Story Retold by Gwen Ellis Illustrated by Steve Smallman
I enjoyed reading this book to my sons during Christmastime. It is a colorful, easy-to-read book from the best-selling Read and Share Bible that starts with Gabriel delivering message to Zechariah, then the birth of John the Baptist, Gabriel's visit to Mary, an angel relaying God’s message in Joseph's dream, the birth of Jesus in Bethlehem, the angel's announcement to the shepherds, the shepherds finding Jesus in the manger, the wise men and their gifts, the journey of Joseph, Mary, and Jesus to Egypt, and ends with them being back home in Nazareth. At the end of each story, there is either an insightful statement or a question to ponder and discuss. My youngest son succeeded in retelling the story by pointing to the mixed up pictures (at the end of the book) in the correct order. We enjoyed watching the included animated DVD that has six stories from the Life of Jesus (John the Baptist, Jesus Is Born, Where Is Jesus?, Jesus Tempted by Satan, Jesus' Life, and Jesus Loves Children) plus six trailers. This is also a DVD ROM that includes coloring pages and wallpaper. The book and DVD are a wonderful visual tool for helping young children to understand the different major events surrounding the Christmas account.
~This book was provided for review by Thomas Nelson/BookSneeze.
Author: Stephen Elkins Illustrator: Claudine Gevry
Format: Hardcover with 30-song CD Page Count: 96
ISBN: 978-1-4003-1463-8 Retail Price: $16.99
My Review: I read this book to my sons at bedtime. They know the Bible pretty well; therefore, the content in this book all sounded familiar to them. However, they still enjoyed listening to me read and it seemed to hold their attention. What sets this book apart from other children's books about Jesus is its well-categorized/color-coordinated topics. It covers who Jesus is (what the prophets, angel, wise men, Peter, John the Baptist, the Samaritans, John the disciple, God the Father, and Jesus Himself said about Jesus), what Jesus did (His many miracles, His death on the cross, His resurrection, His preparing a home for us), what Jesus taught (parables, baptism, repentance, prayer, the golden rule, the Greatest Commandment, etc.), when it happened (including timeline), where it happened (including a map of Israel and a map of Jerusalem), why it happened, and how it happened (including How do we receive eternal life?). The illustration is well done and makes the book colorful and interesting. Personally, I do not like to see drawings of Jesus because I do not want children to think (or have images stuck in their mind) that's what Jesus looked like. My favorite part is the CD. The songs are familiar Sunday School songs such as Jesus Loves Me, What A Friend We Have in Jesus, Jesus Loves the Little Children, and I Have Decided to Follow Jesus.
~This book was provided for review by Thomas Nelson.
Review: Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs Diamond Edition
Thanks to One2One Network, I received a copy of the Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs: Diamond Edition Combo Pack to watch and review. This Diamond Edition Combo Pack includes 2 Blu-ray discs and a DVD. I am impressed with the exceptional picture quality and sound quality. If you did not know that Snow White was originally made in 1937 or did not already watch it when you were young, one probably would assume that it had just been made recently. I am still amazed at what Disney accomplished with Snow White in term of technical and artistic excellence back in the 1930's. I’m personally not fond of the plot, the magic spell, the unrealistic portrayal of "love" and "marriage", and the voice of Snow White. However, my sons (10 and 8 years old) seemed to enjoy the DVD. We still laughed and had a good time. We do not have a Blu-ray player. They claim that Blu-ray discs are scratch resistant which sounds nice to me. If you are a fan of Snow White, you would love this combo pack. For the first time ever, Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs is made in High Definition 7.1 Sound. From this combo pack, you will enjoy bonus features such as an all new music video, Dopey’s Wild Mine Ride Game, "Heigh-Ho"Karaoke Sing-Along, will be able to play games (What Do You See?, Mirror, Mirror On the Wall, Jewel Jumble), and will get to see behind the scenes stuff of "The One that Started It All."
Did you know that Snow White...
- was the first full-length animated film ever made?
- was one of the first films ever to be designated for preservation by the Library of Congress?
- was the first film ever to have a motion picture soundtrack?
- was the first film to use music to advance the story?
- has been released theatrically a total of nine times?
Now you do :).
If you would like to relive your childhood with this classic tale (written by the Grimm brothers), this Diamond Edition Combo Pack is the way to go.
I received the following websites for fun kids' activities in an email; however, I have not personally checked them out yet.
Homeschool Open House 2009: Children of Light Christian Academy
Welcome, everybody, to Children of Light Christian Academy! "For you were once darkness, but now you are light in the Lord. Live as children of light (for the fruit of the light consists in all goodness, righteousness and truth) and find out what pleases the Lord." Ephesians 5:8-10 We're Christ-centered, Bible-based, mission-minded, family-bonding, character-building, & life-long learning homeschoolers. We cherish our togetherness; we enjoy learning and growing together as the Lord leads us. If you would like to know the reasons why we've chosen to homeschool, please read here.
