Little Bits of Life: Apologia Educational Ministries Exploring Creation with Astronomy Review

We were blessed with the opportunity to review Exploring Creation with Astronomy, 2nd Edition for Apologia Educational Ministries ~ http://www.apologia.com/

Apologia: Exploring Creation with Astronomy Review

This was our first experience using an Apologia science curriculum. Our kit came with a number of items. There was a student text, a notebooking journal for grades 3+, a junior notebooking journal for grades k-2/3, we also received a Audio CD.

There are 14 lessons in the Astronomy set. It has 63 total activities 42 of them are activities found in the textbook and 21 of them are bonus activities that are noted in the textbook but only found in the Apologia Astronomy Science Kit.

It is a full color curriculum this means the hardback text book is colored and the student notebooking journals are colored. We used both the junior notebook and the standard notebook. I felt both notebooks worked well for multiple grade levels. This is something that is often a little hard to do when a curriculum can be used for more than one grade level. They are spiral bound which makes using them great and the pages don't start falling out half way though the year. The beginning on the notebooking journals have a suggested daily schedule that has check off boxes. My girls like this feature I hand wrote the date in next to each daily assignment so that they could keep track of what day they were on. Now these notebooking journals are a bit heavy in the writing department. But that was to be expected with a notebooking journal. The colored pictures made each writing lesson fun and the cut out projects were a hit with the girls. I did appropriate the fact that they were careful to ensure there was nothing printed on the back of a page they needed to cut out.

We received a Exploring Creation With Astronomy CD. This is an MP3 Audio Book so you do need an MP3 compatible cd player. Basically its the text book read to you. This is a super handy item if you have an auditory learner or a slow reader. We used this off an on depending on the lesson. The girls like to play the audio and follow along in the text book. We also use it as a way to review the lessons at the end of the month. We have even listened to it in the car when we were learning on the go.

Exploring Creation with Astronomy text book is very well done. It comes as a hardback full color book. It's loaded with pictures and graphics. The girls liked how each lesson is explained but the activities were by far the favorite part. We found an activity on how to make a compass in lesson 5. The girls plan on taking a copy of this activity with them on the next camping trip to see if they can navigate on a hike with it. At the end of a lesson there is a what do you remember section. This generally ask a few questions to help your child recall what was taught through the lesson. There is an answer key in the back of the text book in case you need it. At the back of the text book you will also find a supply list broken down by lesson. I loved this I could quickly and easily find what I was going to need to complete the next lesson. This helped me to get ready before hand and I always had the items on hand by the time we actually needed them. I did notice on the website that they have a Exploring Creation Astronomy Kit which has the text book notebook etc but it also has some of the non perishable items that you will need to complete the activities. http://www.apologia.com/astrono/489-astronomy-2nd-edition-lab-kit.html. If I was buying this same curriculum again I would definitely go with the kit. It would save a lot of time and prep work.

We really enjoyed Exploring Creation with Astronomy and I cant wait to get my hands on Exploring Creation with Human Anatomy and Physiology next year. If you want to read more about Exploring Creation with Astronomy Click the banner below. If you want to read more great reviews from me and the girls don't forget to follow my blog there are several option on the right.