Tag Archives: Christian Faith

October 17, 2013 · 9:35 am

God’s World News . . . A T.O.S. Review

For several years now, I have planned to subscribe to the magazine God’s World News, and then for one reason or another, just never did. So, when I found out it would be up for review by the Schoolhouse Review Crew, I of course requested the opportunity to review it with my four boys.

God’s World News Magazine, as it turns out, is a very good value for the cost. For a full year (10 months) subscription to the age range of your choice, you pay only $28.00. There is also no charge for regular shipping and handling.
With our subscription to the News Flash

we also received a 20″ x 30″ world map, which coordinates with the Map It! Locator maps in many of the magazine articles, allowing my kids to then look up where in the world the story is taking place. At my husband’s suggestion, I purchased a poster frame to put the map in, along with dry erase pens. That way, the paper map stays nice (I DO have all boys, you know!), plus, if they want to, they can now mark it up as we are learning, and the dry erase marker will wipe right off!

You can see the boys checking out the map below . . .

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God’s World News is available at several grade levels, all the way through high school.

I chose the News Flash edition because I thought it would be a good mid-range that all four of my boys would enjoy, and I was right. News Flash is actually written for kids in the 3rd – 4th grade range, and I have kids who range in ability from about kindergarten – 2nd grade all the way up to early high school level.

The various God’s World magazines are written to help your children build a biblical world view, when looking at stories in the news, at current events, and also at things in our history.

From the website:
News Flash emphasizes News, Knowledge and Wisdom while focusing on specific skills for students in this age range.

•Age appropriate stories illustrate for young students the truth that our merciful and sovereign God is active in the world.
•Lessons in the magazine and online use news stories as a springboard to teach concepts from Civics, Geography, Economics, Worldview and more.
•MAP-IT! Locator maps correspond with a full-sized (20″ x 30″) world map sent in September to each class, homeschool teacher, and homeschool group coordinator (five maps sent to homeschool groups).
•Creative puzzles build alphabet, number, sequence, and other skills.
•Grade-level website expands the God’s World News experience with ever-changing stories, editorial cartoons, and lots of downloadable activity sheets .

Our full year subscription included:

Ten, full color monthly issues (no issue in December or May), the afore-mentioned children’s website access, a weekly email newsletter for parents and teachers, which includes answer keys to the magazine quizzes and puzzles, and biographies and topical lessons to download and print, with quizzes and answer keys.

We have so far received the August, September and October issues of God’s World News Flash, and the boys are very much enjoying it! We have been reading stories about why people move (which discusses people who are illegally going into other countries to live, and the dangers when they do so), stories that teach some geography, stories about various animals and what they can do (for example, I did not know that dolphins use echolocation!).

There is often a “Bible2Life” section at the end of an article, like the one at the end of one of my boys’ favorite stories, “Hank Aaron: Natural Born Ball Player”. The article gave us two pages filled with his story and history, and then in the Bible2Life section at the end, talked about how God has plans for all of us. It used the verse Jeremiah 1:5, which tells us that the Lord knew us before we were even formed in the womb. The Bible2Life section of this story talks about how God “consecrates” us (and explains that to consecrate means to set apart for a special purpose), and asks the reader to think about what his or her special gifts might be, and how God wants him or her to use those gifts. Many stories in the magazine have a Bible2Life section, which helps the reader in developing a biblical world view, even when they move on to reading or viewing news stories from other sources.

You can download a sample issue of News Flash, a sample answer key, a sample lesson, and a sample of one of the biographies that are archived on the website

As you can see below, “The Batman”, “The Artist”, “Mr. Loquacious” and “The Puzzler” are all enjoying both the News Flash Magazine AND the large world map!

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I also received a copy of “World Magazine“, which is the adult version of God’s World News. There are articles dealing with things such as the government shutdown, the death penalty, common core in education, marriage longevity, etc . . ., and my husband and I are enjoying it very much!

