What a week this has been. Certainly far from typical.
Monday was my birthday, so we took off school and I went to a day spa.
Well, not quite. We had a somewhat typical school day except that during the day I made myself a coconut cake and helped my children finish preparing for their book club presentations which were on...
Tuesday.
This month each family presented on one of the Little House books by Laura Ingalls Wilder. We chose By the Shores of Silver Lake. We chose it mainly because we had started it last February and never finished it. We actually finished the book. (That's got to be some kind of record!) My son wrote his report on the book in general and included a little information about the Homestead Act. My daughter wrote about her favorite part of the book which was Christmas and made a display of the different types of birds mentioned in the book. We also made sourdough biscuits to share with the club. After book club we came home briefly before violin lessons. After violin, I rushed home, made a quick dinner of spaghetti then my husband took my son to basketball practice at 6:30. That was a long day.
Wednesday
Nothing particularly out of the ordinary happened during the day. We did finally finish a game of Life on the Farm (review coming soon.)
After dinner my husband and I began moving all this furniture
away from the walls in our living room so that on...
At this point I was feeling a bit concerned about my color choice.
What a long day! I managed to get 2 coats of paint done and fell into bed exhausted.
Friday
I painted the trim in the living room and began to try to catch up on laundry. It feels great to be finished. Of course I still have to move all the furniture back!
I have a small confession to make. One of the reasons I homeschool is pretty selfish. I want to homeschool because it gives me the opportunity to learn so many things that I didn't learn in my own years of formal education. Although I have always loved to read, I didn't study many of the classics. I love history now, but learned very little about history in my school days. Foreign language? Let's not even go there.
Trying to give my children a classical education without having one myself is both exciting and scary. So far, I've done a lot of learning alongside my kids. But that's going to be harder to do as my children get older. That's one of the reasons that a few years ago I purchased a copy of The Well-Educated Mind by Susan Wise Bauer. The sub-title is A Guide to the Classical Education You Never Had. That's exactly what I need.
Exploramania is an educational company that is committed to developing products that engage children both mentally and physically. They use a multiple sensory approach to learning. I received a unique product called Gymathics to review.
Gymathics is a DVD that combines exercise with learning mathematical concepts. During different portions of the exercise routine, different types of math are taught. For example, during the stretching portion, shapes, angles, parallel lines and other similar concepts are demonstrated. During a cardio-vascular workout, there are counting and various skip-counting sections.
There is a short sample of the video available on their website. In addition, the product page has a detailed list of all the topics covered on the DVD.
This product gets mixed reviews in our family. My two older children (11 and 9) do not like the video. My younger son (7) likes to watch it, but doesn't do the exercises. Since the exercise is a vital component to the program, it's really not useful for us. It seems that there is a mismatch between the difficulty of the math concepts and the age that is likely to enjoy this type of video. The geometry concepts are more suited to middle to late elementary aged students, but those students are old enough to feel "silly" using the video. Younger students are more likely to find it fun, except they have more difficulty in keeping up with the exercise routine and are less likely to understand any of the math except for the skip counting. I think the skip counting portion could be extremely beneficial and I do plan to encourage my 7 year old to try that section again.
Gymathics and other products by Exploramania are available on their website. The DVD is $24.99. To read more reviews of Gymathics, visit the Homeschool Crew blog.
Disclosure: This product was provided to our family for free as members of the 2009-2010 Old Schoolhouse Magazine Homeschool Crew. Reviews and opinions expressed in this blog are our own.
We spent a lot of yesterday trying to get our book reports written for our monthly book club. It is a task that I don't particularly enjoy. I struggle to figure out how to teach my children to write without just telling them what to write. Writing is the hardest subject for me to teach.
What are your most difficult subjects to teach? Have you found a curriculum that has helps you teach a subject you struggle with?
