The NIrV Adventure Bible for Early Readers - TOS Review

Disclosure: I received this complimentary product through the Homeschool Review Crew.

Reading the Bible is such a crucial part of spiritual growth, especially for our children. I'm always on the lookout for ideas to get and keep my kids in the Word. I was excited to receive the NIrV Adventure Bible for Early Readers from Zondervan for Titus, my nine year old, to try out. 

This Adventure Bible is geared toward kids 6 to 10 years old, and I find this to be the perfect suggested age range. The translation is the New International Reader's Version, which is based on the New International Version (NIV). The difference in the two translations is minimal, but the words and sentences have been simplified and made shorter. This makes the Bible much easier for young children to read and understand. Also, each chapter has sections and titles to give a clearer picture of what each section is about.

I am very particular about which Bible translations my children and I read. I research the philosophy and techniques behind each translation that I read. I was pleased that there is information about the NIrV right in the front of the Bible, and it's in very easy to understand language! It includes a list of verses that aren't included in the earliest Greek manuscripts, with an explanation to why they aren't included in the NIrV. This was very helpful to me in understanding why some verses are "missing" from this translation - something I haven't researched yet. The short explanation provided in this Bible has sparked my interest in the NIV translation.

This translation was very easy for my nine-year old son, Titus, to read. He reads well for his age, but some Bible translations make it difficult for him to understand what he is reading. With the NIrV, he not only read the Bible easily but comprehended what he was reading - which is very important when reading the Bible. I'm going to give you an example of this translation in a very common set of verses - Psalm 23.

"The Lord is my shepherd. He gives me everything I need. He lets me lie down in fields of green grass. He leads me beside quiet waters. He gives me new strength. He guides me in the right paths for the honor of His name. Even though I walk through the darkest valley, I will not be afraid. You are with me. Your shepherd's rod and staff comfort me. You prepare a feast for me right in front of my enemies. You pour oil on my head. My cup runs over. I am sure your goodness and love will follow me all the days of my life. And I will live in the house of the Lord forever."

As you can see, the sentence structure and vocabulary is perfect for an early reader. Compare it with your favorite translation to see if your child would have an easier time with this translation. Another thing I really like about this Adventure Bible for Early Readers is the font size. It's not too small for young eyes to read easily. It's also not so large that it takes up too much space. To me, it's the perfect size font for a children's Bible!

The pages are colorful and bright without being too busy and distracting. There is plenty of white space and this makes it easier on the eyes. To me, the layout of the pages is neat and clean while being interesting and eye-catching.

There are many really neat features in this Bible that make it interesting for kids to look through. Even if they're not reading the scriptures, these features will pique their interest and give them motivation to dive deeper. I'll briefly touch on them.

WORDS TO TREASURE

These are verses throughout the Bible that would be wonderful for your child to memorize, or at the very least, to read through a few times. 

DID YOU KNOW?

These boxes answer questions your child may have about the scriptures, teaching some pretty neat fun facts!

PEOPLE IN BIBLE TIMES

These are mini-biographies (just a few sentences) about people in the Bible. Some are pretty familiar, but some your child may not have heard of.

LIFE IN BIBLE TIMES

This section tells some interesting facts about living in Bible times, including a picture in each box.

LIVE IT!

This section challenges your child to live out what the Bible is teaching us.

There are full-color pages spread throughout the Bible with informative and interesting charts and graphics. The Ten Commandments,  the Love Chapter for Kids, and Famous Children in the Bible are just a few. Titus enjoyed flipping through the Bible to read these.

There are also book introductions for each book with information about who wrote it, why it was written, what is special about the book, when it was written, and important chapters in the book. This is a great way for your child to get a quick overview of the books in the Bible. A  subject index, dictionary, and maps are included in the back of the Bible to help your child get a better grasp on the context of the Bible. 

If you're looking for a Bible for your early reader or young child to read on their own, this is the one! The font size, simple language, and colorful features will draw your child in. Check out what the other Crew members had to say about the Zondervan NIrV Adventure Bible for Early Readers by clicking on the banner below!

Avoiding Homeschool Burn Out

Homeschool burn out is a real thing. I've been homeschooling for 14+ years, and I've experienced burn out many, many times - even to the point of putting some of my children in public school! I've tried to pinpoint some of my "burn-out triggers" so I can recognize when they creep up on me. Maybe you're experiencing burn-out and don't even know it!

Trigger One - Busyness

Being too busy is a surefire way to give me homeschool burn out syndrome. With five kids still at home (and one on the way) it's too easy to get "too busy." Often I don't even realize that I'm being overwhelmed with activities until it's too late. It's easy to balance everything in my head - but once I start juggling the actual balls of activities, I often get overloaded quickly.

