Butterflies Flutter By – A unit packed full of caterpillar and butterfly information and activities.

Constant Conifers – A unit that takes you on an in-depth tour of the amazing conifer plant.

Fruits and Nuts – A unit that opens your eyes to the wonderfully varied and interesting world of edible and inedible fruits and nuts.

You’ll notice that the unit prices are a bit higher this time around. Why? Well, if you thought the first twelve units were full of great ideas and information, you won’t believe how much more extensive and full these three new units are!  Bringing nature study alive in your homeschool has never been easier!  In fact, because we’re so impressed with these new units, we are currently working on revamping ALL of the original twelve units. Slowly, but surely, each of the NaturExplorer units will be expanded and brought up to par with the three new units. As each unit is complete, you will notice its price change, too.

What  improvements can you expect with the new units?

• More background information for the teacher
• Expanded, more detailed indoor and outdoor activity ideas
• Additional ideas in almost all sections
• Many more notebooking pages – most units will have 15 or more!
• Notebooking pages that are top-notch in interest and design
• A better, easier to read layout
• Fewer outside links, which means more detailed directions for various activities

We’ve really tried to make these your one-stop unit study!  With each of these new units being 60 pages or more, there are literally hundreds of ideas for all subject areas, besides math and phonics.  (In most units, though, you can find at least one or two math related ideas!)

Enough gushing!  How about a contest for THREE of you to win one of these incredible new units to try for yourself??  You will have until this coming Sunday (August 16th) to comment on this post.  We will draw winners on Monday, August 17th and announce them here.  Here are the rules:

1. Comment here for ONE chance to win.
2. Blog about the contest for ONE chance to win and let us know in your comment.
3. Add our site to your RSS feed for ONE chance to win and let us know in your comment.

(Be sure to give us your blog or email address so we can contact you if you win!)

You can have up to THREE chances to win! Please spread the word.  If we get over 50 comments, we’ll give away SIX units to SIX different people!

Good luck and happy nature studying!

Our table

Our helpers

One of the things our helpers did when they weren’t busy

Seeing old friends and meeting new ones is the best part of a homeschooling conference.  And between the two, we were able to do both!

Shining Dawn Books is going to have a booth at the

Lexington Homeschool Fair

Saturday, June 13th, 2009

10am-1pm

Crossroads Christian Church, Lexington, KY

FREE

and at the

CHEK Convention

Friday and Saturday, June 19th-20th, 2009

Valley View Church, Louisville, KY

FREE for CHEK members, $25 per family for non-members

Please stop by and say hi if you are able to make it to either of these encouraging events!

Lichens are also a fun study after the rain.  In fact, one of the Fungus Among Us activities suggests noticing the brilliant colors of lichens after rain as compared to their color when dry.  Take a look at just a few of the many, many pictures we took one evening just after a rainfall.

Pretty cool, huh?  Can you see the little hairs on the end of the lichen in the bottom picture?  God never ceases to amaze me – even lichens are beautiful and varied!  I have to admit that the Fungus Among Us unit is one of my favorites.  I have a few favorites, as you’ll probably see over time!  But, the Fungus Among Us unit covers things that we don’t always tend to look for as we study nature.  I like looking for the obscure and finding God in every single detail around me.

~Cindy

Home of the NaturExplorers Unit Study E-Books

We are so glad you’ve stopped in for a visit and hope you find something to encourage you as you learn more about the beautiful and miraculous world God has created!

Please browse around all the tabs and images to learn more about us and our company.  We can’t wait to “meet” you through this website.  Please feel free to leave comments as we LOVE to hear from you!

We post articles here regularly to:

• show you how we do nature study in our own homes.
• give you additional ideas for particular units.
• highlight how others are using the units.
• share interesting nature facts.
• encourage you in any way we can!

So you don’t miss an article, please use the subscribe button located in the top right hand corner of the header. Have a wonderful and blessed day!