Amazing Plants by Design SALE!

Amazing Plants by Design: Buy the printed children's book for ONLY $9.99 

& get the digital version of the corresponding lapbook FOR FREE!

http://bit.ly/1lHwkH4

Happy Reading!

Amazing Plants by Design - FREE Sample

I've been waiting for this for a long time - Amazing Plants by Design has been published by Knowledge Box Central!  The beautiful watercolor illustrations were done by the very talented Sheri McKeon.  The book is available on Kindle and in PDF format, but you may want the print copy of this one to really enjoy the illustrations!

Why do yucca plants need yucca moths?  What kind of plant can eat a bug?  When John and Sarah go on a nature walk with Grandma, they learn that plants - just like animals - have design and purpose.  With its relevant message and beautiful watercolor illustrations, this is an excellent resource to introduce children to intelligent design.  Come find out in Amazing Plants by Design by Debra Haagen!  Illustrations by Sheri McKeon. 

Download a FREE sample of this fun book and its beautiful illustrations:  Click here.

Also see the Mini-Lapbook:

Or save money with the bundle (eBook only):

Happy Reading!

Harvest Lapbook, Study Guide, and Sale!!!

Hello, everyone!  Lots of exciting news today!  First, my new lapbook and study guide Harvest on the Farm went on sale today at Knowledge Box Central!

Summer is over, you are back from the beach, and the pool is closed.  What, oh what, is there to do?  Don't miss the wonderful outdoor fun you can have during harvest time!  Tour a farm, take a hayride, take a nature walk looking for leaves, or check out some books from your local library about farms and harvest.  Use our lapbook and study guide Harvest on the Farm to learn more about this wonderful time of year, as well as some of the history behind our harvest customs and festivals!

Secondly, CurrClick is running a huge "Pay-What-You-Want" Sale that ends today.  Stock up on all those titles you've been wanting for the new homeschool year!

Oh, and guess what?  Harvest on the Farm, as well as my other lapbook and study guides for the Theory of Intelligent Design, are all included in the sale!  Grab them today!!  Click on the previews for the links:

Happy Lapbooking!  :-)

Featured author at Knowledge Box Central!

Today I am the featured author in Knowledge Box Central's newsletter!  To visit Knowledge Box Central or to sign up for the newsletter, click here.

If you have not received this newsletter, read on:

You may have wondered about the perspective in which our new Theory of Intelligent Design was written in, well here's your chance to hear from the author, Debra Haagen. "Before you purchase the Study Guide, you may be wondering what the leaning of the author is.  Truthfully, I am a young-earth Creationist.  I believe that the Bible is true and literal, and I believed that before I had any scientific evidence of it, so I fit the definition of a Creationist.  In today's world, however, we deal with all kinds of people, sometimes including our own children, who are not convinced that the Bible is infallible.  Sometimes saying, "because the Bible tells me so" is not enough evidence for a scientific-leaning mind.  I teach Intelligent Design Theory as a science class because it deals with scientific theories and evidence both for and against Evolution and Creationism.  I believe it is good for us to teach this objective study to our students.  For those who believe in Evolution, I believe you may find there is a lot of evidence that you were not taught in school and at which you may want to at least take a second look.  For those who believe in Creation but have not studied a lot of the scientific evidence, these are tools your children will need during a secular education in today's world, especially if they go on to study science at a University.  And if you already know a lot about this subject, this Study Guide will give you an organized way to teach it, complete with lapbook templates and/or journaling pages." "Where did this world come from?"    Recent talk of the theory of intelligent design raises several questions.  Is it a form of Creationism?  Is it more of a theological argument than a scientific study?  Do intelligent design theorists believe in God?  These questions are answered in my Study Guide on The Theory of Intelligent Design from Knowledge Box Central.  In this article, I would like to briefly answer these questions and tell what the theory of intelligent design is and is not. There have been many answers to the question, "Where did this world come from?"  The Ancient Greeks believed it involved a clash between the gods and the Titans, and some recent ideas have included an early visit from aliens or perhaps a "great spaghetti monster."  The two mainstream ideas, however, that have had churches and public schools at odds with each other for some decades, are Creation and Evolution. To read the full article, written by Debra, click here. Get Debra's Theory of Intelligent Design Lapbook or Lapbook Journal eBook NOW for 50% OFF! Convention Inventory CLEARANCE SALE! We still have a really good selection of PRINTED items left over from convention! We are selling them all at convention prices and SHIPPING FOR FREE! This is a deal you can't pass up! Check out the complete list of product here! In addition:  Now you may purchase all of my published materials at Christian Book Distributors!  Check them out while you are purchasing your homeschool supplies for 2013-2014!

