Saturday 15 June 2013

HSMJ a day at Melton and an invite to a party for you

In my life this week…
I was blessed with the opportunity to host the Masterbook Friday Giveaway.  I ♥♥♥ their books.


In our home school this week…
  • We started homeschooling with two of the cousins!  So much fun and at the same time the dynamic is different.  I'm finding it encouraging and inspirational to find my things and use them well.
  • Continued reading and learning about Monet because we want to go to the gallery next week to see his paintings.  I'm looking forward to doing some art projects with the children on Monday.
  • Started back with history Story of the World.  Learned about the first uniting king of Egypt. (Narmer/Mene's)
  • Did handwriting assessments and spelling.
  • Had fun beginning our first Jackie French book - The Camel  Who Crossed Australia
  • We watched Thomas The Less' History of the World - Pharaoh Narmer (Menes)

Helpful homeschooling tips or advice to share…

I am inspired by…
  • Have American Parents Got It All Backwards? over at Huffington Post The BLOG Take out the word American and I think this summerises most affluent countries today and speaks to the very heart of what most home educating families know.  So good to read something that encourages us to allow our children to be.

Places we’re going and people we’re seeing…
  • Sport (Tennis and Kelly Sports)
  • Stayed home because I was sick for four days
  • Went to Melton Reservoir and explored for the afternoon.
My favorite thing this week was…

Things I’m working on…
  • Preparing for my trip to the Simpson Desert in three weeks time.
In Bloggy world I’m reading…

I’m cooking…
  • Actually I have not been.  My sister has blessed me this week and been cooking for us.  I am however looking over a gift copy of Simplified Dinners and look forward to using it and hosting a giveaway for one of you to win a copy.

On Pinterest I found...
  • Not quite on Pinterest but a list of Homeschoolers using Pinterest over at the Homeschool Chicks website.

I’m grateful for…
A photo, video, link, or quote to share…

Mark your calendar. . .


Blessings

Chareen

Homegrown Learners Hammock Tracks It's a Wrap

Photo collages made with: Photoscape a FREE photo editor

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Friday 14 June 2013

Master Books Free Book Friday - {365 Fascinating Facts about Jesus}

Welcome to Free Book Friday from Master Books a division of the New Leaf Publishing Group.  I have a love affair with the beautiful books published by Master Books and when I saw a shout out on their Facebook page for people to host their FREE book Friday I put my hand up.

My love affair with their books started when Sonlight introduced them to me when I was doing Science F with my children and read The History of Medicine.   This book was the kind of living book you do not want to put down until you have read it till the very end.

Today Master Books has generously donated a digital copy of 365 Fascinating Facts about Jesus by Robert Strand for one person to win. Simply use the Rafflecopter widget at the bottom of this post to enter.



365 Fascinating Facts about Jesus

  • Imprint New Leaf Press
  • Title 365 Fascinating Facts about Jesus
  • ISBN 13 9780892214884
  • Author Robert Strand
  • Binding Paperback
  • Page Count 224
  • Publisher New Leaf Publishing Group, Inc.
  • Dimensions (in inches) 5 3/8 x 8 3/8 x 1/2



Sample
Connect with Master Books
You can purchase this book from
  1. New Leaf Publishing
  2. Amazon
  3. Barnes & Noble
  4. For you Kindle via Amazon
Please be sure to read the Terms and Conditions of this give away BEFORE entering.

Blessings
Chareen

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Terms and Conditions

  • The prize is ONE Digital copy of 365 Fascinating Facts about Jesus
  • This giveaway is offered to  Australia (QLD, NT, TAS, VIC ) and the rest of the world. 
  • Sorry if you are living in ACT & NSW  Or Quebec Canada  you are ineligible to enter via my blog. Please read this article to see why.
  • The give away will commence at 6 AM USA EST time on Friday 15 June  and be open until Midnight Sunday 16 June 2013.
  • ONE  winner will be announced on Monday 17 June.
  • Master Books will contact the winner .
  • Prize can not be exchanged for money.
  • No purchase necessary to win.
  • Giveaways are held with Rafflebox; commenting will not enter you.
  • Must be 18 years of age or older at time of entry.
  • If prize winner forfeits or does not claim the prize, prize will be re-awarded via Rafflebox.
  • Void where prohibited by law.
  • This promotion is in no way sponsored, endorsed, administered by, or associated with, Facebook, Twitter or Pinterest.
  • By entering this contest, you agree to release Every Bed of Roses and all associated parties/sponsors of any liability.
  • It is your responsibility to check the current price of any items before purchasing any of the products described in this blog post.
  • There are NO affiliate links contained in this post. 
  • Family members are not eligible to enter via my blog post.  
  • Disclaimer: I received a free digital copy of this product through the Master Books  I am disclosing this in accordance with the FTC Regulations. 
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Wednesday 12 June 2013

Christianity Cove {Review}


One of the things I have enjoyed about being on the Schoolhouse Review Crew this year is discovering new vendors.  When the chance to review Christianity Cove came up I was really excited. Christianity Cove is a web based resource created by Mary-Kate Warner who is a Sunday School Director.  Her mission is to provide FREE ideas via her blog and PDF resources in her purchase product range to support Sunday school teachers in their ministry.  Prices vary between $1 - $29. The hardest part was deciding which two products I would like to use with Sir N.  I finally settled on The Ten Commandments and The Lord's Prayer.


