Luv'N Lambert Life

A blog about living with Epilepsy, IBHS, Homeschooling and so much more

bible

Zondervan: Homeschool Mom’s Bible {Crew Review}

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A few months ago, I began looking for a Bible to use for a daily devotional and for daily Bible study for my own personal use.  I came across the Homeschool Mom’s Bible from Zondervan.  This Bible was created just for Homeschooling Mom’s like me!
After finding the Homeschool Mom’s Bible, the next biggest decision I had to make was choosing between versions.  I’ve always been a HUGE King James Bible fan but I’ve been looking for something that was written in today’s language so that I could better understand it while studying and reading the Word at home.  I felt like the New International Version would be the best fit for that and I was so right.
At this point, the only thing I had left to do was purchase my own personal copy of the Homeschool Mom’s Bible but how when money is always so tight?  The Lord above must have really wanted me to have it because I immediately noticed that this very Bible was on the Schoolhouse Review Crew list as an upcoming review.  Another prayer answered!
I was able to receive the exact book I wanted thanks to the Schoolhouse Crew’s review team and let me tell you, this book is more beautiful than I ever expected!  It was exactly what I needed.  There are 365 devotionals inside, one for each and every day of the year.  They are spread out throughout the chapters of the bible and each one touches on a different part of the heart of a Homeschooling Mom.
Each of the devotions features a Biblical verse as part of the focus of the inspirational message.  The next part of the devotion shares thoughts in relation to the verse’s focus.  Lastly, a prayer is provided for each day, making it easy to pray over the devotion’s direction for the day.
The Bible itself features a full text in NIV.  It begins with a list of the Books of the Bible, includes a few introductions for the Bible itself, as well as a Biblical Preface before jumping into the Word.  The size of the writing is a bit smaller than I would have liked but it is printed in a beautiful font.
In the back of the Bible there is a Table of Weights and Measures which helps to better understand the size and proportions of things mentioned throughout the Bible.  A Topical Index is also included in the back of the book as well as several pages for notes.
The copy of the Homeschool Mom’s Bible that I received is hardback with a slip cover matching the book’s own cover.  It is a glossy print, making the Bible feel smooth in texture.  The pages inside are the typical thin but sturdy pages found in most Bibles.  The Bible is smaller so it could fit into a purse or bag, but thick since it does contain the full text of the Bible.  I really like the size and shape.  It was one of the things I was drawn to in choosing this particular Bible, along with the easy to understand text.
The Homeschool Mom’s Bible NIV is available in stores for $34.99.  It is well worth it’s price.  There are many other versions available in hardback, leather and also as an e-book download from Zondervan.  Please click the banner below to read more reviews of the Homeschool Mom’s Bible.

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Doorposts: Beauty in the Heart {Crew Review}

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We are HUGE fans of Doorposts in our home.  We have so many of their wonderful products and have used them for years.  We enjoy using Doorposts in homeschooling and child training.
Our library contains Polished Cornerstones for girls and Plants Grown Up for boys, Raising Real Men and Mighty Acts of God among other titles.  We use the If-Then chart in our home discipline and find it helpful in maintaining character and order in our home.  All of these things work together to help our children learn to be better young men and young women.
So when the Doorposts Vendor came up for the Schoolhouse Review crew this year, you can imagine my excitement.  This is Doorposts very first time using the Schoolhouse crew as a review team and they offered us our choice of two of their wonderful products: Beauty in the Heart and Because You Are Strong.
For my review, I chose Beauty in the Heart.  I chose this study for several reasons.  One it’s designed to be used with girls who are ages 10 and up.  My daughter is 10 and a half and has a hard to reach heart so I am always looking for things to soften it while teaching her about the Bible.  Reason Two is that this study can also be used with boys, making it appeal to me to use along with my 12 year old son.
Now you are probably asking how in the world a boy can benefit from a study called Beauty in the Heart that is designed for young girls and I am going to explain that now.  Throughout this book are marked questions that are designed for young men who are following along in the study to answer.  Following along in the study allows young men to better understand young women and encourage them to grow in the Beauty of God’s design for them.  It also helps them learn the differences between true and false beauty in their own personal relationships and when looking forward to marriage.
Now to get to the good stuff: Beauty in the Heart is a Study of Godly Beauty for Young Women written by the wonderful Pam Forster.  Pam, John and the rest of the Forster family create the wonderful custom curriculum provided at Doorposts.  Through this study, women will learn what it is to be beautiful God’s way.
Not only will you learn about beauty through this study though, you or your student will also learn how to better study the Bible.  They will learn to compare passages, observe words repeated throughout the Bible, outline the passage contents, and gather all of the words of the Scripture on a topic.  These are only a few things that Beauty in the Heart helps teach a student who is following along with this curriculum.
The book itself contains nine studies to be completed.  Each study contains a short review at the end.  The studies are broken down into daily assignments.  These assignments can take anywhere from five to twenty or more minutes to complete.  There are 86 days worth of Bible study equaling to approximately 17 weeks of lessons at 5 studies a week.  More than one assignment a day can be completed in order to finish faster or you can break lessons down so that the program takes longer to complete as needed.  Additional study ideas are included at the end of each study so that the study can be extended for up to a year if so chosen.
It is recommended that you have a Nave’s Topical Bible and a Strong’s Exhaustive Concordance to use along with this program.  It is also recommended that you have a Bible that you can  mark words and verses in.  You will need colored pencils or highlighters for this part of studying too.  This study uses the King James translation of the Bible because it is easily accessible for most families.
The studies follow different books of the Bible.  The first and second studies begin in 1 Peter.  The third study moves into the story of Sarah.  From there we move on to Esther.  1 Timothy, Proverbs, 1 Samuel and the story of Ruth also follow these in the study.
Each study begins with a small intro followed by reading and copying the verse into the study guide or a notebook if you so choose.  Then the study furthers with specific study suggestions to help expand on how to study the Bible.  As the student works through they learn to reference and cross reference from different sources, expanding and learning how to study their Bible better in the process.

