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The World of Science – book review

Written by Joy
The World of Science – book review

The World of Science is published by My Father’s World and Master Books.  Master Books is a division of New Leaf Publishing Group.

In this world, it is hard to find books that talk about and teach science from a Creation point of view.  New Leaf Publishing has published a book that does just that, The World of Science.

This book is hardcover and has 240+ pages with over 800 colored pictures in it.  It has 7 sections in the book; Matter and Chemicals, Energy, Motion and Machines, Electricity and Magnetism, Light and Sound,  Earth and Life, Space and time, with the final section being science experiments that you and your children can do together.

As I mentioned before, this book teaches science from a creation point of view.  However, it isn’t an apologetic’s book.  It just blatantly states that God created everything in the beginning of the book and I like that.  I also like how it includes the scientists that discovered certain things, for example, Benjamin Franklin discovering electricity.

The experiment section in the book has over 60 experiments that you can do.  A lot of the experiments use items that you can find right in your own home.  Which makes it a lot more fun and easier to do.  We have tried a couple of them ourselves and enjoyed doing them.

The World of Science book is one of our favorite science books to look through and read.  I find the kids looking at it often and checking to see if we do have the right items to do the experiments.  I highly recommend this book to families to read together.

*I was sent this book from New Leaf Publishing Group, in return for an honest review.  All opinions expressed are my own.

 

2012, homeschooling, review, , , , ,

Smack-Dab in the Middle of God’s Love ~ book review

Written by Joy
Smack-Dab in the Middle of God’s Love ~ book review

by Brennan Manning and John Blase.

Smack-Dab in the Middle of God’s Love is a book about a middle age couple, Willie Juan and Ana, who live in a small Mexican Village.  They loved each other very much.  Most of all, they loved God.  Willie Juan and Ana, were unable to have children of their own, but they loved children dearly and always had a houseful of children from the village come to visit.

Willie Juan loved to ask the children questions and asked them one day, “Little friends, someday, when you are in Heaven, what do you think Abba will ask you?”  This got the kids to thinking and a couple of the kids had a couple of very good questions.

I liked this book a lot for a couple of reasons.  The main one is it is trying to show just how much God loves you.  Not only do they show it through the couples love of children, but also in the conversations they have with the children. It does it in a way that younger children can understand it.   Also, the illustrations in this book are beautiful.  Very colorful and eye catching.

Overall, this is a very sweet book.  My 6 year old and I loved reading it together.  It will be a book that we will read often together.

Disclaimer~ This book was given to me by BookSneeze, in exchange for a review.  All opinions expressed are of my own.

2012, review, , ,

Jim Hodges Audio Books ~ a review

Written by Joy
4 Comments
Jim Hodges Audio Books ~ a review

Recently, I was sent 2 audio books from Jim Hodges Audio Books, to review.  While we haven’t used audio books much in the past in our homeschooling, I am thinking I will try to incorporate using audio books in our lessons more.  We have thoroughly enjoyed listening to these mp3 files.

Stories of the Pilgrims from Yesterdays Classics and Wulf the Saxon written by G.A. Henty.

Jim Hodges sent me Stories of the Pilgrims for my younger two kids.  For those days that we have been sick and have not felt like reading aloud, this has worked out perfectly for our family.  Stories of the Pilgrims begins with Queen Anne’s visit to Scrooby Inn.  It continues to tell the every day life of the Pilgrims from England and Holland, in a story form.  It tells of their voyage on the Mayflower and of adventures they have in the New World.  This is a perfect story to listen to leading up to Thanksgiving.  The Stories of the Pilgrims is split into 43 chapters and is 4 hours and 10 minutes long.

Mr. Hodges also recommended that my oldest daughter choose a G.A. Henty book.  He has quite a few to choose fr om. My oldest daughter chose G.A. Henty’s book “Wulf the Saxon:1066“.  She loves this time period in history.  Wulf the Saxon:1066 is about when Harold Godwinson is crowned King of England is 1066. William of Normandy contests his right to be king because of an oath previously sworn to support William’s own acquisition to the throne.  The story has 22 chapters and is 12 hours and 35 minutes long.

I was really excited when Mr. Hodges had suggested Pilgrims for my younger children.  I love this time period and love reading about the settling of the country and how the Pilgrims sacrificed so much to start over in a New World.  The CD’s came in the mp3 audio file format.  They came in a CD case with a very nice cover.  We listened to the CD’s in my computer for us to listen to while sitting down.  I played it using Windows Media Player.  Once the program came up, all I did was hit play.  Very easy to use!   You can start and stop at any of the chapters when you need to and start back up where you left off.  I really like this a lot.  You can also play this in any CD player as long as that CD player can play the mp3 audio files.

