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by asheslawson » Fri Feb 21, 2014 9:23 am
I did Apologia 7th grade science this year and I went back and forth on buying these kits - but I knew in the past I had forgotten to shop for a lab supply and had to skip labs from not having items. I live just a little out of the way and on a very tight budget so I don't get out of town too often. If it can be purchased at Walmart - there is one 10 min's away - but I usually only shop 3 - 4 times per month. I have a local small-town grocery store - but it won't have any unusual items - mostly food and a few household items. Because that is me - I really wavered on buying the really expensive kit from christianbook.com which claims to have everything you need, except the perishable items (like red cabbage) - and as hard as it is for me to love shopping - I really loved that idea! However after reviewing over and over - I just thought there were so many really inexpensive items in it and I would be paying far too much for convenience.
I ended up buying one from home science tools (hometrainingtools.com) for about $34.95 (about 1/2 the price of cb's set) - which had items that are harder to find - in fact some that would be hard to find or not available at Walmarts - and I would have needed to purchase at specialty stores, which are a minimum of 20-30 minutes from my home. I am glad I did - it saved me hunting for strange chemicals - and really eased my science woes!
So far - we are on module 12 and we have not skipped any labs due to supplies - that is HUGE for me - I LOVE doing the labs with my kids and regretfully skipped projects in past just because shopping is something I am BAD at! There were still items I had to pick up - or things I had - such as saving jars, baking soda, vinegar, band-aids, chocolate bars, red cabbage, small houseplants - but they were much easier to obtain items. I still am not sure the more expensive kit might not have been a money saver and time saver since it is supposed to have everything sorted by module and ready to go - but for me I had little $ to spare last year! I will buy the kit again from them for 8th grade science this year!
"So then, just as you received Christ Jesus as Lord, continue to live in Him" Colossians 2:6
dd-28, ds-25, ds-24, ds-22, ds-14, dd-10, student 13, granddaughter 3
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