Astronomy is a fantastic science for young learners. Almost every child is enamored with space, exploration, the moon, shooting stars, and the glamorous dreams of being an astronaut.
The Bible tells us that God knows every star by name (Psalm 147:4). One of my favorite videos is this one, a song made by combining the sounds of stars and whales. How incredible that these beautiful, twinkling, far away lights with names can even make sound! Space truly is full of wonders. No wonder kids love it so much!
Disclosure: We received the Apologia Astronomy Activity Kit for review purposes. All opinions are my own and I was not required to post a positive review. As always, I only recommend products our family has used and enjoys that I think you will enjoy as well!
The Apologia Astronomy Course
We utilize the following in our homeschool:
- Exploring Creation with Astronomy textbook
- Astronomy junior note booking journal (and we only have one, Mr. F is insisting he has his own. Thank goodness Teach Them Diligently Atlanta is right around the corner!)
- Astronomy Activity Kit 2nd Edition
- Astronomy text audio CD
Astronomy with Apologia
Because we are training up the boys in our Christian faith, it is important to our family to have a biblically based science curricula. Because Mr. T is gifted in the sciences, it is also important to have an in-depth study that we can let him explore. The bonus to Apologia’s Exploring Creation series is that, in addition to meeting the above requirements, there are also audios available. These help tremendously because with auditory processing disorder, Mr. T has to hear things a few times over before they “click” correctly.
Here you can see the Activity guide book list and corresponding lesson list. There are so many activities! Because we do stick to a shorter lesson time of 10-15 minutes per subject (Charlotte Mason inspired lesson times) because the boys are 7 and 4, we do half a lesson per day so the activity gets completed as well.
The Junior Notebooking journal has so many wonderful attributes. Mr. T loves lapbooking and creating visual helpers to keep the material more easily accessible for his visual-spatial learning style. The note booking journal is full of places to write, a great little mini-notebook bookmark for the text book, and lots of mini-book elements to add to the journal. It is perfect for young learners and keeping older elementary school aged children engaged! The older kids have their own Notebooking Journal available. It looks pretty cool, too.
I also like that the cutting helps with motor skill fine-tuning. Dyspraxia (Apraxia‘s cousin) makes motor skills a challenge but Mr. T has come so far. A lot of that progress is due to his love of science and his determination to master skills having to do with circuitry. I have flipped ahead in our books and I know he is going to eat up the information!
Lesson 1 is all about stars, atmosphere, and why planets don’t twinkle but stars do. Now the boys have already been subjected to late night viewings of Jupiter and the Perseids. Because I’m that mom that drags children out of the house between 9 pm and 4 am if there is something cool to see in the sky that can be seen from our yard. What can I say? I’m a science nerd, too. I digress.
The boys love seeing things in the sky. And I love sharing that with them. The wonderment of a child is something akin to what we all should feel when we observe God’s creation. Simply awe-filled.
Activity 1: Why a Star Twinkles
See below how easy and fun the first activity in the Apologia Astronomy Kit is!
And I can’t quit gushing over how literally almost everything is included in the astronomy kit. If you missed it, see our unboxing of the kit here. And check out one of the bags of multi-use items below. This kit is an absolute game changer! Now tell me, which Apologia science course is your favorite?
I am trying to figure out the difference between the notebooking journal and the activity guide. They are two different products on the Apologia website. You seem to use them both but don’t list them both in your list of what you purchased. I recently bought the notebooking journal and it does not have a reading list or activities. It only has places for making mini-books and journaling.
Thank you! We are starting Apologia Astronomy tomorrow. I was a little overwhelmed with how much to do each day and how to do it. The information you gave was great. I feel a lot more prepared. We are so excited!
I’m so glad it was helpful! Enjoy your studies 🙂
Hi! Did you feel like the one kit was enough for both kids to share and receive the hands on experience? Thanks!
For almost every activity we have done, yes. And I have also made them work together on some activities to foster a better tolerance of schooling together 🙂