Dinosaurs: Marvels of God's Design: Review

  

As a homeschool mom (or even a Christian parent), it is a struggle to teach dinosaurs from a Creationist worldview.  Our boys, especially, devour any thing dinos and you just can’t find enough of a variety of resources with that slant. So eventually their little brains end up playing a game of dino ping pong going from God created the Earth in six days to “millions of years ago”…  So to be able to try out a new Creationist paleontology book was exciting!  Dinosaurs: Marvels of God’s Design by Dr. Tim Clarey arrived in our mail box to review and I was excited!

  One of my pet peeves is people not being able to explain why they believe what they believe.  I know that I don’t have as firm of a grasp on that as I need to as far as Creationism goes, and I want to make sure the kiddos don’t have that problem (and I won’t from here on out for that matter). We are an “old rocks” type of family.  Hubby is an archaeologist and gets asked about digging up fossils all the time.  Even though fossils are paleontology and archaeology is the study of ancient peoples and their artifacts the two disciplines run nicely together because both professionals are bound to come across artifacts from the other profession since it all is found in the dirt.  Hubby has brought home many interesting fossils over the years while he was out doing archaeology survey.  So our lives not only revolve around things found in the dirt, we are constantly confronted with the old earth theory.

A fossil and a piece of coal Hubby found on survey

   This book was not just about Creationism, but a good introduction into dinosaurs in general.  Dr. Clarey dissects all parts of paleontology laying the groundwork for the reader.  So along the way the student learns about classifications, plate tectonics, fossilization, etc… He also addresses many common topics with mainstream paleontology and how they can be explained, and not just with simple explanations either, nice detailed ones that give you and your family the foundation you need to reinforce your stance on Creation.

  An added bonus for us was a nice sized section on Barnum Brown and Charles Sternberg.  Barnum Brown was born just 12 miles from us and Charles Sternberg is also a Kansan.  It was wonderful to see these familiar names pop up in our reading!  It was also fascinating to learn of the bone wars and how that affected how some of the dinosaurs were presented to the world. 

  The thing I loved about this book is not just the glut of information (and it is filled to the brim with that!) but the pictures! Tons and tons of pictures!  Some from digs the author has been a part of.  This book is great for not just older readers, but younger ones as well.  Dr. Clarey uses easy to read language, but technical enough for those know-it-all readers (like someone I live with). 

  One thing I wish this book had was a good ol’ suggested reading list beyond the books that are put out by Master Books.  Books with good sourcing for the young earth viewpoints are hard to come by and it would have been a valuable addition for young (and old researchers).   Some of the ones on our bookshelf include: What Really Happened to the Dinosaurs by John Morris and Ken Ham; Chronicles of Dinosauria: The History & Mystery of Dinosaurs and Man by Dave Woetzel; Dragons or Dinosaurs: Creation or Evolution by Darek Isaacs; and Dragons: Legends and Lore of Dinosaurs by Master Books.
   Overall this is a book I would highly recommend for including in your home library.  It is a resource that would be excellent to refer to time and time again.
  Thank you to Cross Focused Reviews for giving me a chance to review this.  All opinions in this blog are my own. 

Field Trip: Sam Noble Museum

  This is a weird blog for me to write.  I get to tell you about one of the most fantastic museums we have ever been to, but this time around I didn't get to go with the kiddos.  Hubby and I had some work in Oklahoma so we packed up the kids and Ducky and Grandma for a working vacation.  Our first stop took us through Norman, Oklahoma where Hubby and I did some research on the University of Oklahoma campus and Ducky and Grandma took the kids to the Sam Noble museum.  The last time we had taken the older kids was when they were about 4 & 2 (they are now 12 and 11).  If I had one sadness on this trip it was that I didn't get to go to the Sam Noble museum too - it is that fun :)

A dino lover's dream.  Now this being said, I have not been to any of the "big city" natural history museums, but this satisfies just fine ;)

The real fun is the "dinovator" which is an elevator that takes you eye to eye with one of the big plant eaters (ha, can you tell I'm not the dino expert?  I'd want to say apatosaurus, but we'll just play it general...). 
  They also have a wonderful diorama area which has all the flora and fauna of Oklahoma, even down to caves where bats are lurking...

 My favorite picture from their experience there is with the big mammoth statue. 

  Mookie and Bubby are proudly posing with the mammoth, but do you see Shorty?  He's getting ready to kill the mammoth with the ancient Native American family. 

  We had the biggest discussion about what the family was doing, why the mom was hiding behind the dad, what the dog was doing, etc... With field trips, you don't need to "do" anything, kiddos soak up more than you realize, but you reinforce what they learn with a good discussion and make it all applicable to their lives right now it just encourages them to seek out learning later on. 
  If you get down to Norman, Ok you should definitely check the Sam Noble out.  Our family got in for around $15 which was well worth the trip!