AVKO is a non-profit, 501(C)3 membership organization that focuses on the development and production of materials and especially techniques to teach reading and spelling, handwriting (manuscript and cursive), and keyboarding. AVKO is dedicated to the teaching everyone how to read and spell, regardless of their mild to moderate learning disabilities, dyslexia, poverty, or opportunity.
As a member of The Old Schoolhouse Homeschoool Crew, I received a membership to the AVKO Foundation in order to review its benefits. I had not heard of AVKO before seeing them listed on the Crew vendor list, but I had heard of one of their products: Sequential Spelling.
I've spent some time exploring the website and downloading much of the material that is included with the membership. From a purely financial standpoint, the membership is a good value. The value of the free downloads available to members far exceeds the cost of the membership. The question then is whether you need the material.
If you have children who have no difficulties with reading and are super spellers, then you probably wouldn't be very interested in what AVKO has to offer. If, on the other hand, you have a child that is struggling to learn how to read, especially if you suspect dyslexia, then AVKO is an excellent resource.
A few years ago I would have had absolutely NO interest in this material. My oldest son learned to read at 4 years old. He reads well above his 6th grade level, and spells almost intuitively.
My older daughter, though not as easy to teach to read as my son, does read well. She was about 6 when blending sounds finally clicked, and she hasn't had problems with reading since. Her spelling however, is an entirely different story. I've been looking for help with teaching her spelling. The problem is that I spell like my oldest does. I just know how to spell words. That of course, makes it difficult to teach someone else.
My younger son has had quite a struggle! He is 7-1/2 and we're finally making progress. I think. Sometimes I think we're getting nowhere because there are things he can read, and then the next day (or the next sentence) it's like he hasn't ever seen the word in his life! So, it is with him in mind that I will be looking further at the material from AVKO.
Here are the eBooks that are available for free with a membership to AVKO.
The Reading Teacher's List of over 5,500 Spelling Words The Patterns of English Spelling Volumes 1-10 To Teach a Dyslexic The Teaching of Reading and Spelling The Teaching of Reading and Spelling from Square One
In addition to the eBooks, there are mp3 recordings of seminars as well as some other resources, like dictation sentences and supplemental worksheets. Another benefit of membership is a 25% discount on all printed materials. (Like Sequential Spelling).
A year-long membership is only $25. I recommend that you explore the AVKO website and see if there are resources there that would help you teach reading and spelling to your children. To read more reviews of AVKO, visit the Homeschool Crew Blog.
Disclosure: This product was provided to our family for free as members of the 2009-2010 Old Schoolhouse Magazine Homeschool Crew. Reviews and opinions expressed in this blog are our own.
Tomorrow is my birthday. I mention it for a couple of reasons. First, I'm not planning on celebrating any more birthdays after this one. Second, last night I actually got to go out on a date. This is unfortunately not a frequent occurrence in our house. After a nice dinner and a little bit of window shopping, we headed downtown for a movie premiere!
Yes, you read that right. I don't live in California but I went to a movie premier last night. Wesley is the story of John Wesley's early ministry. It was filmed here using a lot of local actors (hence the location of the premiere). The lead was played by Burgess Jenkins, who happens to be a friend of my husband. (Well actually my husband is better friends with his older brother, but why quibble?)
I confess, I was a bit skeptical about how good this independent, low-budget film could turn out. I was pleasantly surprised. The script was good, the story interesting, and the acting, while not Oscar-winning, was WAY above what I've seen in many of the Christian films. (I'm not trying to be cruel, but I've found some of them painful to watch.)
And most exciting was the message that the film conveyed. John Wesley was an Anglican priest who had no understanding of the gospel. He was working hard to earn his salvation, but he had no assurance of his own salvation. It was a failed missionary journey to Georgia, meeting with the Moravians, and other influences that led him to true faith in Christ and an understanding that justification is by faith in Christ, not our works.
