Summer Classical Education–Astronomy

Logic, Greek Myths and Astronomy Memoria Press Review


Student Book	Teacher Guide

A perfect summer classical homeschool education boost can be found at Memoria Press. I say perfect for summer, because we are working through the Book of Astronomy Set as a review for the Schoolhouse Review Crew.

We received the Teacher Guide and Student Book shown above. My 9th grade son is familiar with their workbooks, so he was able to start the first day we had them.

The four units are broken into Constellations, Winter, Spring, and The Solar System

We start the lesson with a review of the 15 brightest stars, learning their names and writing down the list every session. If he were in a class, they could stand and recite them.

Starting with the Summer-Fall – he learned the Summer Triangle. There is a small 2-3 paragraph explanation of how the star got its name, where it is located, and an interesting tid bit of information. We read the paragraphs together, Jon is older and did quite a few days on his own. This is for 3rd grade and older, so the younger grades may need teacher led time each day.

The Teacher’s Guide suggest the D’Aulaires’ Book of Greek Myths will go well with the lessons. D’Aulaires’ Greek Myths Set is also being reviewed by the crew – follow the graphic link box at the bottom!

Then a two page spread. For instance, the first constellation is Lyra with the star Vega. They learn the Roman and English names of the constellations Lyra/Lyre.

The page above is from the teacher’s guide –
all of the constellation patterns are drawn out for reference.
Older students could check their own work.

On the opposite page, they draw out Lyra and write out Vega. The bottom half of the page, the re-write the 15 brightest stars and label Lyra next to Vega. Special attention is given to spelling and neatness. My 9th grade son isn’t always into neatness, we need to work on this a bit more.

This continues each session, i.e. Aquila is labeled next to the star Altair. Each day they are building the smaller pieces of the Summer Triangle.

There are sheets in the back of the Teacher’s guide to use for an overhead projector if you are in a class setting. I think these will come in handy if there is ever a fog free night on the coast. Ha. We will be keeping these on the shelf next to our binoculars.

A beginning poem, The Pleiades by Amy Lowell is included for memorization. There is a book “Poetry for the Grammar School” by Memoria Press that gives a full lesson for the poem. A classical education tip of using the “Disappearing Line” technique to begin the memorization process.

We have been working on having Jon be more self directed in his work, so I was only in on one or two days of this workbook. He has progressed quickly and has quite a bit of retention. My goal, was to have a logical place to bind together a few Astronomy facts gathered through our Nature Studies.

I knew that from reviews before, that the Student Books are very simple and direct. One piece of information building on the next. I wanted to start at the Spring constellations. When we did geography, it was laid out similarly, and it would have been easy to pick a geographical point to start out at. However, the Astronomy Set is created in such a way that each day builds on the prior. So – we started with the 15 brightest stars, learning their names and writing down the list every session. If he were in a class, they could stand and recite them.

I think this program would work well in a co-op homeschool class, or at home with a family. The younger kids will need a bit of help and may not have the history and geography to go along with the star information. I think this was pretty simple for Jon to progress on as we study Astronomy with our Handbook of Nature Study guide each summer.

Our pattern of learning is introduction and discovery, then a bit of research and study, and then using the information. This is a perfect example of that progression using a workbook. The workbook is simple and clean, and it will help them put their natural observations into historical and scientific facts, and bring what they observe to paper and rich study. My hope, which has come true the past summer, is that the boys will be familiar with the night sky and be able to spend leisurely late hours finding constellations.

Our crew reviewed several products from Memoria Press.
Click below to read about the experience of others.