My name is Urailak. My husband and I homeschool our three precious blessings: 16 year old daughter, 10 year old son, and 7 year old son. We have been homeschooling for over 10 years now. We mix and match our resources to meet our kids' individual learning styles and interests (you can see what we used last year here). Grade level is not emphasized. Their skills and abilities are taken into consideration more than their ages. We have a flexible structure/routine. We take time to dig deeper when there's an interest. We read (a lot), research, create, experiment, write, memorize, analyze, apply, explore, investigate, practice, work, sing, and play all sorts of sports & games. Hopefully, we also learn and retain some knowledge, wisdom, & valuable/useful skills along the way :).
Each night before school days, I write down a daily schedule (aka "flexible guideline") for each of my boys. They can pick the order of which they would like to do first and they (or I) check off each subject that they complete. For the boys, each day typically includes Bible study time, language arts, math, reading, history or science, spelling or writing. During the week, they take turns learning piano from their sister and they do P.E. (play sports) pretty much everyday (in winter, they play basketball, hockey, and wrestling inside). They usually do art and cursive writing on Thursdays. On Fridays, we have our "different day" when they learn by using educational board games, CDroms, and/or educational websites plus science experiments. My daughter writes her own schedule (with my approval). She does her schoolwork independently at her desk in her bedroom most of the time. I spend most of my time teaching/overseeing my sons and checking their works. The boys can usually be found at the dinner table or the couch. We have our Bible study/prayer time together. We also do science experiments, unit studies, and read-alouds together.
This is where we usually do our studies.
My "top ten tips" are:
1. "Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding; in all your ways acknowledge Him, and He will make your paths straight." Proverbs 3:5-6,
2. Pray, pray, and pray continually,
3. Instill in your children love for God, passion for His word, and desire to please & serve Him,
4. Focus on building your kids' character, training their attitudes, and tying heart strings,
5. Lead by example; walk the talk; be real and humble;
6. Stay committed to homeschooling; be enthusiastic about learning/acquiring wisdom & knowledge,
7. Don't sweat the academic stuff :); embrace "eternal perspectives",
8. These (whatever struggles you're facing) too shall pass;
"Because of the Lord’s great love we are not consumed, for His compassions never fail. They are new every morning; great is Your faithfulness." Lamentations 3:23
9. Enjoy your time together (kids grow up so fast),
10. Pray, pray, and pray unceasingly.
"Educating our children includes more than arithmetic and spelling; it includes building character. No educational pursuit can replace the deep need for a generation of children to be brought up first in the 'nurture and admonition' of the Lord." Rick Williamson
What Have I Taught?
(By Betty DeMers Parkes)
If my children can quote Shakespeare
with feeling and understanding,
but think only of themselves,
...then what have I taught?
If they can spell scientific words,
and write 16 page reports,
but have no compassion for other,
...then what have I taught?
If they can work algebraic equations,
but do not think of how their words or actions
may affect someone else,
...then what have I taught?
If my high schooler gets into Harvard,
but doesn't have a personal relationship
with Jesus Christ
...then what have I taught?
If my children are in the 99th percentile rankings
- Bible study/Prayer Time: Bible, Firm Foundations: Creation to Christ, Remembering God's Awesome Acts, The Greenleaf Guide to Old Testament History, and Bible Atlas
- Some of our Read-Alouds: Abe Lincoln: Log Cabin to White House, Noah Webster's Advice to the Young, 365 Manners Kids Should Know, Boyhood and Beyond (just to the boys), etc.
My daughter (15 then): Grade 10
- Bible: The Kingdom of God: A Guide for Old Testament Study
- Math: Saxon Algebra II
- Science: Apologia Biology, Genetics class (at George Fox University)
- Literature: ABeka Backgrounds to World Literature plus a variety of books
- Fine Arts: Drawing, filmmaking (she made her first short film, How Would You Feel?), homemaking skills including knitting, cross-stitching, cooking, baking, etc.
- Music: piano
- Language: Thai
My 10 yo son
- Math: Modern Curriculum Press Mathematics F
- Science: ABeka Observing God's World
- Health: ABeka Choosing Good Health
- History and Geography: ABeka New World History and Geography, Mystery of History I
- Language Arts/Grammar: Learning Language Arts through Literature-The Tan Book, Daily Grams
- Spelling: ABeka Spelling, Vocabulary, Poetry 6
- Reading: ABeka Of America 2, Voyage of Discovery, Calls to Courage (Christian Light Education) Houghton Mifflin English, various books including Little House in the Big Woods, books on birds, etc.