After seeing the movie, I am very interested in learning more about John Wesley's life and ministry. I know that I will have disagreements with some of his theology, but I think that there may be fewer than I previously thought. I'll try to mention any good resources for studying John and Charles Wesley that I discover.
I've been feeling kind of blah this year. I've tried not to complain here too much for a couple of reasons. First, I strive to not complain in general (though fail miserably) and second, who wants to read a bunch of whiny "I'm depressed" posts. This school year has been tough. We aren't accomplishing everything that I want to or think that we need to. I don't really have a plan for fixing that exactly. But I do have a plan to cheer myself up.
Next week we're taking 2 days off of school so I can paint my living room!
Maybe this sounds ridiculous, but I haven't been this excited about anything for quite a while. I bought the paint at the end of the summer but ran out of time before starting school. I had resigned myself to waiting for spring, but thanks to Heidi, I realized that I could do it now, before Thanksgiving. She's a whole lot busier than I am and she's painting. So I decided to go for it.
I'm looking forward to a freshly painted living room to celebrate Thanksgiving and Christmas. Plus the extra school break will do me good.
I got a notification that Life of Fred Pre-Algebra is available from Polka Dot Publishing. I just checked the website and he hasn't even had a chance to add the description. But, it is on the order page. Here's the description:
Life of Fred: Pre-Algebra 1 with Biology
Definition of Life, Sets, Fractions, Germination of Seeds, Area of a Rectangle, Volume of a Cube, Ordinal Numbers, Diameter and Circumference of a Circle, Definition of B, 2% of 500, Four Ways Plants Make New Plants, d = rt, 20% Discount, the Five Kingdoms, Phyla, Classes, Orders, Families, Genera, Species, Your Brain, Conversion Factors, Where the Non-Water Mass of a Plant Comes From—Plants Don’t Eat Dirt, Subsets of Sets, Digestion, Eyes, Negative Numbers, Dominant Genes, Genotypes, Phenotypes, Blood, Staying Alive, Solving Algebraic Equations,
Volume of a Cylinder, Word Problems, Breathing, Chlorophyll vs. Hemoglobin vs. Hemocyanin, Avogadro’s Number, Stoichiometry, the Whole Numbers, a Proof that Division by Zero is Not Permitted, Bones, the Integumentary System, Epidermis and Dermis, Meiosis and Mitosis, Chromosomes, DNA, Alleles, Changing Your Phenotype.
ISBN: 978-0-9791072-2-1, hardback, 288 pages. $29
My son has really enjoyed the Fractions book and is working through Decimals and Percents. He has finally stopped complaining about math! I'm looking forward to the Pre-Algebra book.
By the way, I should mention that I have received nothing from Stanley Schmidt, the author of Life of Fred. I just like the books, think the author has marvelous customer service, and like to share when I find resources I like.
(Edited to fix author's name. I always want to say his name is Fred because of the books, but it is Stanley.)
AHEF is a non-profit, non-partisan educational foundation dedicated to the understanding and teaching of America's factual and philosophical heritage to promote constructive citizenship and Freedom, Unity, Progress, and Responsibility among our students and citizens.
AHEF accomplishes this patriotic mission by writing, producing, and distributing FREE K-12 lesson plans to teachers, students, and families in all 50 states and through additional initiatives, programs, and partnerships.
I received the free CD An Adventure in Liberty from American Heritage Education Foundation to review. The curriculum is divided into three levels: elementary, middle school, and high school. I focused mainly on the elementary level since most of my children are elementary school aged. The elementary level is divided into 14 units. Each unit focuses on one topic such as The Declaration of Independence, The Star-Spangled Banner, Thanksgiving, George Washington, or the Great Seal. Each of these topics also illustrates one of the four themes: Freedom, Unity, Progress, and Responsibility.
