Tag: book

Trail Blazer Books: Review and Free Book offer!!!!

Grace-Filled Writer

One of the great needs of our children is to know and understand the Christian heritage they come from. Our family loves great literature and especially literature which draws my children in and causes them to want to learn more about the characters and history which make up the story. Rose in particular is beginning to very much enjoy historical fiction and so I have been searching for new stories to excite and engage her.

I was very excited to have the chance to review Trailbazer Books written by Dave and Neta Jackson. I first saw them online at a Christian supply website, but they were out of stock. I was very interested to have historical fiction which incorporated important figures from Christian history. Some of these books are now out of print in hard copies, but they are all available as ebooks! My daughters love ebooks because that means they get to use my Kindle. Although each book is available individually at http://www.trailblazerbooks.com/, they can also all be purchased on a CD for less than $1 each. This is a great price for excellent literature.

There are also several teacher’s guides available which incorporates several disciplines of learning. Included are the expected study of literary elements, vocabulary, social studies, and a variety of activities to engage student beyond the words written on the page. I like that there are connections to so many other areas of learning and that the guides are broken down into 2 chapter sections. Many other literature guides I have used take the book more as a whole rather than its parts. Since I typically like Rose to read at least two chapters a day when we study literature this is a nice setup.

I let Rose choose which book she wanted to start with and she liked the sounds of The Bandit of Ashley Downs. The story centers around a homeless orphan who gets into trouble after trying to steal some money and ends up being taken in by George Muller as one of his orphans. The twist is the money he stole actually belongs to the same orphanage!

Rose loved this book from the start! Before we had a chance to begin discussing the book she asked me, “Is this really a true story?” This was a great opening to talking about historical fiction as a genre. She said how much she loved the adventure and I loved that she learned about George Muller and his legacy of trust in God and prayer.

There are many great works of literature she will study and read throughout her education. Giving her opportunity to learn of her Christian heritage through excellent literature is even better. I look forward to exploring Christian history with her through the Trailblazer Books.

And now for a great gift for my readers directly from Dave and Neta Jackson! For the entire month of May you can get Drawn by a China Moon, a story about a young southern girl who goes to China with her parents to aid Lotti Moon and her work, for free!!!! Just click the cover to the left for your free e-book!

Don’t miss out on this offer and share it with your friends!


Disclaimer
I received the CD Rom of 40 e-books in exchange for my honest review. I was not required to write a positive review. No other compensation was received. 

Attic Book’s Advice for Seekers: Book Review

Grace-Filled Writer

When I was growing up I only vaguely knew who Charles Spurgeon was. I remember hearing him quoted in sermons so I knew he was someone worth quoting with godly wisdom, but that was pretty much it. When I got to Bible college I heard all my pastoral major friends discus Spurgeon as well as other great pastors from over dinner and my interest was piqued. Since then I began reading about Charles Spurgeon and other great pastors of his time. While I learned about his life, I never got around to reading any of his books or sermons. I was very excited to read this newly released Advice for Seekers from Attic Books, a division of New Leaf Publication Group.

This beautifully bound book is a rare gem in an age of e-books. The rough edged pages gives the tangible awareness that you are opening a treasured book of wisdom passed down through the decades. Attractive enough to leave on your coffee-table and small enough to fit in your purse…but for all it’s outward beauty, it is the wisdom inside which is the true treasure.

Spurgeon originally wrote for those who were looking for Jesus, so although I was looking forward to this read, I didn’t expect to be as drawn is as I was. The language would be considered old fashioned, but it isn’t too difficult. In fact, the more I read, the less I noticed the difference from modern language. My faith was encouraged as I read through this short work, reminding me of some of the vital, yet simple truths that all seekers must accept.

The other helpful purpose of this book was to help me better understand those who are seeking Christ as adults. My path to salvation started before I was born. It started with my great-grandfather who turned his life toward God for his wife who died soon after their marriage of consumption. When he married my great-grandmother he was a different man and eventually became a pastor. His son, my grandfather, was also a pastor and my own father became a pastor and now trains future pastors at a seminary. I have a deep spiritual heritage and because of that understood the truths in Scripture long before most. Although I have a deep desire to see the lost come to Christ I cannot exactly relate to the struggle with doubts, misunderstandings, and hindrances which can cause adults to hesitate in giving their lives entirely to God. Advice for Seekers has given me greater insight and understanding into these things.

