The Master and His Apprentices is not like other Art programs. This program shares God’s story through Art, linking Art with your Bible as you learn more about it. Through their program, The Master and His Apprentices: Art History from a Christian Perspective, you will begin to see the beauty of God’s work throughout the history of Art.

For this review, we were sent digital copies of both the Teacher’s Guide and the Student Textbook. These open as PDF files but I was easily able to send them over to my Kindle for us to use. The Master and His Apprentices also gives you the right to make copies of these materials with your printer for your family’s use only. The Student Textbook is designed to that it easily prints to be placed into a three ring binder for your student’s use.

The Teacher’s Guide provides a Table of Contents, followed with directions on how to use this curriculum. The program is designed to be a one year, stand-alone high school elective course for your student. You will find instructions on how to use this in a classroom setting and a home setting.

We, of course, used this in a home setting for with Emmalee, who loves Art. We are always looking for new art programs to use for her, to advance her love and knowledge of Art. This program was a perfect fit for her because it combines two of her favorite things: Art and History.

The program is designed to create a 36 week program with one hour classes and two 18 week semesters. As Homeschoolers, that’s not how we laid the program out and it worked fine for our usual method of learning where my daughter works independently and completes as much as the program as she’d like to. She really enjoyed what she was learning so she didn’t want to stop continuing through as she worked on the lessons. That’s just how Emmalee works.

The program does provide writing and asks that the student complete 4 papers during the year on different artists. It also provides an Exam to show that the student is learning and has learned what’s being taught. The exams don’t concentrate on dates to be memorized but instead what time period the artist’s work was created. This is an important part of Art History.

The required supplies for this course are: a notebook, pen, Bible, and a handout called “Terms to Describe Art”. This isn’t a course on painting or technique but on the History of Art itself, expanding on learning about the artists, their lives and the story of the masterpieces they created as well as the techniques they used. The program does not show nude body parts or art that is questionable since it is a Christian curriculum and the lessons are centered around the Bible and God’s word.

The Student Textbook provides all the text for the student to read through and learn. But the actual worksheets and exams for the program are provided in the Teacher’s Guide. They can be printed and placed into a binder with the text first and the worksheets following in order to organize them for your student. In the back of the Teacher’s Guide you will find the Answer Key for the worksheets as well. Alternatively, you can upload the books onto a tablet or computer and the student can write their answers on notebook paper if needed, which is what we chose to do for the review period. You can also purchase print copies of the books for this program to use.

Emma really enjoyed working through this review. It was right up her ally. She loved the relation of Art to the Bible and the stories of different people from the Bible that the program shared and expanded upon, giving her a better understanding of who they were and God’s purpose for them as well as their life and their Artistic works. She’s still working on the program and is enjoying each and every minute.

You can find The Master and His Apprentices online at:

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/The-Master-and-His-Apprentices-245504999349223/
Pinterest: www.pinterest.com/themasterandhisapprentices/boards/

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Disclaimer:

For Better or for Kids
A Vow to Love Your Spouse with Kids in the House
By Patrick and Ruth Schwenk
Published by Zondervan

Book Description:
The transition from “married” to “married with children” can be tough. Before they know it, a once youthful and energetic married couple finds themselves in a minivan loaded with noisy kids and littered with Cheerios, crusty Sippy cups, banana peels, and missing library books. As much as you love your children and work hard to nurture and train them for the future, the challenges that come with parenthood can make the “for better or for worse” promise a hard one to honor.

For Better or For Kids will enable couples to: • Build a God-centered marriage instead of a Child-centered or Me-centered marriage • Avoid the dangers of spouse-neglect and self-neglect • Effectively communicate in the chaos • Explore ways to parent together as one team • Find balance in the busyness

For Better or For Kids is about remembering that even when you feel worn out, over-extended, and neglected, you promised to be a team. Marriage with kids may not always be what we expected, but it is good. We need to make a vow to love our spouse with kids in the house.

My Review:
This is a great book for anyone to read, whether you’re just starting out in marriage or you are already married with kids, or your remarrying and blending your family. The book focuses on how to love each other with your children running around still, how to keep your marriage in focus while still dealing with your day to day life as a family. It encourages your passion and romance, while understanding that raising a family is challenging.

For Better or For Kids, helps you to keep your marriage God-Centered, as opposed to today’s focus of your child or your self. It encourages you to put God first, your spouse and then your children, as God’s Biblical Plan provides for us to do. It encourages you to keep your marriage focused on Christ, while still finding time for romance and care for each other.

The book contains a Contents page with 13 featured chapters. Each chapter covers a different aspect of marriage: the messiness of marriage, sex, parenting, even rest when you’re running empty and much more. There is a multitude of information provided within the many pages of this small, paperback book.

As a married mother of four, I found this book an encouraging perspective on so many things. I learned a lot about balance, about Grace, about working together with my husband for the good of our family. It was very encouraging to know I am not alone in the things we want for our family and life as a husband and wife, as well as a mother.

For Better or For Kids is available for purchase online or at book retailers near you. It’s listed price is currently $16.99 at the time of this review.

Yes, Hake Publishing are one and the same as the people who publish Saxon Math. They’re breaching out to expand their wonderful curriculum line and have created a new line: Hake/Saxon Grammar and Writing 3 (there are other levels as well). For this particular review, we received level 3 which was great since I really like to start off with the first level of things usually.

