The Herbal Academy Botany & Wildcrafting Course Kickoff!

The Herbal Academy provided me with this promotional information and offer to share with my readers. I am getting something for free in return for posting this information. Affiliate links may be in this posting. Thanks for supporting my blog.

The Botany & Wildcrafting Course, curated by the amazing Herbal Academy team of herbalists and botanists, is now open for registration at an introductory price of $149 ($50 off right now)!! I reserved my seat in class, and cannot wait to begin this journey. To give you an idea of what is included in class, lessons cover topics like using the dichotomous key for plant identification, identifying botanical families and patterns in nature, drawing herbs, making a pressed herbarium, wildcrafting for wild edibles and herbs, drying herbs, and much, much more.

If you too are interested in learning more about botany and foraging, check out the course page here: https://theherbalacademy.com/product/botany-wildcrafting- course/

CLICK HERE to ENROLL!

DISCLOSURE/DISCLAIMER: I received this course for free for posting this information. My thoughts are mine and my family's own opinion and have not been altered by anyone else. I did not receive any other compensation for doing this review. Affiliate links may be in this posting. Thanks for supporting my blog.

Creation Illustrated Unit Studies Review

Some pictures of the Pine Trees and pine cones on our property.

Affiliate links may be in this posting. Thanks for supporting my blog. My family had the privilege of trying the unit studies from Creation Illustrated for this review to use in conjunction with our own homeschool curriculum. This is a Homeschool Review Crew Review. All opinions expressed are my own or those of my family.

Creation Illustrated is owned by a non-profit, non-denominational ministry dedicated to share Biblical truth and character-building lessons about God's creations. Creation Illustrated is a quarterly magazine by the same name that was first published in the Fall of 1993. Each magazine now includes a creation character-building lesson and a coloring contest for all ages to enter. Also new is a nature photography contest and poetry contest to inspire people of all ages to get outdoors and creatively use their cameras and pens. The print version has no ads. Published and edited by Christian homeschooling couple, Tom and Jennifer Ish, this nature magazine provides positive reading material for families all over the world. They also produce DVDs, books, unit studies, cookbooks, and more. These are going to be available in new digital editions soon to the general public to purchase.

The Unit Studies are about individual topics that cover God's creations. There are 8 different ones so far that you can pick from Creation Illustrated. These range from animals to plants and other subjects in between. We received two unit studies in PDF versions: Snow Unit Study and Pine Trees Unit Study. These correspond with the Winter '18 Digital Edition and Fall '17 Digital Edition of the magazines.

How We Used This and Our Thoughts:
We were given the snow and pine trees unit studies in PDF format to use for our homeschool. We picked the Pine Trees Unit Study to focus on for this review. These unit studies both include lots of fun facts and activities like; links to educational videos, a puzzle, etc. Subjects that are explored in these are: reading, Bible study, science, math, geography, vocabulary, spelling, and art. Both are targeted for grades 5-8, but parts of the lessons can be used for grades 3-4 as well.

My daughter, Teela, who is in 4th grade used this with our botany lessons at home. Teela is ahead in reading and so we thought even though this is recommended for grades 5-8 she would still do well with this study. I love trees and since we have some pines on our property I wanted her to learn more about them. I must say though, I too got a lot out of this study.

Pine Trees Unit Study Cover

Pine Trees Unit Study

Creation Illustrated Fall 2017 Magazine

The Pine Trees Unit Study is primarily for grades 5-8. This 16 page study also has an answer key in the back and goes hand-in-hand with the Fall 2017 edition of the Creation Illustrated Magazine. The nature unit studies we received were in a downloadable and printable PDF format and is taught in a Biblical creation based, Christian worldview.