Right now, I'm teetering on the brink of "too busy." I have one playing tennis up to three times a week, one that does tae-kwon-do twice a week, speech lessons an hour away from home once a week, midweek church services, Bible Drill with two of my kids, and other church responsibilities. I can feel "overload" coming on pretty quickly.

The questions I ask myself when I get too busy are: What activities can we do without? What activities are causing us more stress than joy? What activities can I drop without disappointing my children? Sometimes I have felt the need to have no activities for a while, and my children have not suffered for it. I think family time will trump extra-curriculars any day!

Trigger Two - Curriculum

Curriculum choices are never easy to make. I know I spend hours pouring over samples and contents and reviews to see which curriculum choices may work for my children. Sometimes, though, the curriculum we choose can contribute to burn out.

Are there too many components to your program? Shuffling back and forth with books or manipulatives can quickly get frustrating. Is there too much reading aloud for you or your children's preferences? Are the book choices dull or dry? Is there too much writing, or researching, or busy work? Are your children bored? overwhelmed? underwhelmed? 

I like to stick with curriculum for the entire year if possible. Switching sometimes creates more problems than solutions. However, you can tweak your curriculum as much as you'd like to suit your family better. You can always select a different read aloud than is listed, do some of the written work orally, cut out the busy work and moving pieces if possible, and add some fun projects (or take them away!). 

Sometimes a curriculum switch is necessary. If you feel that way, then switch! It may just the change you need to squash the burn out.

Trigger Three - Lack of Organization

It's easy to get overwhelmed when you aren't organized. If you're constantly look for the book you need, trying to find a pencil or sharpener, searching for the art supplies you bought last week for this week's project...you're going to get frustrated!

Homeschooling requires a lot of moving pieces - books, notebooks, binders, scissors, glue, pencils, crayons, and more. Having a place for everything, and everything in its place, helps tremendously! I try to keep our homeschool area organized, so I know where everything is all the time. I keep a basket with our current read-aloud books as well as my teacher's guide. This makes it easy to grab the basket and start school!

My kids each have bins with their school books in them. They know just where each thing is - math books, grammar books, reading books, science books. We have one bookshelf dedicated to just our current year's homeschool books. Finding a new book or activity guide is made really simple this way. I have a caddy with pencils, pens, markers, colored pencils, scissors, and glue sticks. We keep our sharpener right in the dining room so we never have to search for it. These are simple things to implement that help keep us organized each day. 

If a lack of organization is causing you to feel the burn, then I suggest you take a week off of school to get organized. Dump everything out, purge what you don't need, and find new homes for the items you use daily or weekly. Invest in baskets and bins, tubs and crates, caddies and buckets. It will make things much easier on you!

Those are my top three homeschool burn-out triggers and what I do about them. Pinpointing the triggers has helped me to avoid burn-out and get myself back on track. If you're feeling weary in your homeschooling year, try to identify any problem areas that could be causing you stress. Brainstorm some solutions for these problems. Take a week or two off of school and decompress. Change what you can and fix what is broken.

What are your burn-out triggers?

Week in Review: 3/14/22 - 3/18/22

We had some exciting news this week - I found out I'm having a baby GIRL! I was so excited. I know it wouldn't matter either way, but I have had my last three be boys and it will be fun to have a girl again! All of the genetic bloodwork came back normal, too, which is comforting. I go back to the doctor next Monday for another ultrasound to see baby. I'm 12 weeks tomorrow.

This week the boys learned about Marco Polo, the invention of the compass and gunpowder, and Columbus. We finished reading "Door in the Wall" and started reading through "Hero Tales" about Gladys Alyward. We also began reading "Columbus" for our science portion. 

We had a few fun projects this week. First we made a stained glass project using paper. They boys drew and colored their design with crayon and then rubbed vegetable oil on the back of their paper to make it transparent. It looks like glass when held up to the window!

We also did an experiment to show that saltwater is heavier than freshwater. We filled three cups a third full of water. We added 2 tablespoons of salt to one, 1 tablespoon of salt to one, and left the other one plain. We also added food coloring to the water. We layered the water with the saltiest first to the freshwater. It's hard to see in the picture, but the water did layer a bit. The freshwater was sitting on top of the saltwater!

I also showed them how an egg will float in the saltwater and sink in the freshwater.

In math Titus had to find and bake a dessert recipe. He went through my Pioneer Woman cookbook and chose a Root Beer Float Pie. We bought the ingredients and he did such a good job putting it all together!

Silas is doing a thorough review of fractions and decimals. He is doing so well and has started working a little more independently. I do sit with him still, but I'm not walking him through every problem. He does like to work through them aloud sometimes, which is totally fine because I hear the steps he is remembering!

Titus is loving IEW's Fix It Grammar. It's really short, but I've noticed such a grasp on nouns and articles already, and he is remembering to capitalize and punctuate the sentences.

