For The Ocean Farmer Fun Guide (CLP Nature Reader #5) page 88
Watch the flatfish swim away from me in this video from snorkeling in Hawaii?
Learn all about box turtles, and how God can use them to teach our kiddos valuable lessons.
☁️ 🌈 Mini Bible Study on Job (download here):
Trees in the Bible Activities and Journal Page – download and print
Check out this free printable if your kids love manatees! Just click on the DOWNLOAD button. Enjoy!
The Amazing Vultures – Creation’s Janitorial Cleaning Crew
Have you ever been riding down the road and looking out of the window when you see a group of giant black birds all around a dead animal? A lot of people call these huge birds buzzards, but they are actually vultures. The next time you’re riding in the car, look for these helpful animals and notice if their heads are red or black. If they have black heads, they are called black vultures and are likely to be in groups. If they have red heads, they are turkey vultures and might be found alone. They look very similar, and both don’t have feathers on their heads. Whichever one it is, you can thank God for creating these helpful birds! They are scavengers – animals that feed on dead animals. Think of them as creation’s janitors – given their jobs by the best Boss!
A vulture’s sense of smell is very strong and it can smell carrion (dead animals) a mile away! They do prefer to get to their meal as soon after death as possible. Most vultures don’t kill their meals, but they eat something freshly deceased instead. This is great for us because that means they help clean up the gross remains of dead animals and stop bad bacteria and diseases from spreading. Thankfully, God gave them very strong stomach acid that allows them to digest the gross stuff without getting sick.
If you didn’t have any hair, you wouldn’t have to worry about something gross getting into your hair. Well, vultures have bald heads! Those featherless heads don’t allow guts and gross stuff to stick to them. How amazing that God gave them that design!
Another way vultures are designed to keep bacteria and parasites off is to use the sun. They will sit in a way in which their wings are soaking up the sunlight, which is a natural germ and bacteria killer!
Vultures have an interesting and gross way to cool off when it’s hot. They use the bathroom on their feet! Wow, that makes me thankful for air conditioning.
Gross Activity to try:
Parents, set out a piece of lunch meat or something similar for a couple of days. Hide it in a cabinet or on a pantry shelf and have your kiddo use his or her sense of smell to find it. Talk about how strong the vulture’s sense of smell must be to be able to locate a dead animal to eat. Also, like you, they prefer their meals fresh (or freshly dead would be a better description).
A Not-Gross Activity:
Grab a camera (or phone) and a nature journal and take a drive to look for vultures. Look up in the sky too. Vultures seem to float in the air circling around on warm air currents (thermal currents), which allow them to glide in circles without using up energy while looking and sniffing for food. When you see some on the side of the road, notice their bald heads and if they are turkey vultures or black vultures. Are there a lot of them? If you very slowly pull over near them on the side of the road, you can watch them fairly close up. Do you hear them whistling or singing? Answer: No – because they can’t – but they can make a hissing sound.
After your drive, or if you didn’t take a drive or didn’t see any vultures, watch this fascinating video from Answers in Genesis on another type of vulture.
One More Activity:
Use this link (scroll down toward the bottom of the page) to study, draw, and label a vulture.
https://www.exploringnature.org/db/view/Vulture-Turkey
Parents, if you have a kiddo who likes to color, you can find a vulture coloring page here:
http://www.supercoloring.com/coloring-pages/perched-turkey-vulture
Take a few minutes to talk about all you’ve learned about vultures and thank God for making these amazing birds that help keep our world clean!
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Creation-based magazines
I’ve found a few magazines that share creation-based information and point to the Creator. They share science and truth, revealing faults in evolutionary theories. Please email me and share any others you know about! I believe most, if not all of these, have free samples available, and The Creation Club Magazine and Acts and Facts subscriptions are even free!
- Creation Illustrated Magazine
- Nature Friend Magazine
- The Creation Club Magazine – part of David Rives Ministries, with a ton of resources and videos
- Answers in Genesis – Kids Answers and Answers Magazine
- Acts and Facts Magazine by Institute for Creation Research, which also has tons of resources
Since the doctrine of Divine Creation is the first and foundational one of Scripture, our children must be able to stand on it securely to withstand the undermining influences from our culture. Nature Friend has never chosen to be controversial or militantly confrontational about creation vs. evolution. Its policy has been to simply stand on the truth of God’s Word and to present it as enjoyable fact while learning about the creatures God has created. Nature Friend recognizes that God has planned for man to be wise stewards over His creation, and that He alone is to be worshipped, not His creation.
From Nature Friend Magazine
Manatees Please!
What IS a manatee? Is it a fish? Nope! Manatees are often called floaty potatoes, and no wonder that’s the case. If you’ve seen one, you understand. Another common name is a sea cow. This one makes sense, since they graze on underwater grasses like a cow grazes on grass. Manatees are large marine mammals – so they breathe air and feed milk to their babies. If you haven’t seen a manatee, check out these webcams from Save the Manatee Club. Side note – when i was a teenager, I adopted a manatee named Philip from Save the Manatee Club.
https://www.savethemanatee.org/manatees/manatee-webcams/
Let’s learn more about the Florida manatee, or West Indian manatee.
These marine mammals sure are cute! While evolutionists believe they started out millions of years ago as an elephant-like animal, we know they were created by a loving God when he created the other swimming animals on the fifth day of creation. God created the gentle manatees with just what they needed then and now to survive. I’m so thankful He gave us manatees!
Activity: Try holding your breath for a few seconds and move around the room. Have your mom keep up with the time and be sure to breathe when you need to!
Manatees, when not sleeping, come up to breathe out of their noses around every 3 to 5 minutes. When sleeping, they can stay under for longer periods of time.
Manatees might seem to be chubby, but their bodies don’t actually have a lot of fat on them, so they have to stay in areas where the water is warm. You can find them in freshwater and ocean water!
Activity: Add to your nature journal. Use this link to view a labeled manatee drawing. Add your own touches and colors, and draw a manatee in your nature journal. Also, add any interesting facts on your paper. There are also a lot of other resources and information found on this website.
(Note: Evolution is mentioned and taught here.)
https://www.savethemanatee.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/08/Anatomy.pdf
Activity: Use this link to make some air drying playdough and create your own manatee. Try to make its flippers and tail fin true to size in comparison to your manatee’s body.
https://www.clay-it-now.com/nocookplaydough.html