The Pray-ers / Book 1- Troubles {TOS Review}

God has recently been speaking to me about spiritual warfare. He has used several different people and resources to teach me how to combat the warfare that is constantly going on around us. One of the things He has brought into my life is this book - The Pray-ers / Book 1- Troubles by Mark S. Mirza.

The Pray-ers is a book that teaches the importance of prayer in everyday life. This book is told through the eyes of demons, angels, and humans. The story flip-flops between three time periods - 1st century, 18th century, and the current era, each with their own storyline.

The demons try to thwart the Christian's prayer life, casting doubt into their minds and hearts. The demons work through the lives of other people in the main character's lives, bringing trouble into their lives and trying to keep them from trusting in, and especially praying to, God. The angels are involved in the main character's lives, as well. They help protect, encourage, and try to stop the demon's attacks on the Christians.

What did this book teach me?

This book taught me the importance of prayer. Spiritual warfare is all around me, and prayer is the best way to fight against it. The Bible says to "Pray without ceasing", and this book showed me exactly what that means. Having a prayerful attitude about everything that happens in my life is important. I need to pray about everything - EVERYTHING! Prayer truly thwarts the devil's plans and schemes. This book really teaches you how to pray, especially how to pray scripture.

What was my favorite storyline in the book?

At first, I really enjoyed reading the current era's storyline, which was about a husband and wife. But the more I read through the book, I found the 18th century storyline to be my favorite part. It told the story of a man named Alexander Rich, a boyhood friend of Dwight L. Moody. He was a traveling preacher who had to deal with the effects of a rumor that got started about him and a young lady. He really used the power of prayer to get through this situation and his faith in God never wavered. It really inspired me and encouraged me.

Who should read this book?

This book would be a great book for any teen or adult to read. It teaches how to pray and shows you why you should pray. It helps you to see that prayer does work and is very effective. It does talk about demons and tells a storyline through them. They are presented in a very disgusting way and are not glamorized in the least. {Some books geared toward teens glamorize the occult - vampires, witches, and monsters. This book does just the opposite. The demons are in no way desirable or interesting.} I would not recommend this book to any pre-teen or teen that is sensitive to these topics.

Am I planning to let your kids read it?

I do plan to read through this book with my three older kids, as it is a longer book with some difficult content and themes. Mercie is 8, Eli is 11, and Mikaela is 13. I plan to read a few chapters a week, having my kids look up the scripture that is included in the footnotes {which is something I love!}. I really want my kids to learn how to pray effectively at a young age. I also want them to be aware of the spiritual warfare happening.

Is there anything I didn't like about it?

The book was a little hard to follow at first. I was a little confused for a while. It opens with the demons and their storyline, and I was a little skeptical. However, it quickly became an easy read and I couldn't put the book down. It truly blessed me and has given my prayer life the energy boost it needed.

Check out The Pray-ers and CTM Publishing Atlanta!

 

     

HelpTeaching.com {TOS Review}

Mercie, my 3rd grader, has been using HelpTeaching.com for the past month or so as an addition to her daily homeschool work. We received the Help Teaching Pro Subscription in exchange for our review.

What is HelpTeaching.com?

HelpTeaching.com is a website that not only has thousands of free worksheets available, but allows you to create your own tests and worksheets. There are three main parts to this website, which I'll briefly explain below.

Tests and Worksheets: Over 3,000 tests and worksheets are available for Kindergarten through 12th grade covering all subjects. Common Core Aligned worksheets are also available. The worksheets are organized by grade and by subject, making it easy to find what you need.

Test Maker: The Test Maker is a really neat tool on this website. You can write your own questions, making them multiple choice, fill in the blank, true and false, or open-ended. There are over 1,000 images you can use or you can upload your own. There are also questions that other educators have used for their tests. You can browse these questions and use them on the tests you create.

Test Room: The Test Room can be used to administer online tests and manage student performance. Your student must have their own email address so you can mail them a link to the test.