- Bible: Studying God's Word Book B (Christian Liberty Press)
- Math: Singapore Math 2A, 2B, Primary Mathematics Challenging Word Problems, Saxon Math 3 (Part Two)
- Phonics plus writing: The Writing Road to Reading
- Reading: ABeka readers including Growing Up Where Jesus Lived, Christian Liberty Nature Reader Book 2, More New Friends (Pathway Publishers), BJU Reading 2, various books
- Spelling: Building Spelling Skills Book 2 (Christian Liberty Press)
- Language Arts/Grammar: Learning Language Arts through Literature--The Red Book, Daily Grams
- Vocabulary: Explode the Code 8
- Penmanship: ABeka Writing with Phonics
- Science: God's Wonderful Works (CLP), Rod & Staff Patterns of Nature 2
- Health: ABeka Health, Safety, Manners 2
- History: Our Nation Under God (CLP), Mystery of History I
This is a fun and educational book. Very interesting and entertaining! I really enjoyed reading it to my boys who are 10 and 7 years old. They love animals and this book held their attention and stimulated their curiosity. We have enjoyed watching animal videos by Jack Hanna and we were glad that he never mentioned evolution. Now we are even more glad to know that he believes in creation. He said in the preface, "In this wild life, I’ve tried to spread my amazement of and excitement about God’s animal creations with everyone I meet." He acknowledged God as the Creator! Jack Hanna is funny and friendly. He helps readers get curious and excited about these wackiest, wildest, and weirdest animals. Do you know what a binturong and a movie theater have in common? Do you know what animal can lick its own ears? And do you know what animal can run as fast backward as it can forward? You will find the answers in this cool book. I love the fun facts and the close-ups of the animals. In addition, the book includes a DVD with some footage and bloopers from Jack Hanna’s adventures in the wild. The DVD is not as good (funny) as I expected but it’s still a nice bonus.
Apologia is now producing notebooking journals that accompany each of the elementary science books. Both Botany and Astronomy are now available.
These journals are beautiful spiral bound notebooks that will save you time and money. You won't have to print and keep up with your child's notebook pages, buy and maintain page protectors, or purchase and compile binders...everything that makes notebooking time-consuming and labor intensive for mom. Also, your child will adore having their own notebooking journal.
Each of the notebooking journals include:
A daily schedule for those who like to have a plan or would like their children to complete the book on their own
Templates for written narrations, the notebooking activities and experiments
Review Questions
Scripture Copywork, with both print and cursive practice
Reading lists and additional activities, projects, experiments for each lesson
An appendix with beautiful, full-color, lapbook-style Miniature Books
Field Trip Sheets to keep a record field trips
A Final Review with fifty questions the students can answer either orally or in writing to show off all they remember and know at the end of the course.
Jeannie Fulbright is giving away four Astronomy Notebooking Journals and four Botany Notebooking Journals to bloggers who post about this on their site. Visit her blog to learn more at www.jeanniesjournal.com . The deadline for this giveaway is May 29th.
Rosetta Stone is the fastest way to learn a language and has been the #1 foreign language curriculum among homeschoolers for a while — and you can WIN the *all new* version 3 Rosetta Stone Homeschool LATIN program… FOR FREE! This is the first year you can get Latin in the brand new Version III update.
This is a $259 program (and believe me it’s worth every penny!)
This is a computer based curriculum and Rosetta Stone will also include a headset with microphone, and a supplementary “Audio Companion” CD so you can practice lessons in the car, on the go, or where-ever! Students participate in life-like conversations and actually produce language to advance through the program. Rosetta Stone incorporates listening, reading, grammar, vocabulary and writing along with speaking and pronunciation lessons. For parents, the new Parent Administrative Tools are integrated into the program to allow parents to easily enroll up to ten students in any of 12 predetermined lesson plans, monitor student progress, grade completed work (the program grades the work automatically as the students progress- I love that!), and you can view and print reports for transcripts. Homeschooling a lot of kids at your house? This program is designed to enroll and track up to ten students (five users on two computers) and will work for nearly all ages — from beginning readers up to college students.
To win this most excellent Latin program copy these paragraphs and post them in (or as) your next blog post, and/OR link to the contest from your facebook page and/OR email the information to your homeschool support group – Then go to the original page http://Jeneralities.com and leave a comment saying that you’ve posted about, or have linked to, the contest. Please make sure the link works to get back to the original contest page when you post.
Today is World Math Day. My kids had enjoyed participating in the math contest. The competiton officially started yesterday and will end in a few hours. The contest helped them practice their basic math skills: addition facts for level 1 (my 7 yo son), addition, subtraction, and multiplication for level 3 (my 10 yo son), and addition, subtraction, multiplication, & division for level 4 (my 15 yo daughter). They played against other kids their own age level from all over the world in real time. My kids were tickled to play against kids from so many different countries such as Singapore, Indonesia, Pakistan, Australia, New Zealand, Japan, China, United Kingdom, Ireland, Vietnam, Turkey, Bermuda, United Arab Emirates, Brunei Darussalam, Hong Kong, etc. They kept informing me which countries their opponents were from :). I am very proud of my kids who often were placed 1st or 2nd in their rounds of competition (there were 4 total competitors in each round). I am so grateful that all my three kids are excellent at math even though two of them don't like math :). We're looking forward to participating in World Math Day again next year.
