Category: Books

Christmas School 2019

Somehow November seems to have flown by, it is hard to believe that Sunday will be December 1st. I have been taking a little bit of time today to gather my thoughts and plan out our December school schedule and activities. Each December, I like to change things up a bit and do ‘Christmas School’. It is such an exciting and wonderful time of year and we like to incorporate the holidays as much as possible into our school days. This helps us enjoy the holiday even more by allowing us to do more of the fun activities. Also, by not trying to do all of our regular school and the Christmas activities, we can help avoid burnout and overwhelm.

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As my children have gotten older, I do have them continue with some of their regular studies. My Kindergartner will be doing Christmas math from a variety of fun resources but my sixth and eighth graders will continue with their regular math curricula. One of the math activities that my son is very excited about is Christmas pattern blocks from our Crafty Classroom pack. For history, we will continue to study North Carolina history but make a point to focus on holiday traditions of the time period.

Christmas School Pinterest

For reading, we  are going to focus on lots of fun Christmas books. We will be reading aloud some of our favorite picture books, listening to Dickens’ A Christmas Carol, and reading aloud The Best Christmas Pageant Ever. There are so many good books that we can never get through them all and we always add at least one new (or new to us) book to our collection each year. This year we added Christmas with Anne and Merry Christmas Strega Nona. Cranberry Christmas is a family favorite that we make sure to bring out every year. You can check our more of our favorite books at A Cozy, Book Filled December.

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I am also very excited to be doing two new advent activities. First, I was blessed to receive a copy of Kayla Jarmon’s A Christmas Journey to review. We are looking forward to reading the book together (it has nine chapters and discussion questions for each chapter) as well as completing the activity book. The activity book consists of 24 days of activities, with each one having a short devotional thought, a scripture, a Christmas song suggestion, and a family activity. For example, day six talks about faith and then gives several scriptures including Acts 7 and 1 Corinthians 15. The song for that day is Hark! The Herald Angels Sing and the activity is to take turns leading family members blindfolded around the house. This gives a simple demonstration of faith as they must follow the directions in faith.  As we get started with this program, I plan to write a full review but I wanted to go ahead and share a little bit so that you would have time to check it out and get it before Advent starts!

The second activity we are going to try is called The Traveling Wisemen: A Christmas ADVENTure.  Years ago, when my older two children were younger, we tried the whole “Elf on a Shelf’ thing. The children loved it but I was tired of finding places for him to hide and honestly, I felt like it put way to much emphasis on the wrong part of Christmas. I know it works for some families, but it wasn’t working for us. So we stopped using the elf but this year my daughter really wanted to bring the elf back for the younger kids because she remembered having lots of fun trying to find him each morning.  I did not want to bring back the elf, but I was open to an alternative that allowed them to enjoy the hunt but with a different focus. There are many options available but we are excited to try The Traveling Wisemen: A Christmas ADVENTure. With this program, you purchase the book and use your own wise men to hide each day. The children will know that they aren’t magical but will still have the fun of finding them and seeing what silly antics they have done overnight. My daughter has agreed to take on responsibility for hiding the wise men each night. You can use your own ideas of they have this website with some suggestions. I am hopeful that this allows us to have the fun of the elf but with a focus on Christ (and the best part for me is that I am not responsible for remembering to move them each night.)

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I love using this time of year to get in a bit of extra art time. We will be using a variety of lessons from Nana at Chalk Pastel’s Christmas Video Art Lessons and Nutcracker Lessons. The Christmas lessons also go along very well with our hymn studies. In addition, because we have a clubhouse membership we can enjoy some lessons that coordinate with Handel’s Messiah to add in some music to our studies. We will also be doing various crafts and projects to give as Christmas gifts. My daughter is working on weaving some items for her dad and brother, knitting a hat for our youngest, and sewing some adorable fairy pillows for a few cousins. If time allows she may also make some ornaments using the lesson in Gifts to Make and Give.  In addition, I am using some of the plans from The Activity Room with Hands on As We Grow to set up some fun art projects for my youngest two children.

My daughter has been working on learning how to play Silent Night on her violin so that she can play at the nursing home. The song was one that was recommended by her violin teacher and she has been really enjoying learning how to play. I decided that we should expand that learning with a hymn study. You can join us for this free hymn study: Hymn Study: Silent Night. In addition, we love the song Away in a Manger and I am putting the finishing touches on an Away in a Manger hymn study which  will be published later this week.  Last year we did December Hymn Study: O Holy Night.