Table of Contents:

• Reading Resources – 3
• Educational Videos – 3
• Vocabulary & Spelling – 4, 5
• Bible Study – 6
• Geography – 7
• Science – 8, 9
• Math – 10
• Writing & Penmanship – 11
• Art – 12
• Puzzle – 13
• Teacher’s Answer Keys – 14, 15

The Reading Resources were outside links and we found that not all of them worked, but we found them when searching for the title and the main part of the website it was supposed to be on. We thought the Fibonacci spirals in pine cones were really neat. The List of pines by region also was helpful, but we went searching and narrowed it down further to pines in Oregon where we live. The Educational Videos were great. We loved learning about the 2nd oldest tree in the world called Methuselah. We also enjoyed the video on Japan and Pine trees as well. I did not know that the gourmet Matsutake mushroom and calligraphy ink depend upon the pine trees there. The Vocabulary and Spelling were words found in The Enduring Pine Tree article from in the Fall magazine. These helped with spelling and learning definitions of these words. The Bible Study has you look up bible scripture, list what the word is being used for, and mark if it is pine or fir. The Geography unit was all about what country/region went with specific species of Pine. The Science unit has you identify pine trees by characteristics, etc. The Math is a bunch of tree math problems. The Writing & Penmanship is a short essay on Pine Trees. The Art study is drawing a picture. Last there is a word search Puzzle and the Teacher's Answer Keys.

Zari and Teela with a gigantic Pine Cone on display at the Children's Discovery Museum in Kelso, WA.

The 76 page digital version of the creation magazine for fall of 2017 is jam packed with information, stories, full color photography, and a few ads. The digital edition of the magazine lets you digitally turn pages, zoom in and out, make it full screen, and press play to flip through pages automatically. I wish the digital magazine was available to download as well, but currently it is not. This is nicely laid out and went well with the homeschool unit study about Pine Trees. I loved reading about the facts of pines in the article, "The Enduring Pine Tree: Creation Up Close" by Tatiana Claudy. I did not know there were 126 species that botanists have identified and that a few of these trees date back to the era of Noah's Flood which are still standing today. I loved the way this magazine made use of Bible verses throughout its articles so you could look up scripture and have Bible study as well. The photographs are stunning and I agree with others that this magazine is "The Christian answer to National Geographic." The article "The Day the Sun Went Out" by Bobby Harrison reminded me of my experience recently with the Total Solar Eclipse here in Oregon and my trip in 1998 to Curaçao in the Caribbean to watch one in totality. The magazine had other articles as well and some recipes to try. The Vegan Mincemeat Bread Pudding looked really yummy. There is also a short study guide in the back and family activities that you can do.

Snow Unit Study Cover

Snow Unit Study

Creation Illustrated Winter 2018 Magazine

The Snow Unit Study goes along with the Creation Illustrated Magazine, Winter '18 Digital Edition. It follows a similar structure for contents with an emphasis on snow instead of Pine trees. We can't wait to dive into this study closer to when winter is again.

We love these unit studies about our Creator and His creations. These are a great way to have outdoor education with homeschool activities. The Bible-based magazine is a wonderful addition to these as well.

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• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/CreationIllustrated/timeline
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• Subscriptions to the Ad-free quarterly PRINT editions of Creation Illustrated Magazine are for 1 year and available for 25% Off at: Creation Illustrated under the Subscriptions tab.
• Subscriptions to the quarterly DIGITAL editions of Creation Illustrated Magazine are coming soon.
• Creation Unit Studies are available to download at 30% Off at: https://dv157.infusionsoft.com/app/storeFront/showCategoryPage?categoryId=6

Creation Illustrated Spring 2018 Magazine Cover Sneak Peek

The Unit Study from the Spring edition will be available soon and it is all about butterflies and transformation along with character-building lessons!

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A Journey Through Learning Lapbooks Apologia Science Lapbooks Botany Review

My family had the privilege of trying Apologia Exploring Creation with Botany Lapbook from the Apologia Elementary titles at the Apologia Curriculum page from A Journey Through Learning Lapbooks for this review to use in conjunction with our own homeschool curriculum. This is a Homeschool Review Crew Review. All opinions expressed are my own or those of my family.

A Journey Through Learning is a company owned by Paula Winget and Nancy Fileccia that creates fun educational lapbooks, copywork, unit studies, and notebooking for homeschool. You can find all kinds of different topical lapbooks on their website including: science, history, math, Bible, holidays seasons, preschool, and more! They also have curriculum lapbooks such as: Jay Wile Science, Apologia Exploring Creation Science, Classical Conversations, TruthQuest History, A History of Us, and others! A Journey Through Learning Lapbooks were voted best every year since 2011!