The Theory of Intelligent Design, Creationism, and Evolution

Recent talk of the theory of intelligent design raises several questions.  Is it a form of Creationism?  Is it more of a theological argument than a scientific study?  Do intelligent design theorists believe in God?  These questions are answered in my Study Guide on The Theory of Intelligent Design from Knowledge Box Central.  In this article, I would like to briefly answer these questions and tell what the theory of intelligent design is and is not.

            

There have been many answers to the question, “Where did this world come from?”  The Ancient Greeks believed it involved a clash between the gods and the Titans, and some recent ideas have included an early visit from aliens or perhaps a “great spaghetti monster.”  The two mainstream ideas, however, that have had churches and public schools at odds with each other for some decades, are Creation and Evolution. 

            

Creationism says simply that God created the world as is depicted in the Bible.  Many Creationists believe a “young earth” theory, which means they believe that the earth was created in six literal days as told in the book of Genesis, and that the earth is only about 6,000-10,000 years old, which is an estimate of the timeline of events in the Bible from Creation until the present day.  Creation scientists begin with the supposition that the Bible is true and that God did create the world.  They then investigate scientific evidence which supports the Creation theory and which otherwise supports the literal truth of the Bible, which is why they often also include a lot of scientific information about Noah’s Ark and The Great Flood.  Does their religious bias make them any less scientific?  Certainly not.  “Science” is the pursuit of knowledge, mainly through objective evidence that is observable and repeatable.  While the act of Creation cannot be repeated by man, Creation scientists study objective evidence that is in the world using the scientific method and arrive at their conclusions.  Some people who do not share their starting suppositions, however, will not share their conclusions.

            

The same could be said of the theory of Evolution.  Evolutionists believe that the world was brought about by a series of random occurrences and the process of natural selection.  They begin with the supposition that there is no God, and so an alternate theory of origins must be found scientifically.  Because natural selection supposedly only happens in very small changes over a large span of time, they reason that the earth must be billions of years old.  This is the “old earth theory.”  Again, the origin of the Universe cannot be observed or repeated, so like the Creationists, the Evolutionists are also studying the evidence available to them to arrive at their conclusions.  No theory of origins can be scientifically proven, because there is no way to go back and see what happened or to repeat it.  All of the scientists are researching evidence available today for clues to our origins.  Some people who believe in God, but who believe the scientific evidence points to Evolution, reason that God may have created the world through Evolution, which would still require the earth to be billions of years old, and which would mean that the story in the Bible is figurative rather than literal.

           

Recently, a third alternative to the way we study the evidence has gained following.  The theory of intelligent design, by definition, “holds that certain features of the universe and of living things are best explained by an intelligent cause, not an undirected process such as natural selection.”  (http://www.intelligentdesign.org/whatisid.php)  It can be illustrated by the famous example of a watch found in the woods.  A man is walking through an uninhabited wood when he sees a watch lying on a stump.  Does he think, “Oh my, look how neatly all the pieces of the inner workings of this watch came together through random processes out here in the woods, and happened to fall together to construct this perfectly-working watch?”  It is much more likely that he would believe that the watch was evidence that a person had been through those woods before and had left the watch, and furthermore, that the watch was designed by a clockmaker who had the intelligent capabilities to design such a thing.  How much more should we look at this world and at living things and reason that such complexity must have been designed by an intelligent designer.

