Apologia Astronomy - Cycle 2 Preview

If you are looking for something to do this summer that will give you a head start on Cycle 2 Science then maybe you can take a look at Apologia - Exploring Creation with Astronomy!  Here is the Textbook Exploring Astronomy and here is the Journal that goes with it Astronomy Journal.

A Wonderful Wednesday Mom and sweet friend, has invited a few Moms to meet at her house every Wednesday (of course - is there any other day to meet and have fun projects and learn? LOL) for the purpose of going through Apologia's Astronomy together this summer.  It's a great way to preview Cycle 2 and to keep the educational experience going over the long break from CC.

I liked her reasons she gave for why she chose Apologia's Exploring Creation with Astronomy:  "I like doing an Exploring Creation book in the summer: all of my children can do the same subject material (4yo-13yo), we are immersed in a subject area even better than we could be during the school year, we have great dinner/car conversations with Dad, it keeps me motivated to finish the book, AND it’s way more fun to do it with friends!"    Well said - especially the part about it being way more fun with friends!

The format that she is using over the summer is to meet for 10 weeks (I've included her schedule below to give you an idea how she broke it down).  Each week we are given a chapter to read and then we get together to do the activities and projects with the kids.  These are found at the end of the chapter and are based on what they have just learned.  The above picture was an activity where the kids followed the guide, to order the planets to a rough scale.  They would measure each balls circumference with a measuring tape and then decide which planet it was and what order it went in.  

Lesson	Title	Dates
1	What is Astronomy	Read at Home Before we Begin
2	The Sun	5/22
3	Mercury	5/29
4	Venus	6/5
5	Earth	6/12
6	Moon	6/19
7	Mars	6/25
8	Space Rocks	Read at Home- No Meeting
9	Jupiter	7/10
10	Saturn	7/17
11	Neptune & Uranus	7/24
12	Pluto & the Kuiper Belt	Read at Home- No Meeting
13	Stars & Galaxies	8/7
14	Space Travel	Optional- 8/15???

I really like Apologia and it correlates well with CC.  I'd highly recommend using it as a supplement to refer to and add depth during your CC year or as a summer curriculum to prepare you for Cycle 2.  If your summer is too full already....consider it for next summer!  

If you don't want to jump forward to Cycle 2 already then do a study that is in keeping with Cycle 1 Science.  I would recommend using Apologia Exploring Creation with Botany Creation with Botany!  There is a journal for this study as well Botany Journal.