Artistic Pursuits Full Video Lesson Grades K-3 from ARTistic Pursuits Inc.: A TOS Crew Review

Grace-Filled Writer
ARTistic Pursuits

Teaching art can be a pretty intimidating prospect for homeschooling parents. We see the value, but unless we have had a thorough art education ourselves it is a subject that can feel overly difficult and get set on the back burner. I don’t believe any family would deny the value of art education, but finding the right resources to effectively and systematically teach this subject matters. You won’t need to look any further than ARTistic Pursuits Inc.. This well-established company knows how to make art fun for the student and simple for the teacher! We reviewed Art for Children, Building a Visual Vocabulary, part of the ARTistic Pursuits Art Instruction Books with DVD and Blu-Ray from ARTistic Pursuits Inc.

ARTistic Pursuits

 For this particular course I allowed my 12-year-old to be the teacher to her younger sister, Grace, who is 8. Rose has a strong love of all things art, both its creation and history. She desires to be an art teacher one day and is often looking for opportunities to spread her wings. I love giving her these chances and I have the opportunity to guide her along the way. We all liked the layout of the hard-cover book. It is engaging and vibrant as well as laid out in a clear and consistently organized manner.

I love that the textbook is for both the teacher and student so there are not lots of unneeded extras lying around. I also really like how classic works of art are used to teach various concepts. In this title there are a wide variety of mediums used so students can have the opportunity to explore all sorts of different types of art including paper folding, sketches, oil pastels, water color crayons and more! In addition to learning different mediums students are also taught artistic techniques. Some are basic and some are quite complex. The lesson on drawing figures teaches body proportion and is full of clear instruction and tips. 


One of girls’ favorite lessons was learning about texture and using oil pastels. Rose sat with Grace and walked through the lesson in the book. Grace enjoyed having her sister teach her for this course!
The book is very easy to go through, making it perfect for anyone! Rose has not had extensive art lessons, just what she has picked up on her own and through books. This shows me that anyone can pick this up and use it! Grace had so much fun creating and learning. 
Although this is geared towards K-3 I think all ages can benefit from the art techniques taught. It is not a “crafting” sort of curriculum as some art I have seen. Rather it teaches very clear art technique using famous art for observation. I as well appreciate the diversity represented in the artistic styles, but also the cultural diversity in the historical art chosen. Art spans all cultures and heritage and I love having my kids see this represented in a curriculum. 

 
We all highly recommend this and other levels from ARTistic Pursuits Inc. I had the chance to stop by their booth when we were at a homeschool conference a few weeks ago! It was so fun to see the wide variety of options available!

Don’t forget to check out what my Crewmates have to say! 

Artistic Pursuits Full Video Lesson Grades K-3 {ARTistic Pursuits Reviews}Crew Disclaimer

Week in Review: June 4-8

Grace-Filled Writer
We are still working through math and language arts while tossing in some other various things for review and fun! This was also the first event for all three of my girls clogging! We visited a local nursing home with our clogging team. It was so fun to see all three dancing. Beth had a great time last year, but she seems to be having even more fun with her sisters involved!

Aren’t they darling in their calico dresses? Both Rose and Grace were a bit nervous, but they did great and had fun. Here are some action shots!

The World’s Story 1: The Ancients – A New Book Review Crew at NLPG review

Grace-Filled Writer
History…possibly the most important subject taught in school. Although mathematics and reading are vital to function in everyday society, history is the story of who we are as a people and how we came to be where we are. Many in the world today are looking to gloss over hard things in history, pretending it never really happened. Some countries even have leadership which denies certain provable and documented aspects of history. We need quality resources like The World’s Story 1: The Ancients by Angela O’Dell from Master Books.
The World's Story 1: The Ancients
The very first year we homeschooled our curriculum covered the story of the Pilgrims in very great detail. This was first grade. It became increasingly apparent to me that I was given a very minimalist view of history, one that did not include the God of this universe. My dad loves history and he supplemented my school learning with wonderful facts and stories. I decided I wanted to teach my children as my dad taught me, with living history. The problem I came across was a lack of God-centric living world history books. The most commonly used world history book in homeschool circles started with evolutionary teaching and put all religions on an equal playing field. We are very open about other religions on our home, but we do not say they are equal and viable options. While I have used this book, and others, I always have had to stop and teach the biblical view of false religions. Yes, it has provided some excellent conversations, but I felt there must be a better way! I was right.

