Apologia Astronomy Vs RS4K pre-level astronomy

[hands-on-mama]

Would my 5 1/2 year old get much out of this? She is so interested in anything space. I had originally intended to wait until she was 6 1/2, but I'm wondering if it would work for her in the fall. She would be around 5 years 8 months. I've never seen this text so I thought I would ask here. We just bought a family membership to the Space and Rocket Center here. We went yesterday and she was just in awe of everything there.

 

Thoughts? Opinions?

[angelmama1209]

imho, the text is much too advanced for a 5yo. i am using it with my 7yo and some stuff is above her. my 5 and 3yos lost interest very quickly.

[PachiSusan]

I am using it with a 10 year old and unless your daughter is advanced, I would wait.

[Perogi]

I tried it with a 5yo and 7yo and it was a flop. We're much more successful this year with a 7yo and 9yo (although I'm getting bored with space!)

[Mandylubug]

I am using it with my clan. They are the perfect age but I would not go younger, imo.

[Guest 4Gmom]

My 8 year old and 6 year old are enjoying it. My 6 doesn't pick it all up, but he gets quite a bit.

[hands-on-mama]

Okay thanks! What about the Real Science 4 Kids Astronomy pre-level?

[Down_the_Rabbit_Hole]

I am using it with an 8yr old and she is getting it but just. I would not use it with a 5 yr old. Keep going to the Space Museum and she will learn tons. Get books from the library. Maybe even do ELemental Science the one for Space Science, this uses books that are geared a younger age.

[Guest]

Well, I'll be the oddball. My 5 & 7 yo love it. They get it and are constantly spouting off facts they've learned. I would go as far as to say it's their favorite part of school. I'm glad we did it this year. I'm sure whatever they miss, they'll pick up as they get older, because I'm sure we'll cover it again at some point.

[pocjets]

I'm doing it this year with a 7,6, and 5 year old. They all love it!! It's their favorite part of school. We just read a little, talk about it, do the jr notebook journals and some of the experiments.

[SilverMoon]

I used it with a 5.5-6yo with success. He had a very high interest, and I didn't expect him to do any of the notebooking work, vocabulary, diagrams and such. We treated it like a read aloud and moved slowly. I hung a strip of black fabric on the wall for him, about two yards long and 18-20 inches tall. As he learned about each object we glued it to the fabric. By the end of the year he'd built his own solar system.

[hands-on-mama]

Thank you so much for the thoughts! The only reason I'm even considering it is because of her interest level.

 

Has anyone seen the Real Science 4 Kids astronomy book?

[mrsrevmeg]

If astronomy is her interest, I say go for it. My youngest had just turned five about a month before we began using it. He loved it. We read all sorts of space books to go along with it during the year and went to a space museum as a field trip. Sure, there were some things in the book that he no longer remembers. He's nine now, so it has been a few years since we read it. I am surprised about how much he DOES remember. Botany has been the Apologia Science that my kids struggled with the most and retained the least information. I have heard other people say Botany is where they started because it seemed easiest and least technical. I think it all boils down to where you are starting. If her interest is in astronomy, she will get more by studying astronomy this year and moving on to something less interesting in the future.

[hands-on-mama]

Bumpity

[Dory]

My six year old son LOVES Apologia and my dd enjoys it thoroughly as well. Which is more than I can say of my oldest son when he used RS4K pre level. My oldest didn't hate it, but he didn't love it either. I wish I had used Apologia with all of them. We do talk about what we read a lot and we look up a lot of extra pictures online. Both my youngest two have enjoyed the junior journal. They color and draw while I read. We will also pause to write down a word or sentence to help them remember it.

[angelmama1209]

i haven't seen the rs4k astronomy book, but my kids LOVED all the others.

[chepyl]

I have not used the RS4K Astronomy book, but we have used prelevel 1 Chemistry, Biology, and are using Physics. I think it is great for 5-7 year olds. My son loved them. He is 7, and his co-op class is doing Apologia Astronomy. We do not have our own book, but he is retaining what is taught. The mom is having to condense the info and just pull the main ideas because she has an hour a week for 15 weeks and can't do it all.

[jengjohnson]

I've not used the RS4K book, but am using Apologia Astronomy with my almost 8yo dd this year. I've used it in the past with my other girls when they were 1st and 3rd grade. They used it in conjunction with a co-op class, but with my youngest we're doing it on our own. She enjoys it and retains a bit. She uses the journal, but I wish we'd got the Jr. Journal. We had an extra from the previous co-op so we went with what we had. She has no special interest in astronomy, but does point things out in the sky that we've gone over.

[AnnaM]

We used both. I thought RS4K was ok but it is way expensive for what you get. At that age I would glaze through the Apologia and just pick out things she is particularly interested in to read about. Let her guide how deep you get into it. We did really enjoy the journals though I do think that they are still a bit much for that age. My 4 year old picked up stuff (he can tell you all the phases of the moon with about 85% accuracy) just listening passively and participating when he had a whim.