There is a huge variety of worksheets and tests available on HelpTeaching.com. Some of the categories include:

• Arts
• Early Education
• English Language Arts
• Life Skills
• Math
• Physical Education
• Science
• Seasonal and Holidays
• Social Studies
• Study Skills/ Strategies
• Math Worksheet Generators
• Printable Game Generators

Within these categories, there are many different subcategories for the different grades. There are also lessons your child can watch. These lessons are linked to outside websites that offer free content. These lessons include an embedded video, questions and answers, and tests. There are lessons for Pre-K - 12th grade in the topics of Language Arts, Math, and Science.

What is the Help Teaching Pro Subscription?

For only $24.95 a year, you can have access to all of these worksheets, tests, the test maker, and the test room. This is such a great deal! Having all of these worksheets at your fingertips is so helpful for a busy homeschool mom. It's also a wonderful thing to have the test maker available.

How did we use HelpTeaching.com?

I chose to use HelpTeaching.com for my 3rd grade for the review period; however, I will be using it for all of my children in the future!

Mercie loved taking the "tests" online. There is such a variety of tests available, and I chose to have her take some on the topics she needs a little extra help with. She took some tests on counting money, having multiple choice and fill in the blank answers. She also read some informational stories and answered the questions online. She enjoyed being able to see immediately how many she got correct {only when she didn't miss any, ha!}.

I also printed off some of the informational stories to put in her reading notebook, so she has one or two a week to read and answer the questions for.

I plan to use this website with my older kids, as well. I think I will assign them each a test or worksheet to complete online once a week. I have also been looking over the lessons, and I may assign them a few lessons online to complete each week. There are so many possibilities for using this website.

Check out HelpTeaching.com on Facebook, Twitter, and Pinterest.

       

Weekly Recap: The Elementary Kids

This week went by fast, just like all of the others! We took of Monday for Labor Day since Rod didn't have to work. The kids still did 5 days of school, though. Some worked today, Saturday, and Eli did a little extra each day and did 5 days of school in 4 days. I am going to make this post for the Elementary Kids - Titus, Silas and Mercie. I will do Mikaela and Eli's weekly recap separately.

Titus: Preschool

We are still using the Leap Frog Skills workbook as a guide. We worked on the letter B, squares, the color blue, and the number 2. Here are a few things we did:

• made a Butterfly "B"
• put 2 bug stickers in his 2 bug jar
• put stickers around the 4 sides of a square
• cut blue pictures from magazines and glued them in his notebook
• cut "B"s from magazines and glued them in his notebook
• stamped squares with blue paint
• worked several pages in his workbook

Silas: Kindergarten

Silas learned the -at word family this week and the sight words 'the' and 'a'. We read words ending in -at and sentences using -at words and his sight words. He wrote the word family words and sight words and learned how to write sentences using capital letters and periods. He found the letters for "the" and the word "the" and "a" from magazines and glued them into his notebook.

In math, he reviewed rectangles and circles. He practiced writing his numbers 0-9 almost daily and did a chapter in "Math Lessons for a Living Education." This math book has been wonderful, and even though I feel like it's too slow at times, it proves to be a good pace for Silas. He is getting practice writing his numbers, and finally knows 6, 7, 8, and 9 without trouble!

Mercie: 3rd Grade

Mercie completed a chapter in Math Lessons for a Living Education." She reviewed adding and subtracting with borrowing and carrying, reading clocks and writing time, reading thermometers, and simple addition and subtraction facts.

She completed Lesson 16 in Learning Language Arts Through Literature, which was on reading maps. She had a blast with this, and even drew her own map of a made-up town! She did a few pages in her Scholastic Third Grade workbook for language arts - a reading comprehension story on Alexander Graham Bell, a page on palindromes, a cursive page on the letter "A", and a sentence/fragment page. She wrote in her journal several times this week.

We did not do history or science this week, but will start up again after a week off of school when we get home {next week, yay!}.

I love these weekly recaps. They take a little time to write, but it helps me to see how much we do each week, even if school for the little ones is an hour or two daily. They are learning so much!

A few pictures of the kids from my phone this week:

 

 

 

 

How was your week?

Christian HomeSchool Hub {TOS Review}

As a homeschooling mom of five kids {ranging in ages from 4-13}, I am always on the lookout for curriculum or resources that will make my life easier and my homeschool planning quicker. Enter: Christian HomeSchool Hub {CHSH-Teach}! I received an annual subscription to the CHSH Download Club in exchange for my honest review.