This history book is by far my favorite I have ever read. So much so I’m reading it through for myself first which I honestly don’t do that often! Angela O’Dell writes in a beautifully conversational way, just what those of us who love living history like. Beautifully vibrant art graces nearly every page and delights your eyes. The most important aspect, however, is that the author believes the Bible is the true, historical account of God’s story, preserved by Him through time. She does not shy away from hard things like evolution, ancient mythology, or even the belief some hold onto of early alien visitations! The key to teaching and learning these hard things is to do so with the Bible beside you as your guide. 

One concern I have with some history books which are labeled as Christian is the decided European perspective. They basically center their teachings in the Europe. While European history is important, so are African, Asian, and Ancient American histories. I really love the inclusion of all of these cultures which gives a very different view of what was happening world-wide after the tower of Babel than any other world history book I have viewed. 

This coming fall Grace will dive into world history with me. She will officially be in 3rd grade and we will still be using our core curriculum. The difference from her sisters will be that we have a solid Bible-centered history text to draw from and I can’t wait to dive in with her! 

Disclaimer: I received a FREE copy of this product through the New Book Review Crew at NLPG in exchange for my honest review.  I was not required to write a positive review nor was I compensated in any other way.  All opinions I have expressed are my own or those of my family.  I am disclosing this in accordance with the FTC Regulations.

Gospel Reset: A New Book Review Crew at NLPG review

Grace-Filled Writer
Have you noticed that our society has changed rapidly? It seems that almost daily something new an different is the trend and it is hard to keep up. One thing that never changes is the truth of God’s Word. Paul talks about reaching others for Christ by determining how to relate to those around him in 1 Corinthians 9:19-23. Romans 12:2 then guides us to remember to be conformed to God’s will rather than the world’s. The pairing of these two ideas is the theme behind Ken Ham‘s new book from New Leaf Publishing Group, Gospel Reset: Salvation Made Relevant.



Ham does an excellent job of outlining the reason for a change in how we take the gospel to our culture. In all honesty, reaching the lost has become a bit of a cross-cultural experience for those of us who grew up in solidly Christian homes. Where as the generation before me had a basic understanding of and respect for the Bible, my generation generally does not. 

The most insightful moments of how the culture has changed were the percentage graphs broken up by age. One of the reasons this really hit me was that the small congregation my husband pastors is generally older and we are often trying to answer the question why there aren’t more young people in the church. These graphics give a clear, visual understanding as to the shift in culture based on generational breakdowns. 

The conclusion is that we must reset our thinking and presentation of the gospel in order to meet the masses where they are, a place of very little knowledge or understanding of the God of the Bible. I think the greatest benefit of this book is opening the eyes of the generations who continue to lament the overall social change of the American landscape, but still assume the average person has a basic working knowledge of the Bible. This is simply not true. My one disappointment was that there was only one chapter dedicated to how to do this now. The information presented in this chapter was excellent and I agreed 100%, I would just like to have had more. 

I personally think this is an excellent tool for anyone within an aging congregation. The first step to fixing any problem is fully understanding the problem. The significant problem now is not knowing how to effectively share the gospel to a generation who has no working knowledge of the Bible. We need to know the Word of God so we can share it with the world!

Disclaimer: I received a FREE copy of this product through the New Book Review Crew at NLPG in exchange for my honest review.  I was not required to write a positive review nor was I compensated in any other way.  All opinions I have expressed are my own or those of my family.  I am disclosing this in accordance with the FTC Regulations.

NIV Kids’ Visual Study Bible: A BookLook Blogger Review!

Grace-Filled Writer

I love all the new resource Bibles now available for kids! I had a Precious Moments Bible when I was a kid and a Teen Adventure Bible when I was in middle school/high school. Do you remember those? One of my favorite parts of those Bibles was the “extra” features. There were little tidbits that let you dig deeper into various parts of Scripture. There were also beautiful pictures I very much enjoyed just looking at over and over again. The key with a resource Bible it to give kids the desire to dive in on their own. This is exactly what the NIV Kids’ Visual Study Bible does.

