Creation Illustrated (A Homeschool Crew Review)

I tend to like unit studies.  The idea of having everything all in one, incorporating various subjects like science, language arts, social studies, and math all into one convenient package really appeals to me.

So when we were given the opportunity to review two unit studies from Creation Illustrated, my interest was indeed peaked.  Members of the crew were given the opportunity to review two unit studies :  Snow Unit Study and a study on Pine Trees.

We have a pine tree that sits outside our home.  Since the day we have moved into this home, that pine tree has been an important aspect to our everyday family life.  Its limbs have provided perches for hummingbirds as we observed them closer, it's sturdy roots and trunk have assisted in science experiments and it's long pine needles have been a part of nature and art studies.  Even the pine cones that fall from this tree have had it's lasting influence on the name of this blog, as Garrett use to collect so many of those pine cones that they became manipulatives in our early learning.

Because this tree has been so influential in our lives,  we decided to jump into learning about pine trees.

The Creation Unit study for Pine Trees is intended for grades 5-8.  However, there is a discrepancy in regards to this targeted grade range: while the website states grades 3-8, the unit study itself stated 5th-8th. After looking at the material, I'm more inclined to believe 5-8.  While the kids are slightly below this grade level, we were still able to work through the unit study together, they just required a bit of extra help.

Finding unit studies that tackle science from a Creation science aspect is rare. Both of these studies are written from the viewpoint of Creation science and use Biblical teachings as a platform.  Creation Illustrated's mission statement is to "share the wonders of God's creation by revealing fresh insights of His infinite wisdom, gentle touch, undeniable justice, redeeming love, and flawless design..."

I started by simply printing two copies of the first 13 pages of the unit study.  The full download consists of a 16 page PDF, however, three pages are the answer key to the various activities included. The first page of the study material has clickable links for outside links, such as articles and videos, where the actual material to be learned can be found.

 Once printed, I could simply staple them together and punch holes in them to include in the kid's daily packet of paperwork.

The 13 page study consists of 10 pages of activities that include a Bible study, vocabulary and word study,  a geography activity to locate where particular species of pine trees grow, a science study on how to identify pine trees by their needles, bark and pine cones, and even some math activities involving the Fibonacci sequence.

Ashleigh working on identifying various species of pine trees

This study also introduced us to Creation Illustrated Magazine, a quarterly periodical for all ages.  This was a periodical that I had not previously been familiar with. Part of the reading involved with the unit study had us reading an article entitled The Enduring Pine Tree, where we learned about the two oldest living trees on the planet - a pair of Great Basin bristlecone pine trees located in here in California.  Originally believed to be the oldest living thing on earth, the first tree, Methuselah is believed to be roughly 4,849 years old.  Later, scientists discovered that a nearby tree was actually older than Methuselah and is estimated to be 5,067 years old.

We read this article along with many others together out loud, enjoying the amazing photographs that accompanied each article. As this particular magazine was the Fall 2017 digital issue, we were able to read the article about the total solar eclipse that we had the opportunity to see last year.  We were in a paved parking lot of a convention center when we observed the eclipse, so we weren't able to observe the reaction of wildlife to the event.  So reading this article was really interesting to us.  It turned out to be a really enjoyable magazine for our family to read.  We were also given access to a free copy of the Winter 2018 digital issue of Creation Illustrated as well, as the article "Intricacy of Snow” is used with the Snow unit study.

Ashleigh recently had to memorize all the books of the Bible for Awana so the Bible study activity allowed her the opportunity to use her tablet to look up the required verses.  Ash did a great job looking them up and reading them out loud for Garrett to listen to and then we were all able to work together to complete the activity.

Researching Bible Verses on the tablet for the Pine Tree Bible Study

Working together on a word find activity.

But probably the best sign that a unit study works is when the kids take what they learn and apply it to what they observe outside the classroom.  For my kids, this meant heading outdoors for a nature walk and checking out the various pine and fir trees around the base.  The kids began taking the time to notice the amount and style of needles on the trees as well as if the cones produced seeds or airborne spores.  It's been lots of fun watching them discover a tree they hadn't noticed before and run up and start evaluating it.

While we have not yet begun working on the Snow unit study,  I have looked over it and it appears it will be equally as interesting for the kids. The Snow study follows the same format as the Pine Tree study, consisting of 13 pages of activities, links to videos and articles, Bible studies, math problems, and geography.  It's just really hard to for the kids to imagine snow when we live in an arid desert.

We really enjoyed the way this unit study was designed and learned a lot from it. I'll be purchasing the Joshua Tree National Park unit study in the very near future to learn more about this local park before we go this summer.    Also, we've already started planning a side trip when we go camping in Inyo National Forest this summer.  The kids said we ABSOLUTELY have to go see Methuselah and it's older cousin - if we can guess which trees they are lol.

