HEAV'S FACEBOOK PARTY AND BLOG GIVEAWAY!

Join us on Thursday, February 2, at 8 p.m. for a Facebook Party and Blog Giveaway! Chat live with convention speakers, exhibitors, and HEAV staff, and get your homeschooling and convention questions answered. Watch our simultaneous Blog Giveaway, where you'll have a chance to win GREAT prizes! To participate, just visit HEAV's Facebook pagehttp://www.facebook.com/#!/HEAV.Virginia.Homeschool February 2 at 8 p.m., "like" the page, introduce yourself, and join in the fun!

What We Believe: Biblical Worldview Series

Who Is God? And Can I Really Know Him?



Authors: John Hay & David Webb
Publisher: Apologia Press
Website: http://www.apologia.com/
Phone number: 765-608-3280
Format: Textbook
Prerequisites: None
Target Age: 6-14
Price: $31.00


Apologia Educational Ministries together with Summit Ministries have developed a new Bible curriculum, which focuses on teaching children a Biblical Worldview. I felt so blessed when I received a copy of Volume 1 of the, What We Believe: Biblical Worldview Series, in exchange for my honest review of their book. Who is God? And Can I Really Know Him?, is a hard covered textbook written for children between the ages of 6 to 14. It was co-authored by John Hay, an international consultant and staff writer for Summit Ministries, and David Web; a writer, editor and veteran of Christian publishing.

Who Is God? is written in the same conversational style as the Apologia Science books. This Bible based curriculum is designed to teach children to discern the truth about who God really is. It also emphasizes using God's Word to answer questions regarding the world around them. Questions such as, what is right or wrong? What is God really like? As stated in the Apologia 2011 catalog,: Volume 1 introduces the concept of worldview while laying the foundational truths upon which the evangelic Christian worldview is built.

Who Is God? is divided into 10 lessons. Each lesson takes approximately 2 weeks to complete. The lessons are broken up into smaller sections, including short stories, questions to stimulate thought and discussion, memory verses, and worldview. The lessons are well suited for notebooking and the Apologia website offers free notebooking pages to supplement each lesson.

I used Who Is God? with my ten and twelve year old children. It was such an easy fit for us since we are currently using one of the Apologia's science programs. We really enjoyed the story-like quality of the book. It gave our Bible time a very relaxed feel which was conducive to great discussions. The kids loved the pictures and the notebooking activities. Another bonus was the wealth of information on the website to support each lesson. In addition to notebooking pages, there are teacher help pages and answer keys. My children both gave this Bible program two thumbs up!


What We Believe: Biblical Worldview Series consist of 3 volumes. Volume 1: Who is God? (And Can I Really Know Him?), Volume 2: Who Am I (And What Am I Doing Here?), and Volume 3: Who Is My Brother?(And Why Do We Need Each Other?).


Avaialable at: http://www.mooreexpressions.com/browse.cfm/who-is-god-worldview-apologia/4,169906.html

Freebie Friday

It's Like Having a Money Tree in Your Back Yard!

This week the focus is on history. Both websites are excellent to use as you plan next year's work.


America's Heritage: An Adventure in Liberty is a tested lesson plan resource and supplement for Kindergarten-12th grade teachers of social studies, U. S. history, U. S. government, political science, economics, geography, speech, and/or related subjects. Written by fellow teachers, the resource consists of age-appropriate and modifiable lesson plans grouped into three separate books according to level: elementary, middle, and high school. Each elementary school lesson plan correlates practically with the nationally applicable Core Knowledge Skills (grades K-6) (national edition). Each middle and high school lesson plan correlates with the National Council for the Social Studies (NCSS) standards (national edition). All lessons emphasize one or more themes of freedom, unity, progress, and responsibility. The resource aims not simply to present historical facts but to provide opportunities for students to explore and understand the factual and philosophical significance and meaning behind events, causes, and effects—the whys—relating to and influencing the early history of the United States.
http://www.americanheritage.org/k-12_lessons.html


Today we feature this huge library of resource materials on all sorts of American history topics, created by teachers for teachers, incorporating the Library of Congress' primary sources into student instruction. There are loads and loads of resources and subjects here. To search the collections, just click on each category listed on their page:

Lesson Plans

Themed Resources

Primary Source Sets

Presentations & Activities

Collection Connections

Each of these sections will take you to dozens and dozens of great downloadable and online resources to enhance your history studies. Your tax dollars actually providing some wonderful resources for you. Have fun!


tp://www.loc.gov/teachers/classroommaterials/

Have a wonderful summer and remember you can always visit my blog during the summer and catch up on the post you missed.

Blessings,

Lauren

Read For The Heart

Whole Books For Wholehearted Families
By Sarah Clarkson
Apologia WholeHeart
www.apologia.com



As a book lover, I can not imagine anything better than a good book about good books! Well, Sarah Clarkson has deliver just that. Read For The Heart, is not just a book with lists of good literature, it is a story that incorporates great books, while fostering a love of reading. This book is a must read for moms and homeschoolers. This 384 page soft cover book explores topics such as: Reading to Live; The state of literacy in America; Picture books; Classics; Children's fiction; Fairy tales and fantasy; History and biography; Poetry and Spiritual reading for children. The appendix includes lists of Caldecott and Newbery Medalist, historical fictions by G.A. Henty, Landmark History Books, and the Trailblazer Series. In addition to giving a brief summary of each book, Sarah Clarkson also gives suggested grade levels and other books by the author. She wraps the book up with a list of her favorite books.This is the perfect book to read this summer as you plan your reading list for the upcoming school year.