            

Our earlier question was:  what is the difference between Creationism and intelligent design theory?  The difference is the starting point.  While Creationists begin with the assumption that God did indeed create the world and we are researching evidence of that fact, intelligent design theory begins with the scientific evidence and follows where it leads.  The theory itself does not use the Bible as evidence.  These scientists research objective evidence and conclude that it does point toward the existence of an intelligent designer rather than to the natural and random processes of Evolution.  The scientific theory itself stops short of naming the Designer.  Is it then anti-Christian or anti-Creationism?  No.  It simply does not deal with the theological implications of the conclusion.  Many books have been written about intelligent design theory and are listed under “suggested resources” in the Study Guide.  Some of them were written by Christians and overtly state that the Intelligent Designer is God, while others stick only to the scientific theory.  Intelligent design theorists may include Christians, Jews, Muslims, and scientists who have not claimed a faith but who believe in the possibility of an Intelligent Designer.  They also include those who believe in both the “old earth” and the “young earth” theories.

            

At this point, before you purchase the Study Guide, you may be wondering what the leaning of the author is.  Truthfully, I am a young-earth Creationist.  I believe that the Bible is true and literal, and I believed that before I had any scientific evidence of it, so I fit the definition of a Creationist.  In today’s world, however, we deal with all kinds of people, sometimes including our own children, who are not convinced that the Bible is infallible.  Sometimes saying, “because the Bible tells me so” is not enough evidence for a scientific-leaning mind.  I teach Intelligent Design Theory as a science class because it deals with scientific theories and evidence both for and against Evolution and Creationism.  I believe it is good for us to teach this objective study to our students.  For those who believe in Evolution, I believe you may find there is a lot of evidence that you were not taught in school and at which you may want to at least take a second look.  For those who believe in Creation but have not studied a lot of the scientific evidence, these are tools your children will need during a secular education in today’s world, especially if they go on to study science at a University.  And if you already know a lot about this subject, this Study Guide will give you an organized way to teach it, complete with lapbook templates and/or journaling pages.

Click here for the full Theory of Intelligent Design Lapbook with Study Guide 

for elementary or high school ages.

Theory of Intelligent Design Lapbooks

I love to write, and I'm grateful for the opportunity to be published, but first and foremost, I write and scrapbook for my children.  I love the fact that they love to pour over the scrapbook albums I've made for the family, and my girls enjoy scrapbooking now, too.  So I was extremely happy that my kids also enjoyed doing the unit study and putting together the lapbooks I just had published for the Theory of Intelligent Design!

The youngest just drew pictures!

We did the lapbook study for K-8th grade, and it was about a 6-week unit study for us.  This is a great unit to do over the summer in between your regular science curriculum studies, and your kids will learn things about Creation and Intelligent Design that they will not learn in many other places.  The Theory of Intelligent Design Lapbook and Study Guide is available now at Knowledge Box Central.

Happy Lapbooking!

Review of TID Lapbook on CurrClick

My Theory of Intelligent Design lapbook journal and study guide received a lovely review on CurrClick.










See the review at http://www.currclick.com/product_reviews.php?products_id=79311.

Thanks, Charlene B.!

Cincinnati Homeschool Convention

My Theory of Intelligent Design lapbook and lapbooking journal, both complete with study guides, will make their debut at the homeschooling conventions this weekend!  If you happen to be attending the Ohio homeschooling convention in Cincinnati, stop by Knowledge Box Central at Booths #1835 & 1837 and see Cyndi Kinney.  She'll have a copy of the lapbook to show you!

Easter Sale on Theory of Intelligent Design Lapbooks!

THIS WEEKEND ONLY!