Lapbooks are basically scrapbooking for any educational topic that you can think of. They have fun flaps, pockets, pictures, pull outs, etc. that are glued to file folders to have information at a glance right at your fingertips that fits in your lap...hence the name, "lapbooks". You could think of them as better, smaller versions of poster boards for say a report on a certain subject. They help your student have a tactile/kinesthetic & visual way of learning the information so it better sticks in the memory.

A Journey Through Learning Lapbooks are easy to put together. They are available in your choice of instant download, CD, or already printed format. You will need a few items to get you started: Printed copy of the A Journey Through Learning Lapbook, different colored file folders/cardstock (how many and how to fold them are specified), scissors, glue, hole punch, brads, stapler, crayons or colored pencils, and if you are doing an Apologia Science Lapbook, the required textbook to go with it. These lapbooks come with templates, topical information they call "study guides", and all the instructions you need to put everything together. Unlike other lapbooks their directions and placement key are on the SAME page as the mini-booklet to make it less confusing.

Apologia Exploring Creation Science Lapbooks from A Journey Through Learning Lapbooks utilize Exploring Creation Science books from Apologia to create a fun way of learning the material. These come in Fun Size (3 folder lapbook) and Serious Size (12-14 folder lapbook). The Serious Size lapbooks are available in both color and black & white (so that your child can color the graphics). These come with an answer key to all the questions on the mini-booklets (except the open ended ones) so you don't have to search for the answers in the book. Each mini-booklet page has directions at the top for construction of each mini-booklet, pages to read out of the book in bold text, what your student should record after reading to show learning, and a small key to show where the mini-booklets are glued to the lapbook folders. For Serious Size lapbooks you will also need duct tape and a three-ring binder for lapbook storage. Besides the answer key these also come with additional reading suggestions for each lesson and enrichment pages that your student can explore for the back of the binder.

The Exploring Creation with Botany Learning Lapbook™ by A Journey Through Learning is a very thorough PDF that helps teach lessons 1-12 from the Exploring Creation with Botany book (part of the Young Explorers Series) by Jeannie Fulbright in a hands-on and visual way. This has 98 total pages, 84 of those to print for completing the lapbook itself. This is split up into 4 units: Lessons 1-3, Lessons 4-6, Lessons 7-9 and Lessons 10-12. This is recommended for grades 2-7. In it you get step-by-step directions to construct a lapbook using 8 folders that will teach your student all about Botany in a more interesting way than just the textbook and workbook alone.

Teela working on the Botany Lapbook.

How We Used This and Our Thoughts:

My daughter Teela is going into 4th grade this year. We have been doing nature walks all summer and learning about plants and flowers. I wanted to teach her Botany so I purchased the Apologia Young Explorers Series Exploring Creation with Botany book and the Apologia Jr. Botany Notebooking Journal for her to do this year for part of her studies. This textbook is recommended for grades K-6. I then got the chance to try out the downloadable product of the Apologia Exploring Creation with Botany Learning Lapbook™ by A Journey Through Learning Lapbooks. We are glad we purchased the Apologia Exploring Creation science textbook because you need this to make use of the Apologia Science Lapbooks that go with them.

We went with printing the pages for the lapbook out in black & white because it is less work for my printer and Teela loves coloring. These pages were very straightforward and easy to follow. The mini-booklets went together easily and each page told where to glue them on the folder. I did have a bit of trouble knowing which was supposed to be back and which was front on the folder when I was helping place the mini-booklets on. So maybe in the future they could maybe address this.

One of the folders of the Botany lapbook we did together.

All in all I think that the A Journey Through Learning Lapbooks Apologia Science Botany Lapbook was a lot of fun and Teela seemed to enjoy putting it together as she read the textbook. I liked that they told her which pages to read in the book to correspond with the parts in the lapbook she was making. These lesson plans were a great help.

