Simple pleasures of faith, family, and being home
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This FREE Cloud mini helper is suggested for grades K-2 but is very flexible for lower & higher grades.
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As Christian homeschool parents, one of our goals is to teach our children the truth about creation.
God is the creator of all things.
It’s very difficult to find science material at a library written from a Christian point of view, not to mention, it’s nearly impossible to find biblical information on the internet.
We resorted to and absolutely love nature studies in our home. Each one of my 6 children have their own nature notebook. We go outside when the weather permits to discover how mighty our God of Creation truly is. I believe we can strengthen our relationship with the Lord by studying his marvelous creations.
Our nature studies got a big boost when we received several editions of Creation Illustrated. Creation Illustrated is the Christian alternative to National Geographic. Each Creation Illustrated is divided into 3 sections: Creation Illustrated in Nature, in Scripture, and in Living. It is designed to assist all ages in worshipping our Creator and getting outdoors to soak in the magnificent lessons our Lord wants us to fathom. There are so many spiritual lessons to be learned by studying nature.
Creation Illustrated Mission Statement:
Our purpose 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, pure truth shall bring renewed peace. Each part of this publication is offered as a reprieve from the daily rigors of life so that all can look to the future with unbridled gratitude and hope.
Creation Illustrated delivers a new issue every quarter. It’s filled with beautiful illustrations that will capture your entire family’s interest. It’s filled with recipes, scripture, testimonies and life applications written from an encouraging Christian perspective. I absolutely love the fact, that the editor/publisher is a Christian homeschool family. Since they homeschooled themselves, they have included in each issue an Instructional Guide designed to help students integrate and embrace the spiritual lessons that can be taught through God’s Creation.
How it Works for Our Family
We have enjoyed these magazines numerous ways the past weeks. I have read them aloud to all the children after one of my children chooses an article of interest. My 8 year old was intrigued with, The Jesus Worm. The message is this article was spiritually deep and fascinating to us all based on Psalm 22. You must read it! He loves to look up all the Scripture references in his own Bible. Then we looked up the Jesus worm known as the Coccus illicis on the internet. Talk about an amazing study.
We have also all just sat around browsing older issues of Creation Illustrated at leisure as a family, too. It’s fun to narrate the articles to one another and talk about the spiritual lesson.
We plan on doing plenty of nature notebook pages with this inspiring resource in the future. Creation Illustrated is a wonderful addition to any Christian household.
Buy It
You can save 5.00 if you place you order by credit card on the Creation Illustrated website. Also, there is additional savings when you purchase more issues at a time.
Or you can get your FREE trail issue today.
Also, they are currently offering FREE articles, Downloads, Sample Digital Issues, Devotionals,
and great Product Offers! Get them here!
Win It
Creation Illustrated wants (3) of Blessed Beyond a Doubt’s readers to enjoy their own family subscription of Creation Illustrated. I will be picking a random winner on May 22nd at 12a. Winner will be contacted via email and must respond within 48 hours.
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If you believe children need to be at a desk for 7 hours than you will definitely want to stop reading.
I strongly believe in teaching as many subjects together as a group and covering as many subjects at once as possible.
This leaves room for the children to use their creative minds in the afternoons.
If you are not familiar with Draw Write Now, you MUST check these little inexpensive books out!
All you have to do is add a math, Bible, and phonics program into the mix and you have yourself a FULL curriculum for your K-3 grader.
I bet you never knew homeschooling could be so easy!
Teaching Handwriting is just one of the many perks of the Draw Write Now books.
Have you pinned this homeschool tip yet?
Graphics by Scrappin Doodles
Last year I tried my hand at making Unit Studies and Printables. I found that I really enjoyed it – A LOT!! So, this year I decided to work through the major holidays making a unit study for each one.
But then I wanted to add some more fun to our homeschool days/weeks, so I decided to make mini unit studies for those daily obscure holidays (i.e. hot dog day, bubble wrap appreciation day – yes, there is such a thing – etc.).
So, why did I want to create a Library Lovers Month Unit Study? Well, this past year has been a very tough one in our family and we’ve just gone to “surviving.” You know that mode? Yeah…I know it all too well these days. Our homeschooling was lacking – severely – and we had stopped visiting the Library all together. Not only am I working to bring more fun and excitement back to our homeschooling activities, I also want to get back to some of our weekly “field trips” like the Library.
I know the library may seem a bit archaic these days with the World Wide Web full of information and at our fingertips, but I still want my kids to know what a book is! There’s just something about sitting back in a chair, curled up under a comfy (warm) blanket, coffee (or tea) in hand and reading a good, old-fashioned, in-your-hand book!! I want my kids to have that same experience and love of reading that I do.
The Hubster despised reading growing up because he has dyslexia and therefore was a slow reader. Our oldest displays signs of dyslexia as well, but because I tried to foster a love of reading in him at an early age, he’s learned to overcome and conquer some of the challenges that come with dyslexia. He’s required to read 40 pages a day in a book of his choosing – with my approval, of course – and most often I find him in there reading chapter after chapter. His new-found love is the Hardy Boys series, which I was able to score at a garage sale for $.50 a piece!!! And hardbacks too!! SCORE!!!
So, to say I love reading might be an understatement. And I suppose the fact that I’m just a bit of a geeky-nerd doesn’t hurt either. Nevertheless, I am so pleased with the final result of this Unit Study that I was literally over-the-moon when it finally all came together! This Unit Study is definitely more involved than my usual ones, as I made it to span over 4 weeks. It includes Language Arts/History, Social Studies/Geography, Math, Science and even some additional reading resources to check out on those trips to the library. I hope you all enjoy using it as much I enjoyed making it!!!
