Exploring Creation with Zoology 3: Land Animals of the Sixth Day

Title: Exploring Creation with Zoology 3: Land Animals of the Sixth Day
Author: Jeannie K. Fulbright
Series: Young Explorer series
Major Themes: Animals, Mammals, Reptiles, Amphibians, Insects, Worms
Synopsis: In 14 lessons, animals who live on land, from elephants to parasitic worms, are explored as part of God’s creation.

We have been using Jeannie K. Fulbright’s books in the Young Explorer series from Apologia for our science texts for over seven years now. Most of the time, we have made it through a textbook in one school year. Exploring Creation With Zoology 3: Land Animals of the Sixth Day took a lot longer though; that’s what happens when Mom is not feeling the best for long periods of time! I think it took us two and a half years. We made it through, though, finishing the last lesson this week. It wasn’t due to lack of interest that we kept leaving this out of our days; the book is very interesting.

There are 14 lessons in this textbook. Each lesson is intended to take about two weeks to get through. At the end of the lesson are review questions, suggestions for activities to do for a notebook and where to place animals on a world map, and some sort of hands-on investigation. Instead of working through those questions and activities, we used the notebooking journals that Apologia has developed to go with the textbook. This notebooking journal has pages for taking notes from the reading, a page of review questions, and a minibook for each lesson to pull together the information about various animals.

Land Animals of the Sixth Day talks about all sorts of land animals. The first lesson, of course, is an overview of creatures that live on land. I was particularly struck, here, with the thought that God created some animals to be domesticated and some to be wild! There is a verse in Genesis which gives that idea. After this lesson, there are several lessons that cover the carnivorous animals. Next was one of the most fascinating lessons for my boys: Marsupials! My little girls really like the picture of the Australian possum, because that is a familiar animal to them (we’ve even gotten to see babies in the pouch recently). The next two lessons cover primates and rodents, and then there are two lessons on ungulates and other hoofed animals.

Lesson 10 moves away from the mammals, and we got to study reptiles in three lessons, along with amphibians. One entire lesson was devoted to dinosaurs! The last two lessons are about creepy-crawlies. We had fun with the section about spider silk, and suddenly our house had fewer spider webs hanging around, as they were used for scientific experimentation! Part of the last lesson involved parasitic worms. My boys were absolutely fascinated with them, and I think they finally understand why they are told so often to wash hands—although they still don’t remember to very well.

Zoology 3, like all the other texts in the Young Explorer series, is written in a very interesting, engaging way. I found it extremely interesting. It has color photos on almost every page, illustrating the creatures being discussed. Even though it took so long to get through, we still enjoyed it and learned a lot. Several times, we’ve pulled this book off the shelf to answer a question that came up in conversation and someone remembered we had learned something about that topic. If you are looking for a science curriculum for elementary-age children, I highly recommend this series!

No warnings!

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Exploring Creation With Zoology 1: Flying Creatures of the Fifth Day Exploring Creation With Botany Exploring Creation With Human Anatomy and Physiology Exploring Creation With Astronomy