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.

abeka math.

Why can't I get this curriculum from anywhere else but them? I've got a homeschool store not too far up the road from me, and I am within reach of two others. But I have to wait for this stuff to come in the mail. It's a drag. Especially considering we needed it two weeks ago. Luckily, the math teachers have had copies of the day's lessons on hand in each class.

All ordering frustrations aside, I must say that I like the Abeka Math curriculum that my son is using at the HEDGE Academy. I've always used Horizons (which I LOVE) with the exception of last year when we tried Saxon. Hated it. This Abeka seems like a happy medium between the two, and seeing as how there is no Horizons class offered, it's what he's taking instead of the Singapore math tutorial. That is for 1st-5th graders. Not sure how much in-depth they would go into concepts that a 4th grader needs to know. Not in a one-hour class.

I assume that the actual Abeka book is in color...I have yet to see it. I hope it is anyway. Colorful pages are just a lot slower than black-and-white at de-motivating my son to do his math. Though he hasn't had any trouble with the black-and-white copies; he's been doing his math with zero complaining. Perhaps color pages won't be an issue.

We begin each lesson with his 3-minute drill, then he does his two pages, which completes the lesson. Each lesson has an abundance of review of concepts previously learned, and the presentation of new concepts is clear and not confusing.

The real challenge for us will be staying on track and not getting behind in favor of other subjects. Having the accountability of the class at the co-op will help.