Bessie's Pillow {Strong Learning, Inc. Review}

During my high school years I developed a love of reading.  I enjoyed many many different types of genre's. Years later when I started home educating I was introduced to historical non-fiction books and it was love at first book.  Nathaniel and I have been reading Bessie's Pillow published by Strong Learning.Inc during our afternoon quiet school reading sessions.  What started out as a half hour an afternoon for me soon turned into a few midnight reading sessions.

About the Book

• Title: Bessie's Pillow - A Young Immigrant's Journey (Based on a true story)
• Author: Linda Bress Silbert
• Publisher: Strong Learning. Inc
• ISBN: 978-0-89544-201-7
• Copyright: 2014 
• Pages: 290
• Available in English and Spanish.
• Purchase as a paperback or kindle.

The Story
Journey with Bessie as she escapes persecution and departs from Vilna, Lithuania in 1906 to Hamburg, Germany by train.  Bessie courageously journeys across the sea on a ship spending the time learning to speak English as this will be the everyday language she needs to survive in America.  At the port of entry her name is changed as the passport officer says her own name will not be suitable any longer.

Bessie shares her struggles, her joys and her sorrows as she builds a brand new life in America. A beautiful love story unfolds as you discover life through the eyes of one immigrant who bravely came to America from Lithuania. She was only 18. A woman alone. An orthodox Jew. In the year of 1906.

Bessie's Pillow is written in the first person.  From her perspective, you will see the world through her eyes from the year 1906 to 1936.  It's a time of great change: new technologies,  the great depression, the Great War, World War II, cars, Suffragettes and medical technology. Bessie is courageous, she is independent, a business woman, she loaned people money to buy a homes, she paid kindness forward. 

The book is divided into five sections:

1. Prologue: New Rocelle 1950
2. Part One: Leaving Home 1906 - 1908
3. Part Two: New Rochelle 1908 - 1925
4. Part Three: Going On 1925 - 1936
5. Afterword

The book is written by Bessie's granddaughter, Linda Silbert and is her first novel. All the events in the book are true. The book contains actual family photo's from Bessie's photo albums.

One word of caution:  This book contains some confronting moments and may have your children asking you some questions.  It is honest and contains scenes of things that happened to immigrants in the early part of the century.  I do advise caution for younger readers and would encourage you to read the book before handing it over to your children.

Bessie's America on page 257 contains historical information about immigration and America.  In 1906 along 215,665 Russian Jews passed through Ellis Island on their way to America. This section contains a comprehensive insight into immigration resources, museums, TransAtlantic Steamships, Famous people of the time (with short biography's), Food and Recipes, Health, Movies of the day, Music and Dance, all about New Rochelle, News, Historical moments, Influential Presidents during Bessie's life, Radio and Social movements during her lifetime.


Extra's

• Hear the author talk about Bessie on YouTube. Beautiful photographs. 
• Immerse yourself in an interactive learning area about the America during the years of the book 1904 to 1936. Topics covered: European Immigration, Famous People,  Food, Recipes, Health, Housework, Movies, Music, Dancing, News, U.S. Presidents and Radio.
• Photo Gallery covering: Bessie's Family Album, Childhood in Lithuania, New York, New Rochelle, 
• Readers share their immigration stories/history.
• For Teachers: a pdf downloadable Teachers guide of 16 pages.  This guide contains: summary, Language Arts, Social Studies, historical timeline, glossary of Terms and Additional reading (49 book recommendations)

Connect on Social Media

• Facebook - @BessiesPillow 
• Twitter - @BessiesPillow

My thoughts
I have loved every word of this book.  I've cried, been heart broken, anxious, loved, smiled, laughed  and celebrated milestones with Bessie and her family.  I've been reminded that this was real life, and these are the realities of the forefathers of every family who have immigrated and gone before us to enable us to make a better life.

Bessie's Pillow is a beautiful book that every child should read.  It's a book of courage and love.  It's about life and paying forward goodness to all.