You can get a digital download of my new Theory of Intelligent Design lapbook with study guide for only $2.50!! (And since you can use that receipt to get $2 off my Amazing Animals by Design book, that is a pretty sweet deal!)

Happy Easter!

Theory of Intelligent Design Lapbooks available

If a man is walking through the woods and finds a perfectly-functioning pocket watch lying on a stump, does he assume that the random forces of nature placed all of the parts together in exactly the right places to form a sophisticated time-piece, or does he assume that a clock-maker has passed that way before? This question, posed by natural theologian William Paley circa 1802, has led to the modern study of intelligent design. What is the study of intelligent design? Where can a student find resources to understand this subject?

Check out my new unit studies over at Knowledge Box Central! Versions available for all grade levels.  Click banner below to go to the website:

Yes, my lapbooks with study guides are finally complete and published at Knowledge Box Central!  This product for K-8th grades includes lapbook templates as well as a complete study guide.  You may spend anywhere from one to six weeks with your students getting an overview or getting more in-depth learning about intelligent design theory.  Available as an ebook for just $5, digital version on CD, printed version, or even as a fully assembled lapbook that you just fill in.

For high schoolers, there are lapbook journaling pages to assist students in note-taking while working through the unit.  Both products use the SAME study guide so that you can work through this unit as a family.  Further resources are provided to make this study a one-semester science credit (50 hours) for high schoolers.

This is a brand new product and my first lapbook unit study, so I would welcome feedback, reviews, and/or pictures of the completed lapbook from anyone who uses it!  You may reach me at debrahaagen (at) gmail (dot) com.

View a sample file of the product at Knowledge Box Central.

Also, when you purchase the lapbook with study guide in any form, email me your receipt to receive $2 off the PDF version of Amazing Animals by Design.

The Notebooking Journal Is Complete!

The high school notebooking journal has been completed and turned in.  We now await the tweaking from the editors!

This 63-page (before editing anyway) study guide may be used for a 1- to 6-week overview of the theory of intelligent design, or for up to a half high-school credit in science if you wish to obtain the additional texts and complete all assignments.  I hope it will be helpful to homeschoolers and others who have wanted to study the theory of intelligent design and did not know where to start.

Follow me here to be the first to know when it is available!

Lapbook: The Theory of Intelligent Design

I suppose this is Step 2 of my writing journey.  Although I am working toward getting another children's book published as well, I am now working on curriculum.  Way back when I started homeschooling my first child and he was in kindergarten (he is in 9th grade now), I told my husband that I thought someday I would really like to write homeschool curriculum.  I had no idea where you would go to do that kind of thing, but I was getting a pretty good idea of what types of things I'd like to have for school that I could not find in print.

I praise God for giving me the opportunity!  If you've been reading this blog, you know that one of my passions is to teach young children about the theory of intelligent design.  Most of what is written is for older students or adults.  I am no scientist, but a study guide to break the hard stuff down for younger kids is right up my alley!

My first lapbook, "The Theory of Intelligent Design," is complete, and I sent it to the publisher Friday. Now it begins its journey under the editor's knife!  (If you are writing and are worried about the editing process, see http://amazingbydesign.blogspot.com/2011/10/painful-part-editing.html !)

While the elementary-level lapbook is enduring the editing process, I am finishing up the high school version with notebooking pages.

Hopefully you'll be able to see these study guides soon at Knowledge Box Central!

And Now For 2013!

http://debrahaagen.tateauthor.com/

A while back on my Note-able Scraps blog, I indicated that I had some exciting things coming up for the new year.  I am putting a few of my involvements on hold for about 6 months to a year - such as directing children's musicals at church and writing reviews for The Schoolhouse Review Crew - although I loved both of those activities very much.  Right now, though, I would like to concentrate on writing and homeschooling.  Some wonderful new opportunities have opened up to me, which I would like to pursue.