The program was designed for classroom use, so there are a lot of group activities suggested. Many of these can be adapted to the homeschool setting, though a few would require a larger group, like a co-op.There is great variety in the activities suggested. There are simple cut and paste activities like putting the pieces of the Declaration of Independence in order. There are also some crosswords, word searches, and coloring pages. The quality of the printable resources is average or below average. I think it would be relatively easy to find better resources on-line.
My favorite of the activities is a role-playing activity called the Independence Game. Students are assigned roles (such as king, parliament, colonist, etc.) and are given money and goods to trade. There are specific events that the students can use for simulations. This is one of the activities that obviously require a large group of students.
What do I like about An Adventure in Liberty?
Very clear learning objectives
The variety of suggested activities
The overall emphasis and spirit of the program
How will I use An Adventure in Liberty?
Since we study history using a 4 year chronological history cycle, we don't spend as much time on American History as public schools, or those using more traditional curriculum. Because of this, I have found that there are some "gaps". Things like learning the Pledge of Allegiance have been missed. This curriculum will serve as a reminder of topics we need to make sure that we cover, as well as providing the structure to do it.
Disclosure: This product was provided to our family for free as members of the 2009-2010 Old Schoolhouse Magazine Homeschool Crew. Reviews and opinions expressed in this blog are our own.
Wow, I just found this site, and they are having some really great giveaways this month! Like the ENTIRE Veggie Tales library on DVD. My younger kids would be thrilled.
I participated in this challenge last year and found the extra encouragement to meditate on thankfulness a blessing. So, even though I'm starting late, I'm going to participate this year too.
God's grace and mercy extended to me
Christ's atoning blood
The sanctifying power of the Holy Spirit
God's sovereignty
My husband
My children
My church
A Christian heritage
After today, I'll be adding my thankful list to my sidebar.
On a related note, I have updated my How to Have Thankful Children page on squidoo. I added a couple of new activities I have found. If you have any links to suggest, I'd be happy to add them. (Note: I'm not looking for Thanksgiving holiday activities, just those that focus on thankfulness.)
Bright Ideas Press is a family-owned and operated company that specializes in "Practical, Fun, and Affordable History, Geography, and Science Resources". Maggie Hogan began homeschooling her now grown sons in 1991. Since there weren't many resources for homeschoolers available then, she got a lot of practice writing her own curriculum. She is now using that expertise as she writes and publishes homeschool curricula by other writers.
I received A Young Scholar's Guide to Composers by Melissa E. Craig, Maggie Hogan, and Richard B. Pinkerton. This year-long study consists of 32 weekly lessons and is designed for students in grades 4-8. Music is studied chronologically with sections devoted to:
Ancient Music to Music in the Middle Ages
Music in the Renaissance
The Baroque Period
The Classical Period
The Romantic Period
The Contemporary Period
Within each of the sections is a general overview of the period, followed by lessons on specific composers.The composer lessons have biographical information as well as specific pieces or styles that the composer is famous for. There is special emphasis on the Christian character, or lack of character, of each composer. Also included in each lesson is a Student review page. These can be used by the students to take notes as they are reading/listening to the lesson, or used after reading to test their retention.
The appendix is what makes this curriculum special. It is over 100 pages long and contains the following sections:
Composer Info Cards
Reproducible Composer Illustrations
Listening Suggestions
Reproducible Timeline
Mapping Exercises
Games
Game Forms
Coloring Pages
Folderbook directions
Composers resource list
Useful websites
Answer keys
Glossary
Certificate of Completion
As you can see, there is a lot more to this curriculum than reading about composers and answering some questions. Included are multiple projects to add fun and aid in student learning.
The book is available in print or on CD. I received the electronic version and I actually prefer it to the print version for two main reasons. First, it is necessary to make multiple copies of many of the pages. This is much easier with the electronic version. In addition, my favorite feature of the electronic version is in the listening suggestions. I've loaded the file on my laptop, so when we want to listen to a sample selection, I can click on the link in the listening suggestions and go directly to the YouTube video and watch it immediately. That is a very helpful feature for us in using the curriculum and makes it a "pick-up and go" curriculum. I don't even have to worry about ordering special music from the library.
