I am so disappointed we didn't know earlier. Son had his telescope out looking at the moon Friday morning and what I assume was Venus. He would have been so excited to see 4 moons of Jupiter. He studied astronomy last year. I retrieved the book to refresh my memory:
Mercury does rotate slowly. It takes 59 earth days for Mercury to rotate once. That means 29.5 earth days of sunlight before 29.5 earth days of darkness. It revolves around the sun much faster - 88 earth days, which means a year on Mercury = 88 earth days. We would grow older much more quickly on Mercury. Roughly, Mercury revolves 4 times faster than earth, so a 10 year old on earth would be 40 years old on Mercury, and I would be 200 years old. I would still have all my teeth so I am OK with that.
Venus does rotate even more slowly than Mercury. It takes 243 earth days for Venus to rotate once. That's about 121.5 earth days of sunlight and 121.5 earth days of darkness to make 1 day on Venus. And yes, it does rotate backwards. The book goes into how it does not fit with the "big bang" theory of evolution because it should rotate in the same direction as all the other planets. I've heard evolutionist reasoning explain that it must have hit something as it was flung out from the bang and was therefore caused to rotate in the opposite direction.
Something else odd about Venus: it revolves slower than it rotates. That means it's year is shorter than it's day. Venus' year = 225 earth days. Yet it's day = 243 earth days. So, if you lived on Venus you would grow 1 year older before the day was through.
Just a few fun things for the children. The science book we used is
Exploring Creation with Astronomy by Jeannie Fulbright. We enjoyed it.
(I have a horrendous head cold, so if I got my rotates & revolves or math mixed up, please have mercy when you correct me.)