It is always a good day at our house when a box from Apologia arrives. This fabulous company has been on my Top Ten Homeschool Curriculum Companies List practically since the day we began homeschooling.
We have reviewed many products, from apologetics curriculum for children and adults to encouraging books for homeschool moms, and never have we been disappointed with this company.
Today will be no exception.
For the past few weeks, Ben and I have been using Exploring Creation with Human Anatomy and Physiology by Jeannie Fullbright. We received the entire curriculum set: Textbook ($39), Anatomy Notebooking Journal ($24), and MP3 Audio CD ($29). Written for the elementary- aged student in mind, this curriculum is easily adapted to middle grade students as well. Ben is a sixth grader, and it was perfect for him. For younger students, there is a Junior Notebooking Journal available for purchase ($24).
Exploring Creation with Human Anatomy and Physiology is a Charlotte Mason-style curriculum, written conversationally and incorporating notebooking, narration, and hands-on projects and experiments. The textbook is divided into 14 lessons with the goal of completing approximately one lesson every two weeks. We were able to complete the first two lessons during our review period.
I have to tell you, we almost didn’t make it past lesson one. Why, you ask? Well, right away the book begins doing what good books do — inspiring Ben’s delight-directed nature. Lesson one starts out explaining the definitions of anatomy and physiology and then moves immediately into its history with Ancient Egyptians, Ancient Hebrews, Ancient Greeks, Aristotle, Ancient Rome, and European scientists.
Ben was absolutely fascinated and we had not even begun a science experiment or learned how one part of the body works. It was awesome! And the perfect way to integrate our history studies (can you say “unit study?”). If you’d like to take a look for yourself, you can download lesson one.
We did manage to move on and do the first science experiment — testing to see how apples decompose if left alone or with the addition of salt and baking soda. It was fascinating to realize how much the Ancient Egyptians knew about the human body. And how much they didn’t know about the human soul. Yes, now we’ve added some Bible study to our lessons. In fact, the case for creation is sprinkled throughout this book. Priceless.
I could go on and on just telling you about lesson one, but suffice it to say it was an enjoyable couple of weeks. I never really had to force Ben to do the narration part of the lessons. He was constantly sharing what he was learning with me and his dad. Which reminds me — the lessons can be completed independently, if you have a solid reader on your hands. But you would miss out on a lot of fun yourself, so be sure to spend some time reading aloud with your students, or listening to Mrs. Fullbright read aloud with the MP3 CD.
The books goes on to cover each body system with the nice addition of a lesson on health and nutrition following the one of the digestive system. It wraps up with a lesson on growth and development, gently skipping over reproduction. I love this because I believe the education of that system is best left to parents to teach when the time is right for each child. It might spark some discussion, however. So just be prepared.
The book gives a complete list of everything you’ll need to complete the activities in each lesson. You can even download that list from the website. Most are items you’ll find around the house. Many will come from your kitchen pantry. Each lesson begins with reading, breaks in the middle for activities and narration, and ends with a couple of questions to spark your student’s memory of what he just learned. Then there are the notebooking activities . . .
The Notebooking Journal is a wonderful addition to this curriculum. We are huge fans of notebooking and lapbooking in our homeschool, so having this resource is quite convenient for us. Within the pages of this spiral-bound book are review questions, vocabulary puzzles, pages for recording the findings of all those activities in the textbook, Scripture copywork, mini-books, and field trip records. If you choose to use the Notebooking Journal with your study, your student will have a lovely record of his time spent with Exploring Creation with Human Anatomy and Physiology. You can see a sample from the Notebooking Journal, if you’re having trouble visualizing it.
Lastly, we have the MP3 Audio CD. For those children who are too young to read the book for themselves, those who are auditory learners and want to be read to a lot, or for moms who need to be doing something else while her student is doing his science lesson, this is the perfect tool. And I have to tell you, there is something special about the author of a book reading it aloud. Mrs. Fullbright is an enthusiastic reader, and her voice is easy to listen to. Her passion for this subject is contagious. Listen for yourself!
Overall, I’d have to say that Apologia has hit it out of the ballpark once again. We love this curriculum and will continue to use it until we have completed it. As an R.N. who loves the study of the human body, I have found it to be a thorough introduction to a study of human anatomy and physiology. As a Christian mom, it is important to me that our science curriculum is creation-based and biblically sound. This course is all of that and more.
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