Grace-Filled Writer

A Loyal Heart: A BookLook Blogger Review

December 3, 2016 Grace-Filled Writer

Shelley Shepard Gray is an author I discovered first through BookLook. I very much enjoyed her previous historical novel series. She is also known for writing Amish fiction which isn’t my preferred genre. I was excited to have the opportunity to review another book from this author.

The setting is post-Civil War, reconstruction era Texas. This was a very dark time for the nation. Lincoln has been assassinated and the war-torn South struggled to recover economically and emotionally. The tone of the novel solidly conveys these difficult times from the perspective of a young widow and an officer committed to following through with a promise made to her husband.

This novel did have a slower pace at the beginning, but I think this plays into the emotion of the characters. I appreciated that I really got to know the hero and heroine before the story-line developed too much. There is much to be said for character development which is often sorely lacking in modern novels. The story evolves in a believable way and I like many of the secondary characters just as much as the main protagonists.

Overall this novel was a solid story which feels like a deeper read than much of today’s modern literature. I look forward to the author’s next novel with great anticipation.

Disclaimer: I received this novel from BookLook in exchange for my honest review. All opinions are my own. I was not required to write a positive review.

The Captain Takes a Wife: A BookLook Blogger Review

December 3, 2016 Grace-Filled Writer

The Captain Takes a Wife is an interesting novel about a soldier-turned preacher and a young woman in trouble.The story opens with the hero being thrown into a situation where he must rescue the heroine. He is encouraged by trusted friends to jump right in with faith into an odd relationship with a complete stranger. (I’m being cryptic a bit because I don’t want to spoil the story for you!) Through a chain of unexpected events which happen to be captured by a reporter, his life is changed forever in a matter of just a few hours.

I was honestly not very captured by the story-line. The premise felt awkward and unbelievable. Yes, I know fiction often has aspects which are far from reality which is part of its charm, but in this case it did not seem to fit well and comfortably. In this case I believe part of the problem was the readers did not have the opportunity to really learn about the character of the hero or heroine before a very dramatic change in their circumstance occurred. This led to my feeling it was an unrealistic storyline.

I also felt the character development was sorely lacking. While the characters did change and grow in some regard, it felt forced. This is a wholesome novel and also a light read so it would potentially make for a good change from your ordinary fictional fare, but overall I was disappointed in the story-line and it did not keep my attention very well.

Disclaimer: I received this novel from BookLook in exchange for my honest review. All opinions are my own. I was not required to write a positive review.

Memory making!

December 3, 2016 Grace-Filled Writer

It’s been a while since I posted the scrapbooking pages I’ve been working on. I’m sooooo excited to be on Libby Pritchett’s creative team! These first two layouts are from her newest kits! I’m working on our 2016 book, a book for my husband’s 40th birthday back in August, and a few pages from 2009 because yes, I am behind. It’s nice to have several projects going. I don’t get bored this way!

Mistletoe Mania

by Libby Pritchett and Erica Zane

Krafty Christmas

by Libby Pritchett & Melissa Bennett

A Marvelous Tune

by Libby Pritchett

I’m With the Band

by Traci Reed

Marching Band

by Connie Prince

Berry Berry Blue

By Chelle’s Creations

(retired)

In the Backyard

By Chelle’s Creations

(retired)

In the Backyard

By Chelle’s Creations

(retired)

Put a Ring on It

By Chelle’s Creations

(retired)

Peek at our Week: November 28- December 2

December 2, 2016 Grace-Filled Writer

Back to “full school” as the girls call our regular studies! We will have one more week and then a break from the regular for about a month. Between our Christmas celebrations, recital, vacations, and general busyness of the season I love that we can take a break this way!

The girls were working really hard Wednesday morning to get their work done before their science class at our local homeschool learning center. On Wednesdays and Fridays we only do basics: Math, English, and Bible. Monday, Tuesday, and Thursday are reserved for our Heart of Dakota curriculum.

Grace: Bigger Hearts for His Glory Unit 25

Grace is enjoying learning cursive! She has been wanting to do so for a while. We are using Handwriting Without Tears mostly because it was given to us by someone who decided not to use it. I’ve used various handwriting curriculum. We loved Fundanoodle for print and this was a good transition for cursive for us.

She is happy we are moving into more about colonial America with our history studies. She loves learning about kids from that time period. She’s also excited about our history and science activities. She also loves reading and spelling. Not to mention grammar…Okay, so you can see this little girl just loves to learn no matter what it is about!

Grace begin cheer leading with Upwards Sports this week. It is exactly her niche and we feel comfortable with the program as opposed to some of the other cheer programs we have seen.

Beth: Preparing Hearts for His Glory Unit 33

Beth has become so very independent! This is great as we will be very soon moving into the Creation to Christ which is very independent. We will do some work together, but most of this history will be independent with just check-ins with me. I’m so happy to see her growing this way.