Click below to read a sample chapter from Read For The Heart. Once you read a little, go to http://www.apologia.com/ and order the whole book for just $17.00. You will want to re-read it as your children grow.
https://apologia.securesites.net/pdfs/sample/rfthsamp.pdf?zenAdminID=9df713e49ee746fbc6a32db1ed901064&zenAdminID=9df713e49ee746fbc6a32db1ed901064&zenAdminID=9df713e49ee746fbc6a32db1ed901064&zenAdminID=9df713e49ee746fbc6a32db1ed901064&zenAdminID=9df713e49ee746fbc6a32db1ed901064


Click the banner below to see what others have to say about Read For The Heart .

Considering God's Creation

http://www.eagleswingsed.com/

580-252-1555

Considering God's Creation is a creative Biblical approach to elementary earth and life science. Susan Mortimer and Betty Smith are the authors of this multi-level science curriculum designed for children in grades 2-7. The program includes 36 lessons that can be completed over one school year with older students or over several years with younger students. The subjects covered include creation, the universe, the earth, non-living things, weather, the plant kingdom, the animal kingdom, animal anatomy and physiology and man. The curriculum comes with a 272 page student book, a teacher's manual and an audio CD.

Eagle's Wing Educational Materials blessed our homeschool with a copy of Considering God's Creation in exchange for my honest review of their curriculum. Karina, my fifth grader used the program over the last few weeks. At first glance, she noticed that the books lacked color pictures and was very different from the other science books she was accustomed to using. However, as we had the opportunity to use the book we found that the notebooking activities and the scientist detective activities out weighed glossy color pictures. Considering God's Creation really fosters a discovery approach to learning by integrating scientific facts along with creative research and discovery activities. The lessons require very little preparation and can be completed in as little as one and a half to two hours a week. Most of the activities use materials usually found around the house and basic school supplies (crayons, glue and scissors). The lessons provided in the teacher's manual include preparation directions, vocabulary words, the lesson content to be read aloud and spiritual applications. Each lesson has a creative song on the CD to reinforce the lesson. The lessons also have notebooking pages to complete, review questions and evolution stumpers. Evolution stumpers are scientific facts that support creation and are designed to help build faith in young believers.

Our personal favorite were the Digging Deeper activities at the end of each lesson. These activities really allow a 5th-7th grade to research and discover on their own. Some features that Karina enjoyed were the vocabulary crossword puzzles and the word search. Another favorite was the scientist dectective pages which encourages the students to discovery and discern the scientist's worldview.

The program allows for multi-level teaching and is great for families with several elementary school age students. The curriculum is also very affortable at $29.95 for the complete program. Below are some sample pages from the student book.






Click the banner below to see what others have to say about Considering God's Creation.

Mad Dog Math

http://www.maddogmath.com/
(562) 533-5772
1 year license $19.99/2 year license $29.99
Lifetime license $39.99


Mad Dog Math is a computerized math fact drill program that was created by a veteran educator. It is designed to supplement any math curriculum and just requires 10 minutes a day. This software is geared towards children in grades K-5, however it can be used for remediation of students in middle school and high school. The goal of Mad Dog Math is to foster mastery of the math facts.

Mad Dog Math imcludes four skill levels. Level 1 has addition and subtraction facts.There is plenty of review built into this level. Level 2 also includes addition and subtraction problems. This level includes more difficult problem then level 1. Level 3 contains both multiplication and division facts from 0-12. The fourth level or challenge level has all four operations mixed on a practice sheet.

One nice feature of the program is the ability to time the practice sets. Students start out with two minute drills then progress to one minute drills and finally to thirty second drills. The timer feature allows for the program to be used by children above the targeted age group. Mad Dog Math is easy to use and keeps track of your student’s progress. I think that by breaking the math facts into small manageable pieces, mastery is more easily achieved. I used Mad Dog Math with my fifth grade daughter over the past few weeks. She found it fun and enjoyed the timed drills. She also got a kick out of the dog barking when she successful completed a practice sheet.
Mad Dog Math is a Windows PC application that is easily downloaded to your computer. Try it for free at: http://www.maddogmath.com/


Click the banner below to see what others have to say about Mad Dog Math.

Freebie Friday

It's Like Having a Money Tree in Your Back Yard!

This week I will share several FREE websites that are great science and math resources. Bookmark these sites for furture use!

http://www.chem4kids.com/
http://www.biology4kids.com/
http://www.cosmos4kids.com/
http://www.physics4kids.com/
http://www.geography4kids.com/
http://www.numbernut.com/

Check back next week for more free resources. May 27th will be the last Freebie Friday until September.