We are always looking for fun things to add to our Morning Time routine. Not that I like to add fluff, but shorter-term studies that aren’t always tied to our regular subjects. When I learned that Creation Illustrated, publishers of a beautiful magazine, had added unit studies, I was excited to see them. We were given two of them (and their accompanying magazine) for this review. The unit studies have a theme that is also found in the correlated issue of Creation Illustrated magazine. In the Fall 2017 issue, Pine Trees are covered. In the Winter 2018 issue, Snow is covered. We love keeping the print copies of these magazines to re-read and enjoy the recipes or beautiful photography and articles. Not a fan of physical magazines? Creation Illustrated will soon have digital issues available. Then your collection won’t outgrow your shelf space.
The unit studies are in digital format; they are delivered as a pdf file to download. We received a Pine Trees Unit Study and a Snow Unit Study. I let my children choose the one we used first. Snow won! In true unit study fashion, a number of subjects are covered around our central theme. We did activities with vocabulary words – all ages utilized the list of words we had. Some as handwriting practice, some for spelling practice. We also covered science, geography, art, and some fun math. My children chose snow for the many possible hands-on projects. I’m glad they were also able to experience some of the quiet, thoughtful activities as well. Don’t you love how snow quiets everything? That was covered, too!
The unit studies we received have 16-17 pages – including pages with an answer guide. It is written for children primarily in 5th to 8th grades though we all found something suitable and enjoyable. Some pages we printed, while others we discussed or answered orally. I accessed both the pdf and the digital edition of the magazine from my laptop. I could probably have done this from one of our Kindles or iPads, but the size of the laptop screen made it more practical. In addition to the link to access the digital magazine to read (not download), there were links to other pages of pertinent information. We were amazed to see all the various non-typical shapes of snowflakes. There are also links to YouTube videos and related books. One of our favorites from our early homeschool years, Snowflake Bentley is on both lists. While the study could probably fill a week – especially if it were the main focus of your studies, we spent more time than that because we incorporated small bites (an activity or two) a couple of times each week during our morning time loop.
My favorite aspect, and what makes these unit studies go beyond what we commonly find, is the way Scripture is brought in. Not only did we have scriptures that reference snow to read, but we had a fairly in-depth Bible study looking at how various characteristics of snow illustrate spiritual qualities. This Bible study used the featured article from the associated magazine issue as the source. We have witnessed snow as an insulator in our strawberry bed. We did not get the still-green plants covered last year before a blast of cold came through. Bringing in the cold was a snowstorm. Our plants had a nice insulating blanket of snow that protected them from the freezing temperatures. This was compared to the way we as Christians insulate someone in need from the cares of the world. In Matthew 25:35 we are shown just how this looks.
We’ve not had much snow that has accumulated or stuck around this winter (it’s been going around us). During the past couple of weeks that changed though (you know, because the calendar says it is spring). The timing could only be God. After spending the past month or so learning about snow, my children were thrilled to get hands-on experience. The older girls joined in with the attempts to photograph some of the flakes. Unfortunately, we did not capture any good photos, but we did get to see a variety of the types we learned about. I’m glad we had some hand lenses and microscopes from our nature study bag to make the most of this observation. I’m looking forward to the next study we do. I’m not sure if it will be the Pine Trees we already have, the Fragrance one offered as the current freebie, or if we’ll purchase an additional one.
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