Mercie has been working through her new algebra book. She said it's so much easier than Video Text Algebra, and she really feels like she's understanding what to do and how to do it. She finished week 27 in Heart of Dakota Missions to Modern Marvels, which means she only has 8 weeks of school left for the year.

She's been working with her horses as much as she can. She also got a new rabbit named Reese this week. Her chickens have been free-ranging the yard and we've been getting lots of eggs. The weather has been a bit warmer this week, so we've spent a lot of time outside. Rod rowed up the garden last weekend, and we've gotten lots of rain this week. My seeds are started to sprout, and I'm ready to plant the garden! Titus moved up to yellow belt in Tae Kwon Do and had his belt ceremony Friday night! We are so proud of him, and he just loves TKD. Eli went to the literary rally last weekend for English 3 and placed third place, which means he gets to go to the State Literary Rally and compete for scholarships! 

Next week the schools are out for spring break, so we are taking a much-needed spring break, too. It will be nice to have the week off school! How was your week?

Week(s) in Review: 2/28/22-3/11/22

This week in review will cover the past two weeks.

We had another busy week with several "short" days of school. Our short days are where we usually skip one or two subjects and just get done what I feel is important that day. Some days we skip grammar, other days we skip history or science. We were busy almost everyday this week! I do feel like I have a little more energy than I have the past several weeks, which is wonderful. I'm still napping with Zeke almost everyday but I do feel like I got more accomplished.

Monday I had a doctor's appointment to do some bloodwork. My doctor's office is an hour and a half away, so it's never just a quick trip. We did math, grammar, and some history that morning before I had to leave.  

Tuesday Zeke had speech therapy, which is an hour from our house. The only downside to living rurally is not having nearby access to things like this! We were home around lunch. The kids stayed home and did their independent work (Mercie does everything on her own). Titus had Tae-Kwon-Do that evening and Eli had a baseball game. I didn't go to the baseball game. While Titus was in TKD, we went grocery shopping. 

Wednesday Mercie had her first tennis match! She also had tennis pictures at the school at 1:00. We did a normal day's schoolwork, ate lunch, and headed to town. After her pictures, I dropped Zeke off at Mikaela's house and the boys and I went to her tennis match. It lasted a long time - around three and a half hours! I had my sister take my Bible Drill class and TeamKid class that night and I just went home and rested. 

Thursday morning Mikaela dropped Daniel off for us to watch while she took a placement test at the community college. She's wanting to go into the nursing program this fall. Needless to say we didn't get much schoolwork done that morning! It was a beautiful day so we spent it outside! Zeke drove Daniel around on his little side by side. Eli had baseball practice after school, and then he refereed the pee-wee basketball games (and earned $40) afterwards. When they were over he watched the rest of the softball game at the school and wasn't home until around 8:00. He's so busy with school and sports and other things, some days I don't see him much at all!

Friday we had no plans, so we did a normal day's schoolwork. We spent the rest of the day outside enjoying the almost 80 degree weather! Eli had a baseball game several hours away, so we didn't attend that either. 

Titus is reviewing a math program for the Crew.

The boys love playing in the hay.

Zeke did some tot school this week using the curriculum I wrote. He learned the H is for Horse. We didn't get to everything, but we will finish next week.

Titus has his TKD belt test Saturday morning. He did such a great job! I was excited to see all that he had learned so far. He is a quick learner. His belt ceremony will be in a few weeks. TKD has been really good for Titus, and I'm so glad I enrolled him. 

Now, last week! Monday we had a normal school day. The boys and I are reading "Door in the Wall" for our history read aloud. I'll admit - it's not our favorite, but we are finally getting into it! Mercie had another tennis match that afternoon. 

They love to play in the hay.

Tuesday Zeke had speech again. He is doing so well! He can make the /v/ and /f/ sound now. The trick is putting the sounds with the other sounds. He can say the sound, pause, and then say the rest of the word. His therapist is trying to get him to put it all together. He really enjoys going, which makes the hour drive there and the hour drive back worth it for me. All the kids rode with me today, because after his speech therapy I had more bloodwork at the doctor. This time it was for genetic testing since I'm "advanced maternal age" being 36. The perk is that I'll also find out the gender, probably this week. I'm eleven weeks now.

Zeke loves to help out with the calf's bottle.

Wednesday we did school. Titus is reviewing IEW's Fix It Grammar. He loves it so far, mainly because it's short! I think it's going to be very effective though, and I'm already considering it for next year for all the kids. Mercie had tennis; we had Bible Drill and TeamKid. Wednesday nights are exhausting for me now!

Thursday we had another normal day of school. We stayed home all day until Titus had TKD. Silas and I potted out some seeds for our garden - tomatoes, carrots, cucumbers, squash, and more. 

We've had some beautiful weather for little monkeys.

