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9.06.2016

Apologia Astronomy--A Rose Academy Review

One evening my kids and I had a bonfire at my parent's house. The sky was super clear and we had such a fun time finding different constellations and looking at the planets. Of course we wanted to know more! This curriculum came available for review at the perfect time. Apologia Educational Ministries Exploring Creation with Astronomy, 2nd Edition is an updated version of their previously published Astronomy curriculum. We received the following:
  • Student text
  • Notebooking Journal
  • Jr. Notebooking Journal
  • Audio CD
The student text makes up the main portion of the curriculum. It is very visually appealing with full color, high quality photos. The reading portions are divided into sections within each chapter. It is not a challenging read and there is lots of information packed into each lesson. The audio CD is read by the author of the curriculum. Her voice is very soothing and pleasant to listen to. This is the way that we have enjoyed reading the student text. Each section in the book is a new track on the disc, which makes it very helpful for finding your place.
The Jr. Notebooking Journal is for younger ages. It contains almost all of the same activities as the Notebook Journal. The main difference that I noticed between the two journals is that the Junior journal has dashed lines for younger students to write on. My son used the regular notebook journal for this curriculum. The first few pages of the journal include a very helpful assignment list. The list breaks down each lesson into manageable chunks. I usually have a tendency to try to do too much at a time and end up making the lessons long and boring. I love that each chapter is broken into smaller lessons. Each lesson includes reading a portion of the student text and completing an activity in the journal and occasionally an experiment. The journal includes many pages. I did not feel obligated to have my son complete each page in the journal. We chose the ones that appealed to him the most. Completing every page and every activity may overwhelm some students. I wanted to keep this study of astronomy light and enjoyable. 
Let's talk about the experiments. Experiments are typically something that does not get done very often in our home. The experiments in this book use equipment and supplies that are easily obtained or that you most likely have in your home already. My son has wanted to complete most of the experiments, and other than supervising (and reminding him to clean up after he is done) he has been able to work on the activities fairly independently.

There is a suggested schedule at the beginning of the journal. This breaks down each chapter in very manageable portions without overwhelming the student or the parent. I'd say we work for about 15-20 minutes each day on astronomy. This curriculum provides an excellent starting point for learning about astronomy. Of course it is sufficient on its own with no need to add anything extra to it. BUT if you have a very curious child, then there is ample opportunity to find some additional information on each chapter--videos, library books, and night sky viewing with a telescope would be excellent additions!

Would you like to read what other reviewers had to say about Apologia Astronomy? Check out the Review Crew Blog for more!

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