“Would you dare put your miserable life in comparison with the life of God’s obedient Son, who gave himself even to death? Does it not strike you that you are insulting God?” 
My favorite quote actually comes from the first page. One of the most often exhibited attributes of those who have grown up in the culture of the church is the feeling that it is something we have done which has caused us to find favor with the Savior and allowed our salvation. This could not be further from the truth, but it is so very easy to fall into this trap. Just take a poll of the average church. When asked to share the story of their conversion my pastor husband has often heard responses such as, “My parents brought me to church from the time I was born,” and, “I’m basically a good person,” even from those who have heard the true gospel preached all their lives. I too need to be reminded that it is by the grace of God alone which has saved me from eternity apart from Him.
Although this may be most appropriate for a more academically minded reader, I believe the truth imparted here by the great Charles Spurgeon can benefit anyone no matter their educational background or where they are on their journey with Christ. I thoroughly enjoyed this read and plan to read it again each year to keep the thoughts imparted here fresh in my mind. 

Click here to read more reviews!

Disclaimer
I received Advice for Seekers in exchange for my honest review. I was not required to write a positive review. No other compensation was received. 

Dr. Craft’s Active Play Book: Review

Grace-Filled Writer
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Spring is in the air and along with it the cure for cabin fever! My girls were so anxious to get out in the yard and play once the warm air finally decided to visit the South. I’m happy to let my kids go out and play in the backyard and I join them most of the time, but I typically let them play while I relax and watch on the porch. I’m not very good at structured play to encourage specific skills. 
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Dr. Craft’s Active Play Books equip adults caring for young children with 52 different active play activities. For $39.00 you receive Active Play! Fun Physical Activities for Young Children, a spiral bound book and DVD with incredibly clear instructions. There are pictures of children playing the activities throughout the book and video of real kids (not little paid actors) participating in all the fun. I do think it would have been nice for the pictures in the book to be in color. Sometimes it was difficult to clearly see what was going on in the black and white pictures. 

We used several of these activities for outdoor fun with my girls. While the intended target age is toddlers and preschoolers, my 5-year-old kindergartner and 7-year-old 2nd grader genuinely enjoyed participating with their little 3-year-old sister. I wasn’t sure how much they would want to participate, but they surprised me by wholeheartedly getting on board! Some of our favorites were Egg Farmer, Sock Tails, Outdoor Obstacle Course, and Sock the Cans. 

Egg farmer was a lot of fun because we had so many eggs left over from our neighborhood Easter Egg Hunt! The girls rolled eggs down our backyard slide into a white tub. Because the list of items are basically everyday household things they are easily substituted if you don’t have something. It took some time to find just the right egg catcher for the bottom. Another fun variation was to have one of the other girls be the egg catcher. They had fun trying to catch the eggs as they slid down!

Grace in particular really liked this activity. She became quite good at this activity. It was a great team-building time for my girls. They would cheer one another on, encourage one another if they missed, and took turns collecting the eggs and toting them back up to the top of the slide. I know thy all liked it because after we  were “done” with our official playtime the girls kept on playing this one.
Sock Tails turned into Towel Tails because I found this first. We actually named this game Catch the Bunny Tail for our spring-theme. The girls have been searching for bunnies under our shed because they know they lived there last spring. The only uh-oh portion of the activity was when Grace (3-year-old preschooler) dropped her pants right in the middle of the yard because she couldn’t find the tail! Oops! You can tell our neighbors are close so I’m glad no one was outside. (At least not that I know of!) They had a great time with this one though and it was a fun variation on tag, which I’ve never really enjoyed that much. I joined in the fun too and Grace really liked catching the tail when I was wearing it.
Soon after this the pollen hit full-force, so I asked my husband to take over the Active Play portion of our days. I love spring, but boy does the pollen get to me. The neat part about this was I got to let another adult try out the book and sure enough he enjoyed it as well. (Thanks to my mother-in-law who was in town to take some shots of the fun too!)
My husband first set up Sock the Cans. I didn’t want to use the girls’ new socks outside and we didn’t have cans…so once again we got creative! He pulled out some containers from the recycling bin and Grace used a softer bouncy ball. She loved this! I think it may have felt like a carnival game to her. 
My husband had a good time setting up the obstacle course using what we had just laying around the yard and in the shed.
 Here is the layout…
Down the slide…
Under the lattice…     
Around the table…
Over the bridge…
And onto the swing! (All my pics of the swings turned out blurry!)
One of the things I really liked about the book was the list of materials presented before the activity explanation was given. This made it easy to make sure I had everything I needed before beginning. I also liked that the goals for the activity were listed at the top of each activity. This way if I wanted to focus on a particular skill, like galloping or jumping, I could quickly scan through the games to find what I was looking for. The demo DVD was fun because of the real kids doing the activities. Although I felt like the instructions were very clear, having the DVD in case something wasn’t clear to me was helpful. Seeing real kids having fun was great!
Don’t forget to read other reviews from my Crewmates!