For more information about Creation Illustrated Unit Studies and to purchase them at a 30% discount, visit their store at https://dv157.infusionsoft.com/app/storeFront/showCategoryPage?categoryId=6

Annual print subscriptions to the ad-free Creation Illustrated magazine can also be purchased at a 25% discount at http://www.creationillustrated.com/subscriptions.   Digital Subscriptions are currently in the works and will be added to the website soon.

You can also visit Creation Illustrated at the following social media sites:

Facebook:  https://ww.facebook.com/CreationIllustrated/
Instagram:  https://www.instagram.com/creation_illustrated/
Pinterest: https://www.pinterest.com/creationnature/pins/
Twitter:  https://twitter.com/CreationMag

P is for Pocket Gopher

For the last two days, I wondered what to write for this post.. I mean, P can stand for many things but none of them seemed right.  Last night, my P kinda fell into my lap, or at least in my  headlight high beams.

Being that I live in the desert, rain not a normal occurrence for us, especially in winter but this El Nino has changed things up and California has been getting lots of the much needed rain.  Last night, it was not only rainy but cold, at 8:30 it was 47* and still falling when my husband and I decided to head over to the shoppette (which is like a gas station) on base to grab something to snack on.  While driving home, we saw what we can only describe as "something" in the middle of the road, soaked to the bone, half frozen and barely moving.    All we could tell was that it was a rodent of some variety with huge digging claws on it's front feet but honestly, that was about it  As it's fur was so wet we couldn't see it's eyes and originally assumed it was a mole of some sort. 

Unfortunately, we didn't have any work gloves or towels in the car but we did locate a Storm Trooper Halloween costume left in the back when we went to see Star Wars so we used that to carefully scoop the critter up and wrap him up securely.  It didn't move other than it's nose smelling and twitching.  We knew that with it in the condition that it was in,  it was as good as dead as either a coyote or a bobcat would quickly make a dinner out of it and leaving it in the road would result in a squished rodent.

Once in the house, we informed the kids that the critter was wild, we didn't know what it was but that we were going to bring it in the house temporarily to allow it to warm up.  We set the ground rules that the kids were not to touch it as it had some VERY large teeth and we placed the miserable creature in a small glass terrarium that we had.  As the costume had absorbed some of the wetness, we could now see that the creature had eyes, eliminating our original mole idea and we had no clue what it was.

A search on Google for "Mojave Desert Rodents" led us to a creature called a Botta's Pocket Gopher.  I had never heard of a pocket gopher before.  Honestly, my only real introductions to gophers was the whistling one on Winnie the Pooh.     Our wet visitor had been identified.  We allowed it to rest and we all went to sleep.

This morning, our rescue looks much better and is back to, what I assume, is his old self.  

Dried and warm, he's much more active and is moving around as one would expect a gopher to do..  He did a great job during the night of completely destroying the foam backing of the terrarium to make himself an area to dig around and burrow into.     Unfortunately, it's only 51 degrees outside right now and I really hate to let him go with it being so cold but I know he's ready to be on his way promptly..  Charles is about to release him in the field across from our house (no gophers in our yard, thank you).   

The really cool thing about this experience is that the kids and I have been talking about Rodents these last few weeks in school and we will be actually discussing pocket gophers in the next two weeks.  So the kids have gotten to actually observe a real life pocket gopher in a safe way.  

I also think it's a great lesson for them in regards to taking care of nature.  They have seen that we rescued this animal as a way to help it but that it is not a pet. It was a temporary visitor to our home and it goes back to the wild now that it can safely be released.    Hopefully, it will also help them develop a respect and a feeling of empathy for creatures, especially when we see so many videos today of people abusing animals.   ( I should mention that this gopher wasn't the only thing we rescued - my husband also helped out a few toads frozen on the road as well.. haha)

This blog post is being linked up with the "Blogging Through the Alphabet" linkup hosted by Through the Calm and Through the Storm and  Adventures with Jude .   

Be sure to check out both of their blogs and link yours up as well :)

Our Introduction to Charlotte Mason

This week, we decided to try something new..   We decided to totally throw out almost all of our scheduling and planning and rewrite the entire thing.  And rather than doing a traditional style educational style, we figured we would try the Charlotte Mason method of learning.

The CM method is something that any homeschool mom has heard of but doesn't have any real clue what it is (unless they are already doing it.. lol)..  Basically, you ditch the textbooks and the worksheets and all the boring stuff and you instead read books that have actual educational value to read to your kids (called "living books").  This education method was first developed by Charlotte Mason, a British educator in the late 1800's and early 1900's.