What is the CHSH Download Club? This is a membership to a website that has over 50,000 downloadable pages of educational material. Yes - FIFTY THOUSAND. Most of these are created by Lynda Ackret, who also sells these materials on other sites. Some of these materials are created and shared by subscribers.

What types of materials are available? There is such a variety of resources available on this website! They are organized extremely well - by subjects, by grade levels, and by months. Here is a sample of some of the categories:

• Bible-related Resources - including Bible Memorization, People of the Bible Notebooking, Bold Believers Around the World, and Sermon Notes for Kids
• Languages - Spanish, French, Italian, American Sign Language
• Arts, Music, and Crafts - including Art and Drawing Instruction, Music Instruction, and Knitting
• Language Arts - Writing, Reading and Literature, and Spelling
• Math - broken into grade levels, including Resources and Posters, Fractions, and Roman Numerals, as well as high school level math
• Science - broken into grade levels, including Human Anatomy, Biology and Marine Science
• Social Studies - including Geography, History, and Economics
• Electives - Architecture, Character Studies, and Social Issues
• Health - including General Health and Dental Health

I feel like I haven't even touched on many of the subject areas included. I only gave a brief sampling. If there is something you are looking for, I can almost guarantee it would be  on CHSH-Teach!

What are we using? Mercie, my 3rd grader, needs improvement in her reading and listening comprehension. I was super excited to find book units under the Reading category! I printed off the "Muggie Maggie" unit, ordered the book from Amazon, and she completed the book unit. She loved it! There were comprehension questions, vocabulary, and creative writing activities.

I also printed off some writing prompts for her. I cut them out and glued them into a spiral notebook. Each day, she opens up to the next page and writes what she is prompted. She has loved doing this, and the writing prompts are very creative. A few examples are "What would you do if you found bugs in your salad?" and "What would you do if you woke up in a foreign country and couldn't talk to anybody?" Her writing has improved so much since we've been using the writing prompts! And I love the pictures she draws to go along with the journal entry.

The printables are excellent quality, and I had no trouble at all downloading and printing any of the resources I chose to use. Some of these are full-color with adorable graphics, but they are all very professionally done.The printables are organized very well, and it's extremely easy to find what you are looking for. There are so many different printables that I plan to use this school year! There is a health curriculum I have been looking to use with all of my children together, as well as some Bible Notebooking pages that I think they would enjoy. I plan to use some of the United States maps and pages for my two older children since they are studying American history this year.

There is also a community forum where you can interact with other members, as well as the option to share your own resources.

You can purchase a membership to CHSH-Teach as annual membership for $25 or a lifetime membership for $99. Trust me, it is totally worth it! Check out Christian HomeSchool Hub on Facebook and Pinterest.

     

Apologia: Exploring Creation With Astronomy {TOS Review}

Mercie and Silas have had so much fun learning about astronomy the past month with Apologia Educational Ministries' Exploring Creation With Astronomy, 2nd Edition.

WHAT WE RECEIVED:

Apologia sent us the student textbook, a notebooking journal, a junior notebooking journal, and an audio CD of the textbook.

The textbook is a beautiful book, with thick, glossy pages and full-color pictures. Some of the features of the chapters {or lessons} are:

• "Think About It" - A Bible verse with a short paragraph that gives you something interesting to think about.
• "Wisdom From Above" - Scripture that relates to the lesson.
• Activities - Experiments and demonstrations that relate to the lesson and give your child a fuller understanding of the concepts being taught.
• "What Do You Remember?" - Also included in the notebooking journal {along with lines for writing the answers}, these questions will allow your child to recall what he has learned from the chapter.