So what do I like about A Young Scholar's Guide to Composers? I really like that it is presented chronologically. Rather than use the whole curriculum in one year, I plan to use it as a supplement to our regular history program. When we are studying a time period, I can add the corresponding composers. I also think the lessons are interesting, and I especially like the ease of use of this curriculum. The hands-on projects were a plus too.
The book can be purchased from Bright Ideas Press for $29.95 for the CD, or $34.95 for a printed copy.
You can find more reviews of A Young Scholar's Guide to Composers as well as other products from Bright Ideas Press at the Crew blog.
Disclosure: This product was provided to our family for free as members of the 2009-2010 Old Schoolhouse Magazine Homeschool Crew. Reviews and opinions expressed in this blog are our own.
Last weekend we watched one of our Moody Science videos, Signposts Aloft. The video was about the need for instrument flight in airplanes and how our senses could be fooled without the instruments. They did an interesting demonstration in the video that showed how our sense of motion can be fooled when we can't see. We, of course, decided to try it at home. (They didn't say "Don't try this at home!")
You might need to turn the volume up to hear it.
So, why did this happen? What makes it feel like you've stopped and then begin turning in the opposite direction? It has to do with the fluid in your inner ears. When you first begin to spin, your body is spinning faster than the fluid. Then the fluid "catches up", and when that happens, it feels like you've stopped.
Have you heard about My Audio School? It is a new website filled with audio files of classic books as well as old radio and television shows. The files are divided into chapters and are arranged topically by historical era. A lot of work has gone into compiling this into one SAFE location for your children to listen. The site offers 25% of its content for free, while an annual subscription is just $14.99.
As much as I've been trying to ignore it, Christmas is coming. I've tried putting my fingers in my ears, closing my eyes and humming, but it hasn't worked. I am going to have to get started on Christmas shopping. Perhaps even harder for me is coming up with ideas to give to others about what my family and I would like for Christmas.
Don't get me wrong. I am very grateful for gifts. I actually love receiving gifts. I'm also very glad that some people want to know what I want. I hate being ungrateful, but some of my family members need a little bit of guidance. (Like the year I got a Jerusalem napkin holder and a pair of gold ballet-style slippers from my mother-in-law. Guidance would have been nice.)
I have found that the best tool for figuring out a wish list for everyone is Amazon.com. I have several wish lists at Amazon that I add to throughout the year. But about now (think today!) I've got to add ideas for everyone in the family. The thing that I like about it is that when I think of one idea, then it shows me the things that other people bought at the same time, so I get more ideas, and before long, I've got a wish list several pages long. Not that we get everything. I wouldn't want that. But my mother wants options. So, she gets options. I get to give guidance. And I tell my mother-in-law exactly what to get me. Sometimes I even buy it myself!
I can't believe it's already November. I feel like I have never quite gotten into the swing of things this school year. My plan of "ramping up" to add all of our subjects hasn't exactly worked. We didn't get enough momentum to make it to the top of the ramp and apparently slid right back down to the bottom.
Don't get me wrong. We're getting the basics done. That seems to be what I'm good at. I can schedule the morning independent seat work. It's just the afternoon fun stuff that doesn't get done. So, I'm behind.
A big part of the problem is that I am simply trying to do too much.I know I can't keep up with everything. It's funny how widely varied my responses can be to stress. Sometimes I get depressed and shrink from the work that is calling me. I think I am scared that I won't be able to do it even if I try, so if I don't try, then I haven't really failed. Silly logic, I know.
Other times when I'm stressed I get highly motivated. Usually it's not to do the most important things, but I get really encouraged and excited about accomplishing small things that I've been neglecting. That's where I am right now. I had a huge pile of reading on my nightstand. There were books that I had been putting off for a long time. Some were for reviews, some were just ones that I wanted to read, but was having a tough time getting though. I have been working through the pile and I'm down to 5 books. For some crazy reason that is encouraging to me.
