"There may be those on earth who dress better or eat better, but those who enjoy the peace of God sleep better"
“Jesus says, “The poor you will always have with you.”
I guess the question then becomes, “How best can we help them?”
Remember Martha and Mary and what Jesus had to say to Martha?
“Martha, you are getting overwrought about all this. But Mary has chosen the better thing” (Luke 10:38-42).
Jesus teachs here that there is a point at which service and good works become a distraction, a worry, they crowd out the greater duties… that of hearing Him speak to us.
We need to remember, even though we want to do good works, they will not save us. They are the fruit of righteousness but they are not the ultimate goal. These works simply show how we have allowed the Spirit, God’s character, into our life. A sign or submission, of growth, of faith. (see Ephesians 2:10).”
There is one good thing. Mary chose that one thing. Will we do the same?
I received this complimentary product through the Homeschool Review Crew.
Do you know that I just love book! Especially books that are related to the Bible; stories that help us to see the value, truth and power that is within the Word of God. With kids ranging in age from 6 to 15, it can be a challenge to find stories we can all enjoy. Pursued to Eternity by John Riley is one of those books; about 150 pages, this is a wonderful way to engage our kids and help them to see that God wants relationship with every one of us!
Pursued to Eternity tells the tale of a six-month adventure, two brothers, Dr. Alan Bridges, a younger atheist, and Connor Bridges, biology teacher and older brother also a Christian. This story travels from ancient times to present day exploring dinosaur hunting, an Egyptian diary written in Moses time, and an oil field in Kenya. Through of this we explore the origins of man and the eternal.
Recommended for middle and high schoolers, yet every one of us can find something that will test and increase our faith. For our younger readers they can begin to see what it means to defend our faith, all ages can explore and begin to develop their own answer, when asked, for the hope that they have. throughout the pages of this small book, we are shown how our Creator desires for every one of us to learn of Him and love Him with all of our heart and mind and soul and strength.
It’s such a delight to find a fictional story that uses bible evidence as its core foundation. These kinds of books not only take us on adventures to places and times that keep us engaged and wanting more but they do so with a solid message that touches our lives and changes how we think about the world.
Pursued to Eternity chronicles the six-month odyssey of two brothers, Dr. Alan Bridges, the younger atheist brother, and Connor Bridges, a biology teacher and older Christian brother. The story takes us on an adventure that spans ancient times to the present as it explores dinosaur hunting, an Egyptian diary written during the time of Moses, and an oil field in Kenya all while exploring man’s origins all the way to his eternal future.
John Riley has also designed a course at SchoolhouseTeachers.com, Apologetics: Creative vs. Evolution, a 14-week, video-based course recommended for grades 7 to 12. This is a great addition to this book, the course further shows evidence for Creation and encourages our students to examine the evidence and know for themselves. We are very slowly working through this (there are worksheets to print for each lesson) and as I go through this with my boys, I am excited to learn so much alongside them!
My younger son loves timelines and maps. He is very detail oriented and likes to see things, in order, everything in it’s place. He always appreciates materials that are well organized. As we delved into the first chapter, my son was so glad to see how it was organized in timeline format. Each paragraph covered a period of time starting at about 5 BC and going all the way through to 2020 and Beyond. Each timeframe, has a short and simple summary of that time along with scripture. So much scripture!
This is definitely not your ordinary book; the storytelling within this pages makes you want more and more. Every page has facts, and scriptures shared, complimenting the portion of the story being told. I myself love all the historical and scientific details that are included – the word dinosaur was first used in 1841 by Sir Richard Owen- the complicated design of the human heart. Every page, in my opinion, only helps to confirm the existence of a Creator.
As you read you gain a clearer understanding in regards to the systematic development and propagation of things like: racism, violence, war, abortion, atheism. If you are curious, study out Haldane’s dilemma.
I have to say, I was impressed, my boys were impressed, with how full of excitement and revelation, this small book really was! So many lessons within; every one of them tugging at your heart. moments you hear Him call to you to seek His face, feel after Him.
Every page reminds us that when we “draw near to God, He will also draw near to us.” His love for us is everlasting and His desire is that ALL be saved. But we cannot ignore His commands given within the pages of the Bible – Every word calls us to us to choose obedience, to choose the blessings.
Whose report will you believe? Test all things so that you will know and believe, the report of the Lord for He is good and His love and mercy endures!
Click on the banner below and read reviews from other Crew members to see how they used this and what they thought!
I received this complimentary product through the Homeschool Review Crew.