Let me tell you, I wish I would have tried this sooner..   I'm seriously kicking myself in the butt for not looking more into this method two years ago, especially when I had the website bookmarked.    

The kids have really taken to this new style and I honestly feel like they learned more this week then they had in previous months. We've studied poetry, folk songs, a worship song, and our Bible.  We've done math, history, English, science and even copy work without any balking and tears.. It has been a REALLY great learning week.

Here are just a few of the week's highlights.. We did much much more than this through the week.   

Our Comparison of Bird Eggs

First, we began reading the book Trumpet of the Swan by E.B. White whom also wrote Charlotte Web.  We're currently reading a chapter a day and the kids are really enjoying the story and I am seriously impressed with the amount of educational tidbits the book presents. This had led to some really awesome discussions and questions regards not only swans but eagles as well,  We've incorporated math lessons in with the book as we've measured out the 6 foot width of a Trumpeter Swan's nest and the slightly smaller 5 foot Bald Eagle's nest. We also learned that a Trumpeter Swan's egg measures roughly 5 inches long and so we then Googled the length and width of various bird eggs which we then drew, cut out and compared to each other.   

All this talking about eggs and nests of course resulted in us looking up information in regards to Swan nests and then Eagle nests (as the Cob mentions Eagle nests).. This created a platform for us to start watching a couple of cameras on the internet and we watched a few eaglets hatch and a pair of bald eagles who are currently making their nest.  We're going to really enjoy watching both of these cameras daily and watching as the eaglets grow and watching the other pair start their family.  The kids ask to see both sets of eagles several times a day.

Screenshot from the Eagle Cam we are watching..

The kids are starting to listen to musical pieces by Franz Schubert, starting with the "Trout Quintet", We will probably concentrate on each piece of music for two weeks at a time.  We're also reading the book  Franz Schubert: The Story of the Boy who Wrote Beautiful Songs and while the kids are not finding it to be the most interesting of books, they have been learning a bit about Schubert's life. 

While next week we're going to probably jump into the lessons in regards to the artwork of Jacques Louis David, this week we tested the waters with one of Michalangelo's most famous pieces - "The Creation of Adam" and we discussed what a fresco is and we talked about the Sistine Chapel. We also discussed the various theories as to who the character God has his arm around is (ultimately the children decided it was Eve).  

On Wednesday, we had three turkey vultures who decided to roost in the the trees in our front yard.. The kids thought this was absolutely awesome and enjoyed going out and actually observing them, especially when one of them showed off his massive wingspan.. WOW!!

Showing off his impressive wingspan

Turkey Vultures in a Pine Tree

Both kids successfully memorized their memory verse for this week.. Since we were starting at the beginning, we went with Genesis 1:1 "In the Beginning God Created the Heavens and the Earth".   I was very proud of both of them.

Today, as their "treat" for doing so well (we would have done it anyway, but don't tell them that), we did a nature walk..   Alyssa's school was having a science fair (which in my opinion was highly disappointing and not at all what I was expecting for a science fair) so we got Dad to drop us off on his way to work.. Afterwards, we walked home which had us walking through various undeveloped areas.. We had a blast check out various trees, plants and such..  The highlight was finding a cute lil carpenter bee checking out a cut down tree..

I have no doubt that Nature Hikes will quickly become the highlight of our school week.. 

Sycamore Balls

Our Desert Study Grounds

Ravens Flying Overhead

Really neat cloud formations that I'll make the kids work on identifying next week

Our Sideway Trees (because of our really strong winds)

Recently Cut Pine Tree - so we got to check out the Sap and the tree's bark and core

Guess what they will be having to identify next week ;)

Pine Trees with the Sun

Ashleigh studying the pine needles so she can draw them in her Nature Journal

A grove of fir trees in the middle of the desert

All Smiles on his Nature Hike

Carpenter Bee that we studied for a few minutes. 

Exploring Creation Field Trip Journal (A Schoolhouse Crew Review)

Many homeschooling families are familiar with Apologia Educational Ministries. If you're like me, you probably have many of their books on your bookshelves at this very moment, most likely a book from the very popular "Exploring Creation" science series.  I was given the opportunity to review one of the newest additions to the "Exploring Creation" series - the BRAND NEW Exploring Creation Field Trip Journal.

