This week on Homeschool Highschool Podcast: Homeschool Astronomy with Tony Ceraso.

Homeschool Astronomy with Tony Ceraso

One of my teens’ favorite sciences during homeschool high school was Astronomy. He loved learning about the fascinating universe outside our atmosphere. He especially loved the many “lab” hours, sitting in lawn chairs with his dad and a small telescope, watching the night sky.

Today’s teens have access to a delightful curriculum thanks to Tony Ceraso and Homeschool Astronomy.

Tony Ceraso’s story

Tony’s mom and Star Trek were integral in getting him into astronomy. Back in the early 1970s when Tony was a child, she would watch the original Star Trek series while he running around at her feet or sitting with her. She would look over at him and say, “I just think space is so fascinating!”

As he grew, Tony joined his mother in loving astronomy. He would put together astronomy lessons in his attic and then force my parents listen to his lesson. (His mother was a teacher, so she had taught him to create his own curriculum by cutting and pasting homemade resources.)

Throughout his teen years, he learned more astronomy and read lots of science fiction.

Then when he got married and had kids of his own, he taught them to love astronomy. In fact, he was often invited to his kids’ classrooms to teach astronomy lessons. The school kids loved the presentations!

Today, Tony works in IT and volunteers at the Air and Space Museum in Washington, DC. Some days he runs their planetarium. He alsos writes curriculum for them.

Then, his wife told their homeschooling friends about his presentations

Soon, he was sharing about astronomy in their local homeschool community and demand for his lessons spread.

That led him to producing digital lessons that combined video, photos, reading and interactions that homeschoolers have been enjoying.

Homeschool Astronomy Curriculum

Tony’s popular 28 lesson Homeschool Astronomy course (14 lessons per semester) was created to help high schoolers love astronomy as much as he does.

Parents enjoy it, as well. This is because the format of the course helps it meet the standards for credit on the transcript. The course includes for each lesson:

• an objective
• warmup activity
• gradable questions
• cross-curricular activities
• test questions

These are really nice if you need something concrete to put in a portfolio and then on a transcript. The lessons give high schoolers educational experiences that cover material five days per week for about thirty minutes per day.

(He follows New Jersey’s standards for earning credits. This can be important if you are in a state that reimburses for curriculum.)

The course is self-directed, so it’s easy on parents!

For the homeschool transcript

Homeschool Astronomy can be a Science elective on the transcript or teens can use to course to level up another Science to Honors.

Free lesson

Homeschool Astronomy shares a page of free videos. Also, you can email Tony Ceraso directly for a free lesson TonyCeraso@homeschoolastronomy.com or the website is homeschool astronomy.com.

Want to inspire your teens to be curious about astronomy?

Tony has a few suggestions:

• Get a small telescope or binoculars and do some skywatching
• Watch some classic Science Fiction movies and television
• Read some books inspired by Science Fiction (for instance, C.S. Lewis’s The Magician’s Nephew and his Space Trilogy)
• Visit the Air and Space Museum or a local planetarium
• Participate in a local state park’s stargazing activities
• Visit the NASA website and watch videos from the Hubble Space Telescope or the James Web Telescope

Contact Tony Ceraso at Homeschool Astronomy

Check out the high school Astronomy course.

Also, you can email Tony Ceraso directly for a free lesson TonyCeraso@homeschoolastronomy.com or the website is homeschool astronomy.com.

Join Vicki and Tony for a delightful discussion on Homeschool Astronomy and helping your teens enjoy God’s universe!

Thank you Seth Tillman for editing.

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