This year, a major focus for my boys (grade 1 and pre-K) will be astronomy! So I was excited when Apologia Educational Ministries sent us the Exploring Creation with Astronomy, 2nd Edition to use in our home school and review here for you. Because we are teaching our children from a God-centered world view, it's important our homeschool science instruction has a Biblical perspective. That's why I was so interested to check out Apologia because I've always heard such great things!
Homeschool Science with Apologia Astronomy
I loved how streamlined the materials were when they arrived. Sometimes, if there are too many moving parts, I get overwhelmed, but it's easy see the purpose of each item in the Apologia curriculum. Here's what we received and a little bit about each one!
The Student Textbook is a hardcover text with full color images throughout the lessons. The lessons are broken into manageable chunks with headers and bolded words. There are activities in each chapter that can be completed at the parent's discretion.
The Notebooking Journal is for grades 3 and older and contain lovely notebooking / lapbooking style pages for students to compile records of their learning. Copywork (print and cursive), matchbook projects, space for drawing and recording, and activities like crosswords and inventing mnemonics fill the pages! Each Notebooking Journal is intended for one child to use throughout the course.
The Jr. Notebooking Journal, which we personally used in our home study, is for the K-2nd grade level. The general tasks are the same as the upper grade Notebooking Journal with exceptions like primary lines for students just learning handwriting, black and white coloring pages that go along with each chapter, and alternative activities at times.
An Audio CD of the textbook is also included. This is invaluable for parents who manage multiple grades and need to have a student work independently. The CD reads the text to the child, freeing up the parent's time. Also providing an alternative to hearing the same voice reading all the time.
How we used Apologia in our home school
Apologia science courses are intended to be a primary science curriculum with reading, study, experiment and project components. This summer, we completed lessons 1 and 2 by following the suggested guidelines in the Jr. Notebooking Journal, which provides a daily outline of work.
We'd begin by reading the text selection, and I would talk through or ask my son questions to check for understanding. The images included are lovely to look at and discuss. And wonderfully, the text is written with a faith-based, God-centered world view and includes supporting Bible verses! This is so important for our family when learning about the world we live in. We want to teach our children sciences with the understanding that everything we wonder at and study was made by God the Creator.
This curriculum definitely keeps God as the focus, yet is not skimpy on solid scientific facts we want kids to know! Like who was Copernicus? How far away is the Sun? And what are constellations!?
I honestly wasn't sure how my son would do working with a true "textbook" course, as we've never used one before (we're really into hands on play!). And here's where the Jr. Notebooking Journal was vital in helping us transition into this kind of coursework. I could read the text to him and make it interesting, then he could enjoy some hands on work in his notebook! He really loved the coloring and cutting components - as he's just growing in handwriting skills, it is important for him to have "craft" activities to break up the tiring work of handwriting.
We completed many of the experiments listed in the book. Some take a bit more time and materials - making the model solar system out of balloons was SO fun! The boys enjoyed picking out the balloons, and helping me measure them to scale. Other experiments were really simple to perform, like the activity to understand distance and size - you really didn't need anything except your finger! I like how Apologia mixed simple and more complex activities into each chapter.
Everything about the Apologia curriculum was incredibly straightforward for me as a parent to take out of the box and implement. From the detailed daily lesson plan in the notebook, to the many sections and activities in the textbook, I didn't have to spend my time planning - we could get right into the learning!
As our first foray into the textbook world of learning, I was pleasantly surprised by the ease of integrating this new style of material into our learning process. I love that our faith AND our love of science is going to be well-supported by this excellent curriculum!
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Love seeing the curriculum "in-action"! My middle daughter (age 7) is currently crazy about all things space-related and is planning a trip to Mars... 😉
That looks like a great set! I like that it includes biblical references too.