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Carrie,
We will do RTR with my (then) 11 yr old 6th grader. (btw, this is our 3rd yr with HOD and we love it!) however, he has already done apologia astronomy. He is a very strong reader, but still will only be 11. Is signs and seasons too much? If so, can you recommend anything else. Do you know how many units you will give for astronomy if we substitute another book - as we will want to do all other science with RTR. We have so emjoyed evry book selection. My 16 yr old always comes down just for read alouds! So I'd really love your input. Also, do you have plans to use apologia's general or physical science with later guides?
thanks for your help.
Jennifer

Jennifer,

We are planning to allot approximately 12 weeks to the Elementary Apologia Astronomy text, and it is going to be scheduled the first 12 weeks of RTR. You could definitely look at using the Signs and Seasons book in its place, as long as you're only having your son read it(rather than doing all the suggested experiments). Many of the experiments outlined in the Appendix of Signs and Seasons are pretty intensive, to the point of being worthy of high school lab science credit according to the author. I would be in agreement!

The Signs and Seasons book is beautiful and reads quite living, however there are also some pretty factual sections that an 11 year old could bog down in. It is a VERY God-honoring book, and we really struggled in choosing between Apologia Astronomy and Signs and Seasons. However, we ultimately knew that Signs and Seasons is a much more difficult book and would be way too tough more most 10 years olds (and very challenging for 11+ year olds too).

If you kept the readings of Signs and Seasons short each day, I do think it could work as a viable alternative for a very strong, independent reading 11 year old. There would definitely be plenty to notebook upon in Signs and Seasons, and your child could easily do a written narration from it once each week (as we're planning to schedule) and narrate orally once each week. That would leave the experiment day, which you may just want to have him do out of RTR, or you could select a few less intensive experiments from the back of Signs and Seasons. We will include any of Apologia Astronomy's experiments in RTR that fit but will likely be adding our own to fill any needs.

At this point we aren't planning to use Apologia's General Science or Physical Science.

Blessings,
Carrie