Apologia Educational Ministries- A TOS Review

Popper's obsession with learning about space has become contagious! We were really excited to learn that we were getting the opportunity to review Apologia Educational Ministries's Exploring Creation with Astronomy, 2nd Edition. 

I was so shocked on box day! Apologia sent us:
*A Student text book
*An audio book of the text
*A student notebooking journal
* A junior notebooking journal

Inside the text book was also a link and password for course website that has a ton of fantastic supplement resources! Some of our favorites were the Planet Finder and Sky Maps! 

The first chapter is an overview of the planets. Since my kiddos are younger, I allowed them to spend a few weeks exploring this one! They thought the mnemonic that the book provided for learning the planet names and order! The junior notebook (which is the one we chose to use with Popper) had an activity to try and make your own mnemonic. However, after a few minutes there was more frustration then creativity and so we stuck with the one that the book provided to learn with! 

We also received a student notebook that was not junior level. I thumbed through them to be able to tell you about the differences, in case you have older kiddos. There are really 2 main differences that I was able to see:

*the crossword puzzles in the older journal do not have guide letters in it to help the students

*At the end of the chapters there are review questions in the older journal and color pages in the younger one.

Other than that the journals are the same. Which I think is great if you are teaching multiple ages at the same time! 

The junior notebook was a great supplement. Popper loved making the small matchbooks and working through the crossword puzzles! When you ask him, the crosswords were his absolute favorite. There were parts that we are simply not ready for because of the amount of writing required. 

I loved that the lessons sparked interest in all things astronomy! We began staying up a little later looking at the stars. The kiddos were overjoyed when they found the big dipper for the very first time! Popper loves that now he can show anyone who will listen where to find Mars! They joy that this has brought to our Science time is amazing! I actually look forward to teaching them science! 

I was surprised at how quickly even Sister is picking up on everything! She is always the first one to tell Daddy T all about our science lessons when he gets home! I never dreamed that Popper's love of Space would cause her to be interested as well!

We are super excited to continue on this journey through space! Daddy T and I are busy planning a family trip to the local planetarium and star gazing! They have a fantastic constellation show, which the kiddos are thrilled about! This curriculum has been a wonderful fit in our schoolroom! We have really enjoyed it! I can't wait to see where this leads our learning!


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Other members of The Old Schoolhouse Review Crew also reviewed Apologia. If you would like to see how they incorporated it into their day, click the link below: