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Next year we are using RTR and since it has the Astronomy book included, I was wondering if a Science supply kit should be purchased? I know Home Science Tools sells these, or are the experiments going to be different that what is in the book? Will there need to be any additional supplies needed outside of what is included in the Astronomy book?

Thanks,
Michelle

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You won't need a kit for the astronomy (or any of the science) in RTR. Carrie has worked very hard to try to keep this part doable with things you'd have on hand or could pick up if you didn't at a local grocery store like Walmart. I am planning on glancing at it the week before so if anything special is needed I can pick it up at the grocery store. I've been editing it and so far, there is nothing that cannot be bought at a Walmart. The few things I'm thinking I'd need to look ahead for are perishable (i.e. cornflakes or coconut) and can't be bought far ahead of time anyway. HTH! I'm getting excited to do RTR - we'll have to share our journey through it together.

In Christ,
Julie

Michelle,

Great question! What we've done is exactly what my3son's shared. We have worked to use any experiments from within the Astronomy book that are based on supplies you'd truly have on hand. For the experiments that required unique supplies, we simply wrote an experiment of our own to replace it, which meant that we actually wrote most of the experiments ourselves. When we did the Astronomy book with my oldest son, many years ago, we purchased a very expensive supply kit to go along with it. We didn't feel that the kit actually added much to the book at that time and still found quite a few of the experiments/projects to be fairly time consuming for the end product.

So, when we decided to include this book as part of our earth science year, we knew we would need to make it fit HOD, rather than making HOD fit the book. Anyway, not sure if that helps, but you won't need a supply kit. There are some food type items used in the experiments that you may want to peek ahead to have on hand. But, even the food items are kept to those that are found in a normal kitchen, and as much as possible we give several options for supplies that are easy to choose between when doing the experiments, in case you don't have to have a "certain" item on hand!

Blessings,
Carrie

Thanks so much Carrie! I have actually had the Astronomy book for several years. Long before I heard of HOD, we used My Father's World (which also uses this book). They did not change any of the projects in the book and frankly, we never did ANY of the experiments. I appreciate your work you have done so much to make HOD educational AND practical for a normal American family. We will be looking forward to using this book to its full potential thanks to you.

God Bless,
Michelle

PS I loved seeing you at the Midwest Homeschool Convention this year!