One look at the cover and my kids were ready to dive into the pages. They are very busy pages for sure. This is not a bad thing, but if your child is easily distracted or needs a simpler reading experience, keep this in mind. My girls really enjoyed finding out the history. I did note, however that in Sunday School they would often forget to listen to the teacher (Sometimes me, sometimes not) because they were reading all the extras. Again, it’s just good to know if this would best suit your home environment or church.

The one thing I do not prefer is that it seems to be only available in the NIV. I’m not anti different translations, and I do know this is one of the easier to read versions for younger kids, but we do all of our studying out of a different translation. It is nice to keep things consistent through AWANA and school as much as possible. NIV is not mine or my husband’s preferred version for a few reasons, but this is the only version option. I would like to see this and other Bibles provide at least a few translation options. I realize there is a cost factor to it, but I do think your audience is limited when you provide a beautiful resource Bible like this but only use one specific translation. The side elements should still relate and be the same as cultural and historical facts won’t change from one translation to the next.

Overall my kids loved this and I do recommend it as a great resource for studying more in depth about life and times of the Bible.

Disclaimer: I received a FREE copy of this product through BookLook Bloggers in exchange for my honest review.  I was not required to write a positive review nor was I compensated in any other way.  All opinions I have expressed are my own or those of my family.  I am disclosing this in accordance with the FTC Regulations.

The Berenstain Bears Bless Our Gramps and Gran: A BookLook Blogger Review!

Grace-Filled Writer
https://i0.wp.com/www.booklookbloggers.com/art/_240_360_Book.2301.cover.jpg 

Grace is in 2nd grade and has always loved the Bearenstain Bears! Every time we have a chance to read a new title she jumps at the chance. In fact she has a collection at both our house and my parent’s house. 

This sweet little title,  The Berenstain Bears Bless Our Gramps and Gran, is perfect for our girls. They are very close to both sets of their grandparents. The basic premise of the story is the three bear cubs working together alongside their parents to celebrate their Gramps and Gran. They want to give them a memorable Grandparents Day and put a lot of love and effort into the preparations so their grandparents feel just how appreciated they really are. This is an excellent way to introduce Grandparent’s Day as a holiday and plan your own celebration of family with your kids!

 So many extended families are struggling with relationship problems. Family gatherings are full of tension and pain and very real hurt. Our family isn’t perfect. We have tension and conflict, but in the end we do what we can to keep our relationships in tact, and that makes us more than a little bit unique. Having precious children’s book that depicts healthy relationships is so wonderful and needed. Children need to see a happy family depicted so they can see it is possible. 

I love the family friendly and sweet values consistently portrayed in this series. The family attends church and Sunday School and problems are dealt with in a healthy manner. I’m never disappointed when I hand a title to my Bear-loving 8-year-old. You will love it too! 

Disclaimer: I received a FREE copy of this product through BookLook Bloggers in exchange for my honest review.  I was not required to write a positive review nor was I compensated in any other way.  All opinions I have expressed are my own or those of my family.  I am disclosing this in accordance with the FTC Regulations.

Traditional Logic I Complete Set from Memoria Press: A TOS Crew Review

Grace-Filled Writer

Memoria Press Memoria Press is well known throughout the homeschooling community for it’s high academic standards and quality teaching materials. We have utilized other titles from this company and I have found them to be rigorous and deep. While we do not follow a classical model for our educational endeavors I do find this a particularly useful style for certain subject areas. Rose had the opportunity to work through a portion of Traditional Logic I Complete Set as part of her coursework. This is a very new area for her and she dove in with gusto! Traditional Logic I Complete Set  Included with the set is an instructional DVD, a text book, a student workbook, a quizzes and tests booklet, and the teacher key with answers for the workbook, quizzes, and tests.This is quite a bit of material and the nice thing about the DVD is it takes me as the teacher out of the mix! I love being a facilitator of learning for my daughters. Sometimes it means I’m directly teaching, but in this case it just means providing the opportunity. This means my girl is learning how to learn on her own. Having a fully qualified teacher instruct my daughter in logic via DVD is definitely my preference for this particular discipline.  

