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| Some pictures of the Pine Trees and pine cones on our property. |
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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.
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| Pine Trees Unit Study Cover |
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| Pine Trees Unit Study |
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| 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.
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| 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.
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| Snow Unit Study Cover |
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| Snow Unit Study |
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| 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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| 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!
Read other homeschool curriculum reviews for Creation Illustrated...