We love to read. I think anyone who knows me knows how crazy I am about stories. There are just so many amazing stories out there and so many things we can learn along the way. For so many reasons, I was beyond excited to explore One More Story, having been blessed with a one year subscription. This is so much fun; like audiobooks, but with beautiful, eye catching illustrations (which my younger ones really love).
One More Story can be accessed on any computer or mobile device; there is also a free iOS app. Their is super easy to navigate, after one quick lesson my girls (6 and 9) were able to login on their own, locate books they wanted to read and enjoy one story after another. only one login is needed for access, whatever method you prefer to use.
There are two options for your children to choose from: Read Along offers a real read-aloud book experience for your child and I Can Read It allows older children to read the book themselves.
For our beginning readers or little ones not yet reading, as they listen to stories in Read Along mode, each word is highlighted as it’s read. What a fun way for them to start learning and recognizing letters and words.
In I Can Read It mode, there is no music or narration so they can focus on the story they are reading. No distractions! great for my older girl. If there is a word they do not know, they can tap or click it, and the program will read the word aloud. Isn’t this a fabulous way to learn, or just grow, in reading skills.
In the Parent’s place you can track stories your children are enjoying; they also provide a handy list of words learned. I found this a great way to see what my girls loved (that we might want to add to our home library) and also to encourage reading independently with physical books too.
Scanning the books myself, I was thrilled to find some of my favorites from when I was a child, like The Snowy Day and Whistle for Willie. Always have loved that author!
My girls were thrilled with books like Kiss the Cow and Ladybugs Can’t Be Tall. They have Black Beauty too – a favorite for all of us! We love horses around here.
There are just so many (I think 80+ books in all) to choose from! While my girls tend to choose the same books each time they access our account, I strive to encourage them to find one new book to try. Personally, I plan to enjoy, with them, every one of the books on this site before we are through.
I am feeling rather frustrated today with the many who claim the name of Jesus, who claim Jesus as their Lord, their Saviour, yet show absolutely no sign of being children of the one true God.
They have not experienced sanctification, repentance or the cleansing power that comes from being washed in the waters of baptism.
They have not received the Holy Ghost and spoken in other tongues yet because they simply believe or perhaps attend a church that says these things are not so.
It frustrates me and it saddens me because truly everyone really does need Jesus.
Yet so few who claim Him truly know Him.
While it gets darker and darker every day…I do believe we are nearer and nearer to the Lord’s return.
We cannot simply believe, for even the devil’s believe and they do not have a place in eternity with the Lord.
Let us be wise as the Bereans. We need to search the word. We need to know the Word for ourselves for there are far too many out there who have distorted it and watered it down, making it something it is not.
The time is short and there is only one way. We must be sure according to His word that we’ve truly are safe and sealed.
One day we will all stand before the Lord and we will all have to give an answer.
How I pray for those who claim the Lord to truly come to know the Lord!
Truly we shall be known by our fruits. You cannot be a friend of the world and one of the Lord.
The Lord is loving, long-suffering.
God wants for all to be saved, yet we must follow the pattern that has been laid out for us. We must be born of the water and of the spirit.
The way is narrow and scripture says, few there be that find it.
Be one of the few.
I encourage you and pray that you will search for His ways and follow in them. ❤
Disclaimer: I received this complimentary product through the Homeschool Review Crew.
We love music in this house and through the years I have seen for myself how much music can help increase and engage our kids in learning. Having spent many years with kids in Bible Quizzing, where music was a huge part of memorizing hundreds of scriptures each year, I can attest to how quickly we can memorize information when it is set to song. Since music is my favorite tool, I was so eager to begin using Cross Seven Ventures – Homeschool Musical Memory Tool by Cross Seven Ventures LLC. If you are familiar with the Claritas Publishing program, this is aligned with that. We were provided with a one-year subscription for our whole family to this amazing program for grades K-6.
Wonder what is included in this program? There are lessons in Scripture, Hymns, Timeline, History, Science, Math, Grammar, Latin, and Geography, all using a 4-year cyclical program. Each cycle has 28 weeks — easily an entire year of learning for your family! The tunes are upbeat, fun and you will soon find everyone singing these songs.
There is also a Parent Dashboard for tracking your kid’s progress as they work through the program and the interactive quizzes. And these quizzes, my kids say they are so much fun! They even have a variety of badges and certificates kids can earn as they work through the subjects and complete quizzes. You even have the option to stream apps like AppleTV, Roku, and FireTV, so you can all watch and learn together!
Each day’s class begins by listening to a hymn, followed by prayer, and then saying a pledge to the American Flag, the Christian Flag, the Bible and also reciting the Lord’s prayer.
