apologia astronomy.

I hate Science.

Okay, I don't HATE it, but it's never been near the top of my list of favorite subjects. I always did well in it in school, but when it was time to think about doing it at home with my son, it just always fell by the wayside.

I never felt bad about it, either.

I think it's the whole "experiments at home with easy-to-find household items" thing. Wonderfully fascinating and fun for him, too much work for me. I'd rather just read a book when it comes to this subject.

That isn't to say that we've never done Science. We have. We've read nature readers and done narrations on ants and spiders and worker bees. We've drawn pictures of insects. We've read books about different animals and we've read books about weather and we've read books about trees and leaves and we've read books about space. We've watched videos on different mammals. We've learned quite a bit about the human body. We've learned about electricity. About magnets. About the earth's layers. About Ben Franklin's experiments. We've read Magic School Bus books. We've watched the Magic School Bus.

For me, that's plenty.

My son is taking a science class at The HEDGE this year, and our book is Apologia Elementary Astronomy. He is enjoying it, and so am I. Wonder of wonders!

Astronomy is interesting anyway, and this book is very interesting and well laid-out, allbeit pricey ($35.00). It's divided into fourteen chapters, and we are on Chapter Two: The Sun. We enjoy reading and discussing the chapter, we do a few narrations, and he completes vocabulary and latin root words for his notebook. The book also lists a course website which gives links to help us find things in the sky and let us know of future events (meteor showers, eclipses and such). Each chapter also has its own set of links. It is an excellent website, chock full of information.

My son is getting a lot out of the class. They do experiments in the class (bonus for me!) and there are extra credit opportunities, which he has already taken advantage of. It may turn out to be his favorite class (aside from Sports).

All in all, I think this is going to be our best Science year yet.