Memoria Press is one of my most favorite vendors so I was thrilled that we were provided the opportunity to review the Book of Astronomy Set. My daughter recently expressed an interest in learning more about Astronomy so the timing was perfect and we got started on the set right away.
The Book of Astronomy Set
Memoria Press is a classical education company that provides curriculum and online learning for Preschool through High School. You can read my reviews of their First Start Reading program, their Literature Guides, and Famous Men of Rome course to see how much we love Memoria Press.
The Book of Astronomy Set we received included a Student Guide and Teacher Guide, which is typical of most of their courses. The Book of Astronomy Set is intended for grades 3 and up and is included in their 4th grade curriculum set. The course includes lessons on constellations, names of the stars, fall and winter zodiacs, and the motion of the earth. There are 4 units within the course that are broken down into smaller lessons, generally focusing on a star, constellation, or planet.
Each lesson has a lesson followed by an exercise like drawing the constellation discussed, answering questions, filling out tables, or discussing a story that has been read. Each unit ends with a review exercise covering the entire unit.
The Student Book is both the lesson and the exercises and the student can work in the book. They can practice drawing constellations, filling out charts, and answering end of unit questions. The Appendix of the student book contains extra charts, definitions of the constellations and solar system, and a pronunciation guide.
The Teacher Guide has all the same content for the lesson as the Student Book except that the exercises contains the answers. Additionally, the Appendix is the same; however, after that there is a section on “Tests and Overheads” which contains unit tests for each unit, a Final test which is all encompassing, answer keys for all tests, and several pages of “overheads” of the constellations.
What We Thought
My 5th grade daughter was intrigued by the study of constellations and now definitely would like a telescope, which we do not have. She was able to use the Book of Astronomy Set fairly independently, though we are still working on reading all the direction, but who isn’t right?
I loved the lessons were complete within the Student Book. However, it was suggested to display the constellations on the overheads at the front of the Student Book and in the Teachers Guide. My daughters question– “what is an overhead projector?” I did have to chuckle because that is just not something you hear often, though the 1st edition of the Book of Astronomy Set is dated in 2011. So, we had a little lesson about overhead projectors and moved on. (I am old and have used overhead projectors in their glory days but didn’t realize they were used much anymore so it did strike me as a little funny.) Nevertheless, the provided constellation pages we looked at together but we did not display on an overhead.
The lessons were short, which was good, with an exercise with each lesson. Many of the constellations and stars get their names from Greek Mythology, so there are places in the study guide that direct the teacher to read a portion of D’Aulaires’ Greek Myths (you can read reviews of this program from the Crew by clicking the below banner), but since we did not have that, we skipped these. However, we did look up a little history on the names for some of them on the internet which worked as well. I think it would be fun to integrate the 2 programs for sure.
Overall, my daughter really liked the program and has enjoyed the lessons. I was happy to have the exercises available and the tests in the Teachers Guide to test comprehension since she was independently working on the course. I think we will have fun this summer trying to find the constellations in the sky now that she is learning about them. She even read a few of the lessons out loud to her little brother, who was intrigued by some of the stories.
I would say, overall, the course is a hit. I would definitely recommend it as a good study of Astronomy, easy to integrate into any homeschool schedule with manageable lessons providing a great course in Astronomy at the elementary level. True to form, the lessons were great and easy to use, which is my experience with all Memoria Press products.
Be sure to read what the rest of the TOS Review Crew thought about the Book of Astronomy Set as well as two other Memoria Press products: Traditional Logic I Complete Set and D’Aulaires’ Greek Myths. And visit Memoria Press on their website and social media:
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