As you can see below there are a couple ways to move forward once you are logged into your account. You can go through the individual badges for each topic OR (my favorite) click on the Weekly Memory Work banner at the bottom and ….
Isn’t this awesome? Here is every video for the week for every subject. I love that my kids can login in and there is no confusion as to what they need to do.
There are also links to book lists for every cycle to help further expand on what is being learned. She provides a pdf download to help walk you through creating your own timeline. She also gives game recommendations. What can be more fun than singing as you learn? Playing board games as you learn. We don’t have this one – not yet – definitely planning to add this to our collection!
There are also lots of Fun Links included which range from videos to reading material along with games and coloring pages. So many of these are good for “hours” of fun! I know when it comes to learning Latin and grammar, geography, these kids and the fun links that are included make a huge difference in how we learn!
For my girls we have been working through Cycle One, together, slowly. Because there is so much more that you can do we enjoying exploring each lesson as much (or as little) as they like. My older daughter loved the videos that were done by kids. She enjoys dancing and theatre herself; always asking questions and pondering things, there were so many great ways she could learn beyond just the music.
My younger daughter loves music, especially hymns and it’s amazing how much you can learn. From history, to geography and everything in between, there are so many old hymns that we would do well to learn of and from. She may be small but if you ask her, she knows it all. ha-ha
When it comes to geography, my son loves all the visuals were a real treat. He loves learning about different parts of the world, especially how they live. A big fan of woodworking, survivalist stuff – as he explores history he can see how things have progressed. Another thing he enjoyed were videos from The Skit Guys, that had covered various Bible topics. Again, this kid is very big on the what, where, when, why and how of things. So he appreciated the variety of links throughout the program so he could dig in more.
I have to admit we didn’t do as much with math and grammar (because we do have a few things we love to use for that already) but I found the videos were still good to watch and who knows what they will catch right?
There is so much I have always loved about the classical education model; at the same time I really enjoy being able to allow my children to lead the way, per se, as their interests guide them. I was wary in the beginning that this would be too much but this is put together in such a fabulous way – the material is gently presented. The quizzes even are fun and not at all stressful to take. We didn’t do them consistently but when y kids did they found them to be unlike any quiz they have taken before.
If you are looking for something new, hoping to inspire your kids, this may be for you! They have a FREE 1 day trial so you can explore their program and see if this is something that your family will enjoy! We are really hoping to continue working through this program, as summer is upon us, we will certainly be relaxing things a bit, but this really is one of those programs that you enjoy!
Cross Seven – Musical Memory Work on Social Media:
Disclaimer- I received this complimentary product through the Homeschool Review Crew.
Everyone who knows me, knows how much I love a good book. Through the years, I have been carefully cultivating a small library within our home that my family can enjoy through the years. While I long ago ran out of room, I still dream and create places here and there for the books that we so love. One of those that really excited me was, Everybody, Always for Kidsby Bob Goff and Lindsey Goff Viducich from Tommy Nelson Publishing. Along with this study hardcover book, we also received a PDF Everybody Always, For Kids Five Day Lesson Plan to help take action. While this is recommended for ages 6-10, I feel this is something every age can enjoy. In this season, with its many challenges, it is good to strive to grow a heart that seeks to love everybody always. At every age and stage of life.
My girls were especially excited when this one arrived; look at this cover. It is just so FUN and so very colorful! Who doesn’t love paint and derby cars and big smiles? The colors along, so bright, catch your eye and invite you in!
I stumbled onto Bob Goff’s Everybody, Always and just loved his honest and encouraging stories that invite us in and remind us of the value of kindness and the power of loving one another authentically. I had planned to get my hands on his book, Love Does for kids and while I still plan to do so, this is definitely inviting and engaging for all of us, from my 6 year old to my 15 year old.
There are forty stories in this precious book and each one is both beautifully written and illustrated. Every page is a place for discussion and exploration. Add in lesson plans that help to make the stories more alive and tangible for each age.
We read about cake pops – did you know you can love everybody through something as simple as a cake pop? And skydiving – how is that for a lesson in fearlessness?
My son was fascinated to find as we read that scuba divers will take big, empty balloons and tie them to whatever heavy things are on the bottom of the ocean – what an amazing thing that those balloons, filed with air while underwater, can life some pretty heavy stuff all the way to the surface. The lesson in this? Jesus loves those who are hurting and those who did the hurting. He is always looking to bring us up!
There are so many powerful stories just like that in the pages of this book. Stories that remind us of the love that God has for us and for everyone else. We are encouraged to grow in His word, to go out and show love to others – planting seeds – faith, hope and love. The greatest of these is love.
