4) The section of the student textbook called “How To Use This Book: A step-by-step guide and the Items Needed to Complete Each Lesson were WONDERFUL!!! There was no hunting for supplies or starting a lesson only to find out that there is an experiment that day needing XYZ that you don’t have on hand to complete. It’s all right there in the front of the book listed by lesson. How easy is that for a busy homeschooling Momma!!
5) I like how the Apologia website offers sample pages of all the textbooks so you can look through them before buying. Very nice feature.
6) I had to have surgery during this review and ended up with a post-op infection, and was hospitalized for 13 days, many days of laying and doing nothing on pain meds. My son was able to move forward all by himself in the material, that was a huge blessing and he learned a lot. I was very impressed with his drawings of the human cell, normally he hates drawing in science and would whine and carry on if he had to draw anything besides a Star Wars action guy! lol. But he really had a fun time with the Anatomy Notebooking Journal.
Looking back at our years of struggling with science, I wish we had decided to use Apologia Educational Ministries, INC long ago!! Our son would like to go back and do the other Apologia science books: Zoology, Astronomy, Botany, Flying Creation and Swimming Creation. So I think we will be spending our summers under a shade tree or at the beach with some new Apologia science books.
What do you use for science? Why do you like it?
I appreciate the review, always glad when curriculum stimulates self study!
ReplyDeleteVal, I am really sold now on Apologia, I had thought we were doing fine with what we had been using, boy was I way off course! But ya know change is hard. I really enjoy listening to the MP3 while reading along with the textbook.
ReplyDeleteHope things are going well in your homeschool this year.
Hugs,
Moe
This is a really well thought-out review! I loved all the details and it is clear it was a hit at your house!
ReplyDeleteThanks so much for doing a great job! Loved the photos!
Warmly,
Kate
We really are enjoying the Apologia science, I am getting a lot out of listening to the MP3's myself. Since I just had my Sigmoid Colon removed last month our son is eager to get to the digestion section so he can see what the surgeon did to me.....lol. That is a bit too close for comfort for me to deal with right now, I might read about it in a few months when things are not so fresh in my mind :O)
ReplyDeleteThanks for stopping by.
Moe