Once the stories began, Jim just sucks you into it with his smooth voice.  His voice brings the stories to life and truly makes you feel like you are right there in the story with the characters.  Once you start listening to the stories, you definitely do not want to stop.  He keeps your attention and has you waiting and wanting the stories to continue!  The recordings are really great!  Overall, the kids and I truly enjoyed these stories and are looking forward to getting more to listen to!

For the month of November, you can get Stories of the Pilgrims as a download for $15 this month on the Jim Hodges Audio Books website!

 

*I was sent these cd’s to review.  The opinions expressed are of my own.

2012, homeschooling, review, , , , , ,

My Well Planned Day Software Review and Giveaway!

Written by Joy
52 Comments
My Well Planned Day Software Review and Giveaway!

When I first started homeschooling, I tried using several different planners to help me plan our day.  With in a couple of weeks, I always stopped using them, either because they didn’t fit our needs or I got behind trying to write everything down that I wanted to keep track up.

At one time, my husband even created a weekly excel spreadsheet that I could right lesson plans in and I could print lessons for the day or even for the whole week on it.  I used it the longest for a couple of years.  However, it still did not have everything I wanted to keep track of on it.

As the years have gone by, I have turned more and more to the computer and online world to make up different plans, spreadsheets and calendars to help me keep track of our busy life with four children.  I have yet to find anything online to keep track of everything, until now.

When I went to the 2:1 Conference back in April, I had the pleasure of meeting Jenny from Home Educating Family.  We got to talking about the Well Planned Day Planners that Home Educating Family offered.  I had seen them before, but never bought one because it was paper and would have required me to write everything in.  Knowing my history with this, I knew it wasn’t the planner for me.  I asked her if Home Education Family had plans for making there planner online.  She said yes!  I was so excited and couldn’t wait to try it out when it became available.  Jenny contacted me about a month ago and asked if I would love to give it a try and I just couldn’t pass up this offer!

The My Well Planned Day software is amazing to me!  One of the things I love most about it, is that it combines School plus Household activities and events.  I can use the software to make lesson plans and assignments plus make a menu and grocery list!  The best of both worlds that I wanted together!  You can add the textbooks on here that you are using and keep track of the Literature that you are reading.  What has really gotten me excited is that I will soon be able to sync my Google calendar that my husband and I use, to the calendar on this software!

I really feel like the My Well Planned Day software is going to help me out so much.  I can already see areas that it has helped me in.  I would like for you to have the same chance to see if this awesome software will help you as much as it has me.

Home Educating Family is offering the readers of My Home In The Smokies  $15 off the MWPD software retail price of $65. The code is case sensitive, no spaces, and expires on October 1. Your personal code is: 31wpdblog12.

Also, thanks to Home Educating Family, you have a chance to win a 1 year Subscription of the My Well Planned Day Software!!  Just use the rafflecopter below to enter the drawing.  This giveaway will end on September 5th, 2012.

Due to international sweepstakes laws, this offer is only for U.S. entries.

This giveaway is not connected to any social media sites and none of the social media entries are mandatory.

 

 

a Rafflecopter giveaway

2012, family, homeschooling, review, , , , ,

Apologia Botany Review

Written by Joy
2 Comments
Apologia Botany Review

I have used a couple of the Apologia Elementary science books in the past.  So when I had the chance to review their Botany book, I was extremely excited! One of the main reasons why I love their science books so much is because they are creation based.  I also enjoy how the curriculum goes in-depth of the topic.  Each chapter is broken down into different sections making it simple enough to read a portion each day.

The Botany book starts out teaching on the nature of botany and the process of classifying plants.  It will then go into chapters talking about how plants start as seeds, how reproduction works in plants, how they make their food and how plants get water and nutrients.

 

Throughout the book, in each lesson, they have sections called “What Do You Remember”, “Notebook Activities” and then the “Projects”.  The projects are well explained and use a lot of items that you have around the house.   Botany Lab Kits (that has everything you need for the projects) are sold through various homeschool curriculum catalogs.  Apologia also has a Note-Booking Journal, and Lap Books that you can also purchase to use to reinforce the lessons.

While this book is geared for Kindergarten-6th grade age group, my oldest daughter who is 14 also listens in on the lessons and even participates with her younger siblings on the projects.  
 

My kids have thoroughly enjoyed using the Botany science book.  They enjoy when we go on nature walks and are able to point out what we have read in our lessons. 


(By the time this picture was taken, she was tired of me taking pictures!  )

Overall, we have truly loved using the Botany book by Apologia.  The kids are already asking which book we will be using next!

Have you used an Apologia Elementary Science book?  Did you enjoy it as much as we enjoyed their Botany book?

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2012, homeschooling, review, The Homeschool Village