My kids fight. A lot. We have really been struggling with taming our tongue, showing kindness and love. Being quick to forgive. I do believe that is through real life stories, examples for our children to hear and see, that we learn those powerful lessons. But we cannot stop there. We must be wiling to have eyes that see the needs of those around us, even those unspoken needs; we must have feet that are quick to go to those who are within our reach. Love them like Jesus. It doesn’t have to be hard, or costly – We can just love them with all we have and when we know that Jesus is all we need, it will be enough.
This was a blessing to many other members of the Review Crew; click on the banner below to read about their experiences and thoughts with this book and the lesson plans too! ❤
Reading these verses from The Living Bible makes God’s meaning so very clear to me.
Though it is not an exact translation, but a thought-for-thought paraphrase, the point is simple and it is true.
Ask the priests this question about the law: “If one of you is carrying a holy sacrifice in his robes, and happens to brush against some bread or wine or meat, will it too become holy?”
“No,” the priests replied.
“Holiness does not pass to other things that way.”
Then Haggai asked, “But if someone touches a dead person, and so becomes ceremonially impure, and then brushes against something, does it become contaminated?”
And the priests answered, “Yes.”
Haggai then made his meaning clear.
“You people,” he said (speaking for the Lord), “were contaminating your sacrifices by living with selfish attitudes and evil hearts—and not only your sacrifices, but everything else that you did as a ‘service’ to me.” (Haggai 2:11-14)
The people, having absorbed the prevalent attitude of the world, became infected by it.
As we have seen over and over again , their relationship with God quickly deteriorated into estrangement—just as the Laodicean’s does.
What about you is? When you bring your sacrifice before the Lord with what attitude do you bring it?
Let us pray for the Lord to examine us, To search us and see if there be any wicked way in us and then, Lord lead us in the way that is everlasting.
Disclaimer: I received this complimentary product through the Homeschool Review Crew.
History is one of things that is so important yet so challenging to teach. How can we encourage our kids to love history? By bringing it to life with amazing books such as Laura Ingalls Wilder: A Storybook Life from YWAM Publishing. These even include unit studies that can be used to dig deeper into the life and times. This is just one of 26 stories you can choose from in their Heroes of History collection. I know I am really trying to, slowly, collect them all. 🙂
If you have ever gotten your hands on one of these books, you already know how amazing they are! I think these are wonderful for read aloud time; seeing they have so many available as audiobook too, these are a wonderful addition to those times that we spend on the road. I let my older daughter (9) choose which book we would review this time and I was thrilled when she chose this one because I love this lady too!
We have enjoyed every one of the Little House books in the last year or two and when quarantine happened, it was such a pleasure to find every one of the series available to stream. Below, you can see one of the things I really love about this! If you follow this timeline, you have a complete history curriculum from the beginning of a nation to the future of the nation. While we have not previously followed this (I honestly think this is the first time I have seen this) I think this will be our plan moving forward for history studies. They even provide detailed suggestions for how best to use these in a group or a regular classroom so these aren’t just for homeschoolers! LOL
I know my younger son and older daughter especially love those stories and movies that are “based on a true story.” I mean, that makes history so much more meaningful! And since we are in Wisconsin this one was close to home and my kids really loved that. One day we have to plan a way to travel to Pepin Wisconsin, which has a really neat museum (I hear) as well as the Laura Ingalls Wilder Memorial Society, Inc., which was organized in July of 1974.With a reconstruction of her home and lots of materials to explore like tools, and clothing that were of that era, what a fun experience that would be!
So, the books are fabulous! The resources that they provide you with, so you lots of great learning out of these books. The unit studies – I am loudly singing their praises! I love books. My kids all love when I read to them. Sometimes they will read independently but many times, it is a great way to get some learning in when we have “one of those days.”
There are eight sections within the unit study (which is a pdf download in case I didn’t mention that before). My youngest just turned 6 and my oldest is 15 but he is often working at our family business with my husband – Suffice to say, with the wide range of ages in our home, these books and their accompanying unit studies never disappoint. Every one of my kids finds something (usually lots of things) that they enjoy doing and discussing as we read these books.
Key Quotes: We really enjoy these quick quotes. Great for discussion or just a little inspiration.
Display Corner: A fabulous way to have visuals – tangible items related to the story and times.
Chapter Questions: Ranging from defining a word to retelling a portion of the story, great for contemplation; a chance for us to consider how something made one feel or why they did a particular thing.
Student Explorations: This is where they can really dig in deeper; show comprehension of what they are reading. Whether researching something on their own, or even creating something (a cardboard wagon) related to the story. This could be a written or public speech given. Lots of different ways to show what you know.