She told me today how much she loves spelling, especially All About Spelling. I’m glad to hear it, but I’m trying to rework how and when we do those lessons. It is getting harder to fit it in as they have more and more work to do. I’ll be trying to figure this out over the next weeks.

Rose: Resurrection to Reformation Unit 17

Half-way through!!!! We are using this guide for 6th grade and she is flourishing! We will probably end this before the year is over and start the next guide. Rose is getting much better about completing her work more diligently and with greater effort. I’m sure this will ebb and flow, but for now we are in a “flowing” season. Yay!

She’s continuing to read Anne of Green Gables and seems to enjoy it. I’m in the process of creating a list of classics for her to read. Math is stable too which is a nice reprieve! She’s growing up so very much, but still very much a kid at times and that is exciting. She will begin basketball with Upwards this coming week and she cannot wait for that!

Happy December!

Christmas Lights!

November 28, 2016 Grace-Filled Writer

We had such a fun time on Sunday night visiting a park about 90 minutes away that has an incredible light show! I went when I was a kid and it was about a mile long. Now there are four amazing miles of this beautiful wonderland!

We shopped afterwards for some unique Christmas gifts at the shop.

The girls fell asleep on the drive home.

Grace is faking being asleep. She was in charge of the phone at the moment while they listened to Adventures in Odyssey.

Rose picked out a new Adventures in Odyssey while her sister slept on her lap!

It was a wonderful way to end our Thanksgiving celebration week!

Peek at our Week: November 21-23

November 27, 2016 Grace-Filled Writer

You’ll notice the shortened week. I’m sure quite a few of you take off the entire week and we have done that before. Recently on our off weeks we have been learning, just not with the intensity of study we do the rest of the weeks. I have collected all sorts of wonderful books, unit studies, and activities throughout the years so I’m finding ways to utilize them better. This was the perfect week to really delve into the lives of the pilgrims! There are some great resources we used. I’ll list the books here and some links if I can find them, but no affiliate marketing is contained within those links! Click on the pictures of the books to see where you can purchase them.

All week we listened to Adventures in Odyssey through the Odyssey Adventure Club app which were themed to Thanksgiving. This is such a great program that I listened to when I was a kid in the 80s and now my kids can enjoy it as I did! We are huge fans of this production and we absolutely LOVE being part of the Odyssey Adventure Club! If you want to give it a try they have a 2-week free trial offer.

One of my favorite places to find unique activities for elementary and middle school is Scholastic Teacher’s Express. I have purchased quite a few pdf books from them and use them frequently to supplement our regular curriculum or for units like this. This week we used this book. The girls made fold away Mayflower ships, maps of the Mayflower’s journey, and a comparison of old world and new world life. You’ll want to get on their mailing address because there are periodically $1 ebook sales. That is how I’ve amassed my collection from this company!

Here are some of the books we enjoyed during the week

Magic Treehouse Research Guide: Pilgrims

The Pilgrims of Plimoth

Three Young Pilgrims

Giving Thanks: The 1621 Harvest Feast

On the Mayflower

…If You Sailed on the Mayflower in 1620

These have all been given to us by friends, grandparents, and retired teachers. What a blessing it is when people give us goodies like these! I have several others, but this is what we used for this year.

We also used several wonderful resources that I pieced together to complete our unit of study!

A Thanksgiving Hymn Study from Kim Sorgius

Thanksgiving Psalms from Draw to Learn: The Book of Psalm from The Notgrass Company

The Thanksgiving Story from Homeschool Patriot (freebie!!!)

Various coloring pages from What’s in the Bible

While I read the girls worked on their project by coloring, cutting, or taping.

They loved the detailed coloring of their projects and Grace only needed a little help with the cutting.

Learning in this creative way is so much fun. All three girls have studied the Pilgrims extensively through Heart of Dakota so much of what we talked about was review. Still, there were some new things the girls learned especially about how difficult the voyage really was, that surprised them.

We had an enormous Thanksgiving feast with my parents and then decorated the tree. My girls are so sweet to pose for me! I couldn’t get a good picture in action because there was soooo much action with the decorating! So they very sweetly posed and giggled for my picture!

I hope you all had a wonderful Thanksgiving week and are excited as we head into this most joyous season of celebrating Christ’s birth!

Peek at our Week: November 14-18

November 19, 2016 Grace-Filled Writer

One more week until we get a break for Thanksgiving! I have mentioned before we follow a 6-week schooling schedule, but we do take special breaks for holidays! Thanksgiving is coming and I have some fun stuff planned for the week!