Blessings
Chareen

Creating a Masterpiece {Review}

I am not naturally artistic.  Homeschooling with the Charlotte Mason method means exploring the fine arts and drawing. Home educating an only meant taking out art supplies for one which is a real chore and not one I have enjoyed that is until now.  Now I look for reasons to do art every single day together with Nathaniel. We were given a monthly membership with Creating a Masterpiece to review and will continue to share our masterpieces in our weekly virtual fridge on Thursdays. We have both been encouraged to pursue creating art with each  success we have encountered creating beautiful pieces of art with artist Sharon Hofer. 

What is Creating a Masterpiece?
Creating a Masterpiece is an online streaming art class presented by Sharon Hofer who is a master artist and currently teaches students from her studio and internationally.  Her goal is to bring quality instruction and projects taught in such a way that they will inspire and encourage students to create a masterpiece of their very own. 

This image on Creating a Masterpiece
inspired me to give the projects a try.

Creating A Masterpiece teaches art technique in many media, building mastery so that students can go on to create their own projects. The instruction is simple enough for young children to follow, and the projects taught are the kind of high quality work that appeal to high schoolers and adults alike. Even young children can create beautiful artwork using media that is usually taught only in high school.

You can find more in depth explanations about the method and how to use Creating a Masterpiece on their What we Teach page.

How does it Work?

 After logging in you will be taken to the Home page.  Here you will find all the available lessons you have subscribed to.  Navigation is very easy.  On the left you will find a list of Art Mediums (with a colour coded dot) which are used or on the right you will find the specific lessons. Each lesson is depicted in a frame with the name and art medium below it.

If you click on a specific medium you will be shown all the art lessons available using that specific medium.  To return to the home page simply click on the Creating a Masterpiece logo on the top right.

After selecting your project you will be taken to that project home page where you will read a little background on the project's inspiration and a short outline of the technique the student will be using. Clicking on the blue link at the bottom takes you to the first lesson page.

All the projects are taught via short tutorial video's.  Sharon coaches students in proper technique and demonstrates each step by step process of the specific techniques used in the project.  Video lessons average around five minutes a session and will autoplay the next lesson.  Some of the projects we did took a week to complete as we did one short lesson a day and others we were so exited on our progress we spent a good hour working through each lesson so we could see the end result. This lesson was a lot of fun and took two sessions to do because the first step had to be completely dry before we could do step two.

Below the video lessons you will find the colour swatches you will need for the lesson followed by a list of art supplies and house hold items needed.  Below this is a box containing helpful tips to help make your Masterpiece a success.

Each lesson also has lesson highlights.  These are graphics depicting highlighted steps in the lesson progress followed by the available downloads.

Here you will be given a high resolution image of the completed project should you want to print it to show your students so they have a sample in front of them of what they are aiming for.

A full supply list in pdf format. This lists the list of art supplies and house hold items needed as well as a helpful table at a glance of how many of each items you will need if you are doing this project with multiple students.

The purchase supplies button is an affiliate link which takes you to Dickblick.com where you will see the lesson name, instructor and description of the art supply list. The list is divided into required items and recommended items.  You can view a sample of this here African Sunset Art Supplies {Creating a Masterpiece Affiliate link}.

At the bottom there is a sample of pictures to inspire you in using the art technique to create your own Masterpiece.

Projects available 
Creating a Masterpiece is a work in progress and is constantly being updated with new projects.  Currently there are over 144 lessons over  six levels and Art in History available. We tried a few projects on multiple levels.

There are currently 18 types of media taught in the program, including:

• Acrylic
• Batik
• Block Printing
• Carving
• Conte' Crayon
• Copper Tooling
• Glass Mosaic
• Gouache
• Ink
• Mixed Media
• Oil Painting
• Oil Pastel
• Pencil/Charcoal
• Sculpture
• Silk Painting
• Soft Pastel
• Watercolor
• Wood Burning

Samples of our work

Beginners project Lessons in Mixed Media: Candlelight.

Beginners: Lesson in oil pastel: Winter Cabin.