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Tower of Babel from New Leaf Publishing: Book Review

Grace-Filled Writer
My daughters, especially Rose, love history and science. They love it to the point of wanting to read and study things on their own outside of our curriculum. Since homeschooling seems to be an indefinite path for our family at the moment my husband and I decided it would be good to make sure we had resources available for our girls which were quality and in accordance with our beliefs for science. Companies like Master Books (a division of New Leaf Publishing) fit that criteria. We purchased a handful of science books published by this company last summer because I knew I wanted books with creation at the center. What I didn’t know was I would be learning some things.
I received an excellent public-school education by a wonderful group of Bible-believing teachers. Many even told our class they didn’t believe in evolution but were required to teach it. I knew I believed the Bible’s authority of the account and I just brushed the text-book accounts of where we all came from off as nonsense, not thinking much more about it. As I began to read through the resources we purchased for our girls last summer I had a sudden realization that all the things I had been taught concerning science (geology, chemistry, biology) and history had been first soaked in an evolutionary belief-system without my even knowing it. I began to dig deeper and search out resources so I would be fulled educated and equipped with an accurate understanding of history, not simply the one taught to me from text books who created the Bible as historical fiction and the beliefs of Christianity as outdated. When the opportunity came up to read and review Tower of Babel: The Cultural History of our Ancestors I jumped at the chance to embark on my own new study of history, and I was not disappointed.

This historical study of what happened at the Tower of Babel written by Bodie Hodge covers an incredibly wide range of information from how to actually pronounce the name to what happened to all the people groups. I plan to reread this again over the summer simply because there was so much good stuff in here and I don’t want to miss any of it!

While it is a history book, the majority of it is not difficult to read. The references to the Scriptural account are abundant, but equally so are other historical documents which help to uncover a deeper understanding of the history. I was taught that Babel was just a myth which people used to explain away the variety of languages found all over the world. I didn’t believe this, but what I didn’t realize what how this impacted other teaching like when writing first began, how language developed over time, and even why some languages are clearly related. I was told that the reason other groups had similar “stories” in their cultures was because other had taken the story as they traveled toward people groups and the biblical account was probably not the original source.

As I read I felt as if I were myself digging in the desert to uncover the truth of ancient history. I learned why the biblical account is clearly the source of all the other accounts found in other cultures. I already knew this was true, but now I’m equipped with the reasons why it is true beyond simply my understanding of the truth of Scripture. Now I can answer the questions of unbelievers who care nothing about the Bible in an informed way.

The only chapter difficult for me to get through was chapter 17 which explained where each of the family groups traveled to as they dispersed. It was fascinating, but the amount of information and variety of names started to all run together. I would have preferred to see a separate chapter for each family group, but I understand the reasoning behind putting it all in one chapter. This is one I would like to revisit so I can better understand the dispersion.

I had two favorite parts as I studied. One was learning of how the names in various cultures related back to Noah and his sons. Even accounts of the flood in China have similar names. The other was learning how people would have been able to disperse more quickly than I was taught. When you have been taught history from a millions-of-years-old perspective these thing are taught very differently.