I am also ending the day without any unfinished laundry. (I'm not talking about dirty clothes in the baskets, though that's under control.) I frequently go to bed with a load of clothes still in the dryer. Sometimes I've got one in the washer too. I just feel so much better without half-done laundry hanging over me. (not literally, that would be really strange.) I also organized my daughters' dresser drawers today and then my organizing mood carried over to my own room so I cleaned out one of our chests. Not exactly stuff that was on my urgent to-do list, but I feel amazingly relaxed.
So, with all that said, I'm going to go to bed with a good book.
Chances are, if you've ever searched on-line for a free coloring page or a free worksheet, you've found something at abcteach. They offer over 5000 free worksheets for preschool through jr. high.
But I was not prepared for the 35,000 worksheets available from the members area of the site. Wow! Rather than list them, you can see the complete list of categories, watch a short video, and see some sample worksheets at the benefits page.
One of the things that I found the most useful on the site are the custom worksheet generators.There are step-by-step tutorials, demonstrating how to use the generators. Some of these worksheets include crosswords, word searches, word walls, sudoku, math, and handwriting. The handwriting pages are available in a variety of fonts including Handwriting Without Tears. That one specifically caught my eye since that it the handwriting program we use.
Membership costs $40 for a one year subscription. I think that is a reasonable price for someone who will use the site consistently. However, though I found some things that I thought were neat, I didn't find enough on the site that made me think I needed to subscribe. But, as a confessed curriculum junkie, I've got more homeschool curriculum in my house than I can come close to using this year. (and next!) And I don't really design any of my own studies. I think this site could be used to save a lot of money on curriculum by someone who uses it in place of purchased curriculum. You could generate all your own handwriting and copywork sheets. There is a tonof clipart that could be used designing lapbooks or notebook pages. I think a unit study family might find the site valuable as well. So while I don't personally think I would use the site much, I think there are a lot of homeschoolers who would benefit from a subscription to abcteach.
To see some of the thousands of worksheets available, visit abcteach.com. You can read more reviews of abcteach at the Crew blog.
Disclosure: This product was provided to our family for free as members of the 2009-2010 Old Schoolhouse Magazine Homeschool Crew. Reviews and opinions expressed in this blog are our own.
Another week finished! The year is flying by. I can't believe we're through October already.
Our week started out as a fairly typical week. Everyone is making good progress in their individual studies.
My older son finished Life of Fred: Fractions this week and passed the Final Bridge on the first try! (For those unfamiliar with Life of Fred, there are tests, called bridges, approximately every 5 chapters throughout the book. The regular bridges have 10 questions and the student must get 9 right to continue in the book. There are 5 bridges, so if the student misses more than 1 on the first try, there are more chances. The final bridge has 15 questions and the student can't miss more than 2.) He did miss 2. I had him rework the problems he missed and the next day he started with Life of Fred: Decimals and Percents. The problems that he missed were, not surprisingly, the pure computation ones. I'm still in a struggle with him over WRITING problems down. Sigh.
My older daughter is doing well on all of her subjects. I started All About Spelling with her because I received it to review. I've wanted to try it for a while. I thought it would be a good fit for her, but so far it's way too easy. I need to pick up the pace even more until we get to some problem areas. Her violin lessons are going well. She sounds good (which is amazing too me, not to mention a relief!).
Younger son is reading better all the time. I should probably say decoding instead of reading. He's getting much faster at sounding out words. This week we finished up on -er, -ir-, -ear, words and started on words ending with y. He does well with the games and with Explode the Code. Reading in books is still rather tedious. He is showing a lot of improvement in reading the silly sentences in Explode the Code and he does seem to have good comprehension so that is encouraging.
