Apologia Educational Ministries - Exploring Creation with Astronomy, 2nd Edition {TOS Review}

We love Apologia Educational Ministries homeschool curriculum for science. Captain has had a great time working through Exploring Creation with Astronomy 2nd Edition. He recognized some of the material as I had the 1st edition that I used with Jam and Boo.

To facilitate this review I was sent a lot of products to use with Captain. He was super excited when the box arrived! We received;

• The 2nd Edition Student Text 
• Note booking Journal
• Junior Note booking Journal
• Audio CD

Like I mentioned earlier I had previously used the 1st edition text. However, the note booking journals and audio CD was new to me as we used lap books previously and I have never had the audio CD. 

The first thing we had to decide was which note booking journal we were going to use. I wanted Captain to be on board right from the beginning so I let him choose. I explained that one of them was called a junior notebook and the other was the regular one. He took both notebooks to the table and studied them to see which he felt was best. I was quite surprised when he chose the older note booking journal. He told me that the junior journal had coloring pages that were not included in the older journal and so he decided he wanted to tackle the older one. After he decided I took a few minutes to compare them.  A lot of the content is the same in each book. They could definitely be used by an older and younger sibling at the same time. Captain although 7 is working at a 3rd grade level and so he wanted to do the older one and said he could handle it.

Apologia textbooks are written as if the author is speaking directly to the child. This makes it very enjoyable for the child. Captain would sit and and read the chapter we were working on himself. However, he always wanted me to read again - snuggled on the sofa. It's fun working on a course with just one child and we have been having great fun!. At the end of chapter one the project is to make a solar system. When I worked on this course last time we made a solar system out of balloons and then we covered them with yarn covered in glue. It was messy but fun and cheap. We were working through the course with our good friends and so it was great project to split up between 4 kids (and 2 little helpers - Captain was about 4 at the time). He can remember the project but was excited when I suggested something different but just as fun. This time I purchased a model kit of the solar system and put we built and painted it together.

This course is easy to follow. There are 14 lessons that can be broken down to fill a whole school year or gone through at a faster pace for a older elementary student. The Note booking journals have a great schedule in the front that goes through each lesson. There are daily assignments some lessons have five or six and some only four. So depending on how often you schedule a daily assignment really changes how long the course takes. We do on average three to four daily assignments a week. Each daily assignment has a little box next to it so you can check it off when it is completed. Captain loves checking off the boxes when we complete each task.

The audio CD is super useful for those days when you just don't have any voice left, or if your child wants to work independently. Each track is a new section just as it is in the book so it's super easy to follow along.

The new edition also refers to a science kit that can be bought as an addition. It sounds like the science kits that can be purchased for the older age science curriculums. We have a book that Jam is using for chemistry that has a pre-made kit. They make the projects and experiments super simple as all of the awkward materials are found for you. I hate running to the store for the missing 'litmus paper' that is vital for a certain experiement. Unfortuately I can't tell you what this kit is like - as it's not ready yet but I am sure it will add the finishing touch to this program! I love the pictures in this textbook they are bright and colorful and really catch Captain's attention. He has already been through the whole book and checked out our experiments. He is so excited to make a compass in lesson 5!

The note booking journals are great. There are spaces for the child to write their own thoughts about what they have studied for each chapter. There are cut out and projects that are similar in design to lap book pages. All cut outs are provided in the book and when complete you just glue them back in to the part of the book that will be kept when finished. Captain loves the crosswords. They are simple enough for Captain to complete by himself - which makes him feel very grown up!

We have loved what we have completed so far and will continue to use this!

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