To sum it up, I believe that at $28.00, God’s World Magazine is an excellent value, especially when you add in the online extras that come with the subscription. I also feel that the News Flash edition is a very good fit for my kids. They are all interested in things that are being talked about in the news, but we really try to be careful of what they watch and read. There are often stories in the newspaper and on the news which we don’t want them to see, feeling that either the stories themselves, or the way they are treated in the news, are not appropriate for our children (or any children, often-times!).

Reading God’s World News gives them an opportunity to learn about, and discuss, world events, current events, etc . . . within a safer environment, and from a biblical world view.

The only thing I would change (and I bet my regular readers know exactly what I’m about to say, lol!) would be that I wish the Bible references would be from the Authorized King James Bible, which is the only version our family uses. While I realize other versions have become very popular, it does seem to me that if nothing else, it would be more cost-effective for publishers to use the KJV, as it is my understanding that there is much less of a copy-write issue when using the King James Version of the Holy Bible than when using other versions.

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Filed under Bible Study for kids, Christian faith, current affairs, education, family, God's World News, home education, homeschool products, homeschooling, Kids, News Flash Magazine, Politics, Schoolhouse Review Crew Post, special needs education, TOS Review, Ultimate Blog Challenge 2013

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October 15, 2013 · 12:13 pm

A New Book is coming . . .

I am part of a launch team for the new book “The Force“, by home-school mother and daughter authors Joyce and Alexandra Swann.

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I am excited to see more Christian, home-schooling moms writing books for us to read, especially when they are novels!

Before “The Force” is officially launched, you can read the prequel, titled “The Fourth Kingdom“, which is FREE this week on amazon.

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Just click here to download your free copy for Kindle, this week only, and get up to speed on the story before the sequel is released later this month!

I will be posting more as the launch date approaches, along with reviews of both books, so stay tuned! 🙂

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As always, I would love it if you join me on all of “My Journeys Through Life”! Just enter your email information into the “sign me up” button at the top of the blog and never miss another update!

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October 14, 2013 · 8:26 am

All Along . . .

Occasionally, I am scheduled to sing special music at church. This is a song I sang in the Sunday evening service on October 13, 2013. I chose it because I thought it might be an encouragement to those who feel a need to be encouraged . . . I know this song helps me when I hear it!

Here is the video of “All Along” . . .

I hope it is an encouragement to you, as well!

As always, I would love it if you would like to join me on all of “My Journeys” . . . just go to the “sign me up” button at the top of the blog and put in your information. Never miss another update! 🙂

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October 13, 2013 · 1:19 pm

Balloon Sunday 2013 at Mesa Baptist Church

Today was the final day of this year’s International Hot Air Balloon Fiesta here in Albuquerque, and also the annual balloon Sunday at our church.

On our way to church this morning, we saw TONS of balloons from the last mass ascension of the 2013 Hot Air Balloon Fiesta, and when we arrived, I took these pictures from the church parking lot . . .

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After morning service, everyone received a helium balloon with our church name and address on it, and a Gospel tract. We all wrote our names on ours, then went out to release them.

Here are the boys getting ready . . .

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And here we are outside, getting ready to release . . .

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And here they go, off to who knows where!

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I was told that last year, one made it to Windsor, Ontario by the very next day!

As always, I’d love it if you would join me on all of “My Journeys”! Just use the “sign me up” button at the top of the blog, and never miss an update again! 🙂

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October 7, 2013 · 7:54 pm

Faith, or Lack Thereof . . .

So, Saturday evening, while sitting on the couch watching TV and crocheting on a baby gift I’m trying to get completed (so I can send it back home to our former piano teacher who just had her first baby), the left arm (or temple, not sure which it is called) on my glasses broke off. It didn’t just come unscrewed, it actually broke right off.