Yesterday, my daughter and I attended the Northwest Creation Conference at the Columbia Conference Center in Portland. We enjoyed it tremendously and learned a lot. We attended the following sessions (from around 9:00 a.m. to 5 p.m.):- The Dangers of Evolution, Fossil Evidence of Creation and the Flood, The Lies in Your Textbooks Part 1, Hi-Tech Pharaohs & Ancient Technology, Stones & Bones-Claws & Jaws, The Lies in Your Textbooks Part 2, and Unlocking the Mysteries of Civilization. The speakers included Eric Hovind, Paul Veit, Dr. Dennis Swift, and Dennis Petersen. The conference was packed with fact-filled presentation, tons of scientific evidence, display of fossils and artifacts, Biblical references, Gospel message, laughter, and assortment of wonderful creation-related materials (available for sale). The more I learn and know about science, the more amazed I am at the love, mercy, & grace of God, the Creator, and the beauty & complexity of His creation. Evolution is so illogical; evolutionists are totally deceived by satan.
"Since they hated knowledge and did not choose to fear the Lord, since they would not accept my advice and spurned my rebuke, they will eat the fruit of their ways and be filled with the fruit of their schemes. For the waywardness of the simple will kill them, and the complacency of fools will destroy them; but whoever listens to me will live in safety and be at ease, without fear of harm." Proverbs 1:29-33
Thank you, everyone, who participated in my bloggy giveaway and visited my website, HomeschoolBooksGalore. Sarah was randomly chosen as the winner. She won Janice VanCleave's Biology for Every Kid. Congratulations to Sarah (I already contacted her)! I hope you all will visit my website again whenever you are looking for homeschool books or educational materials :).
Welcome to Children of Light Christian Academy's blog! If you would like to know who we are, please click here. Since this blog is mainly about our homeschooling journey, I'm giving away something you can use for your homeschool :). Even if you don't homeschool, you might enjoy using it with your kids. You have a chance to win Janice VanCleave's Biology for Every Kid 101 Easy Experiments that Really Work.
To enter: Please visit HomeschoolBooksGalore and then come back to leave a comment here telling me what your favorite item from the website is (who knows...I might hold another giveaway for more homeschool books or educational materials? :)). Please remember to leave your email address or link to your blog so that I can contact you if you're chosen (randomly) as a winner. The deadline is 9:00 p.m. (Pacific time) on Friday, Oct. 31st (Reformation Day).
Have fun! There are tons of giveaways going on this week; please visit here to see the list of participants. I'm also hosting another giveaway at my other blog, "LivingforGod." Hope you'll stop by :)!
As the election day approaches, please be diligent in praying for our nation. "If my people, who are called by My name, will humble themselves and pray and seek My face and turn from their wicked ways, then will I hear from heaven and will forgive their sin and will heal their land." 2Chronicles 7:14 No matter what the election's outcome is going to be, God is in control. If you hesitate to vote, I would like to encourage you to read what my daughter wrote about citizenship in America a few years ago. Voting is a privilege; I hope you won't take it for granted :).
Some people are born with it; however, some people have to obtain it. I am referring to citizenship in America. According to the American Heritage Desk Dictionary, citizenship is defined as "the status of a citizen with its duties, rights, and privileges," and citizen is defined as "a person owing loyalty to and entitled by birth or naturalization to the protection of a given country."
Citizenship is important for a person to have if he/she is planning on living in America so that he/she can enjoy all the rights and privileges granted a citizen. If a person is born in America, he/she is automatically a United States citizen. In order to be naturalized, immigrants must be able to speak, read, and write English, be over eighteen years of age, have good moral character, know United States history and government, and be willing to serve in this country's military if required. To be able to become a citizen, a person has to have lived in America for at least five years. An exception to this rule is that an American citizen's husband or wife who comes from a foreign country only has to live in America for three years before being able to appy for naturalization.
All American citizens have certain rights, privileges, and duties. One of the greatest privileges a United States citizen possesses is having the right to privately vote in every election. A citizen has the responsiblity to find out all he/she can about different candidates in the election so that he/she can make a good decision when voting. In addition, citizens have the right to have a United States passport, have the United States government's aid and support when they are overseas, and have the right to run for public office. A citizen also has the duty to obey the laws and the government of this country.
I am thankful that I am an American citizen and I will do my best to fulfill my duties as a citizen and to not take my rights for granted.
Thanks to One2One Network, I received a copy of the 
