Apologia Science lab set review

I'm not normally one to buy lab sets. My theory is that I can put my own together ("I'll do it mySELF!") for about the same price. However, as I read through the necessary lab materials for our upcoming Anatomy and Physiology study, I realized that the meager savings I might see by putting all together myself (and that was doubtful) was far outweighed by the hassle of putting it together myself. And, with a little bit of wiggle room in our curriculum budget this year, I splurged on a lab set.

I ordered through Christian Book Distributors as they usually seem to have the best prices in addition to the best selection. I did look around on Amazon.com, eBay, Half.com and a few other sites to see if anyone could beat CBD but they didn't. Amazon.com had a good price on the text book but the journal that accompanies it was about the same price and they didn't have the lab set. Nor did they have the sale price that CBD had so I went with CBD. (that being said, I earn no money from CBD but I do earn money from Amazon so I'll post the link to the Amazon item below. Full disclosure.)


The lab set for 'Exploring Creation with Anatomy' comes with everything you need for labs 1-13. Lab 14 requires no materials beyond paper and pencil. Some of these things most people have on hand but many of them are not common to a household. For instance, lab 4 requires an 'animal tooth'. Not something I have lying around the house, though The Boy is about ready to loose a few more teeth so I suppose we could have used those. Other items, while common, might require the purchase of a quantity in order to get the 1 or 2 of that item necessary for the lab. It seemed much easier to have someone else put this kit together!


Everything comes neatly packaged in a cardboard box.

Inside the box, right on top, is the itemized packing list. It lists everything for every lab.

Each lab is packaged individually, save for labs 9 & 10 and labs 12 & 13.

And each package has a list of contents. If an item needs to be used in a later lab, it is noted (SAVE) on the bag label. Very convenient!

And most items are labeled so as to avoid confusion (clear liquids look like clear liquids). So no sniffing or taste-testing (bad lab procedures!) are necessary.

I am beyond excited to get started on this curriculum. We did Apologia's Astronomy last year and, while it wasn't as hands-on as my children would have preferred, I loved how well-written, concise, and easy to follow the curriculum was. Having not only earned my degree in Kinesiology but also having taught this curriculum (at the high school level), I can't wait to share my love of this subject with my children. And it will tie in perfectly with The Girl's health unit - yep, THAT unit. Time to really dig into the changes she's going through and what it all means.


What science are you doing this year? Are you excited about it? Dreading it?

Pau.

- hfs