Finally, I plan to include some of the fun videos and lessons from SchoolhouseTeachers.com. Their Christmas corner has lots of great videos, lesson plans, copywork, and poetry for Christmas and Hanukkah and we look forward to fitting in several of those each week. They are having a great sale this week and it is a wonderful time to give this program a try! We use a variety of courses from them each year and enjoy the flexibility.

I hope this gives you a few new ideas for incorporating Christmas activities into your December schedule. I would love to hear more about what activities your family loves! Share your ideas and plans in the comments.

 

Resource Library and Affiliate Disclosure

When you sign up for the Schoolin’ Swag free resource library you will get a link and password to the library, we are adding to the library each month with new items. You will also get a bi-weekly newsletter email to keep you up to date on what we have going on.

Resource Library 

This post may contain affiliate or referral links, including Amazon affiliate links. As always I will never recommend a product that I don’t believe in and you will never be charged more for purchasing through our links. It does help pay for the costs associated with the blog.

Deals and Freebies

Evan-Moor: 20% off Holiday Gifts/Activity Books/Flashcards

Apologia has a new FREE Christmas/Advent E-book!

You Are an Artist: 20% off All courses and bundles (except membership) 11/25-12/2

Crystal Paine is offering 50% off all of her courses!Whether you want to Makeover Your Mornings, Save Money on Groceries, or Start a Blog she has you covered with some great courses.

Free Makeover Your Morning 5 Day Challenge! This is a great way to help re-focus and get your day off on the right foot.

Harry The Happy Mouse (Free on Kindle)

Illustrated Would You Rather Book (Free on Kindle)

Enrichment Studies has a great free fine arts memory match game this month!

Free Help Your Child’s Memory Book from All About Learning Press!

LitWits Kits Review

LitWit Pinterest

I have not been this excited about a literature unit study in a long time!  LitWits was generous enough to give us four of their LitWits Kits to review. We love to read and we have used and enjoyed a variety of studies but this one fit our family perfectly. While I personally think it is important for students to occasionally analyze literature and learn how to really break it apart, I think it is far more important that they learn to enjoy reading and making connections with what they read.  These kits did just that and as an added bonus to this busy mom, they were super easy to implement.

We were able to choose which titles we wanted from the 46 available titles. I was having a hard time choosing because there were so many wonderful titles, I ended up choose two and allowing my 6th and 8th graders to each choose a title.  We chose The House of Sixty Fathers, My Side of the Mountain, From the Mixed Up Files of Mrs. Basil E Frankweiler, and All Creatures Great and Small.

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We got started by using My Side of the Mountain as a family. I purchased the audio version of the book and we listened to it together before completing the activities that went along with the book. We had the extra benefit of listening to this on our way to a short family vacation in the mountains which tied in beautifully (but is certainly not required to make this unit study wonderful.) The study suggested that you use props to help the children connect to the story. I thought the actual mountain camp site made a great prop and loved how they were making connections to Sam’s adventures. They found Hemlock trees like he used to make his home, rocks for fire starting, wild edibles, a stream, and more. Then we adapted the prop process when we got home and I had them find and collect props that went with the story and share them with the family. They found some of our homemade jam to represent the jam that Sam made, rocks, leaves, sticks, and more. Even the five-year-old was excited to participate.

“Here’s one critical thing we do – or rather, don’t do – to make great books fun for kids: We don’t ask kids to read with assignments in mind.” From LitWit e-mail

Next, there were a list of hands on projects that could be completed to go along with the book.  There was an idea for a poster to advertise the tree he lived in, an opportunity to make a clay pot, sketching on bark, and a play demonstrating the character of Sam.  I decided to allow each of my older children to decide which of these projects they wanted to complete. My son and daughter both chose to make a pot like Sam made for his jam.

Then, together we made breakfast using their ideas that were based off of the book. We had cornmeal pancakes with blueberry jam and watered-down root beer that served as sassafras tea. I loved that they were not all that fond of the watered-down root beer but they realized that if they were not used to having so much sugar, it might taste better. It was a really fun way to connect with the book.

The LitWits Kits also contained a great list of links to help you take your study of topics from the book further. For example, there were links to falcon videos because of Sam’s falcon, links about some of the other animals he encountered, music links, and even links about the author.  There were also downloadable worksheets that you could use to assess understanding of story line, vocabulary, and other aspects of the book. We chose not to use them with this book but may use them for some of the other titles.