The girls are at their grandparent’s house for the weekend. They get to visit with them about every 4-6 weeks. It’s wonderful for them to spend that time with them and nice for us since we are around one another 24-7 it does us all some good to have a little break. My mom is an amazing cook and has been teaching the girls about baking and cooking. Dad plays a lot of games with them and Rose especially enjoys playing basketball against him. I am spending the weekend decorating for Christmas! We will save the tree for the girls to get home though.

Here are a few highlights from the week!

Beth: Preparing Hearts for His Glory Unit 32

I’ve just realized almost all of my pictures of Beth are of her working on math! She really does other work, but this is one of her favorite subjects because it come easily. She does frustrate us sometimes because she hates to do extra steps which she feels are unnecessary, like writing out the operations she used for word problems. Since she rarely ever makes a mistake it is very difficult to explain the reason why she needs to do this!

We are edging nearer and nearer to the end of the guide. I asked her what her favorite part was and she responds, “All of it!” That is honestly how we feel about this particular guide and really all of the Heart of Dakota guides. I do know that one of her favorite portions is poetry. She really enjoys the writing and practicing rhyme scheme (which I assign every week). Interestingly enough, as much as she enjoys and genuinely understands the poetry, she much prefers to create prose for the writing assignments. Even so, it is quite creative and full of beautiful imagery.

Grace: Bigger Hearts for His Glory Unit 24

I’ve been working really hard recently to make sure I get the extra activities in for Grace. Because she is the youngest and my older girls have more in depth studies sometimes I would forget to do these with her. It wasn’t intentional, but I realized I just wasn’t giving her all that she really needed and I’ve been striving to do this better. I reworked the days we do some of the activities and that has helped tremendously. We are all over the place with completing the guide in that we do not follow the strict day-by-day scheduling anyway. So all history activities occur on Tuesdays (usually) and all science activities on Thursdays (usually).

She read about King David hiding in the caves this week to correlate with some of her history readings about the early years of our country. Here she is using oatmeal to create some of the different rock formations mentioned in Scripture. There is something so very meaningful and creative about learning through touch this way.

Rose: Resurrection to Reformation Unit 16

Rose has very much enjoyed the maps she works on every week. I love that Heart of Dakota utilizes the Map Trek maps from Knowledge Quest. They are assigned in the older guides, but I purchased all of their sets one year when the were on sale one year and we use them with all of the guides when I can. I also love their biographies and often supplement with those as well.

We are very close to the half-way mark in the guide which is very exciting! Math continues to be her least favorite subject, but taking time away from our main curriculum to solidify the concept of fractions and how factors/multiples relate to them has been incredibly beneficial. I truly believe that second to the discipleship training I am able to give my girls this is the best part of homeschooling. I can make sure the girls can master the concepts they struggle with in any subject and help them to grow at a pace which is most beneficial to them!

We are beginning to focus more on reading classics with Rose. This week she began Anne of Green Gables and I am on the lookout for classic stories she can read. She devours the written word so other “fun” books are easy for her to get into. This will help stretch her vocabulary and prepare for harder works of literature in the coming years.

Here are our sweet pets! Lucy and Penny love laying in the sunshine when I open the front door on these cold days. We live in the south, so I know cold is very much relative!

I’d love to hear how your week has gone!

Peek at our Week: November 7-11

November 12, 2016 Grace-Filled Writer

Our routine is pretty much down and the girls are doing well with that. Our six weeks schedule (6 weeks of school and one week off) has done so much to settle our year and the girls’ attitudes in general. If you are struggling in your year to make things really mesh I’d suggest you give this a try.

And onto our week!

Grace: Unit 22 Little Hearts for His Glory

As always little miss Grace eagerly dives into everything we do no matter what it is. All of my girls loved this guide and I’m sort of sad to see it come to an end this third time! She absolutely loves poetry and though sometimes she doesn’t understand it, she is excited to learn!

We used the tile number board for math this week to practice odd and even numbers. A dear, dear friend n our church is a retired 2nd grade teacher. She has blessed us with a wonderful assortment of manipulatives, curriculum, folder games, books, and more. Such a blessing!

Beth: Unit 32 Preparing Hearts for His Glory

As we continue to creep to the end of the guide, it just keeps getting better! It has been a little harder to get through since we finished up Grandpa’s Box. I’ve never been very happy with A Child’s History of the World, but haven’t found an age-appropriate replacement that we aren’t using in a different guide. I’m currently searching out options as I think ahead for when Grace gets to this guide in another year-and-a-half or so.

Beth is much more patient these days with herself and understanding that as she gets older she will have more work. That was incredibly frustrating for her at the beginning of this guide. It has taken nearly the entire thing, but she has resigned herself and even jumped on board with the idea of maturing in her education.