We used this study as a group study.  I allowed my son to follow along with both of my daughters as we read through the study, and the Bible.  I enjoyed learning about God’s plan and design for Beauty in us through the study and I believe, like our other Doorposts materials, this study touched my daughter’s heart.  I will continue to use this study with all three of my older children in the future.

Beauty in the Heart is 128 pages long.  It’s available in softcover paperback for $14.00.  This study is for Girls ages 10 and up, women included.  There is also a study for boys’ called Because You Are Strong which sells for $12.00 at time of this post.  It is also softcover paperback.
For more reviews of Doorposts, please click the banner below!

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Bible Study Guide for All Ages: Primary Level {Crew Review}

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If you’ve been looking for a great way to teach Bible study to your children, Bible Study Guide for All Ages is a great program to choose.  Bible Study Guide for All Ages makes learning about the Bible fun and easy.  This program is sure to capture the attention of any age.
For this review, we chose the Primary plan.  This plan is created for children in 1st-2nd grades and is a great plan for children who know a little about the Bible but are ready to advance into a deeper level of learning.  Our Bible Study Guide for All Ages kit came with the Primary Level Teacher Guide, Color Bible Book Summary Cards, enough Primary Student pages for all the kids, and an accompanying Children’s Songs CD.
Along with the contents of the kit, each student will need a Bible of their own to use.  This will be used for finding Biblical text throughout the lessons.  Finding the Bible verses with help or on their own, allows students to learn the much needed skill of using their Bible and reading on their own.
Crayons, pencils and other writing utensils are also necessary for this program.  We personally love anything we can color, draw and design so we broke out crayons and colored pencils for this program.  I love anything that encourages the kids uniqueness in artistic ways.
The one thing we did not receive, that was not 100% necessary but would have been a nice addition to our kit, was the Unlabeled Wall Map and Time Line with Label book.  This timeline is used throughout the program and mentioned in our lessons but it wasn’t something we had to have in order to complete any lesson.  The bonus of it though, is that it would have allowed us to track Biblical events and figures in a hands-on way.  I’m sure I could easily create my own or just a notebook type Timeline and captured the same effect for our family and we may do that in the future.
The Bible Study Guide for All Ages Primary Level Teacher’s Guide is wire-bound which allows the guide to lie flat for lessons.  In it, you will find directions to every lesson and task for this level of the program.  The book begins with Teacher Instructions, explaining how this program works and how to use it in your classroom.  I found it very easy to understand and make work for us at home, though it can also be used in a Sunday School classroom if you’d prefer.
Lessons can be completed once a day or spread to a few days in a week, depending upon the child.  Generally, only one lesson a week would be completed though you can complete more if you wish.  This program is designed much like a Sunday School Bible Study which would only be used once a week on Sunday’s.
Lessons are fairly short and should take only an hour or so to complete, if that.  Each lesson has an objective to teach the child some important lesson of the Bible.  In the beginning of each lesson in the guide there is also a list for the lessons needed materials.  These are things you will gather to be able to complete the lesson with the child(ren).
Lessons always begin with a review of the previous lesson.  This allows the child to show what they know and what they remember from the previous lesson.  This also allows the teacher to gauge the child’s learning and reteach areas that may have been missed in the previous lesson.
The second part of the lesson is the Memory Work.  This is generally where important Bible facts and songs are introduced.  Bible verses are also reviewed during this section.  Anything that a student needs to memorize for the lesson is introduced here.
The third section is the Things to Know section.  This is the real introduction to the week’s lesson and where the backbone of the lesson is found.  Things to Know sets the background for the main lesson to come.
The next step is to Get Active!  This is the give and take of the lesson, where the teacher questions the students and challenges their thinking to get them thinking lessons through.  This section if scripted well for the teacher and easily followed, though students answers will always differ from the suggested ones in the book.  This section also sets the stage for the story of the lesson.
Finally, we reach the Bible Text.  This is the story portion that brings the Bible story into relation of all we have learned so far.  Stories vary in length and are always followed by review questions to keep students challenged and thinking during lessons.  As you read through this section, students can follow along with their comic book images in their student text workbook.  This helps bring the story to life for the student learning.
Following the text section, students learn where it happened on the Map.  This is included in their student text but you can elaborate by using a wall map or a timeline.  This allows the child to see for themselves where this part of the story happened and relate it to today instead of just a story from a book.  It helps to bring the lesson and story to life for the child.