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All of these components combined to make a fun and enjoyable book study. Sometimes, when a study over analysis a book it can leave a student ready to be done with the book and move on. These fun and engaging activities had my children talking about the book and making connections throughout their day.

The kits for the other titles are set up in a very similar fashion. I am choosing to have my children independently do the title that they chose and then, after the holidays, I plan to use All Creatures Great and Small as a family study. I am excited about learning more about some of the veterinary topics as well as English culture and I know that my daughter will enjoy the chance to make hot tea and Yorkshire pudding.

LitWits Kits can make a great independent literature study but I think they are even more amazing as a family study. The opportunity for us all to share the same wonderful story and a variety of fun activities really fits into what I want our homeschool days to look like. I wish I had known about these kits years ago! be sure to click on the graphic below to check out the other titles reviewed by Crew Members!

LitWits Kits {LitWits Reviews}Crew Disclaimer

Resource Library and Affiliate Disclosure

When you sign up for the Schoolin’ Swag free resource library you will get a link and password to the library, we are adding to the library each month with new items. You will also get a bi-weekly newsletter email to keep you up to date on what we have going on.

Resource Library 

This post may contain affiliate or referral links, including Amazon affiliate links. As always I will never recommend a product that I don’t believe in and you will never be charged more for purchasing through our links. It does help pay for the costs associated with the blog.

 

Night of the Piper (Review)

You might remember my review of Captain Sun, “Rescue Me”. I am very excited to announce that Bryce Moran has collaborated with five pastors and 20 artists to bring us, Captain Sun, “Night of the Piper“.

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This graphic novel contains another wonderful adventure with Captain Sun as he saves children from the evil Piper, a songstress who lures children with her music. In addition to the fun and colorful story, there are some great devotionals to help bring children closer to God. They talk about various topics such as how God is the source of all good, examining our motives, and using words and works. I would say they are ideal for ages 8-12, although my thirteen-year-old still enjoyed the story. It is a fairly short graphic novel being only 26 pages, so it is not overwhelming for reluctant readers.

*Some of the links in my posts may be affiliate links see below for more information. *

The fact that it is a great book with a wonderful message and engaging graphics might be enough to make you want to purchase Night of the Piper, but it gets even better. All proceeds from this book are going to help The Butterfly Project. This ministry in the Philippines helps girls who have been exploited and trafficked.

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If you want a graphic novel that is uplifting and draws your child into God’s word, I highly suggest checking out this series.  If you want to support a wonderful ministry and get a great Christmas gift at the same time, Night of the Piper is a great choice.

I received a FREE copy of this product 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

Resource Library and Affiliate Disclosure

When you sign up for the Schoolin’ Swag free resource library you will get a link and password to the library, we are adding to the library each month with new items. You will also get a bi-weekly newsletter email to keep you up to date on what we have going on.

Resource Library 

This post may contain affiliate or referral links, including Amazon affiliate links. As always I will never recommend a product that I don’t believe in and you will never be charged more for purchasing through our links. It does help pay for the costs associated with the blog.

Deals and Freebies

 

The Old Schoolhouse is running a great special on their magazine! $19 for a year’s subscription and some fun digital curriculum as a bonus.

2019-thankful-year-with-tos-mag-sale-facebook-meme

 

Sally Clarkson just launched her newest book, a devotional for moms! You can purchase it at Amazon now .

Free Makeover Your Morning 5 Day Challenge! This is a great way to help re-focus and get your day off on the right foot.

Harry The Happy Mouse (Free on Kindle)

Illustrated Would You Rather Book (Free on Kindle)

Enrichment Studies has a great free fine arts memory match game this month!

Free Help Your Child’s Memory Book from All About Learning Press!

Gift Ideas For Your Budding…Reader

“If you don’t like to read, you haven’t found the right book.” JK Rowling

Over the years I have dabbled at a variety of hobbies but the one I love most is reading! I believe that all children can learn to love reading if they have the right help, encouragement, and books! This starts when they are young and we pull them into our laps to share a fun picture book or have them sit on the floor with milk and cookies while we read aloud. As they get older, we teach them to read the books for themselves. Then we begin helping them find books that they can enjoy on their own.