First of all, I am working on a follow up to my first book:  Amazing Plants by Design.  If you are a budding author, a wanna-be author, or have just always wondered what the writing/publishing process entails, please follow me here on this blog.  I will continue to give you a glimpse into the step-by-step process.  Join me in the journey, whether I succeed or fail!

Secondly - and I am very excited about this one - I have been working on my first lapbook unit study for Knowledge Box Central.  It is also on Intelligent Design, and I hope to have it released very soon.  When I do, all of my loyal followers on either blog or Facebook will be the first to know!

See my Note-able Scraps blog for information about The Schoolhouse Review Crew 12 Days of Christmas Giveaways.  You will want to be around for DAY ELEVEN!!!

Merry Christmas!

The Year 2012

I am getting ready to do some writing of a more personal nature, my annual Christmas letter.  As I reflect on the year 2012, it has, as for most people, been full of ups and downs. I will, however, remember 2012 as the year I got my first book published!  I hope 2013 will bring more exciting developments.

If you are looking for a last-minute gift for a child on your Christmas list, Amazing Animals by Design is currently being offered in several stores and retail outlets.  In addition to Tate Publishing, Christian Book Distributors (CBD) now offers both the paperback and PDF versions.  Amazon carries the paperback and the Kindle edition, and Barnes and Noble carries the paperback and the Nook edition.  As of this posting, they all appear to be in stock and available.

The audio version of Amazing Animals by Design is also now available.  It can be purchased by itself from Tate Publishing, but if you purchase a book, there will be a code in the back for a free download of the audio version.

I am continuing to do book-signings and book sales are going well.  Over the course of the past year, I have learned a number of things that could be helpful to other budding authors:

1) People keep asking me if my book is physically in any stores.  According to the old model of book sales, this would signify success and also be the easiest way to obtain a copy.  In the present times, though, things just work differently.  The answer to the question is "yes," it is in a few stores, but the likelihood of it being in a store near you if you do not live in an area where I have done book-signings is rather small.  Most of the time, it will have to be ordered.  I have found this to be the case with many books I've tried to obtain in recent years, but with present methods of distribution, it does not hinder sales.  Amazing Animals by Design is distributed by Ingram Distributors, from which almost any bookstore in the country orders books, and most any bookstore can order the book upon request and have it in a few days.

2) Along a similar vein, I think most of us budding authors had the idea that once we got our book published, it would pop up in bookstores everywhere, be placed on the end-caps or center-aisle displays (after all, it is new and fabulous, right?), and the sales would just happen.  I have learned that once a book is published, the work has just begun!  Any given bookstore has thousands of new books from which to choose every month when they place their orders.  How do you get your book to stand out?  Well, it's a long and slow process.  Like anything worth doing, it requires patience and hard work.  Every time you do a book-signing, every time you sell another book, your name is a little bit more "out there."  Sales increase as your exposure increases.  Pursue every opportunity, stick with it, and don't get discouraged.  I've had a few book-signings where I only sold one book, but I haven't had any "zero" book-signings yet.  Get out there, talk to people, spread the word.

3)  As my mentors at Tate Publishing have been telling me, your book is your business.  Work on it like any small business you were starting up.  No one else wants you to make it quite as much as you do, so be prepared to do the work yourself.  I've had some book-signings where the people hosting the signing did a tremendous amount of publicity and helped me out a lot.  At others, they pointed to a table and I didn't see them again till I was done.  One guy had hung the poster I brought him in the back of his store next to the bathroom.  I hang posters (if allowed), decorate my table, hand out coloring pages to children, and talk to everyone walking by.  If I just sat quietly at the table and waited for people to come ask questions, I wouldn't sell much.

4)  Tate Publishing also talks a lot about finding your niche - marketing to the groups who would truly be interested in your book.  I have found that some of the easiest places to get into for book-signings are coffee shops.  They love to have artists, writers, and talents of all kinds, and they are generally very friendly and terrific to work with.  If your book is geared toward adult audiences, these are your best bet.  They do not, however, attract many children.  Their main clientele is young professional adults, working people who are on a break, and retirees.  After visiting a number of coffee shops, I have realized that I need to pursue avenues where I will be in contact with children and their parents.  These are always much more successful for me.