After watching the DVD Rose worked through the workbook pages as she read the text. I like giving her the opportunity to do both at the same time as it teaches to read for information. This is completely new territory for Rose as she has not studied logic as such in our lessons prior to this course. She was surprised that she was learning how to argue! It provided and excellent opportunity to discuss this type of arguing verses being divisive. I told her what a benefit the use of classic logic based on Aristotelian teaching would be as she shares and defends her faith in the future. 

 Since this style of learning is very different for Rose I had her work a bit more slowly through the course. It is geared towards middle and high schoolers, but it is an intense course and I think best suited to high school or advanced middle school. We will definitely continue with this course and most likely the follow up as well. I highly recommend it if you are looking for a good course on logic!
See what my Crewmates have to say about this and other courses from Memoria Press!  New American Cursive & Traditional Logic {Memoria Press Reviews}Crew Disclaimer

Understanding Pre-Algebra from The Critical Thinking Co.™: A TOS Crew Review

Grace-Filled Writer

The Critical Thinking Co.™  If you’ve followed my blog at all you know math is the one area I feel the least confident in teaching. My own feelings of inadequacy stem from confusion during my grade-school years. When I’m looking for a math curriculum I want it to be simple to teach and simple to complete. 


My husband has been taking over the math teaching for the girls for most of this year. He was intending to become a math teacher before he felt God’s call into ministry. He has what one would call a mathematical mind. Things make sense to him with numbers where it somewhat mystifies me. My daughters also seem to be responding well to this change, but I wanted to give teaching
Understanding Pre-Algebra from The Critical Thinking Co.™a try for myself. 
The layout of the book is very simple The teaching portion is short and direct with practice after. Since Rose is already working through a Pre-Algebra course we started in Geometry, a section we have not yet covered this year. I was very pleased to find it easy to teach, even for someone who feels somewhat lost in the world of mathematics. I would review the material first and then sit with her while we worked through it. While we focused heavily in the geometry section this is one of the most comprehensive pre-algebra courses I have seen. It covers algebraic equations, graphing, and even basic number theory. It is definitely a full course and will more than prepare your student to be successful in an algebra I course.

I liked the step-by-step breakdowns and the fact that only a single topic was covered with connections to previous lessons when needed. The layout was appealing and organized, something very important for a math book! There was space lacking for working out some of the problems. Some kids will do this math in their heads, but Rose needs to put pencil to paper for accuracy. Here she is doing some of the steps on a separate page before transferring the answers to the paper.
This is available as both a digital and print edition. We received the print edition, and I greatly appreciated that there is permission given to make copies within your family. I reuse our materials as much as possible and love having this option. 
While I really loved the simplicity and structure of this course, Rose was not as big of a fan of the new book. She said she wanted to have more application to real life. While I see her point, I think the problem for her was simply a change from routine. She actually did quite well with the work and recalled concepts without any problems. As with most math books she expressed she felt there were too many practice problems. I strongly disagree. I thought there were just the right amount and I did not feel it was redundant or unnecessary in length. 


While I did appreciate the simplicity of teaching, I felt as if the book was written more to be done independently by a student rather than taught by the teacher. I find this fantastic, but it is not the best way for Rose to learn math. Beth, who will be coming up to Pre-Algebra in a year or so, is a completely different story. She excels when given work she can master without our input. She also loves mathematics and is generally able to complete her daily work with little help from either my husband or myself and with a high percentage of accuracy when I check it. After seeing how things are presented I’m intending to have Beth start this course next year as a 6th grader. I think she will be ready and it definitely lends itself more towards her learning style than Rose’s. 
There are so many options for mathematics and it can feel overwhelming. This is not a course I realized existed and if you are looking for a no-frills, just the facts type of core for pre-algebra, this is definitely a course worth exploring. 
We on the Crew reviewed quite a few other titles from The Critical Thinking Co.™. Make sure to take some time to check them all out! I’m very impressed with this company which is a new resource for our family and will be checking into some of these other titles myself! Critical Thinking, Understanding Math & Vocabulary {The Critical Thinking Co.™ Reviews}Make sure to check out the other reviews from my Crewmates! Critical Thinking, Understanding Math & Vocabulary {The Critical Thinking Co.™ Reviews}Crew Disclaimer

Week in Review: May 28 – June 1

Grace-Filled Writer
 After a day with my parents on Monday enjoying Memorial Day, we got back to work for Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday mornings. We are still working on a modified schedule as we use some fun new resources from different companies and stick with our math, literature, and biography readings. This is such a fun photo of my girls learning! it’s rare they are all in the same room and settled like this, so I take the opportunity to show them off when I can! 