I highly recommend these lapbooks to any homeschooler that is already using Apologia science books or wants to. We liked them a lot and they were very educational as well as engaging. We would love to do the Astronomy one next.

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Memoria Press The Book of Trees Review

My family had the privilege of trying The Book of Trees from Memoria Press for this review to use in conjunction with our own homeschool curriculum. This is a Homeschool Review Crew Review. All opinions expressed are my own or those of my family.

Memoria Press is a family-run publishing company that produces simple and easy-to-use classical Christian education materials for home and private schools. It was founded by a woman named Cheryl Lowe in 1994. They currently have preschool through ninth grade in most of their curriculum and some through twelfth grade. They also cover subjects in: Classical Core Curriculum, Latin, Classical Studies, Christian Studies, Logic & Rhetoric, Phonics & Early Reading, Penmanship, Literature & Poetry, American & Modern Studies, Writing & English Grammar, Science & Math, Greek, Modern Languages, Educational Resources, eBooks, Special-Needs, and Art & Music. I have also heard very good things about their Latin Curriculum.

For this review Memoria Press sent us a set of their three books for The Book of Trees: The Book of Trees Reader: An Introduction to Botany Through the Study of Trees, The Book of Trees Student Book, and The Book of Trees Teacher Guide. These are geared towards 6-8th graders. We purchased the other two books, that are recommended by the vendor as reference materials for the main 3, separately that usually comes in the complete set of The Book of Trees: The Tree Book For Kids and Their Grown-ups and the Peterson First Guide to Trees of North America. You can purchase all of these books separately as well, but the first three are necessary as a set for doing this unit study. The last two are up to you to purchase as they are referred to in the main 3 books, but you can find all of the information that you need online on the internet for researching the topics.

The Book of Trees Reader is a softcover book that teaches about botany through trees. It contains 83 pages and 9 chapters total, with the last two being for advanced work. These are all short and thorough. The chapters cover: The Beauty of Trees, The Root System, The Stem, The Leaves, Flowers, Fruits, Observing Trees, Photosynthesis, and Respiration. This has black and white drawings and photos throughout to show things in more detail.

The Book of Trees Student Book is a softcover consumable workbook that teaches about botany through trees that is to be used by one student. The prologue of the workbook goes through and tells goals that should be learned by completing this workbook and a Model Lesson Plan that shows what should be done by the teacher and student. It goes by unit rather than by chapter and contains five units, the last being the advanced work unit. Each unit has two to five lessons each with a total of 21 lessons including the advanced work.  Each lesson under each unit has these sections: Reading and Questions, Diagrams and Labeling, & Activities. In between lesson 15 and lesson 16 there is a Tree Observation section that has you pick a tree and observe it, collecting specimens and studying it by answering questions, identifying it, doing some research about it, and sketching its parts. You can do this up to 15 times in the workbook. At the end of each unit is a review of that unit. Unit four has the final exam at the end.

The Book of Trees Teacher Guide is a softcover guide that helps the teacher. It is basically an answer key for the Student Book and follows the same outline as it as well. It has all the completed pages of the Student Book filled out, as well as answers for quizzes, tests, and exams.

How We Used This and Our Thoughts:

We love Memoria Press and their classical christian curriculum for our homeschooling! We have a bunch of their other studies and have found them all wonderful. We've been very blessed to have been able to also receive a number of their curriculum to review here.

The Book of Trees from Memoria Press is a great set for exploring botany with trees. My family loves trees and nature studies! This classical christian homeschool curriculum is fantastic! I love the content myself and enjoyed doing this with my third grader, Teela.

Teela is advanced in her studies and works on a 6th grade level on reading and writing so I picked her for this study. We had a lot of fun together doing this and did a lesson a week. Although the lessons are short and each lesson could probably be done in one day, we have other studies as well we are trying to get through and I didn't want to overwhelm her.