I hope some of what I have learned will be helpful to some of you who have been following my blog in hopes of publishing your own book.  Keep following me in 2013 for the next chapter in this journey.  Exciting things are in store!

Merry Christmas!

The Final Stages

Here it is, folks!  I have permission to share the cover and a few of the characters from Amazing Animals By Design!  I have proof-read the final draft, exchanged forms back and forth with the editors, and am turning it in for the last time.  Everything is final: the text, the font, the illustrations, and the cover.  Next, it will be going to print, and I will be talking to a publicist about setting up book-signings.  I already have permission to do book-signings and get reviews in several places.  Stay posted; I'll be putting a schedule up on the blog.  The excitement is mounting.  I can hardly stand it!

 

Meet John, Sarah, and the caracal.  A bit better than my doodling that I had on here before, don't you think?!  What?  You've never heard of a caracal?  Then I guess you'll be waiting on the edge of your seat until you can buy my book!

What Is Your Book About, Anyway?

"So," people are starting to ask me, now that the release is getting closer and closer, "what is your book about, anyway?"

My book is called Amazing Animals by Design, from which the title of this blog came.  In a nutshell, its purpose is to introduce young children to the theory of Intelligent Design.

If you are not familiar with the theory of Intelligent Design, it basically says that if you were walking in the woods and you found a wristwatch laying on a stump, you probably would not say, "Would you look at that?  The rocks and twigs in the woods around here somehow managed to form into the pieces of a clock mechanism, and fell into place to perfectly make this functioning wristwatch."  Instead, you would probably observe, "Hmm, someone has been in this part of the woods before me."  You would rightly assume that the timepiece was made by a clock designer, and that the designer had the intelligence to deliberately design and build the mechanism.  In the same way, when I look at the world around me, I do not believe that the intricacies of nature, which are far more complicated than a wristwatch, could have happened by accident.  I believe that they were put into place by an Intelligent Designer, who designed them and set them into motion willfully and purposefully.

I was teaching my children about the theory of Intelligent Design, but I found much of the material to be over their heads.  (There is a list of resources at the bottom of this post.)  The scientific research behind this theory is staggering, and someday I hope my children will understand it all.  For that matter, I hope that someday I will understand it all!  For the time being, though, I wanted a storybook.  We have books for children about Creation and about Evolution.  We have books that say we believe God created the animals.  I wanted a book that explained, on a child's level, that specific characteristics of animals that they can see at a zoo indicate the presence of a Designer of the animals.

That is how my book came about.  The animals in it are animals we had learned about over multiple trips to several different zoos.  Some are familiar and some are not so familiar.  It is really a very small, simple storybook with one purpose: to explain what "Design" is and to point to examples of it in Nature.  I hope to write more storybooks on the theory of Intelligent Design in the future.

Today, I received an actual hard copy of the book in the mail!  This is another one of those exciting moments that I just can't describe - to hold an actual copy of my published book in my hands!  What I have now is the final proof.  I will check it for errors, send it back, and then it will go to print!  I cannot wait to share it with you!

If you are interested in learning more about the theory of Intelligent Design, here are some resources:

The Case for a Creator by Lee Strobel - book or DVD
     The Case for a Creator, Student Edition by Lee Strobel & Jane Vogel
     The Case for a Creator for Kids by Lee Strobel
The Privileged Planet DVD by Illustra Media
Unlocking the Mystery of Life DVD by Illustra Media
Where Does the Evidence Lead DVD by Illustra Media
Incredible Creatures That Defy Evolution DVDs, Volumes I, II, & III, featuring Dr. Jobe Martin
Expelled: No Intelligence Allowed Documentary with Ben Stein
The Discovery Institute: Center for Science & Culture - This think tank website contains many articles and references.