Now, I want to clarify that I do believe in a young-earth, but I don’t believe that Christians who don’t hold to this view are not saved. I have studied the evidence for myself because I was taught that evolution and the biblical account of creations, the flood, and the tower of babel could all co-exist. I no longer believe this and I’m so thankful for companies like New Leaf Publishing who provide resources which give extra-biblical proof and reasoning for that which I know to be true.

Take a look at this preview of the book and then go buy it! I think you’ll enjoy this enlightening read as much as I did. 

You can read more reviews by clicking here! 

Disclaimer
I received The Tower of Babel in exchange for my honest review. I was not required to write a positive review. No other compensation was received.

Books in One Syllable: Free E-Books!

Grace-Filled Writer

I happened across a series of books which were written with the intent to help with early readers. Most of these were written over 100 years ago. The links will take to you a site where you can download a free pdf version, kindle version, nook version, and more! If you use any of these in your homeschool let me know how your kids like them!



Stories
Robinson Crusoe
Alice in Wonderland
Aesop’s Fables
Nursery Lessons
Popular Fairy Tales
Grimm’s Fairy Tale
Swiss Family Robinson

History
History of United States
Battles of America
History of Virginia
History of Illinois
History of NewYork
History of New England
History of Missouri
History of England
History of Ireland

Biographies
Lives of the Presidents
Life of George Washington
Abraham Lincoln
Napoleon Bonaparte  

Abraham’s Journey: Review

Grace-Filled Writer
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My Kindle Fire has become one of my favorite tools for homeschooling! I love finding books, unit studies, and pdf documents. The girls enjoy it as well because of the apps, but I limit their playtime. While I’m happy to have learning apps, I have hoped they would enjoy reading. I was very excited for my daughter to read Abraham’s Journey: A Celebration of the American Dream, by Kathleen and Robert K. Basmadjian, written for students ages 7-12.

PhotobucketThis unique children’s book combines beautiful illustrations reminiscent of traditional comic books and an engaging story. You can purchase either the book version ($14.95) or the Kindle or i-Pad version ($9.99). While the story takes place during present day, historical figures provide an unexpected twist. The story revolves around a young boy, Abraham, trying to help his parents who have both lost their jobs. With the help of historical figures Abraham discovers what the American Dream means and is inspired to find a way to help his family.

Rose and Zoe, our kitty cat, snugged in for some reading one afternoon with this book. She eagerly jumped at the chance to read on Mommy’s Kindle and settled into her beanbag chair. She enjoyed the story. When I asked her what her favorite part was she said she really liked the illustrations and that Abraham Lincoln was in it as well.

The idea behind this book is so many in America have lost their hope in what is possible. We used to call it, “Living the American Dream.” The dream used to be taught and encouraged in schools. Now children are often taught America isn’t as great as we were once told. The evils of our history are emphasized while the triumphs and events we can be proud of are diminished. The authors of this books are hoping to instill once more the ideals of what “The American Dream” is stood for.

The American Dream includes aspects of faith, courage, imagination, innovation, compassion, self-sacrifice, and so much more. In spite of those commonalities, it always looks different for each individual…

…My great grandparents surviving through the Great-Depression by running a bakery from their home in Illinois when my great-grand father lost his job at an oil refinery. 
…My grandfather working long, hard hours at a coal mine in Kentucky until he had saved enough money to buy his farm. 
…My parents moving from New York to North Carolina when I was six and leaving full-time ministry as a pastor so my dad could earn his doctorate and become a seminary professor. 
…My husband and I both graduating from college debt-free. 

We want our girls to see they can do more than expected too. I appreciate the author’s desire to reteach this to our youth and inspire them to reach higher.

At the end of the book is a list of definitions and mini biographies of each historical figure in case students haven’t studied them yet. I really like this feature because my daughter, for instance, had only studied about Abraham Lincoln. She had heard the other’s names, but didn’t really know much about them yet.

I asked Rose if she’d like to read another story like this one and she enthusiastically said, “Yes!” That is enough of an endorsement for me!

Don’t forget to check out other reviews from my crewmates!
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Disclaimer
I received a free copy of this product through the Schoolhouse Review Crew in exchange for my honest review. I was not required to write a positive review. No other compensation was received.