Bright colors make it very appealing to children

The Exploring Creation Field Trip Journal is a 64 page, spiral bound softcover book to use to document field trips or other various outdoor exploration excursions. The book is about the same size and weight as a typical one subject spiral notebook and is not so bulky that it would not fit neatly in a backpack or carry bag when camping or hiking.   The pages are much thicker then typical notebook paper and are very durable and sturdy.  Each of the pages are printed in full color with vivid color accents to liven it up.  There are also full colored photographs of plants and animals that kids will really enjoy looking at.

 The book is divided up into 9 sections.  Each section has a suggestion page as to how best utilize the pages, however, these are mere suggestions. The beauty of this book is that depending on your child's level, it can be used as a logbook, a scrapbook, a doodle book, ect.  There's really no limitations, it can become what each particular child wants it to be.

 The first few pages give suggestions for preparing for a field trip up to a week prior for both teacher and students.  A whole slew of suggestions for field trip adventures are offered along with themes in which the suggestions would fall under. For example, if you were currently studying botany and plants, suggestions such as national parks, Arboretums, Lumber Mills and Botanical Gardens are mentions. History and Government?  Suggestions include city hall, a history museum or if you have the cash to spend, a trip to Rome.   Each topic has multiple suggestions that would fall into any price range.

Following the field trip suggestions is where the real uniqueness of this book comes in and where the fun begins.  Pages are included where children can keep a logbook of where they have visited, starting with their home state.  The date and destination can be recorded and if you write small enough, maybe a few short notes as a reminder of the visit. Two pages are dedicated to exploration of the their home state, followed by two pages to log travel through the United States, and finally there are two pages to document world travels.

An aerial map of one of our hiking trips

Each field trip is given two pages in which to document the trip. First, there's an area to write down books or other information used to plan for the trip. This is great for if you plan to make a return visit and might need those particular resources again.  There is a place for the time and date of your visit, an area to sketch an aerial view of where you are located as well as placed to write down emergency information like phone numbers or meeting places.  There is plenty of space for writing down information such as what we done on that particular trip, memories you wish to remember and any other notes you wish to keep for posterity.  The lines are all well spaced apart (and designed to look like wide ruled loose leaf paper) so that one does not have to write so small that it is not legible. I have rather large writing and I was easily able to write all of what I felt we needed to include.   There are enough pages to document 10 specific field trips in this section.

Journal pages filled out for one of our trips - Just needs our family photograph

 The next sections, "My Special Spot" and the "As I See It" pages are great for really connecting with the theme of "Exploring Creation". These are pages designed for kids to observe and document as they see fit.

The "My Special Spot" helps kids to pay attention to a specific area over the course of a year and observe seasonal changes to that area. There are pages for Spring, Summer, Fall and Winter. A 4 x 10 square grid is provided for each season for kids to have a reference to work from from season to season, providing a visual reminder of where things were located and to see if they are still there, if they have moved, ect.  There is also a place to attach a photograph for each season as well as document temperature, rainfall, and notes they would like to include.

Finally, the "As I See It" pages provide an area for kids to observe and draw/document nature as they feel best interprets what they are seeing.  Some of these pages are themed, such as a page dedicated to "Predators and Prey", while other pages allow them to draw whatever they would like.. 

This review came to use the same time we stumbled upon Letterboxing and so it only made sense that we would use this book during our adventures.  Our very first letterboxing attempt took us out to Placerita Canyon State Park and the home of the "Oak of the Golden Dreams", which is #168 on the list of California Historical sites.

Before we arrived, we were able to make a very quick sketch in the "aerial map" area to show where we
wanted to go, as well as to jot down the key site seeing items we were hoping to find. After we got home that night, Mom was elected to fill out the pages for the trip, since everyone agreed that I had the most legible handwriting out of our family of 5.   Everyone had a great time that night reliving our hike as everyone told me what they wanted to have written down and remembered. The kids also had to point out a few things that I had not included on our aerial map, like a small man made pond in the butterfly garden.

We really liked how many of the pages are geared to allow the kids to personalize it.  From the very first page where they can put their name into it, to the various pages to allow them to sketch things as they see it, the kids had the opportunity to really feel this was more than a school book and they viewed it more as a fun extension of our trip that they could make their own. 

I think the Exploring Creation Field Trip Journal was a hit with the family and gives us a souvenir of our adventures as we explore nature together.  We have a huge cross country trip coming up at the end of this month and I have no doubt this book will be packed and going with us as we make our way from California to Florida and back. We have spent the last few months planning what wonders we want to see on our drive and this will be perfect in documenting the Grand Canyon, the Alamo and the Gulf of Mexico. Without a doubt, it will be in the car with us on our travels as Ash and Garrett are really looking forward to filling the entire book up with lots of memories.

You can purchase the Exploring Creation Field Trip Journal from the Apologia website. 

Apologia can be found on Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest and Google oPlus.