Study the Constellations with The Book of Astronomy

Have you ever had a “right on time” experience? This was the case when we were selected to REVIEW Book of Astronomy Set by Memoria Press . The girls decided they wanted to review this curriculum long before their dad suggested to me that I should include astronomy in our studies. He was prompted to make this suggestion when our youngest daughter’s gymnastics coach mentioned asteroids and meteoroids to the girls during one of their practices, and I was happy to respond that Book of Astronomy Set was soon to be on our home school curriculum shelf.

We received the Book of Astronomy set which includes the teacher’s guide and one consumable, non- reproducible student workbook.  The teacher’s guide does not include a schedule, and it is an exact replica of the student workbook except it includes all of the answers for the written exercises.  Both of the books houses most of the information needed to complete the course including text and exercises.

The Book of Astronomy is pretty much open and go. It leaves room for parents to create a schedule which best fits their learning environment.  If you are a parent who prefers a schedule, Memoria Press sells one individually.  This curriculum is also true to the classical education approach by incorporating plenty of memorization.  The girls and I are working through The Book of Astronomy together although it could be used as an independent study.  I am just as interested so I figured this is one topic we will study together.

There are four units which make up the Book of Astronomy:

Unit 1 focuses on introducing the constellations, the summer sky, and Summer-Fall Zodiac.

Unit 2 focuses on Orion, the winter sky, and Winter Zodiac.

Unit 3 focuses on the spring sky, Ursa Major, Ursa Minor, and Spring Zodiac.

Unit 4 focuses on the solar system including planets, moons, and comets.

Since I was able to create a schedule for the program to best fit our learning environment, we used the Book of Astronomy three times each week.  There is a substantial amount of information in the text so we read it aloud and discussed for understanding.  Each day didn’t include a writing assignment, but the girls wrote the stars in order of brightness to help with retention.  The exercises in the book include listing the starts and constellations, answering fact based questions, and copy work.

The D'Aulaires' Greek Myths is a suggested resource. There are several exercises which focus on the Greek gods and goddesses since many of the star names and constellations are derived from them. While we are not using D'Aulaires' Greek Myths ; I have found several other resources for us to use to study Greek Mythology along with Book of Astronomy Set which allows us to use the complete book. The Book of Astronomy has shown itself to be a solid introduction to the constellations and the solar system along with providing memory work which we don’t typically do intentionally. I appreciate this curriculum allows room for flexibility in time and resources.