My glasses are extremely expensive, even AFTER the portion the insurance pays, so I, of course, became very worried (since that is one of my biggest spiritual struggles, after all). You see, I am very aware that our health spending account is just about depleted for this year. In fact, once we pay the bill to the surgeon for my recent surgery, I’m pretty sure it will be completely used up, so there is just no way to replace these glasses at this time. We are still paying off both of the surgeries my husband had in December and January.

Well, on Sunday after morning service, we went to Sam’s Club Optical. Unfortunately, the smallest replacements they had in their spare parts were too big, so they suggested we head over to Wal-Mart Optical, which we did. They DID have the correct size (yay!), and replaced the broken one, although they could not put a matching one on the right side, as the screw holding it in would not turn. They did give it to me though, along with two screws, in case it should come out later. So, while the arm on the left doesn’t match either the front of the glasses OR the arm on the right, at least my glasses will stay on my face now, so I can see, and they didn’t charge me anything at all!

The glasses may not look so great, but they will hold me until we can afford new ones now. God is good, even when we lack faith.

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October 3, 2013 · 12:17 pm

The Homeschool Mom’s Bible . . . A T.O.S. Review

Now and then, we who are members of the Schoolhouse Review Crew are given an opportunity to review something that is just for us homeschooling mamas. This is one of those times, and I feel so very fortunate to have been chosen as one of the reviewers for the KJV Homeschool Mom’s Bible, which has just recently been published to go alongside their NIV version, by Zondervan.

It was so exciting to me, that there would now be a KJV Homeschool Mom’s Bible, because, as regular readers of my blog are aware, the KJV is the only version of the Bible my family uses, or will ever use.

The Bible I received is a hard-cover, jacketed book, with 1504 pages. As you can see from the picture above, the cover is so nice looking, it almost looks like something I would do when making a scrapbook page or a card. The cool thing, for those of us who usually wind up being book jacket challenged, either losing the jacket or having it become worn and torn, is that if you DO remove the jacket, the actual cover of the book looks exactly the same as the jacket! No boring, plain cover on this one, that’s for sure! 🙂

There is a very encouraging one page foreword written by Vickie Farris, who is the wife of Homeschool Legal Defense Association founder Dr. Michael Farris. I was privileged to attend one of her sessions during the CAPE-NM convention here in Albuquerque during April of 2013. I thought her forward was well written, and spoke well to the things we, as homeschool moms, need to hear.

Along with the complete text of the Authorized King James Version of the Holy Bible, this book includes 365 daily devotions, which are short (one page) readings which are specifically targeted for homeschooling mamas, each written by Janet Tatman. Janet Tatman homeschooled her own children for over 25 years, and then joined Alpha Omega Publications as a copywriter in the company’s homeschool division. She spent much of her time there writing the Daily Focus, a daily email devotional sent to subscribers. It became so popular that it is now offered as a year-long devotional book, and has been included as part of the KJV Homeschool Mom’s Bible.

The daily devotions are spread throughout this Bible, as opposed to being all grouped together as one large section. I like that, it encourages me to read the section of the Bible that is right by whatever devotion I am looking at, even if it has nothing to do with that particular devotion. Each devotion has a scripture passage to help in directing my focus to God’s Word, and ends with a short, suggested prayer to help get me started in talking with The Lord.

The devotionals also have a “go to” format, meaning that at the bottom of each devotion’s page is a line telling me on which page in my KJV Homeschool Mom’s Bible I will need to turn to the next day when I want to read my devotional.

There is also another option that I very much like, and that is the Topical Index, which is at the end of the book. I really enjoy going through the topics, because whenever I do, I find one right away that speaks to SOMETHING I am dealing with in my life. So, not only do I have the complete text of the Authorized King James Version of the Holy Bible, but without needing to get out a second book, I also have my daily devotional, plus a topical index, telling me which devotionals go with which topics!

I feel very blessed to have been given the KJV Homeschool Mom’s Bible to review, and would encourage other ladies who are now homeschooling or who are thinking of homeschooling, to take a look at this wonderful addition to our mom toolbox! Truly, the only thing I would suggest doing differently is to have it offered in large print for those of us with tired eyes, lol!