Even though we were sent just the mandatory products in the set I thought purchasing the two reference books would be a good idea. Not only would we have them when we hit a place where it told us to look up something on a certain page of each book, we would have them in our extensive homeschool library. Also, we found the Peterson First Guide to Trees of North America a great sized pocket field guide to take with us when we did nature studies on trees, went on road trips other places, or were out hiking. The Tree Book For Kids and Their Grown-ups is a wonderful tree book with lots of beautiful hand drawn illustrations in color. In fact it has been awarded the Garden Writers Association Award for Best Illustration. I am very glad I purchased these to accompany the main books. If you purchase the complete set of The Book of Trees from Memoria Press it will come with these books as well.

Teela reading The Book of Trees Reader.

We started out with the reading and would read the corresponding chapter for the lesson. Then she would answer the questions individually and ask for help if needed. I would check her answers that she had written down. Then she would do the diagrams and labeling later in the week after we had done some review. After that we would do the activities together and do additional external research. Then for last part of the week we would review again and have the quizzes/tests.

Memoria Press The Book of Trees Student Book

During our studies so far of trees and botany we learned about Plant Systems & Organs, The Root System, External and Internal Structure of the Stem, & the first section on Leaves. There is a lot of workbook work for this study with an abundance of writing and charts/diagrams to label. We like this because the reading seems to stick better if discussed and then written down.

One of the hands-on activities about roots

We, however; loved the hands on activities the best and wish there were more of these with the book work. We love going out into the field to study nature. Teela and I have been enjoying this study so far. There are so many trees we do not know about yet. We cannot wait to delve deeper and do the Tree Observations so that we can identify and learn more of the tree species right in and around our own neighborhood as well as many trees at Lake Sacagawea Park in Longview Washington.

We highly recommend The Book of Trees by Memoria Press! It is a great science curriculum that is fabulous to use for learning about botany and trees. I look forward to using other curriculum books from Memoria Press with my children in the future!

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Free Herbal Materia Medica Course For The New Year From Herbal Academy!

On January 2 the Herbal Academy, International School of Herbal Arts and Sciences, is releasing their Free Herbal Materia Medica Course. As a wonderful way to kickoff the New Year, this program will guide students through the process of creating their own personal materia medicas and teach them how to study and observe plants using the “one herb at a time” method. In the course you will learn what a materia medica is (if you don’t already know) and follow along with the Herbal Academy’s step-by-step instructions on how to research a plant. The Academy's hope is to equip students with the tools and resources they need so that they feel more confident about studying herbs on their own!

Included in this course:

1. 6 thoughtful lessons that will walk you through creating your own materia medica
2. Free materia medica journal pages for download and print
3. A handy step-by-step guide to completing plant monographs
4. Helpful study aids, tools, and charts that will enrich your studies on topics such as safety and dosage, researching, plant identification, tea meditation, and more
5. An extensive list of references to support your research
6. Activities and tutorials to encourage hands-on experience
7. 20% off herbs at Bulk Herb Store during the month of January
8. Access to the Herbal Academy’s beautiful Student Platform
9. A badge of completion upon graduation

As a companion offering of the free Herbal Materia Medica Course, you have will have the option to upgrade your registration to include the Herbal Academy’s beautifully illustrated Materia Medica Journal. With the ability to accommodate 50 botanical monographs, this journal also includes many of the useful reference charts from the Herbal Materia Medica Course including those on plant identification, herbal safety, and researching tips and tricks.

Best of all, the Herbal Materia Medica Course is free during the entire month of January! Designed for herbalists and non-herbalists alike, all are welcome to join in this short course for free, which will be offered January 2 through January 31. Register for class here starting January 2nd!

DISCLOSURE/DISCLAIMER: I wrote this post to let my readers know about this free course. My thoughts are mine and my family's own opinion and have not been altered by anyone else. Affiliate links may be in this posting. Thanks for supporting my blog.

Foraging with Kids by "Wildman" Steve Brill Book Review

We received this book in eBook format free from "Wildman" Steve Brill to facilitate this review.

People these days have become so disconnected from nature. Our society has gotten so far away from gathering wild food. Foraging used to be a normal everyday occurrence, a way of life and a need for survival. Now it seems people are furthering themselves from this essential skill and losing touch with the natural world around them. Even agriculture is becoming far and distant for some. I for one, do not want my kids to grow up without this knowledge. I do not want this to become a forgotten skill.