*Some of the links in my posts may be affiliate links see below for more information. *

I have included a list of a few of our favorites for each age range as well as a list of non-book ideas for your budding reader. This list is by no means exhaustive but hopefully you can find something your reader would enjoy. In some ways this list was quite easy and in some ways, it is the hardest list I’ve written. There are so many wonderful books that it made it hard to share just a few good ones for each age level. If you want even more recommendations make sure to check out Blogging Through The Alphabet with Books!!, our book reviews, 5 Days of For the Love of Reading and 2019 Book List.

 

Gift Ideas For Your Budding… Reader

 

Baby/Preschool

  • “That’s Not My” Series (These books are great for the various textures and repetitive words. My children love them from infants up through early elementary grades.)
  • Shine-a-Light Books (These books are excellent for preschoolers. You use a flashlight to see hidden items on the pages and learn more.)
  • Only You Can Be You (this new book about celebrating our differences is Sally Clarkson’s first children’s book. )
  • Otis Books (This lovable tractor is a family favorite.)

Early Elementary Ages

Older Elementary

Middle School

 High School/ Adult

Non Book Gift Ideas

Be sure to check back for each of the posts this week relating to a different interest. If there are other interests or ideas that you have, please feel free to share them. You can also check out Educational Christmas Ideas (that don’t feel like school supplies), Clutter Free Christmas Ideas, and Twelve Christmas Adventures for clutter free Christmas ideas. If you have other interests or hobbies that you would like to see included, please share in the comments.

Resource Library and Affiliate Disclosure

When you sign up for the Schoolin’ Swag free resource library you will get a link and password to the library, we are adding to the library each month with new items. You will also get a bi-weekly newsletter email to keep you up to date on what we have going on.

Resource Library 

This post may contain affiliate or referral links, including Amazon affiliate links. As always I will never recommend a product that I don’t believe in and you will never be charged more for purchasing through our links. It does help pay for the costs associated with the blog.

Deals and Freebies

Not Consumed has a special early sale on their new Bible studies! Sale ends today!

Evan-Moor is having a 40% off sale on their e-books. use code: VDAY40

The Old Schoolhouse is running a great special on their magazine! $19 for a year’s subscription and some fun digital curriculum as a bonus.

2019-thankful-year-with-tos-mag-sale-facebook-meme

 

Sally Clarkson just launched her newest book, a devotional for moms! You can purchase it at Amazon now .

Free Makeover Your Morning 5 Day Challenge! This is a great way to help re-focus and get your day off on the right foot.

Harry The Happy Mouse (Free on Kindle)

Illustrated Would You Rather Book (Free on Kindle)

Enrichment Studies has a great free fine arts memory match game this month!

Free Help Your Child’s Memory Book from All About Learning Press!

Horses of History Appaloosy Books by Mattie Richardson (Review)

Our family loves history and we love reading. So when I learned about Mattie Richardson’s Horses in History Series  by Author Mattie Richardson/Appaloosy Books I was excited to review them. My thirteen-year-old  son jumped on the opportunity to read and review them. Over the course of the last several weeks, he read all four books and is finishing up an enrichment guide that goes along with the fourth book: Day and Night. My eleven-year-old daughter is going to give them a try based on his review.

*Some of the links in my posts may be affiliate links see below for more information. *

Horses of History Pinterest

These short paperback chapter books are written by a teen author and are full of great historical information through the eyes of horses as they experience historical events. They are a great way to engage students in history and get them interested in learning more.

Matthew’s Thoughts

Appaloosy is a great book for readers 9-14. It is the story of a horse that runs from an Indian village and is caught by white men. The horse goes wild, and no one can ride him except one little girl. One day he runs away with her and trips into a hole. After that, the father, who didn’t know she rode, made her stop riding until she told him the whole story.

Golden Sunrise is a great read for people 9-14. It is the story of Cheyenne, a palomino horse who belongs to a boy named Jared. Jared becomes a soldier in the army of Texas. While he is traveling and fighting in the Alamo he meets men like James Bowie and Davie Crocket.

Dusty’s Trail is a great read for people 9-14. It is the story of Dusty, a horse in the Pony Express. As a pony in the Pony Express he faces Indian attacks and other extremes. One day he rode three shifts because of sick horses that could not run. After that he became very famous to all the people in the pony express.

Day and Night is a good book for people 9-14. It is the story of horses Tucker and Shiloh. They are brothers who were sad to be separated but happy to be having an adventure. Tucker becomes a horse in the U.S. Mounted Infantry and Shiloh is a horse in the Confederate Volunteer Calvary. This story shares a lot about the United States Civil War.