We started reading By The Shores of Silver Lake. (I should say restarted. We read a portion of it last year while I was reviewing Prairie Primer.) I meant to finish it a long time ago, but it never happened. Now we're going to finish it and decide on some associated projects, because it's the topic of November's Book Club meeting.
We started reading about primates in Apologia Zoology 3. I really appreciate how the author spends the beginning of the lesson distinguishing between humans and animals. We've covered the 2 sub-orders of primates and talked about the "wet-nosed" primates and the "dry-nosed' primates. The dry-nosed are divided into New World and Old World primates. We've studied the New World Primates.
On Friday, my husband had the day off and we had the perfect opportunity for a field trip! So we went to the N.C. Zoo. We've been there many times in the last 9 years since we moved back to N.C. The nice thing is they are always adding new exhibits and redoing old ones. It was great to get a look at the animals we've studied this year, (a few from last year), are currently studying, and will be studying.
Here are a few pictures from our trip. It's hard to narrow it down!
Here's a male baboon. We'll be learning more about baboons next week.
We enjoyed watching the baby baboon especially. I wish my toddlers had a tail like this!
The gorilla, another primate.
Since we just studied reptiles, it was great to see this alligator up close and personal. We also saw lots of snakes and turtles, which for the sake of my blog's speed I will refrain from showing!
My favorites are the otters.
This "geyser" is a new exhibit. I feel an earth science study coming on.
They also have a new honey bee exhibit with a large beehive and a quote from my favorite bear, Winnie the Pooh.
Summary: Pastor Jason Faircloth knows what he believes. His clear faith, in fact, is why he is one of the most prominent pastors in Atlanta. He relies on it to discipline his daughter, his wife, his church. He prays daily that others would come to see God’s ways as he does. And it is about to cost him everything. Groping for answers in the face of tragedy, Jason begins a search for the only family he has left: the granddaughter kept hidden from him. Soon he finds himself on an international adventure that will take him straight into the depths of his soul. He is determined not to fail again. A fast-paced suspense novel rich in spiritual depth, Wisdom Hunter explores what it means to break free of Christian legalism—and discover why grace can mean the difference between life and death.
About the author: Randall Arthur is the bestselling author of Jordan’s Crossing and Brotherhood of Betrayal. He and his wife have served as missionaries to Europe for over thirty years. From 1976 till 1998, he lived in Norway and Germany as a church planter. Since 2000, he has taken numerous missions teams from the United States on trips all over Europe. Arthur is also the founder of the AOK (Acts of Kindness) Bikers’ Fellowship, a group of men who enjoy the sport of motorcycling. He and his family live in Atlanta, Georgia.
My thoughts: Wisdom Hunter is a fast-paced, exciting book. I read the book in just a couple of days because I did not want stop reading it. It was not only exciting, it also forced me to think about my preconceived notions of how a Christian should look and whether those ideas are based on the culture instead of the Bible. I agreed with the author that living a life filled with legalism is not God's plan for His children. However, I did not agree with the author's implication that everything about the way we do church needs to change. There is nothing inherently legalistic about a traditional worship service with singing and preaching. In Wisdom Hunter the author presents an idealized picture of a church with discussion and exchange of ideas instead of preaching. I think there is certainly a place for discussion among Christians, but I also believe that the Biblical model for church is built around preaching from the Word. (Nehemiah 8:8, Acts 2:41-42)
Visit the Random House website for more information or to purchase Wisdom Hunter.
Summary: Security cameras, surveillance of private financial transactions, radio frequency spy chips hidden in consumer products, eavesdropping on e-mail correspondence and phone calls, and Internet tracking. No one is protected, and privacy is a thing of the past. An ultra-secret global elite, functioning as a very real shadow government, controls technology, finance, international law, world trade, political power, and vast military capabilities. These unnamed, unrivaled leaders answer to no earthly authority, and they won’t stop until they control the world. In Shadow Government, prophecy expert Grant Jeffrey removes the screen that, up to now, has hidden the work of these diabolical agents. Jeffrey reveals the biblical description of Satan’s global conquest and identifies the tools of technology that the Antichrist will use to rule the world. Readers will have their eyes opened to the real power that is working behind the scenes to destroy America and merge it into the coming global government. Armed with this knowledge, readers will be equipped to face spiritual darkness with the light of prophetic truth.
