Jay Schabacker, the author, has done everything from Aerospace to finance to church ministry.The breadth and width of his experience and education makes him uniquely equipped to author this amazing book.
Purposeful Design , which is suitable for all ages, is a book about the first seven days of creation, as laid out in Genesis.
The Introduction is followed by seven chapters, one for each day of creation. There is an epilogue at the end.
Right from the Epilogue, I was learning new things. (Me! The mom!) Much of the content was new material for both me and my son. Some of the material we were skeptical about. When in doubt, Internet search. Much to my chagrin, wherever I was in doubt, I was always wrong. The author, Mr. Schabacker, was correct every time.
Chapter 1 is about Day 1 of Creation, when God created the light and separated the light from the darkness. In this chapter Mr. Schabacker also discussed gravity, planets, orbits, and information about orbits and rotations. I wouldn't want to give it all away.
Chapter 2 is about Day 2 of Creation, when God separated the waters below from the waters above, as in created the atmosphere, the sky, and the waters on the planet. In this chapter there is also information about the water cycle (this author calls it the "Rain Cycle"). There is information about the ratio of water to land on the earth's surface, flooding, deserts, and how important it is that God created the ratios that he did.
Chapter 3 is about the creation of dry land, separating the land from the water, and the creation of vegetation. This chapter helps the student consider the importance of vegetation to all living things.
Chapter 4 talks about God's creation of the sun, the moon and the stars.
This chapter also discusses tides, the effect of the moon's pull, as well as the regularity with which everything in God's creation ticks through its functions year after year, ever the same. This chapter talks about Stonehenge, and sunrises, and so many things. This is a long chapter; I won't mention everything in it.
Chapter 5, the 5th day God created the birds and the fish. We imitate birds with our air planes, and fish with our submarines! And why does ice float? I'm not going to tell you. You need to get the book.
Day 6 is the day land animals and humans were created. In this chapter I learned more about cows and camels. There is teaching about blood clotting and DNA and the basic cell in the human body.
And, finally, Day 7 discusses the importance of rest.
Please don't make me embarrass myself; you can't make me tell you all the things I thought that weren't correct -- things about tides, and cow stomachs, camels, and I don't even remember. Suffice it to say that for an 87-page book full of beautiful illustrations, the book is also full of an amazing amount of unusual trivia information about all sorts of things!
But wait! There's more!
In addition to this beautiful book that teaches purposeful design, the author also created a workbook for you to use while you follow along through the book. This workbook is free for everyone who purchases the book. It is a PDF download, and there is also a corresponding answer key to download at the same time!
I chose to read this book out loud to my son. He is my only student, and often reading aloud is the most efficient use of our time. I wanted both of us to experience the book, so I had to read it anyway. It worked for us.
In our home we seem to have constant demands on our printer, so I chose not to print out the workbook. As we finished each chapter's reading, we discussed the workbook content for that chapter. This helps to cement the information into my student's brain, and let's me confirm that he was paying attention.
Purposeful Design is currently priced at $18.95, which is 25% off of its normal price. This is the perfect time of year to consider a book like this as a gift to a home school family of your choice. I think you will enjoy this book and will enjoy sharing it with your children and your friends.
Purposeful Design was also reviewed by other members of the Schoolhouse review Crew. To read more reviews of this book, please click on the below link.