The KJV Homeschool Mom’s Bible is available in the hard-cover edition I received for $34.99, and is also available as an e-book or in the Italian Duo-tone format.

Please click on the graphic below, if you’d like to find out what other members of the Schoolhouse Review Crew thought of the Homeschool Mom’s Bible!

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As always, I would love it if you would join me on all of “My Journeys”. Just go to the “sign me up” button at the top of the page, enter your email information, and never miss an update again! 🙂

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October 2, 2013 · 9:34 am

“Round Up Sunday” . . . What fun!

Back a little over a week ago, on September 22, 2013, we attended our first annual “Round Up Sunday” at our church. We had just started attending last year, but that was after the Round Up Sunday for 2012. So, we were really looking forward to it, especially the kids, and we were not disappointed at all!

Of course, the entire theme was western. Western décor (created by The Ministry Mama), and everyone was invited to dress in western garb.

I went to Savers, a thrift store here in Albuquerque, and found western style shirts for the boys, cowboy hats, and holsters with play western guns to put onto their belts.

As you can see, they were completely into the whole thing!
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I also found a western shirt (at Sam’s Club, of all places!) for my husband, and a hat at Savers. For me, I went with a western style shirt I had gotten when I modeled for Christopher & Banks the previous day, along with a jeans skirt and the leopard print cowboy hat the kids talked me into getting at Savers. It went well with my leopard print top and purse, they said! Now, I just need to find leopard print cowgirl boots for next year!:-)

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Here’s a picture of the whole family . . .

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Our guest speaker was Jorgen Rundquist. He was just so good, we very much enjoyed his singing, but even more importantly, his speaking. I really think it touched so many who were there.

“The Batman” got picked to go up and help when Bro. Runquist did some rope tricks.

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Bro. Runquist did some wonderful singing for us as well . . .

After the morning service, we had a great meal of BBQ beef Brisket, and then some activities outside for the kids, including a petting zoo . . .

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“Mr. Loquacious”
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“The Puzzler”
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“The Artist”
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And a set up to practice roping cows!

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“Mr. Loquacious”
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“The Puzzler”
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During the evening service, the Sunshine Kids Choir sang. “Mr. Loquacious” and “The Puzzler” are both in this choir.
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Here is the special skit and song that they did!

As you can see, a good time was had by all, and more importantly, a BUNCH of people were reached for Christ!

As always, I would just love it if you would join me on all of “My Journeys”! Please go to the “sign me up” button at the top right of the page and put in your email information . . . never miss an update again! 🙂

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September 18, 2013 · 9:06 am

Seed Sowers: Gospel Planting Adventures . . . a T.O.S. Review

I love to read, so whenever a book comes up for review with the Schoolhouse Review Crew I am all over the request form for it!

The book “Seed Sowers: Gospel Planting Adventures” by Gwen Toliver was no different, in fact I especially wanted to read this one! I love stories about missionaries, in fact, I have cousins who have been missionaries to a closed Asian country for many years now.

Gwen Toliver, a home-schooling mother to eight children, and writes about family and ministry on her very interesting blog.

She spent two years interviewing missionaries who have spent years of their lives in the awesome task of translating the Bible into many languages for people who have no Bible, not even a little bit of it! That alone should make us all want to be involved in some way, even if the only way we can help is by giving to, and praying for missions.

Many of the people who the missionaries in Gwen’s book are trying to reach don’t even have a written language, so the Bible translator missionaries would need to spend years with them, just trying to learn their languages first, and then teaching many of the people to read their own language, while translating the Bible into each particular language. Then, generally beginning with the New Testament (and just the New Testament can take twenty or more years of faithful labor!), the missionaries would be able to provide the people with small portions at a time, as it was completed.