On Thursday my girls traveled back to my parents’ house for the weekend so my husband and I could take a little road trip! We enjoyed a couple of night’s away celebrating our 16th anniversary and exploring the vendors at the Thrive homeschool conference.
I may have been just the tiniest bit giddy when we stopped by the Heart of Dakota booth! I was so excited to meet Mike and Julie! This is such a sweet family and we enjoyed chatting with them and took the opportunity to get the materials I need for this fall. I think my favorite part is that I now have a Heart of Dakota tote! 
This is one of my very good friends who has created an INCREDIBLE art resource you need to check out! Take Time for Art is a fun, family-friendly historically based art curriculum. It pairs beautifully alongside our Heart of Dakota studies as we study through history! Penny Mayes and I taught together my first few years the homeschool learning center where I teach English. I have been so excited to be one of her test pilots for this fabulous resource!

We had a wonderful evening Friday out with one of my best girlfriends and her husband. We have been BFFs since 4th grade when I quietly walked up and asked her to be my friend during a book fair. The rest is history! We laughed and chatted and I got to love on her kids a little bit. We definitely made plans to get together again soon with all the kids. No pictures from this meet up as we were having too much fun to pull out our phones!

On Saturday we drove around a sweet little town and found some fun places we want to bring the girls back and see.

 Here is the world’s largest dresser! 

 We enjoyed visiting an historical Quaker home and learning how weddings were performed. 

 We renewed our vows Quaker style! 

It was a great few days away and we are recharged and ready to face the rest of our house clean-out! It’s going well and we feel so good to be getting rid of so many things we just don’t need. 

How was your week?

Adventures in Odyssey: Shows to Make You Smile!

Grace-Filled Writer

The newest release from AiO!
 
When my girls are choosing an AiO to listen too they usually like to pick it based on a theme…


“Something Bible!”
“Something from history!”
“An adventure!”

or most often…

“Something funny!”

One of the great aspects of AiO is the great comedic writing and timing! We know there are a lot of funny moments that happen which are scripted, but there are also some great ad lib moments as well! Here are our favorite always-good-for-a-laugh characters.

Rose: Wooton & Bart
Beth: Penny & Wooton
Grace: Connie
Me: Bernard & Eugene (together)
My husband: Jay
Some of our other funny character favorites are Bernard, Jimmy, Trent, the Parkers, and the Washingtons.
Here are our top 5 funny go-to episodes!
1. Episode 467 – Broken Window
When a window gets broken at Whit’s End, Whit puts Rodney, Sarah Prachett, and Alex on trial to see where the responsibility for fixing the window will fall.
2. Episode 466 – Snow Day
When school is cancelled due to snow, Alex Jefferson accepts a job to deliver cookies to his grandmother. On the way, he must endure many trials and tribulations.
3. Episodes 826-827 – Find a Penny (Parts 1 & 2)
Wooton Bassett returns to Odyssey from his honeymoon with two problems — Penny is missing and he’s lost his memory! 
4. Episode 700 – How to Sink a Sub
  When Katrina becomes their substitute teacher, Jay and Valerie rouse the class to revolt, even persuading Olivia to help with a plan to get Katrina fired.
5. Episode 586 – A Cheater Cheated
Bart Rathbone seeks out Whit’s business advice after deciding he wants to make the Electric Palace a “respectable establishment.”

The wonderful thing about the Adventure Club is that you get access to ALL of these episodes and more! There are so many other wonderful funny shows that we really had a hard time narrowing it down! Do you have a favorite, always-makes-you-laugh episode? I’d love to hear which one! 

Disclaimer: I receive access to the Adventures In Odyssey Club in exchange for promotions each month. I am not required to write positive reviews. My opinions are my own and that of my family.