We received a really thick Consumable Textbook. A thinner Writing Workbook. An equally thick Teacher Guide, complete with Answer Keys and Tests inside.

The Teacher’s Guide begins by laying out the program’s expectations. It suggests not to skip lessons and to set them up in a daily routine. Writing lessons are suggested to be included on test days with this program.

Grammar and Writing 3 provides Core Knowledge content so if you’re not a fan of Common Core than this program may not be for you. However, I found it really easy to use and easy for the kids to use too. To me, that’s what’s important for some curriculum, especially in Grammar and Writing.

The Teacher’s Guide lays out every part of the lesson for you, including what to say and when. There are specific guidelines to follow and all you need to do is read it out to your student and follow along. Easy and simple learning at home.

The Consumable Text is the student’s lesson workbook. This is where the good stuff is found, like what a sentence is and all those important details that go along with Grammar and Writing. The lesson begins with teaching about a part of Grammar, like verbs and then provides questions to answer about what the student is learning. There are also sentences and diagramming included in the lessons as appropriate when the student works through. No answers are included in the student text.

The Writing workbook is short and sweet. There’s a sheet for each lesson but the work isn’t too hard. It helps encourage sentence and short story writing for your student. As mentioned above, writing is recommended for test days as well.

This curriculum was perfect for us. I used it with Laycie who is still learning about Grammar and Writing. She really picked up on it well. The lessons were not too long for her and it was easy for her to understand as we worked through, which is great since she struggles with learning due to her ADHD and Epilepsy.

This was also a good review for Emmalee, who I also had look over the materials. She’s great at Grammar but I wanted to see what she thought of the program as a independent learner. She found it easy to follow and could even work through on her own at her advanced age. The program would work well for a student who is unschooled or uses delayed academics.

The program can be used in a formal educational setting as well and that’s what it’s designed to do, really. But for us, we prefer materials that are less structured and allow my students to learn at their own pace, which this does as well. It’s a very adaptable program.

If you’ve used Saxon Math, and I know many homeschoolers do, then you will love Hake/Saxon Grammar and Writing 3. You can view a scope and sequence on their website, and as I mentioned before, there are many levels of the program now available for purchase. The books are all softbound with paperback covers. They are consumable so you can remove pages for the student to complete, but you would need one workbook per student. Since I require my students to use notebook paper instead of writing in the textbooks, one copy worked well for us but it’s encouraged that each student have their own copy of the text for lessons separately.

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About the Book

Title: Just Let Go

Author: Courtney Walsh

Release Date: June 5, 2018

Genre: Contemporary Romance

For Quinn Collins, buying the flower shop in downtown Harbor Pointe fulfills a childhood dream, but also gives her the chance to stick it to her mom, who owned the store before skipping town twenty years ago and never looking back. Completing much-needed renovations, however, while also competing for a prestigious flower competition with her mother as the head judge, soon has Quinn in over her head. Not that she’d ever ask for help.

Luckily, she may not need to. Quinn’s father and his meddling friends find the perfect solution in notorious Olympic skier Grady Benson, who had only planned on passing through the old-fashioned lakeside town. But when a heated confrontation leads to property damage, helping Quinn as a community-service sentence seems like the quickest way out—and the best way to avoid more negative press.

Quinn finds Grady reckless and entitled; he thinks she’s uptight and too regimented. Yet as the two begin to hammer and saw, Quinn sees glimpses of the vulnerability behind the bravado, and Grady learns from her passion and determination, qualities he seems to have lost along the way. But when a well-intentioned omission has devastating consequences, Grady finds himself cast out of town—and Quinn’s life—possibly forever. Forced to face the hurt holding her back, Quinn must finally let go or risk missing out on the adventure of a lifetime.

Click here to purchase your copy!

About the Author

Courtney Walsh is a novelist, artist, theatre director, and playwright. Her debut novel, A Sweethaven Summer, hit the New York Times and USA Today e-book bestseller lists and was a Carol Award finalist in the debut author category. She has written two more books in the Sweethaven series, as well as two craft books and several full-length musicals. Courtney lives in Illinois with her husband and three children. Visit her online at www.courtneywalshwrites.com.

Blog Stops

Blog Stops
By The Book, June 26

Christian Author, J.E.Grace, July 9

Giveaway

To celebrate her tour, Courtney Walsh is giving away a grand prize of a library of Courtney Walsh’s books and a $25 Amazon gift card!!

Click below to enter. Be sure to comment on this post before you enter to claim 9 extra entries! https://promosimple.com/ps/d0a4/just-let-go-celebration-tour-giveaway

My Review:
Grady Benson is a hot-headed pro-athlete who trouble seems to find no matter how much he tries to avoid it. When he stops in a small town, his temper gets the best of him and his actions create unexpected chaos that he never expected. To make up for his actions, he’s required to complete community service before he can leave and move forward with his life.

Quinn Collins is the local flower shop owner. It’s a family trait that she’s spent years earning, despite some challenges to get her where she’s at. She loves her shop, she loves her little town and all it stands for. Her roots are built in and it shows.

Grady is forced to help Quinn with renovations on her shop and together they find an unexpected relationship they’d never imagined before. You’ll have to read Just Let Go to find out more.

I really liked this book a lot. The small town feeling it gave made me long for my hometown. The relationship of the characters was wonderful. Quinn and Grady balanced each other well. Courtney Walsh is a wonderful author. I think this was one of my first books that I have read by her and I truly look forward to reading more in the future.