The last step of the lesson is to Apply It!  Show what you both have learned, parent and student.  Talk about the lesson, why it’s important, how you can prevent yourself from doing something you shouldn’t or encourage others to do what they should.  Each lesson’s Apply It! is different but every one has an important lesson to be taught.
The Student lesson pages are extra long and come in black and white.  This allows the child to be creative in coloring the pages.  It also helps cut down printing costs.  The pages are full of character, using comic book type imagery to keep children engaged.
The Bible Book Summary Cards are fully colored and work to bring life to this program.  The back of each card provides information that goes along with each lesson.  It also includes questions for the teacher to ask the student.  The great part is that all of this is on the back of the card, so as the teacher holds it up for the student to view, the teacher can be reading this part of the lesson without the student realizing there is anything there.
Children’s Songs CD is also included with this program.  This 2 CD set includes 90 songs for your students to use along with the lessons.  These also help bring the stories to life and get your child off the couch and into the lesson.  These aren’t the usual, every day Bible songs either but they are catchy tunes that your family will be singing again and again.
We used this program as directed, following through the lessons together.  It was simple enough to do and the kids enjoyed the time spent with one another on it.  Winston especially enjoyed the comic book characters and the easy reading, which helped encourage him with his reading skills.  Emmalee read much of the lesson to us, which allowed me a break from doing all the reading myself.  The lessons were just the right amount of study and time for Laycie too.  They were not overwhelming and were just the right amount of detail for each one of us.
Bible Study Guide for All Ages: Primary Level is available to purchase online for $9.95 for the 1-26 lesson Teacher’s Guide and $5.95 for the 1-26 Student Lesson pages.  Lessons are broken down into sections of 26 lessons at a time.  There are a total of 208 lessons available for the Primary Level of this program.
The Bible Book Summary Cards are also available for purchase.  These come in Full Color 8.5″x11″ cards or Color-It-Yourself 11″x14″ posters.  Both come with 66 cards to use with the program and are both priced at $24.95 each.
The Children’s Songs CD set is a 2 disk set containing 90 children’s Bible songs.  The cost for it is $19.95.
For more reviews of Bible Study Guide for All Ages, please click on the banner below!

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Preschoolers and Peace: Circle Time {Crew Review}

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Growing up in Public School, one of my favorite daily activities was Circle Time.  When I decided to Homeschool, Circle Time was one of the first things I implemented into our homeschooling.  My kids have loved it as much as I did, even though we do this in a completely different type of environment than the one I grew up in.
Circle Time for us has always been a bonding experience and has worked great to provide together time for me and my children.  We do most things together and we enjoy doing them.  There isn’t a lot of arguing during this time but there is a whole lot of fun.  Sometimes, it gets hard for me to come up with new ideas for our Circle Time activities though, especially as my children age.  That’s where Kendra Fletcher’s book, Circle Time from Preschoolers and Peace comes in!
Circle Time teaches the homeschool parent how to plan for Circle Time in their daily routine and how to make Circle Time flow smoothly.  Throughout this book, Kendra explains how she uses her Circle Time period to teach all of her children important Bible Scriptures, stories, memorization skills, copywork and so much more.  Kendra discusses how to keep younger children occupied while older children learn, all while maintaining life.
As Kendra explains throughout Circle Time, this wonderful addition to your homeschooling day can be arranged in any way that best fits you.  You can do Circle Time in the mornings, midday or night.  You can teach all kids at once or groups of children as needed, though the goal is to have as many children as possible join in at the same time.  You can teach as many subjects as possible together through Circle Time and the book provides plenty of suggestions for making this happen.
Since we already use Circle Time in our homeschooling days, I wasn’t looking for a how-to in this book but instead inspirational ideas to spruce up our daily routine of Circle Time.  In Circle Time the book, I found so much more!
Kendra provides great printables to organize your Circle Time planning like a Wish List of activities to include in your own Circle Time.  She also includes a work sheet for listing Independent and Group work for your student’s daily activities.  There are more great things to help with Circle Time on her website Preschoolers and Peace too!
Circle Time can be arranged to fit your family and is a great tool to bring you and your children closer together.  The time they spend with one another brings positive attributes out within them, as well as stronger bonds between them.  It also allows them to spend extra time with you that may be missed in other learning settings.
Circle Time is an important part of our homeschooling days.  Kendra Fletcher’s book, Circle Time will teach you how to make it an important part of your homeschooling day too!  You can purchase Circle Time today as a PDF file for $4.99 through Kendra’s website Preschoolers and Peace.  I promise you it’s worth every cent!
To read more reviews of Kendra Fletcher’s Circle Time, please click the banner below!