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The enrichment guide for Day and Night was full of great information and worksheets. There were comprehension questions and vocabulary for each section of chapters. Then for each section she included an activity for them to complete to write their own story. If they complete each section, they will have a completed story at the end. There are also historical extension activities for each section. Information about civil war medicine, various important figures from the Civil War, recipes for Johnny cakes and hoe cakes and lots more. It was a great way to really dig deeper into the time period and would work wonderfully as a unit study.

Overall, we really enjoyed these books. I loved that in addition to history, my children had the opportunity to see that teenagers really can accomplish something big like becoming a published author. My son recommends them for ages 9-14 but I think you could read them aloud to even younger children.  Be sure to find out more about the books and the author over at Author Mattie Richardson/Appaloosy Books. You can purchase the complete set at Amazon. Finally, don’t forget to click on the graphic below and check out the other Crew Reviews.

Book Set: Appaloosy, Dusty's Trail, Golden Sunrise & Day and Night {Mattie Richardson/Appaloosy Books Reviews}Crew Disclaimer

Resource Library and Affiliate Disclosure

When you sign up for the Schoolin’ Swag free resource library you will get a link and password to the library, we are adding to the library each month with new items. You will also get a bi-weekly newsletter email to keep you up to date on what we have going on.

Resource Library 

This post may contain affiliate or referral links, including Amazon affiliate links. As always I will never recommend a product that I don’t believe in and you will never be charged more for purchasing through our links. It does help pay for the costs associated with the blog.

Goldtown Beginnings Series by Kregel Publications (Review)

When I showed my five-year-old the pictures of Jem Strikes Gold and Jem’s Frog Fiasco   by Kregel Publications, he was unsure if he wanted to read and review them.  I was surprised that he was not more excited but he explained that he was not sure about them because of the dog on the front. We discussed it and he agreed to give them a try. He does not know how to read yet, but we agreed to review them by having me read them aloud to him.

Goldtown

Even though he was a little worried about the dog on the cover (he is scared of dogs), he waited eagerly for the books to arrive in the mail. When the box arrived, he opened it to find two adorable paperback books with beautifully colored covers. The print on the pages was a little larger than normal, making it great for young readers.

When the books came in he wanted me to start reading Jem Strikes Gold right away. We curled up in the recliner to read a chapter or two that evening, and ended up reading half of the book. He kept wanting me to read more and my eleven-year-old daughter was working in the same room and ended up listening with us as well (it might have helped that she shares a nickname with one of the main characters).

Jem Strikes Gold tells the story of Jem and his little sister Ellie and their lives in a California gold town. They live in canvas tent with their parents. Their mom does laundry and bakes pies for miners and dad pans for gold. They help out with these tasks but also have time to play and get into lots of adventures. They learn how to deal with a bully, how to obey their parents, and how to be kind to one another and they even add a pet dog to their family. By the way, my son decided that since it was in the book and not in real life, this dog was okay.

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Reading at the campsite.

Since we had such a positive experience with book one, I decided to pack Jem’s Frog Fiasco  and bring it along with us on a short family camping trip that we were doing. We already had several longer novels that we were listening to on the road but I wanted a good book to read at the camping site. I thought that my older children might find it a little childish but knew that my five-year-old would enjoy it. However, all of the children enjoyed sitting around and listening to the story in the evenings. My daughter even helped me read a few chapters one night. While I wouldn’t necessarily recommend buying the books for older children, the story is fun for the whole family. (I did notice that Kregel Publications has a series featuring this same family designed for children in the 9-13 range.)

Jem’s Frog Fiasco is the second book in the series and continues the story of Jem and his sister Ellie. This book shares even more of their adventures with their dog, catching bullfrogs, a missing sister and lessons they learn about being kind to one another. It felt so very real to me because the children reminded me of my own. They love each other but still get into arguments and fuss with each other. The story has some serious moments and important lessons, but it is also filled with lots of laughter and fun.

While we used the books as fun read alouds, they also have some great printable educational activities to go along with the books. It includes comprehension questions, recipes, vocabulary, graphing, drawing, and more. These would make a great unit study. I am saving them to use in a couple of years when my son can read the books independently.