The Ten Commandments
  • The Ten Commandments pack comes as a 26.7 MB PDF download upon purchase.  
  • Is is a 52 page resource 
  • Aimed for use with children in the age bracket of 4-11 years.
  • A comprehensive table of contents.
  • All the needed graphics are supplied and easy to print.
  • A materials list is provided at the beginning of each lesson, project etc
  • Ten Commandments - Currently $27 (Normally $47)
 Contents
  • 3 games
  • 3 craft projects
  • 2 Song options
  • 2 snack ideas
  • 3 worksheets 
  • A Science project

I started off by loading the PDF booklet onto my Galaxy Tab and reading through each lesson and craft suggestion.  Once I had a good overview and had decided which crafts we would do I printed those off.  They were all in black and white and all the instructions were easy to follow.  There were also excellent pictures of each craft making it easy to understand what to do with Sir N.  Now it was time to learn the Ten Commandments (Exodus 20).

We started by reading the story of how Moses was given the 10 Commandments by the Lord at Mount Sinai in his children's bible.  Each day we tackled a different project which reinforced his learning.  The games, songs, snacks, crafts and worksheets all focused us in the right direction.  The object lessons were well presented and helped us see that the Ten Commandments are just as relevant today as they were for the Israelite people in the days of Moses.

We really enjoyed using this resource.  It was well presented and required very little work to implement each lesson. For all the lessons and craft pages we had all the items on hand at home and for the food ideas we had most of the items too. All the instructions are comprehensively written and have photographs illustrating the steps or the completed project which made them easy to do as you had a visual clue to aim towards.

All in all Sir N and I enjoyed our adventure with the Ten Commandments.

The Lord's Prayer
  • The The Lord's Prayer pack comes as a 16.1 MB PDF download upon purchase.  
  • Is is a 35 page resource 
  • Aimed for use with children in the age bracket of 5-14 years.
  • A comprehensive table of contents.
  • All the needed graphics are supplied and easy to print.
  •  Lord's Prayer - Currently $19.99 (Normally $39.99)
Contents
  • 2 Object lessons
  • 2 games
  • 3 crafts
  • Songs
  • 2 Worksheets
  • 2 Snack options
I saved the PDF to my Galaxy Tab and spent time reading and gaining an understanding of the principles being aimed at through each lesson. We started this section of learning by reading the story of how Jesus shared the Lord's Prayer (Matthew 6:9-13)with His disciples. We had one of the recommended resources for memorising The Lord's Prayer and played this CD regularly as we learnt the words (we are still in the process).

For the projects we are working our way through them.  Sir N loves hands on things to do.  All of the projects are easily completed with items on hand at home.  One of them needed dowel sticks and I simply replaced them with wooden skewers. Their are comprehensive instructions for all the crafts and activities. They are well written out but being a visual learner I found some a little bit hard to follow. This can easily be remedied with a couple of photographs illustrating the point in the same way as they were done for The Ten Commandments craft instructions.

Each of the lessons/crafts/activities illustrated an aspect of prayer in a practical way helping Sir N to understand it better.  Prayer is something that we have always done with him but struggle to get him to partake in.  This series is helping him come to a deeper understanding of prayer and that God hears us even when we don't think that He does and all of this regardless of the outcome that we see.

Connect with Christianity Cove

The thing I enjoyed about teaching through these lesson packs was that they were short and easy to implement.  On average it took 10-15 min a lesson.  It was fun and did not meander to make a point. We have taken slightly longer to work through the lessons than we thought but are enjoying them.

Each pack is specifically designed for Sunday School use but can be very minimally modified for home use to equip you to use all your child's senses to teach the topic at hand.  You do not need to do all the lessons you can pick and choose mix and match at your leisure and according to your need.

At present Christianity Cove have 26 resources in their Sunday School Product Range. The crew were given the opportunity to review 15 of these products. Don't forget to pop on over and read the reviews from the rest of the crew on how they used the following products.

  1. Outstanding Object Lessons
  2. Bible Science Experiments
  3. 100 Simple Service Projects
  4. Daily Dilemmas: 26 True-to-Life Devotions for Kids
  5. Freedom Ride: 12 Lessons of Faith for Today's Teens
  6. "Tween a Rock and a Hard Place" Lesson Blueprints
  7. Bullying & the Bible Lesson Plans
  8. KidMin Power Pack
  9. Bible Memory Games
  10. The Divine Dozen: 12 Parables of Jesus Every Child Should Know
  11. Make & Take Bible Crafts
  12. New Testament Life Lessons
  13. Fruits of the Spirit Activity Kit

Blessings
Chareen


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