Exploring Creation with Earth Science Textbook

by Rachel Yunis

Let’s dig in the dirt, not just talk about it. What is it? How did it get made? Why is it different depending on where you dig? What will you find living in it?

Let’s realize that we don’t get deliveries from outer space so everything we need, literally everything, is given to us and made fresh with the systems created to keep life forms alive throughout time. How does the Earth replenish its resources again, and again, and again? Join us in Exploring Creation with Earth Science and find out!

Your young explorer will begin this course with an overview of our cosmic address in the observable universe and then grow in knowledge of what, in the entire universe, makes Earth special and capable of sustaining life.

An awareness of the world will develop as students interact with the Earth’s geosphere, hydrosphere, atmosphere, and biosphere. By digging deeper into the many different layers of the Earth and the cycles that renew the face of the Earth, your student will acquire not only wisdom that will endure for a lifetime but also an appreciation for our Creator.

310 pages, Hardcover

Published January 1, 2021

Reviews

[Shannon · Rating 4 out of 5]

I chose this book for our first science (1st and 2nd grade) because as a kid, I LOVED learning about rocks and what the different types of clouds meant--both of which are in this book. But I would definitely recommend it for OLDER elementary or even middle school kids.

First, the main project, which many subsequent projects are dependent on, is making a papier-mache globe, then charting the latitude and longitude lines onto it, then drawing the continents more or less accurately on the globe using the latitude and longitude as a grid. Glancing over it, I knew it looked too involved and precise for my 6- and 7-year olds, and I was seriously considering skipping that daunting project. But as I looked through the rest of the book, I saw with dismay that we would need our globes throughout the year: future projects involved adding mountains to the globe, drawing major rivers on the globe, labeling the oceans on the globe, and painting different biomes different colors on the globe. So I knew I had to bite the bullet. I had to have a supernatural amount of patience (and tissue paper) to help my young kids make the globes (thank you, Lord!), and I ended up doing most of the longitude and latitude lines myself. The globes ended up beautiful and are now hanging in the kids' rooms. They loved painting the different biomes.

Second, while some of the topics in this book were interesting to my younger kids (lava, weathering, clouds, and biomes), some of them were definitely too abstract and over their heads (low and high pressure systems, latitude and longitude).

Third, this book is not by Jeannie Fulbright, the author of most of the Young Explorers books by Apologia. Rachel Yunis is the author, and she writes far more like a public school textbook. Since we've started our Botany book by Fulbright, I am amazed at how much more accessible Fulbright makes the subject to young kids. She is more conversational. She selects details and explains things in ways that engage the kids and capture their interest. My girls are enjoying Botany far more than they enjoyed Earth Science.

This review is fairly critical, but I think Yunis did a good job. I wanted to review this book (and still rate it highly) because I wanted to let other potential buyers know how it's good, but better for older students.

[Dorothy Vandezande · Rating 5 out of 5]

We really enjoyed this textbook with the accompanying science journal. The paper mache globe experiment didn't work for us but the rest of it was great!