I highly recommend the Goldtown Beginnings Series for children ages 3-7. They make great read alouds and would also be good first chapter books for independent readers. The stories are fun and engaging while also teaching important morale lessons. My son has already requested books 3 and 4 in the series as soon as they are released next spring!  Make sure to check out these books and all of their other offerings at Kregel Publications and then click on the graphic below to check out all of the other reviews.

Jem Strikes Gold & Jem's Frog Fiasco {Kregel Publications Reviews}

Crew Disclaimer

Resource Library and Affiliate Disclosure

When you sign up for the Schoolin’ Swag free resource library you will get a link and password to the library, we are adding to the library each month with new items. You will also get a bi-weekly newsletter email to keep you up to date on what we have going on.

Resource Library 

This post may contain affiliate or referral links, including Amazon affiliate links. As always I will never recommend a product that I don’t believe in and you will never be charged more for purchasing through our links. It does help pay for the costs associated with the blog.

 

Thanksgiving Books and Celebrations

One of our favorite ways to celebrate various holidays is through books! Thanksgiving is a great one for books because there are so many wonderful books that look at Thanksgiving from various perspectives and topics. You can read books about the Pilgrims and Native Americans, books about the first Thanksgiving, books about gratitude, books about modern-day Thanksgiving, and fictional books that teach lessons about being thankful.

How to Use Books in Your Celebration

We use books in various ways, including having them set out as part of our seasonal decorations. This often sparks the interest of the children, and I find them reading the books that we have displayed. I can also pull from the display whenever we need a read-aloud for the family. *Some of the links in my posts may be affiliate links; see below for more information. * Thanksgiving Books For my kindergartner, we are using these books as part of his reading curriculum and doing various seasonal activities to expand upon them. For example, we might read a book about turkeys, make a turkey craft, and sing some turkey songs. Another week we may choose a book about pilgrims or gratitude. We will definitely spend a week on Cranberry Thanksgiving doing various activities that we find, as well as using some of the ones from Five in a Row. (Stay tuned for a post specifically on Cranberry Thanksgiving soon.)

Thanksgiving Books for Older Students

For my older children, we enjoy finding chapter books or more detailed picture books that relate to the holidays and allowing that to be their reading assignment for the week. Thanksgiving on Thursday is a good choice for elementary students. You could also use Samuel Eaton’s Day for a compare and contrast with Tapenum’s Day or Sarah Morton’s Day.

Quality Time with Books

We also really enjoy spending time together enjoying a book and a snack. Sometimes a specific snack that relates to the book, and sometimes something as simple as a store-bought cookie and a glass of milk. For example, we make cranberry bread when we read Cranberry Thanksgiving. Baking together is always fun, but don’t let that be a stumbling block. Using a boxed mix can still make memories. What are your favorite ways to incorporate books into your holiday celebrations? Any great Thanksgiving books that I should add to my list

Thanksgiving Book List:

Cranberry Thanksgiving The Very First Thanksgiving Day Thanksgiving is for Giving Thanks Arthur’s Thanksgiving The Squirrels’ Thanksgiving Oh, What a Thanksgiving! Thanksgiving on Thursday Happy Thanksgiving, Curious George Samuel Eaton’s Day Thanksgiving Poems Tapenum’s Day Sarah Morton’s Day Squanto and the Miracle of Thanksgiving Squanto, Friend of the Pilgrims

Resource Library and Affiliate Disclosure

When you sign up for the Schoolin’ Swag free resource library, you will get a link and password to the library. We are adding new things to the library each month with new items. You will also get a bi-weekly newsletter email to keep you updated on what we have going on. Resource Library   This post may contain affiliate or referral links, including Amazon affiliate links. As always, I will never recommend a product that I don’t believe in, and you will never be charged more for purchasing through our links. It does help pay for the costs associated with the blog.

Deals and Freebies

f my favorite Amazon sales, just in time for Christmas shopping! Buy 2 Get 1 Free Books!
Tuttle Twins has a great Veteran’s Day sale happening now! Free Makeover Your Morning 5 Day Challenge! This is a great way to help re-focus and get your day off on the right foot. Harry The Happy Mouse (Free on Kindle) Illustrated Would You Rather Book (Free on Kindle) Free Help Your Child’s Memory Book from All About Learning Press!