The notebooking journals are also beautiful! They also have thick pages and plenty of color. Here are the features of the notebooking journals:

• Suggested Daily Schedule - Color-coded to designate certain components, the suggested daily schedule helps break down the chapters into 4-7 lessons each. You are free to use the book however you wish, but the daily schedule is very helpful in planning your child's lessons.
•  Fascinating Facts - These pages are to be used by your child to write some interesting facts they have learned, along with space to draw a picture or diagram. 
• Scripture Copywork - There are two options for copywork - manuscript and cursive. The copywork is a Bible verse that corresponds with the lesson.
• Activity Documentation - These pages are used to document the activities your child completes. There is room to write "what I did" and "what I learned".
• Miniature Books - These pull-out pages are a lot of fun! Your child will cut out, write information, and glue these books into their journals. 
• Vocabulary Review - Using crossword puzzles and other fun pages, your child will review the vocabulary learned in the lesson.
• Taking It Further - These pages are for children who do extra research, read more books, or do more experiments with the lessons. There is room to record your information and draw pictures.
• What Do You Remember? or Coloring Pages - In the notebooking journal, there are questions that will let you see how much your child learned and remembered from the lesson, with lines to write the answers on. In the junior notebooking journal, there are coloring pages for the child to color. These coloring pages are very detailed and fun to color.

 HOW WE USED IT:

The suggested pace is to complete two lessons a week. However, Mercie often wanted to do three or four lessons a week, and that was just fine with me! We finished Chapter 3, which was about the planet Mercury.

We had a lot of fun with this science! I would read the lesson for the day, ask the kids to narrate back what I read, and then we would complete the fun activities. Some days, we had an experiment to do, while others we would work in the journal. Mercie, my 3rd grader, used the notebooking journal, while Silas, my 1st grader, used the junior notebooking journal. He is not a reader or a writer yet, so he had some trouble using the journal. He enjoyed the coloring pages and putting together the minibooks! I would write the information for him, and I would have him narrate what he wanted me to write down.

Some of the activities we did include making a model solar system with balloons and showing how craters are formed on Mercury by dropping pebbles into a pan of flour.

I love the way this book is set up! The suggested daily schedule is great, the lessons are interesting and fun to read {and listen to}, the journals are a wonderful way to record your child's learning, and the science activities are very mom-friendly, using supplies found around the house or that are easily accessible.

Check out Apologia Educational Ministries on Facebook, Pinterest,  and Instagram!

Simple Homeschool: Don't Fix What Isn't Broken

Homeschooling is not always easy, especially when I start playing the comparison game. I'm sure you've played it a time or two yourself, and it's not a fun game to play because nobody wins.

"My 8th grader isn't doing as much grammar as so-and-so's 8th grader...maybe she's behind? Maybe she won't be able to go to college? I need to order a bigger, more expensive, better grammar curriculum!"

"My 6 year old isn't reading yet, and so-and-so's 6 year old is already reading books and writing sentences. Mine doesn't know what a sentence even is! Maybe we should buy what their child is using and do that."

"My 6th grader doesn't read as much history as so-and-so's 6th grader. He will never learn history! I need to change his curriculum to a literature based history curriculum and buy all the books I can and make him read them all."

"My 8 year old's math program isn't as rigorous as so-and-so's math program. My goodness, she is still reviewing tally marks and clocks! She's never going to know multiplication and division! Let's change her curriculum and make her do multiplication and division every day! Drill, drill, drill!"

Please tell me I'm not the only homeschooling mom who has had these {crazy and irrational} thoughts run through her mind...I hope I'm not alone here.

I am making an effort to simplify my homeschool for this very reason - to avoid the comparison trap. I'm tired of comparing my {wonderful, smart, creative, individual} children to everybody else's children. My children are different from every single child in the world - and that is a beautiful thing! That's one of the reasons I homeschool and something I try to teach my children, so why do I struggle with it?

I have been reflecting on all of the things that work in our homeschool, and funny enough, it's not the expensive, shiny, new curriculum - it's the simple things. This is a not a new revelation to me - I've realized this several times that I've been reflecting on our homeschool. It is something that I forget {for some reason} and have to remind myself of. I am so tired of worrying, so tired of fretting and comparing and changing things and trying to fix what isn't broken.

A simple homeschool is what I am going to work toward. No more buying new curriculum mid-year because I don't think my child is 'learning enough'. No more changing methods because I think that this way is better than that way. No more second-guessing myself or my children.

We are going to do things the simple way, the way that has worked for years and years.

*gasp* I'm going to keep using the curriculum we are using - for the whole year.

I am going to find ways to simplify our homeschool. I hope to make it a weekly or bi-weekly topic on the blog, full of ideas and ways to make things simple. I hope you will leave me comments with ideas and ways that your homeschool is simple.