One story that touched me deeply was from the chapter “The Whistling Man”, which was about George and Florence Cowan’s efforts to translate the Bible for the Mazatec people. This particular story was that of a young Mazatec girl who would sneak away from her mother in the market place, so she could go listen to the “crazy gringo lady” telling Bible stories. When, in her excitement about the story she had heard, and the Bible verse she had learned, she tried to tell her mother about it, her mother became angry, took her home, and beat her. Yet, week after week, Felicitas would slip away from her mother to go learn about the Lord from the “crazy gringo lady”. Her heart was reached, and she chose to bear the consequences (being beaten by her mother) of going to learn about Jesus, eventually accepting Him as her Lord and Savior. Of course, this did not make her life here on earth any easier . . . she married young, and was widowed young, when her husband died of tuberculosis, leaving her with three young children to care for. Even so, she was hungry for the Word of God.

In her eagerness to be able to read God’s Word on her own, Felicitas eventually asked Florence Cowan to teach her to read. After that, she and her children traveled from where they lived high in the mountains to the Cowen’s hut two or three days every week, whether in nice weather or pouring rain, just so that Felicitas could learn to read God’s Word on her own.

As the Cowans translated God’s Word into the Mazatec language one book at a time, Felicitas sacrificed greatly by using portions of the tiny amount of money she had scraped together to buy corn each week, with which she would feed her family. The Cowan’s would have given the books, but the people didn’t want hand-outs. Felicitas put into practice the words of Job 23:12 “I have esteemed the words of his mouth more than my necessary food”.
The story of Felicitas hit me where I live, because we here in the USA take our Bibles for granted. How many of us have more than one complete Bible in our homes, yet, barely open them, or do our five or ten minutes of Bible reading each day (if that!), and call it done, until church service? Would we sacrifice necessary food in order to purchase a small portion of God’s Word?

There is a wealth of additional information (and pictures that go with the various missionary stories) on the Seed Sowers website, along with an excerpt from the Seed Sowers book, and a sample of how the Mazatec people of southern Mexico speak in a tonal language, and can carry on a conversation by whistling!

This is a WONDERFUL book, for anyone to read! I recommend even that it be a read-aloud, as even young children can hear and be touched for missions, and now that I have read it, and know that my kids will be able to handle it, I will be sharing it with them as a read-aloud. I especially appreciate the effort Gwen went to in making sure to have the correct pronunciations of unfamiliar words placed in parenthesis after the words were used.

Even more important to me is the fact that all of the scripture used in this book is taken from the KJV, which is the only Bible my family and my church uses. 🙂

From the Seed Sowers site, here are some tips for using this book:

1. Family Read-Aloud – Gather the kids or grandkids around and read a chapter together! All ages will enjoy these true adventure stories.

2. Geography/History – Use the book to supplement homeschool or Christian school curriculum to teach basic subjects while giving your students a heart for the lost.

3. Independent Reading Level – 6th grade and up

Seed Sowers: Gospel Planting Adventures is a soft-cover, 165 page book, which includes 21 different stories of brave men and women who labored in far-a-way places for years translating unknown languages, so that they could bring God’s Word, a little bit at a time, to every corner of the world. It also includes a foreword written by Gracia Burnham, whose story I had only learned a couple of years ago during Vacation Bible School at the church we attended back in Michigan, appendix, a bibliography, and acknowledgements to all those behind the scenes people who helped in the creation of this book.

I would love to see this book on every family’s bookshelf, in every church library, and in every church bookstore! It is available here for the current price of $12.50, with the regular price being $13.95.

Click below to read reviews of Seed Sowers by other members of the Schoolhouse Review Crew!

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As always, I would love it if you would join me on “My Journeys” by clicking on the “sign me up” button at the top of the blog. Just enter your email, and never miss an update again! 🙂

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September 10, 2013 · 11:08 am

What we did Last Friday With our Home-school Group

So, our church has a number of home-schooling families, and so we have a pretty good home-school group, too! We try to plan at least one activity per month, and this month, on Friday, September 6, 2013 we had a wonderful Birds of Prey presentation, given by the organization “On a Wing And a Prayer”, a wild bird rehabilitation educational program. The presenters were Mikal Deese, CWR and Steve McKibbin. They can be reached at:

Mikal Deese: POB 29, Corrales, NM
mikaldeese@aol.com
(505)897-0439

Steve McKibbin: smkibbin31@gmail.com
(505)867-8765

Here is most of the group waiting for them to get here . . . they were SO good, having been warned ahead of time that we needed to be in our seats and being quiet when the presenters arrived, so as not to frighten the birds.

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I think they did an awesome job staying calm, too! 🙂

We did not know what kinds of birds would be brought, having been told that it would depend upon which ones were being well-behaved that day. MY kids were hoping for owls, as we have had plans to do an owl lap-book. However, I have found a nice (free!) Birds of Prey lap-book here, and since they brought both hawks and owls for the presentation, along with the fact that we’ve done other lap-books from homeschoolshare and had a good time with them, I think we’ll use this one this time around. We’ll also be dissecting owl pellets that I had purchased some time ago, even before we moved here to New Mexico, so the boys are definitely looking forward to that, now that I have also gone to the Dollar Tree for the supplies needed for doing them. Be watching for an upcoming post about the lap-book and the dissection! 🙂

Here is Mikal Deese, laying out a large tarp, just in case, lol!

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First up, we had the Swainson’s Hawk.

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She’s quite beautiful, isn’t she?

Next, we saw a Red Tailed Hawk . . .

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Then the Barn Owl . . .

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The children were fascinated by the Barn Owl, which is just gorgeous! They thought it was very cool that the barn owl can fly silently, and were surprised to find out that this large bird weighed only about one and a half pounds, being mostly feathers and hollow bones.

Here we have Steve McKibbin holding the tiny Burrowing Owl, which nests in a hole in the ground.

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We very much enjoyed this presentation! Ms. Deese and Mr. McKibbin were SO patient with all of the questions the children (and the parents, too, actually!) asked, and spent a lot of time answering them. I was pleased to see how many questions that our children were able to give correct answers to when the presenters asked them if they had any idea why something was so about a particular bird, and I was told afterward by the mom who organized the whole thing (thank you, Holly!) that Ms. Deese and Mr. McKibbin really complemented our children on being so well-behaved, and especially on the fact that they were willing to ask questions. 🙂

If your home-school group is local to this area, you should give them a call, it’s well worth your time, and the cost was truly negligible. All they asked us for was $5.00 per family to help cover the cost of food for the birds and transporting them. As Ms. Deese said in her presentation, this is NOT a career move, it’s a labor of love, and one does not make a living as a wild bird rehabilitator. And we could certainly tell how much they love doing this, too!

So, that’s what we did for science last week!

After the presentation, we went to a local park to have a picnic lunch and some play time . . .

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We had a very good day! 🙂

As always, Please join me on “My Journeys” by clicking the “sign me up” button at the top of the blog. Just enter your email and you’ll never miss an update! 🙂

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August 26, 2013 · 9:07 am

Because You Are Strong: A Study of Godly Strength For Young Men . . . a T.O.S. review

I received a copy of the book Because You Are Strong: A Study of Godly Strength For Young Men from the company Doorposts, to review.

I received the 104 page, soft-cover book, which is available here for $14.00, but it is currently being offered at the sale price of $12.00. Because You Are Strong is also available here as an e-book for $10.00.

Because You Are Strong is written for boys, age 12 and up, although you can also use it with your daughters. Most of the study questions would be applicable to either a boy or a girl, and where appropriate, there are asterisks which will refer you to alternate questions for girls, which are listed in the back of the book. This would certainly be helpful for the home-schooling family on a budget who would prefer to use just one of the two books offered by Doorposts which were reviewed by crew members. While it does say on the website that it is for ages 12 and up, I want to be sure you know that your older teens will enjoy it, and benefit greatly from it as well. This book really does teach good Bible study skills, many of which are, at this time, beyond my kids, but would be good for any teen (or adult, for that matter!) to learn and to apply.