An Adventure Inside an Adventure

Our family recently had the opportunity to spend a couple of days camping in the mountains between two scheduled trips to our state fair. We had lots of fun adventures and I am planning several Field Trip Friday posts about that trip, but today I want to talk about another part of our trip. Our adventures through three different books while we were on our trip. We listened to two books on audio while we were traveling and read another one aloud at our camp site. (If you have not tried Audible, you are missing out on a great way to get more reading into your life.)

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I love that books can give us a family adventure while we ride and I enjoy watching the children make connections to the book as we go throughout our days. On this trip, the first book we listened to was My Side of the Mountain by Jean Craighead George. This book is about the adventures of a boy named Sam that leaves home to live by himself on a mountain. He learns how to make fire, build a home in a tree, find food, hunt, and more. They loved hearing all of his adventures and the fact that we were on our way to the mountains made it even better. At our campsite and as we hiked, they would talk about what Sam might have done. They looked at the trees and wondered what it would have been like to hollow one out and create a home. They found streams of water for bathing and cooking. They found rocks that could be used as shelters and wondered if the plants we found were edible. We are actually doing a unit study on this book so I will be sharing more in a couple of weeks but know that everyone in the family enjoyed this book. The children have all asked that we listen to the sequels soon. 

Goldtown

While we were at the campsite we read Jem’s Frog Fiasco . This is the second book in the Goldtown Beginnings Series. I will be doing a full review of both this book and the first one in the series soon but I had to mention them because everyone enjoyed listening to them. They are designed for young children and are perfect for my five-year-old. However, the bigger children listened without complaint and wanted to me to keep reading. They tell of the adventures of two young siblings and their parents as they live and play in a California gold camp town.  The book had my son looking for gold along the mountain lake near our camp site. He enjoyed it so much that we are looking into taking him to a mining museum to learn more and try his hand at gold mining.

Finally, on the way home we listened to The Last Archer.  The story is a side story in the wonderful Green Ember series. We love this series by S.D. Smith and all of the adventure and excitement that he includes. The series is about “rabbits with swords”. It tells the story of groups of rabbits who are coming together to fight the “Lords of Prey”, create a mended wood, and put the rightful heir to throne back into place. We had gotten a little behind on listening to the series but the last book is coming out in the spring of 2020 so we are getting caught up so we will be ready for that book when it is launched. These books have so much to offer in the way of good versus evil, bravery, compassion, and more. I would say they are ideal for the upper elementary and middle school age group, but my five-year-old enjoys listening to them as well.

Whether you are traveling or at home, books can be a great way to have a family adventure. They give children shared experiences, positive role models, fun stories, and fuel for the imagination. How do you use books and stories in your family? What are some of your favorite book adventures?

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When you sign up for the Schoolin’ Swag free resource library you will get a link and password to the library, we are adding to the library each month with new items. You will also get a bi-weekly newsletter email to keep you up to date on what we have going on.

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This post may contain affiliate or referral links, including Amazon affiliate links. As always I will never recommend a product that I don’t believe in and you will never be charged more for purchasing through our links. It does help pay for the costs associated with the blog.

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Jehovah’s Mighty Acts: A Book Review

A while back I had the privilege of reviewing T is for Tree and later His Mercy Endureth Forever: Psalm 136 which is a beautiful picture book based on the Psalm and illustrated by Kathleen DeJong. So, when I heard that the Reformed Free Press Publishing Association had a new book starting a brand-new series I was excited to get my hands on it and start reading it with my children.  When Jehovah’s Mighty Acts arrived they were thrilled to open it and the cover had my five-year-old begging me to start reading it aloud to him.  With Bible stories by Nathan J Langerak and illustrations by Micheal Welply this is a beautiful hard cover book written for the elementary age group.

Jehovah's Might Acts Pinterest

Over the course of the last month or so, I have been reading various stories from the book mostly to my five-year-old but if they are around even my eleven and thirteen-year-old children would stop to listen to the exciting stories of God’s mighty acts. My five-year-old would often bring me the book to read or ask me to read a story from his new ‘Bible book’ as he called it. Since it was so beautifully illustrated, he could also take it and ‘read’ it himself by looking through the pictures even though he cannot yet actually read. He enjoyed looking at the pictures and telling the story based on what he saw and what he remembered from my reading.

The Reformed Free Press Publishing Association recommends these books as read alouds for ages seven to ten but I think they would be interesting to a broader age range of at least five to twelve. They could be used as bedtime stories or a part of a homeschool morning basket. With older children they could even look up the scripture and compare it to the stories.