My girls, Zari & Teela, last year with Dandelions

I love the outdoors and sharing my love of the outdoors with my kids is something I treasure. I love getting outside and learning hands-on and so do my kids. I love seeing the wonder on their faces when they are learning something new about the plants and other things that surround us. I admit that I sometimes am learning right along with them. My favorite subject was and still is science. It is the joy of seeing my kids having fun while learning that makes me also love homeschooling and drives me to make their lessons more of a enriching experience for them. Children definitely make everything more interesting and so much more enjoyable.

My hobby as a forager began when I was a child also. I learned about some edible and medicinal plants in Girl Scouts and later I picked up a book about edible flowers from our local library and devoured the contents. I don't really remember the title to the book but it had recipes too. I loved learning about how violets, dandelions, roses, and nasturtiums were all edible and what you could do with them besides add them to a salad. It was fun because the food involved something out of the ordinary for me.

Foraging is a wonderful survival skill, but it also teaches children (and adults) about all kinds of other needed skills as well. It teaches about: following directions, cooking and eating natural foods, where food really comes from, making discoveries, exploring, observation, collecting, and being in nature, etc. When you are teaching your child you can also dive into other things related that ties in with it like: science, health and nutrition, stories, folklore, history, poetry, games, and art.

This book, Foraging with Kids by "Wildman" Steve Brill, is a wonderful learning tool to teaching your children about plants that can be foraged for food. This book is perfect for the beginner of foraging with children or those that are beginners who want to teach children. It covers only those plants you can find just about anywhere with no poisonous look-alikes, especially edibles that kids tend to like a lot. It has a total of 76 wild edible species from the contiguous United States and Southern Canada. These plants are organized by season and plant type so you can easily identify the plant. It will take you through identifying characteristics, botany basics, where to (and not to) forage, how to forage without destroying the plant and wildlife surrounding it, a list of items to take with you foraging, and pictures of each plant to help you along the way get to know these plants well. Still a word of caution, you need to always verify a plant’s identity with 100% certainty before you eat it!

Foraging with Kids also has some wonderful tips, poetry, stories, folklore, history, games, activities, science, and recipes scattered throughout its pages. Each story, folktale, or blip about our history is surrounded by dashed and dotted lines and has a picture of a slightly open book with a dragon on the cover on the page so it is easily found. The science experiments and lessons are circled and have a funny anthropomorphic cucumber?? that is looking through a magnifying glass on the page. The recipes in this book are found with a drawing of a baby looking at a cookbook that says Cooking for Kids on the cover. They are all whole-food vegan (no animal products) recipes. Some have ingredients that you might not have available to you in your kitchen, but are easily found and bought at a health food store. These are all wonderful recipes without all the refined, processed junk and fillers.

My girls, Teela & Zari, this year with Violets

Dandelions and Violets are my daughters' favorites so far that we have found in our own yard. I love them too! Now that it is Spring I want to go out searching for more wild edibles with my kids. I enjoyed reading this book! It has a lot of great information packed into the 392 pages. I loved the stories and folklore and can't wait to try some of the recipes once I get to know each of these plants well myself.

BUY IT
You can purchase Foraging with Kids by "Wildman" Steve Brill for $54.95 for the print version or $12.50 for the PDF downloadable version.

DISCLOSURE/DISCLAIMER: I received this product for free to facilitate my review. My thoughts are mine and my family's own opinion and have not been altered by anyone else. I did not receive any other compensation for doing this review.

Wordless Wednesday 3 Headed Double Stemmed Dandelion: Flower Fasciation

 

My son Jaedan holding a fasciated dandelion.

Fasciation is a rare condition in plants that is caused by genetic mutations and/or hormonal imbalances in the meristematic (growing) cells from the meristem (growing tip) of the plant. This can cause stems that look like they have been flattened and fused together, more than one flower head when there is supposed to be only one, etc. These oddities and abnormalities in plants are not completely understood by science.