My boys were looking forward to getting started with this book, once I told them we would mostly do it orally, with “The Artist” doing the writing involved, as he really is the most capable of that.

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Because You Are Strong is meant to teach your son practical Bible study skills. He will learn how to:

• Use a concordance.
• Study the original Greek & Hebrew words used in a passage.
• Perform a character study.
• Study a specific topic in the Bible.
• Understand and use marginal notes in your Bible.
• Study a verse, passage, chapter, or entire book of the Bible.
• Use free Bible study tools on computers and mobile devices.

There are ten studies which focus on men from the Bible such as David, Samson, and other “mighty men of valor”, and they will also learn about the power of God, the service of Jesus, and the wisdom found in Proverbs regarding strength.

Each of the ten studies is divided into daily segments, intended to be from 5 to 20 minutes each, and each study will teach a different method of study. The book Because You Are Strong contains 74 days of study, as well as 40 more suggested studies. The ten studies in Because You Are Strong include:

1. Strength for the Race: Meditating on Hebrews 11-12
2. Strength with no Limits A Topical Study on the Omnipotence of God
3. Strength and Wisdom: A Topical Study in Proverbs
4. Strength and Temptation: A Character Study of Samson
5. Strength to be Valiant: A Word Study on “Valor”
6.Strength in Our Weakness: A Verse Study on 2 Corinthians 12:9-10
7. Strength in the Battle: A Chapter Study of 1 Samuel 17
8. Strength Serving Others: A Study of Jesus’ Actions in the Gospel of Mark
9. Strength and Gray Heads: A Verse Study of Proverbs 20:29
10. Strength in the Faith: A Book Study of 1 John

The following pictures will show you some of the work involved in study #1, “Strength For The Race” . . .

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You can download and view a sample here, and see for yourself what the first study “Strength For The Race” is like.

The Bible verses used are from the KJV and the ESV translations of the Bible. As usual, this is the one area where I wish they had written it differently, and simply used the KJV throughout. We are still able to use this study though, as we simply have our own (KJV) Bibles out while working in this book, and get a lot of good practice looking up every scripture passage for ourselves. Even my little guys, “Mr. Loquacious” and “The Puzzler”, along with my eldest “The Batman” enjoy looking them up, often competing to see who can get to the verse the fastest! 🙂

Here they all are, looking up the verses in their own KJV Bibles . . .

“Mr. Loquacious”

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“The Puzzler”

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“The Batman”

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“The Artist” also spent time looking up the verses, but for some reason I didn’t get that picture! You can see him up higher in this review, writing everybody’s thoughts down in the Because You Are Strong book.

If you work at the pace suggested in this book, you’ll have at least a good years worth of study! In our case, it will last much longer, because we are doing it as a group, and because I do have kids with varying special needs, so we often divide lessons up to take at least two days for every one suggested day. I would much rather have it take twice as long, or sometimes even longer, and have my boys actually get something out of it, than rush through just to meet the designed schedule. That is one of the beauties of home-schooling though, you can work any curriculum to fit your child/children, and you can take whatever time you need. It also gives me the opportunity to find out how any curriculum can be “tweaked” to fit for a special needs family, since “tweaking” is often our only option, especially when dealing with multiple kids who have different special needs! 🙂

Over-all, my boys are enjoying this study. They enjoy looking up, and hearing about the people in the Bible, and *I* like it when they pick up on how something may apply to their own lives while we are reading. We will continue working through the book Because You Are Strong: A Study of Godly Strength For Young Men, but as I said above, we will take it slowly, so as to get as much as possible out of it.

Other Schoolhouse Review Crew Members received either Because You Are Strong (for their boys) or Beauty in the Heart (for their girls) from Doorposts. Please sail on over to read what they thought!

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