This is a review post. I received this item in exchange for my honest review. Below you will find just that, my honest review.
Having multiple kids around the same age means that sometimes I would really like to combine learning. One of these subjects I would love to combine learning in would be science. I mean, two kids, one science experiment, one time cleaning it up? What is not to love? I am able to do this with Apologia and their Exploring Creation with Human Anatomy and Physiology and the corresponding Notebooking Journal and Junior Notebooking Journal.
What It Is
For this review, we received the student textbook, notebooking journal, junior notebooking journal, and the MP3 audio CD. I was excited to get both notebooking journals because that means that I would be able to use this with Ray Ray and Little Miss at the same time!
The Exploring Creation with Human Anatomy and Physiology Text is a hardcover textbook. There are over 250 pages, each filled with color pictures that engage the kids with what they are learning about. There are 14 lessons included, and each lesson, depending on your schedule, takes about 2 weeks to complete. That means that each lesson is broken down into manageable smaller sections. Within these sections, you will find vocabulary words in bold text along with fun “Try This!” activities to bring your learning into your own hands.
The Exploring Creation with Human Anatomy and Physiology Notebooking Journal is geared towards third through sixth grades. This notebook is spiral bound and contains over 200 pages of activities to keep your child learning past the textbook. Activities range from writing down fascinating facts, review questions, copy work, vocabulary crosswords, and projects. The end of each lesson has a page with more ways to explore the topic from the lesson.
The Exploring Creation with Human Anatomy and Physiology Junior Notebooking Journal is for kids Kindergarten through second grade. This is similar to the notebooking journal, but the projects are a little easier, and it also includes coloring pages. These are a great help when your busy reading and the little ones need something to help them focus.
Both of the notebooking journals include a sample schedule at the beginning. Both of these schedules are very similar. The readings are the same, so you can use this with two students, one on each level, and not worry about one schedule being different from another.
Finally, we also received the Exploring Creation with Human Anatomy and Physiology MP3 Audio CD. In our previous review of Apologia products, I fell in love with having this CD. This is a reading of the textbook by author Jeannie Fulbright. This is not a boring, lecture style reading. This is a great substitution to me reading the text. I love to have this on hand for the days when I am not up to reading, but we still need to get it done.
How We Used It
I was so excited to get both Notebooking Journals for this review! This meant that I could teach both Ray Ray and Little Miss at the same time. This is a huge time saver in my day. The first thing I did was to adjust the schedule to fit us. Instead of two days a week, we used this three to four days a week. This meant that we could split the lessons up a little more during the week and spend less time on it each day. Once we found out what works for the week, we got started.
Our lessons usually started with me reading out loud to the kids. There were a few days when I couldn’t get Baby Girl to let me read, so I was able to pull out the MP3 CD and let the kids listen to Jeannie read. As we went through the lesson, we would take breaks to answer questions, the text is set up that way! Every so often in blue text, we have a question to have the children tell me what they remember so far. I love this style of reading and learning.
At the end of each day, we would spend some time in our Notebooking Journals. Each day gave us something different to use. I was impressed by the variety. Not only that, but all the cutouts we needed are conveniently located in the back for us to use. They are even in color! The kids really loved to get creative as we were supposed to be learning.
On top of our fun learning and notebooking, we had the chance to do experiments. This is hard for me because I don’t like or have the time for experiments with 4 kids running around. However, knowing that one experiment took care of ½ my homeschool, I went ahead with them! We didn’t do all of them, but we did enough to let the kids have fun and not drive me insane, which means one or two per lesson. We currently started my favorite experiment, “Growing Muscle.” This is where the kids have to if they can grow the muscles in their hands over two weeks. Guess what? I don’t have a mess with this!
What We Thought of It
What did I think of this set? I LOVED it! I am thrilled that I don’t have two science classes to teach. I appreciate the work that was put into the MP3 CD for those days that I just don’t have the time to read the lesson out loud, and I love that there were two different levels of the Notebooking Journal to make this happen!
There is no teacher’s guide with this, but there is no need for one. I have everything that I have with the textbook and the journal. The back of each journal has answers that I might need, and the front has the schedule to give me a guideline. That is one less book taking up space on my shelf.
The kids were excited about doing these lessons. They didn’t argue me, only when I told them it was time to stop.
Overall, Exploring Creation with Human Anatomy and Physiology is everything I was looking for in a science program. Not only does it allow me to teach two students at two levels at the same time, but it is also Christian based. I look forward to learning more about our bodies with my kids as we continue to work through this book.
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Check out the other reviews of Exploring Creation with Human Anatomy and Physiology right here:

