We had the opportunity to review the full set and physical copy of Exploring Creation with Astronomy, 2nd Edition by Apologia Educational Ministries.
For those of who have been waiting, Apologia has finally released Exploring Creation with Astronomy, 2nd Edition. I was too excited. To say it does not disappoint is an understatement. As I do with my Apologia reviews, I must disclaim I am a fan of Apologia products and we currently use a number of them in our school. I currently own all of the Exploring Creation series books as well as the first edition of the astronomy curriculum. Goodness, the updates as well as the presentation of the study have much improved.
The new curriculum includes the Student Text, Notebooking Journal and an MP3 Audio CD. As you can see, the books are brighter and more colorful, which I think is definitely something that appeals to young children. The books make me want to jump in and start learning. The curriculum is geared towards children in kindergarten through sixth grade, but I would say even a middle school student would benefit from the content of the study. Author Jeannie Fulbright, who also wrote the first edition of the study, collaborated with NASA engineer Damian Ludwiczak this time around and has created a comprehensive curriculum.
We received the Student Text, a Junior Notebooking Journal, a Notebooking Journal and the MP3 Audio CD. The junior journal is geared towards children in kindergarten through second or third grades and the standard journal is geared towards children in third or fourth through sixth grades. I will say that to get the full benefit of the curriculum, you do need to purchase either journal. The journals include a suggested schedule with lesson plans for each lesson. That is extremely helpful.
Also included are activities for hands-on projects (i.e. lots and lots of mini-books), copywork exercises, observation sheets and crossword puzzles). One thing I really like about the new journals is that they are in color, unlike the black and white journal for the first edition. Some of the differences between the two journals are there are prompts in the crossword exercises and there are coloring pages in the junior notebook. The standard notebook has more writing exercises. Otherwise, everything is pretty much the same, so your children are able to work together even if they are in different grades. The copywork exercises in both journals give your child an opportunity to practice both manuscript and cursive writing. The MP3 includes Jeannie Fulbright reading through the text. If you have a non-reader or an auditory learner or do school on the road or just prefer to have someone else read the lessons, the MP3 will come in handy.
There are 14 lessons in the study and each has about four to six assignments. The review of this curriculum was for Canyon, my youngest son, but his middle school siblings were happy to participate in the science experiments. These pictures are some from Chapter 2 – The Sun experiments.
One of the exercises is to come up with a mnemonic to help your child remember the order of the planets. The planets and their order are Mercury, Venus, Earth, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus and Neptune. The mnemonic my children came up with is the following:
Interesting!
I like that Apologia is selling the Astronomy 2nd Edition Science Kit to compliment a child’s learning. It not only includes the materials you need to complete the 42 activities in the study, but also has 21 bonus activities to further the learning and fun for your child. Although the kit is not necessary, it does make it a lot easier to already have everything you need as you work through the lessons. Another Apologia product that is a recommended resource for this study is the Field Trip Journal.
Using this study has been a lot of fun. It has helped to get us back in the science mode. My younger two children are currently working through Exploring Creation with Zoology 3: Land Animals and my oldest is using General Science 2nd Edition. We will pick up with the astronomy study after we finish learning about animals.
You may purchase the Student Text for $39, the Junior Notebooking Journal for $27, the Notebooking Journal for $27 and the MP3 Audio CD for $29.
You may read more reviews of this item by fellow crew members.
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