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Judah Bible Curriculum {Crew Review}

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Bible study is an essential part of life for any Christian.  Judah Bible Curriculum is a great place to start!  Written for grades K-12, Judah Bible Curriculum is useful for any family at any age.
Judah Bible Curriculum doesn’t just teach you the bible from an outside source.  This course uses a written guide along with the Bible to teach God’s principles and story.  Notebooking is encouraged to show what is being learned along the way.
Judah Bible Curriculum is designed to give a thorough lesson on bible study, showing how to use biblical principles in your own life, helping to encourage Godly character in your children.  It enables you to teach the bible over time without the addition of outside materials.
Every year you teach bible keys to your children, educating them in the main ideas and biblical principles the bible provides.  This allows you to prepare your studies to meet your families needs, as well as build the principles at the level of your family.  Judah Bible Curriculum works to educate the whole family, not just one student at a time.
In my personal opinion, I feel this bible study would be great for any family looking for an extensive program to use for their family.  Judah Bible Curriculum covers the entire bible and can be used for life.  For my family, we already have several well-loved bible study programs in use so it was not as beneficial this year as it would have been when we were starting out.
Judah Bible Curriculum can be found on their website as a download for $44 or as a print copy for $69.  Both of these options include the Judah Bible Curriculum K-12 manual or ebook, Elementary Notebooking ideas to download or view online, and eight Educator Lectures for the teacher to listen to online or for download.

To read more reviews of this product, please visit the TOS Homeschool Review Crew Blog!

*Disclaimer – the complete download of this product was provided free to me in exchange for my honest opinion in a written blog review, by Judah Bible Curriculum and the TOS Homeschool Review Crew!!

Start! The Bible for New Believers {Bible Review}

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Greg Laurie
Thomas Nelson Publishing
Available in a variety of book styles
Price ranges from $7.99 – $59.99 depending upon style.
This book is a creative explanation of the Bible for new beginners, and old readers. It was written to better explain the meaning of the Bible and it’s books to new believers. And Greg Laurie does an excellent job explaining it throughout the book.
It is written in the NKJV style beginning with the Plan for Salvation, in which Mr. Laurie explains what Salvation truly means and how Jesus gave his Life for each of us to live. The second chapter discusses the Secrets to Spiritual Success, or better put How to be a Christian. In this chapter he shows us what God expects of his flock and how to relate it into our lives. Throughout the rest of the book, in the front of each biblical chapter, Mr. Laurie has provided a summary of the purpose of each book and the meanings of important key words, like the bible chapter’s name, as well as other important tidbits every Christian should know. Also throughout the book, the author has provided Grow, Learn and Know sections further explaining what is being read. At the end of the book, Mr. Laurie has provided a section called Essentials/What every Christian needs to Know about God and Jesus, where he highlights different topics on the two and discusses what they mean to us as Christians. I believe that Greg Laurie has provided a thorough introduction and study bible for new Christians by writing Start! The Bible for New Believers.
Now according to Booksneeze, I’m supposed to read this book from cover to cover but with this type of book that could take quite a while, so I have briefly read through Mr. Laurie’s introductions to several of the Bible’s books. I find what’s written to be inspiring and encouraging to me as a Christian, always learning more about the Lord. I am definitely planning to use this book as a bible study for myself to learn more about what the bible truly means and how it relates to my life. I feel it’s going to be a great help to me, as well as others who choose to read it. It’s one book I truly recommend.
 
You can download a free chapter on the Gospel of John at Start! The Bible for New Believers.