Friday Mercie had a tennis match an hour away and she rode with a friend. Silas and Titus went to my mother-in-law's house, so it was just Zeke, Eli, and me for the night. We got take-out from our favorite fish restaurant which just reopened and watched a Pirates of the Caribbean movie. It was fun to spend some time with Eli, especially knowing he is a junior and will be graduating before I know it. 

Saturday morning we woke up to SNOW. Yes - snow in Louisiana in March! The day before it was 84 degrees. That's crazy Louisiana weather for you! Zeke wanted to play in it, so he played outside for a while before he got cold. I watched from the glass doors and Mercie went out and played with him. It warmed up by lunch to the 40s and it all melted away.

How was your week?

SchoolhouseTeachers.com - Review

 Disclosure: I received this complimentary product through the Homeschool Review Crew

As a member of the Homeschool Review Crew, I receive an Ultimate Membership to SchoolhouseTeachers.com a division of The Old Schoolhouse for my family for the year. This is always one of my favorite perks of being on the Crew because there are so many great courses on this website.

What is SchoolhouseTeachers.com?

SchoolhouseTeachers.com is a huge collection of homeschooling resources, with over 400 classes and programs for preschool through high school. Even though there are so many different courses, the website is really organized, making it easy to find what you're looking for. You can search by grade level or subject.

The subject categories are: 

• Language Arts
• Math
• Science
• Social Studies
• History
• Geography
• Art
• Drama and Speech
• Music
• Bible
• Computer and Technology
• Electives
• Foreign Languages
• Health and Fitness
• Unit Studies

Of course, some of the different courses will overlap into different categories, but it's still a really easy to find just what you need for your children. In each of these categories there are tons of different courses. Let's just take a look into the Geography category and see what classes are available.

• All About Maps
• Asia: Trade Route Safari
• A Splash of Geography
• Ayo's Awesome Adventures Around the World for Kids
• Everyday Explorers: Australia and New Zealand
• Everyday Explorers: Canada
• Everyday Explorers: USA
• Exploring Elementary World Geography
• Geography of the Bible
• Learning Across the USA
• Let's Visit Denmark
• Living Geography
• Trek to the Holy Land
• Wonders of the World

That's quite a selection of Geography courses! You could also narrow this down by grade level easily to see which classes would fit your child.

An example of the geography courses and the component key

Each class is also labeled to let you know which components are involved in each. The key lets you know if the course you're looking at has downloadable text, audio or video components, or if it's high school only. This is a quick way to see if the course will work for you.

How do we use SchoolhouseTeachers.com?

We are using SchoolhouseTeachers.com as a fun supplement right now. In the Art section, I found that we can access Art Achieve videos and lessons. This is a program that my older kids reviewed back in 2016. We have been using Art Achieve twice weekly in our homeschool. My kids love this art program! The videos are twenty to thirty minutes long and give your child detailed step-by-step directions on drawing. There are printable warm-up exercises included for each lesson, too. My children, ages 3 up to 8th grade, have enjoyed watching these videos and completing the drawings.

What are the School Boxes?

The School Boxes are something new to me, and I've been diving into them to see if they'll work for us next year. Basically, the School Boxes are a "boxed curriculum" except in digital form. Each grade has a School Box, which has a curriculum guide for each subject. This takes the hassle out of planning for you! Let's take a peek into the 9th Grade School Box and see which subjects are included, since I'm looking into this for my rising 9th grader.

• Geometry in Real Life
• Exploring Literature
• Writing on This Day in History
• Ninth Grade Spelling
• Earth Science/Geology Unit 1
• Understanding Ancient History
• Studio Art for Teens
• Achieving Art Success with ArtAchieve
• Art: The Timeless Treasure
• Digital Art and Product Designs for Small Business

You wouldn't have to use each subject and you could always switch electives to something more suited to your child. When you go to the school box for your grade, each subject has a clickable link that takes you to right to the lessons. This would make it super easy for older children to access their own work and take ownership of their curriculum.

Right now, the School Boxes are available for grades Kindergarten through 12th grade, but Pre-K and Parent boxes are coming soon!

What Else is Included?

Another new-to-me feature is the Activity Calendar in the Member Dashboard. There are several fun virtual activities, like a science fair, art and photography fair, talent show, and story-time show and tell. These would all be great opportunities for your homeschooled children to take part in!

There are also many new courses coming this year such as Korean, Calculus, Psychology and an updated Microsoft class. Each membership also includes access to the online World Book and RightStart Media.

Each Ultimate Membership is only $269.97 for the entire family. There is also a subscription for Preschool-8th grade only that is $209.97 for the year. Each subscription also comes with a quarterly print version of The Old Schoolhouse magazine. 

Check out what other reviewers think about SchoolhouseTeachers.com by clicking the banner below!