Each story or chapter is two to three pages long and includes full color illustrations. One feature that I really loved is that at the beginning of each story they list the scripture from which the story was taken. These stories come from all parts of the Old Testament including stories from Genesis all the way to Esther. Some of the stories are very well known such as creation, the fall, and the tower of Babel. However, other stories might not be as well-known such as “Assyria Smitten” and “The Day the Sun Stood Still”.

Rather than just going chronologically through the Bible this series of books is thematic with each book telling stories from throughout the Old Testament related to that theme. The theme of this particular book was Old Testament stories that display God’s mighty acts of salvation. The next book that is scheduled to be released in the fall of 2020 will be based on the theme of Old Testament friends and servants of God.

If you are looking for a book of Bible stories that gives more detail and information that most children’s story books, but is still written in an engaging story format that is easy for children to understand, you need to consider adding Jehovah’s Mighty Acts to your home library. We are looking forward to finishing reading the stories in this book and getting the next book when it is published in 2020.

 

Disclaimer
I received a FREE copy of this product 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.

Resource Library and Affiliate Disclosure

When you sign up for the Schoolin’ Swag free resource library you will get a link and password to the library, we are adding to the library each month with new items. You will also get a bi-weekly newsletter email to keep you up to date on what we have going on.

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This post may contain affiliate or referral links, including Amazon affiliate links. As always I will never recommend a product that I don’t believe in and you will never be charged more for purchasing through our links. It does help pay for the costs associated with the blog.

 

 

 

Zeezok Music Appreciation (Review)

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One of the things I love about homeschooling is the ability to allow my children to explore a variety of interests and passions. My daughter has developed and interest in music through her violin lessons and our family trips to the symphony. I was excited to be able to review Music Appreciation Book 2: for the Middle Grades and help her learn more about some of the composers whose music she was hearing and playing. Zeezok Publishing did a great job creating a program that helped her delve further into the lives and music of various composers while also teaching some basic information about reading and understanding music.

zeexok pinterest

We received the student book and nine biographies covering seven composers (two of the composers were split into two books). When we started this program over the summer, I had my daughter, a rising sixth grader, working through the program with a little help from me. The program started with Frederic Chopin, Early Years and she learned about how he grew up in Poland and his childhood. We all enjoyed her fixing a Polish Christmas feast for dinner one night after learning about this custom. She used a recipe for poppy seed cake that was included in the activity book and found other recipes online for sauerkraut, kielbasa, perogies, and more.

The program would have her read several chapters and then do a variety of activities in the student book. This included answering questions about the chapters, listening to music selections via QR codes, and activities to learn about musical concepts such as the various types of notes (whole note, quarter note, etc).  The curriculum also has the student create a journal to help record what they are learning and their thoughts about the composers. If you are in a state or situation where you need to track national standards the curriculum covers all of the national standards for music appreciation in fifth through eighth grades.

She was enjoying working through the program even though we were technically on summer break from school. As we are starting back to our regular schedule, I have switched it up a bit and I am going to use the biographies as a read aloud to all three of my school aged children. My daughter will still be completing the student book and activities but I thought all of the children would enjoying learning about the composers. We are currently learning about Schumann and look forward to also learning about Wagner, Foster, Brahms, Tchaikovsky, and MacDowell.

The curriculum is designed for fifth through eighth graders but they do also have a coloring book that you can purchase to go along with the composers. This could be a great way to include younger siblings and I am considering purchasing one for my kindergartner. They also have a lap book that can be purchased for your hands-on learners.

I love it when I find a program that is fun and can teach my children (and me) about our interests.  Music Appreciation Book 2: for the Middle Grades certainly fit that description. The interesting biographies really helped us to connect with the composers, while the activities kept things fun and engaging.  I encourage you to check out the program and also to click on the graphic below to check out the other Crew reviews and see how other families integrated it into their day.

Music Appreciation Book 2: for the Middle Grades {Zeezok Publishing Reviews}

Crew Disclaimer

Resource Library and Affiliate Disclosure

When you sign up for the Schoolin’ Swag free resource library you will get a link and password to the library, we are adding to the library each month with new items. You will also get a bi-weekly newsletter email to keep you up to date on what we have going on.

Resource Library 

This post may contain affiliate or referral links, including Amazon affiliate links. As always I will never recommend a product that I don’t believe in and you will never be charged more for purchasing through our links. It does help pay for the costs associated with the blog.