Author bio: Grant R. Jeffrey is the internationally known prophecy researcher, Mideast expert, and author of Countdown to the Apocalypse, The New Temple and the Second Coming, The Next World War, and twenty other best-selling books. He is also the editor of the Prophecy Study Bible. His popular television program, Bible Prophecy Revealed, airs weekly on TBN. Jeffrey earned his master’s and PhD degrees from Louisiana Baptist University. He and his wife, Kaye, live in Toronto.
My thoughts: Though this was not my favorite book, it was not entirely the fault of the author. I struggled through this book because many of the subjects it contained were not of particular interest to me. I read with some interest about all the secret alliances, new technology capable of tracking people, and new weapons technology. While I do believe in a literal anti-Christ and in a coming one-world government, I was left wondering what to do about all of the information pertaining to the "shadow government." If Mr. Jeffrey believes, like I think he does, that the one-world government, led by the anti-Christ is an unchangeable fact of the future, then how does this knowledge help us? What is the call to action? I'm reminded that most Christians throughout history have believed that they were living in the last days. I think God designed it that way. I do see the author's point that all of this new technology does seem to facilitate many of the aspects depicted in Daniel's 70th week, but merely making these things possible does not necessitate that the events of this prophecy are imminent. I think that many readers will find this book fascinating, but they will be left to themselves to figure out what to do with the information.
Shadow Government is available to purchase at Random House.
Disclosure: As a member of the WaterBrook Multnomah Blogging for Books program, I received both of these books for free in exchange for my honest review.
My days are never dull as a homeschooling mother of 4 children. This blog contains views of our life, reviews of homeschool curriculum, book reviews, and helpful hints for homeschooling.
Exploramania is an educational company that is committed to developing products that engage children both mentally and physically. They use a multiple sensory approach to learning. I received a unique product called Gymathics to review.
I participated in this challenge last year and found the extra encouragement to meditate on thankfulness a blessing. So, even though I'm starting late, I'm going to participate this year too.
Summary: Pastor Jason Faircloth knows what he believes. His clear faith, in fact, is why he is one of the most prominent pastors in Atlanta. He relies on it to discipline his daughter, his wife, his church. He prays daily that others would come to see God’s ways as he does. And it is about to cost him everything. Groping for answers in the face of tragedy, Jason begins a search for the only family he has left: the granddaughter kept hidden from him. Soon he finds himself on an international adventure that will take him straight into the depths of his soul. He is determined not to fail again. A fast-paced suspense novel rich in spiritual depth, Wisdom Hunter explores what it means to break free of Christian legalism—and discover why grace can mean the difference between life and death.
Summary: Security cameras, surveillance of private financial transactions, radio frequency spy chips hidden in consumer products, eavesdropping on e-mail correspondence and phone calls, and Internet tracking. No one is protected, and privacy is a thing of the past. An ultra-secret global elite, functioning as a very real shadow government, controls technology, finance, international law, world trade, political power, and vast military capabilities. These unnamed, unrivaled leaders answer to no earthly authority, and they won’t stop until they control the world. In Shadow Government, prophecy expert Grant Jeffrey removes the screen that, up to now, has hidden the work of these diabolical agents. Jeffrey reveals the biblical description of Satan’s global conquest and identifies the tools of technology that the Antichrist will use to rule the world. Readers will have their eyes opened to the real power that is working behind the scenes to destroy America and merge it into the coming global government. Armed with this knowledge, readers will be equipped to face spiritual darkness with the light of prophetic truth. 