For more resources and printables, follow my Homeschool: Library Lovers Month board on Pinterest!!
You can find more FREE Unit Studies on my Printables page as well as Mini Unit Studies for those Obscure Holidays.
Thank you so much for letting me share with you all today! ~ Annette
Annette has been married to her husband and best friend for 9 years. They are raising their four children to follow the Lord’s will, no matter what. Annette longs for the day when she will meet her 5 children who have entered heaven before her. She enjoys creating UNIT STUDIES with FREE PRINTABLES for homeschool families and she gets her scrapbooking fix in by making Subway Art for herself and her readers. You can follow her crazy life at In All You Do where she blogs about homeschooling, gluten-free recipes, DIY projects and maintaining her sanity. Or keep up with her through Facebook, Twitter or Instagram.
Being a homeschool mom of 5 boys, I have grown to accept that crawly things are part of our family. I grew up with one preppy sister and we were as girlie as they come. We didn’t even have a dog!
Meet our summer house guest of 2012 that resides outside the children’s bathroom window.
Thank you for linking up your family friendly post with Blessed Beyond a Doubt. Comments are not mandatory, but I love hearing from you all!
Happy 4th of July! And a huge thank to our soldiers who courageously serve our country so we can live in FREEdom!
Now, show me your stuff!
Have you checked out all the FUN prizes at the Family Friendly Giveaways yet?
Sharing with: Camera Critters
One of the many blessings of homeschooling our children is incorporating our science lessons while planting an organic garden for our family to enjoy.
Yes, it a homeschool mom’s dream to have our little children run to the garden to select delicious, fresh organic vegetables for our supper each evening.
Imagine no more! You can make it a reality!
You can learn how to grow your own food easily and naturally!
We recently moved and had to leave behind our vegetable garden that my husband maintained for several years.
My husband has always loved browsing through the vibrant, colored Baker’s Creek Seed Catalog and found great joy in planning our garden each season. He and the children were the main keepers of the garden. I was not active in the garden, but always had an interest. I usually stayed behind minding an infant.
I enjoyed all the plump and organic vegetables that grew from the Baker’s Creek Heirloom Seeds my family planted each year.
A few weeks ago, I received in the mail from the generous Baker Creek Heirloom a Southern Small Seed Collection and the beautiful book, The Heirloom Life Gardener written by Jere and Emilee Gettle.
When my family and I opened the Small Southern Heirloom Container, we were ecstatic. There were 30 full sized seed packers containing 15 types of vegetable with 30 varieties. I’m not sure which we found more interesting the tomato pineapple or the melon banana. We will be preparing the soil come late summer for our Fall garden. We are super excited to have an organic garden again. The seeds will maintain for 4-10 years if kept in a dry and cool environment. Planting a variety will enable us to pick out our family favorites for next year.
Since I have no garden experience, I was immensely intrigued with the book, The Heirloom Life Gardener. The beautiful book is filled with vibrant colored images that qualifies in our home as a coffee table book! It’s truly an entertaining and informative read for the beginner gardener, as well as, the experienced. The first half of the book peeks into the lives of the cofounders of the Baker Creek Heirloom Seed Company and explains exactly what a heirloom seed is and the many benefits of heirloom seeding. There are step by step detailed instructions of how to start a garden from scratch even for the beginner. I was fascinated and could not put it down.
The second part of the book is an A to Z Growing Guide that informs the gardener how to plant, growing tips, pest and disease control, seed saving, and suggestions in the kitchen with each vegetable.
This lovely book informs the reader the Baker Creek way of growing your own food easily and naturally. It’s all you need to get started and maintain an organic garden for your family.
A homeschool family’s delight!
Now for the most exciting part!
Jere and Emilee Gettle, cofounders of the Baker Creek Heirloom Seed Company, want one of my readers to receive their book, The Heirloom Life Gardener! I will pick a random winner on July 9th at 12a.
*I received a Small Southern Seed Collection and a copy of The Heirloom Life Gardener in exchange for my honest review. No other compensation was giving.
Sharing with: Teach Me Tuesday, WFMW, WLW, Titus2Tuesday, Homestead Barn Hop,
Here is a FREE Science Experiment Guide to get the Einstein flowing in you and your students! You can download for FREE in PDF format here.
In order to receive this eBook, you must provide your email to subscribe to their monthly newsletter, so you might want to give your “special” email. Or you could unsubscribed after you receive the Free eBook. I am interested in reading the newsletter next month for more FREEbies.
Included in this FREE Science Experiment Guide:
- Over 30 complete experiments…
- Defy gravity as you levitate water
- Crush a soda can using a few drops of water
- Make an indoor corkscrew roller coaster
- Stick your kid inside a real bubble
- Grow crystals overnight
- Create and crack your own geodes
- Build a flying machine that shouldn’t be able to fly at all
- …and much more!
Your kids will be so jazzed about science that they’ll be begging to learn more. Click here to get the Free Science Experiment Guide. This eBook download comes bundled with the Rocket Scientist Newsletter, which includes a weekly free science experiment in your email box.
*Please note I did not find any indication that this eBook was written from a Christian perspective, however, I did not find anything pertaining to evolution either. Please let me know if you find otherwise because I always like to give my readers heads up when Evolution is concerned.
For more FREE CENTSible homeschooling, click here!