Rose: Unit15 Resurrection to Reformation

Rose is growing up so quickly. Those around us notice it and I hear about it all the time. I have moments where my heart squeezes so tightly as I realize my oldest baby is growing up. Even though I’ve seen this many times over as a teacher of middle schoolers, it’s a strange feeling to watch it unfolding in my own house. She’s becoming more independent and I’m giving her a few more freedoms. It’s beautiful to see her growing into the young lady she is becoming, but also difficult. I know other mamas reading this can relate!

She has absolutely loved studying the medieval period. She made a coat of arms online with the recommended website in the guide. This was great except for the fact that our printer decided to start acting up and we couldn’t get it to actually print. I’m hoping my husband can help out with this and we can get it printed soon.

We’ve hit a little hiccup in math in studying common denominators. So we’re taking a little break and working through the process through Math Mammoth. Hopefully this will help cement the concept for Rose. We’ll be right back into Principals for Mathematics when we finish this side unit. We own the entire Math Mammoth program and I love that I can use it as grade-level or as units.

As the week ended we spied the super moon!

I hope you all had a great week!

Peek at Our Week: October 31-November 4

November 9, 2016 Grace-Filled Writer

I had two very exciting opportunities open up this week! I was invited to be on the 2017 Old Schoolhouse Review Crew and to be on the Creative Team for the digital scrapbook designer Libby Pritchett Designs! I was on the Review Crew in 2013, but had to step away from that for a season. I was also on a digital scrapbooking creative team several years ago, but when the designer’s stores closed I never really actively sought out another team. Both of these opportunities were a great encouragement for me this week! I was feeling inspired and finished quite a few pages in the evenings after the girls went to bed.

For the most part school went well.We completed my list so that means it was a good week!

Rose: Resurrection to Reformation Unit 14

We finished up the Middle Ages and are anticipating moving into the Renaissance period. This is really such a rich program for history and it only gets better as the kids grow. Rose is learning independence also means accountability in a different way and she’s growing in this area as well.

Applying her love of art to creating a replica flag from the Middle Ages

Math is still our most difficult subject to wade through together. We love Principles of Mathematics, but when we get to something that is a more challenging subject we review through the topic again with Math Mammoth. I like having this freedom. I wish I could find a magic solution, but I’m finding that since this is not a subject she enjoys we just have to keep moving and have patience. My husband helps out in this a lot as I don’t always know how to explain a mathematical concept in a way she will fully understand, especially if the way the book presents it doesn’t quite take.

Beth: Preparing Hearts for His Glory Unit 31

Beth is becoming more focused in her studies and wanting to dive more deeply into what she is learning. Up until recently she completed her work without much complaint (usually!) but just did the minimum I asked and never offered to ask any further questions or see out anymore information. Now, it’s very different. We have a shelf of history books that are arranged by order or historical period. I’m finding her more and more asking more questions and seeking out information on her own. She’s also picking up more books on her own beyond the reading I require.

Creating a Medieval Pendant out of clay. She then colored her design with Sharpie Markers

Beth continues to enjoy the projects and is really progressing with her narration both oral and written. It’s been so fun to see her growth from when we paused at the beginning of the summer to now. Math comes very easily to her and for a kid like that Math Mammoth is wonderful. She usually understands the teaching without much input from me. I have her explain the concepts and she always seems to know what she is doing. My theory is the reason for this is Beth has been homeschooled from the beginning, so her math had a more natural flow upwards rather than the every-kid-in-the-same-box traditional schools tend to follow. I can’t prove it, but it seems to be the reality for our kids.

Grace: Beyond Little Hearts for His Glory Unit 22

Grace is excited every week: The end. What else can a parent want besides a child who jumps at the chance to learn, no matter what the subject. This girl loves rabbit trails!

Daddy helps out with school on Mondays and in the afternoons if we don’t finish everything.

She is very patient and understanding that I can’t always give her my undivided attention. I do make sure I give her enough time, but since her guide doesn’t take as long it isn’t difficult. I am excited that we are moving on into the Revolutionary War period of history. She’s learning about Boston and many of the historical places connected to the birth of our nation. I hope to take the girls on a trip in the next couple of years northward so we can see some of these places in person.

Some other things we did this week:

1. Voted Early

2. Watched Annie (The original)

3. Dressed up and played pretend

What fun things did you do this week?

Digital Scrapbook Layouts Week of 10/31

November 4, 2016 Grace-Filled Writer

I’m so thrilled to have been invited to join Libby Pritchett‘s Creative Digital Scrapbooking Team! You’ll start to see lots of things from her amazing collection in my pages.

I’m currently working on 4 different scrapbooks. I’m finishing up our family 2008 scrapbook, working through 2016 so I don’t keep getting behind, a Disney trip, and my husband’s 40th birthday celebration book. Phew! You’ll see all sorts of different things here because of that!