My first tip is just this: Don't fix what isn't broken.

Weekly Recap

This week, we moved to a different RV park.. We are actually 3 hours closer to Louisiana now, in South Dakota! I have to say, I really miss Linton, North Dakota, and the wonderful park we were staying in. We should be going home sometime next week or the next. The wind has blown all day, every day since we've arrived in this new park. There are no trees to help break the wind up, like there were in Linton.

We completed school this week so we can take off a few weeks when we get home. It's always fun to visit with family and friends without feeling like we have to do school, too.

Here is a run-down of what we did this week in school:

Mikalea - 8th grade:

• Language Arts - completed lesson 12 in Learning Language Arts Through Literature {forming plurals in special words, direct objects, transitive verbs, and diagraming sentences}; she also finished reading "Star of Light" and began Lesson 13, which is the Book Unit for "Star of Light"
• Math - completed lessons 13.4-13.6, took Quiz 11, and started chapter 14 in Principals of Mathematics, which were on geometry
• History - completed Unit 22 in America the Beautiful {she read about Shirley Temple, Mount Olympus in Washington, President Roosevelt, the CCC, and the Golden Gate Bridge}
• Science- chapter 4 in Intro to Oceanography {she read about tides and currents}
• Writing- worked on Module 15 in Writers in Residence {using adverbs}
• Reading- read "Star of Light" and  "Hunger Games"; began reading "The Pray-ers" - a review item
• Spanish- Unit 1, Lesson 4 {she is learning so much! colors, letters, basic words}
• Extras- completed a lesson in ARTistic Pursuits

Eli - 6th grade:

• Language Arts- completed Lesson 10 in Learning Language Arts Through Literature {learning about homonyms, narrator, point of view, mood, and commas}
• Math- completed lessons 2.3-3.1 and took his first quiz in Principals of Mathematics {keeping a checkbook register, multi-digit addition and subtraction, problem solving, and mental math, still review for him}
• History- completed Unit 7 in America the Beautiful {he read about George Washington, Historic Philadelphia, the Appalachian Mountains, and Trappers, Longhunters, and Pioneers}
• Science-Chapter 3 in Intro to Meteorology {read about water in the atmosphere and clouds}
• Writing- worked on Module 7 in Writers in Residence
• Reading- read "The Bronze Bow"
• Spanish- Unit 1, Lesson 3 {learning language basics}
• Extras- worked on "Math Missions", a computer game; completed a lesson in his Art Pack

Mercie - 3rd grade:

• Language Arts- completed Lesson 15 in Learning Language Arts Through Literature {learned about newspaper articles, the -tion sound, and the 5 W questions}
• Math- completed chapter 2 in Math Lesson for a Living Education {worked on time to the 5 minutes, tally marks, addition with carrying, and reviewed addition and subtraction facts}
• Writing- wrote in her daily journal using writing prompts 
• History- read about Ancient China and Ancient Africa in Story of the World, map work, and coloring pages
• Reading- read several books and did some reading comprehension activities on HelpTeaching.com {review coming soon}
• Spanish- worked on Unit 1, Lesson 1 and 2
• Extras- worked on "Math Missions", a computer game

Silas - 1st grade:

• Phonics- learned z, ng, w, and v sounds; wrote 4 words from dictation daily; practiced reading words with the sounds he already knows
• Math- completed chapter 3 in Math Lessons for a Living Education {worked on rectangles, counting and writing numbers 0-9}
• History- read about Ancient China and Ancient Africa in Story of the World, map work, and coloring pages

 

Titus - Preschool:

• Letters- learned the letter A, worked in his LeapFrog Skills Workbook, made an "A" alligator, cut and glued "A"s from magazine in his notebook
• Numbers- learned the numbers 0 and 1 and practiced counting to 10
• Shapes and Colors- learned about circles and the color red, made a red collage from pictures cut from magazine, put smiley face stickers around the circle, stamped circles with red paint
• Bible- learned about God creating the sky on Day 2

Whew, writing it all out makes it sound like we never quit doing school! In actuality, we are done by lunchtime most days, with the two older ones finishing up in the afternoon.

How was your week?