• Social Studies: Here are timelines, mapwork. My younger son loves maps; being able to see visually the travels they took – just one more way to really make history come alive. They even have a Heroes of History Maps of the United States reproducible workbook. Not included, but definitely considering purchasing this for future use.
There are just so many activities to choose from in the unit studies they provide! I always like we complete so much and yet not enough. Fortunately we can pick and choose what we most enjoy exploring. My girls love to bake so they were excited to find things that involved making butter, hardtack, corn cakes (my youngest is hooked on these!) even lemonade and johnny cakes. They even found a website that had plenty more recipes all related to Laura Ingalls Wilder so there will be lots of baking for quite some time in our house I think.
There is so much you can gain from books like these. And when my kids say that they aren’t sure what to explore, or perhaps they are bored – we pull out this – a wonderful diagram in the unit study to inspire them to adventure into other areas. So many I think we would not have considered without this. You really can keep learning forever with the Heroes of History!
Be sure to click on the banner below and read the reviews other members of the Crew wrote about the books that they reviewed and how they used the unit studies as well!
Disclosure: I received this complimentary product through the Homeschool Review Crew
Math. The struggle is real. At least it used to be. We have been using Teaching Textbooks for some time now and can I say, we are loving it! Our family was so greatly blessed to have the chance to review a couple different levels of the new and improved version, Teaching Textbooks Math 4.0. We received a twelve month subscription with lifetime access to the gradebook. There is also the option to pause your subscription for up to 3 months (this doesn’t count towards your 12 months) If you have seasons where you just get busy, or whatever may be, this is definitely a real bonus! Of course since we started with this we are really enjoying math; sure there are still some grumbles here and there but if my kids don’t really get so much out of each lesson.
No matter what level you need they have something for you! Teaching Textbooks Math 4.0 provides courses from Grade 3 through Pre-Calculus. If you aren’t really sure where to place your children, they also offer a placement test to help determine what level to start at. We actually chose to use the levels we did because of the results of the test we completed so it is very helpful!
Teaching Textbooks 4.0 is an app based program (don’t let that scare you)! This program is like a personal tutor; there are instructional videos that precede each days activities. There are also ebooks you can access in your parent portal to get a printable PDF of every one of the lessons or tests along with the answers. There are also practice pages to print as needed. This is so helpful for me, especially as we get into those higher math courses. That day is quickly coming (One of my boys plans on learning forging this summer and there is so much math in that). What an opportunity that will be in so many ways!
What do I love most? I love the spiral program that this teaches. Every lesson involves review of previously learned concepts. In this way as my younger and older learn new skills, they are also continuing to strengthen those things they learned. Seeing my kids work through their lessons, it is so encouraging to see them have to review as well. And when they can’t quite get it right? They can see the answer and are also shown how to do that particular problem. For me, the more we learn, the more we need to use the material we have learned. The more I see my kids work the more certain I am that this works in amazing ways. 🙂
My girl (9) used Math 4 – we downloaded the app onto the computer and set up her account (I did need some help in this and their customer service, they rock!) This little lady wants to work with animals as a veterinarian one day so she knows she needs math but until now she has not enjoyed lessons at all. Getting and keeping her attention can be difficult but she really took to this program. She really loves the sticker and wallpaper books because, she is a bit of as diva, likes all her things to look pretty. She would often start her lesson by making sure she had a wallpaper and sticker that pleased her. Whatever it takes some days.
As for my boy (11) he just seems to have a head for math so he has been working through the lessons here and I am seeing a few gaps here and there. Thankfully, the method of teaching used with this program has been doing a fabulous job of working on those weaker skills while still moving him forward. Fractions have always been a struggle but he really likes the way this program teaches them. And it makes him so glad that he can see, when he gets something wrong, each step that led to the right answer and compare it to his work. Watching him work and follow along in the videos, he is my kid who is really into all the details, so this has been a great fit for him ad as he moves into pre-algebra and likely more, I am sure he will be asking for more of Teaching Textbooks.
There are so many programs out there for our children that focus on the various levels of math and I think we have tried most of them ourselves. Every child, every family, is different in how they best learn and respond to learning academically but for my children thus far, Teaching Textbooks has been such a wonderful experience for all of my kids, inspiring them to see how fun math can really be! As a parent it is so refreshing to find materials like this that help my kids to experience math in a gentler, way, especially when it changes their perspective from “math stinks” to math is kind of awesome.”
Click on the banner below to read what other members of the Review Crew thought. We are all using different levels of Teaching Textbooks to help you explore what it’s all about and how well it could work for your family.