Level 1 - Tropical Clown Fish

Level 4: Puppy Love

Try a FREE sample lesson
You can try a FREE sample project, which is divided over three lessons  using pastels and black paper.

Drawn by Nathaniel age 11

Drawn by Chareen

What is the Cost?
There are monthly or annual student plans available, which provide unlimited family access to all the projects. An individual level may be purchased with full access to that level for a year. Group membership plans are available for those who wish to use Creating A Masterpiece in a classroom setting.

Connect on Social Media
You can connect with Creating A Masterpiece on Facebook.

My thoughts
We are both loving the classes on Creating a Masterpiece.  You do not need to be an artist or artistic to create a Masterpiece.  With Sharon's gentle coaching and encouragement anyone can create a beautiful masterpiece of their very own. If you have a student who loves to create art with many different mediums  you are guaranteed to find something here for them to do.  No matter what your ability Sharon 's coaching will help you create which ever project you have chosen to do. A Vincent van Gogh exhibition is coming to Melbourne this year and in preparation for that we are looking forward to trying out the Post-Impressionism Period: The Eagle (Acrylic Painting) Art in History lesson.

Blessings
Chareen

Circle C Stepping Stones - Andi Series {Review}

Ah the smell of a new book thrills me and to receive two new books from a brand new series is beyond description.  Nathaniel and I have been enjoying two new books by Susan K.Marlow.  She has written a wonderful series following the adventures of Andi on the Circle C ranch.  Circle C Stepping Stones follows the Beginnings series and precedes the Adventures series. We were blessed with: Andi Saddles Up and Andi Under the Big Top hot off the press from Kregel Publications to read and review.

Circle C is a ranch in 1874 California.  Andi is the youngest child of the family.  There are currently four Circle C series available:

1. Circle C Beginnings - Follows six year old Andi and her baby horse Taffy on their adventures together.  The text is aimed at first chapter book readers (Readers in the age range 6-9). (Six Books)
2. Circle C Stepping Stones - Andi is now nine years old and Taffy is a three year old filly. The text in these books is a bit more challenging and the books are aimed at readers in the age range of 7-10. (Two Books available)
3. Circle C Adventures - It's the 1880's on the Circle C ranch and Andi is now 12 and learning many valuable life lessons from her escapades.  These books are aimed at the age range 9-13. (Seven Books)
4. Circle C Milestones - Andrea (Andi) is growing up and learning to find out what God's plans for her are.  These books are for the 11+ age range.  (Four Books)

About Circle C Stepping Stones

• The books are aimed at girls and boys in the seven to ten year old age bracket. 
• There will be a total of six books in the series. 
• They are beautifully illustrated by Leslie Gammelagaard.
• The illustrations are available as colouring pages to download.
• Susan has provided free Activity pages for each book containing: Comprehension questions, vocabulary worksheets, maps, writing, history, puzzles and hands on activities. 
• Lapbooks are available for the books.  

Andi Saddles Up 
This is book one (104 pages) in the new Circle C Stepping Stones series.  Andi Carter has finally reached the age when she may be a real horse rider. With greater freedom comes bigger responsibilities and along with that larger natural consequences to choices. In this book Andi learns about the character trait of obedience and how it keeps her safe and why it is important.

In this book you will learn about the Sheep and Cattle Wars. There is a short two page introduction for young children about the wars with interesting fast facts.

The activity book contains

•  26 pages
• An optional 28 day schedule.  The schedule paces the reading of the book alternated with activities.
• A chapter by chapter comprehension questions
• Vocabulary activity
• Poetry activity
• Cross Word
• Information on Trout
• Maze
• Geography mapping activity
• Word Search
• Character study
• Biology (broken bones and healing)
• Answer key

Andi Under the Big Top 
This is the second book in the new series (105 pages).  I still get excited about the circus and learned some things about the history of the circus in this book which I found really interesting.  It's the summer of 1877, Andi and her family are very excited because the circus has come to town. There are acrobats, elephants, clowns and bareback horse riders! Andi meets a new friend at the circus but soon learns that all the glamor and glitz is not all she imagined it to be. As she gets to know her new friend Henry she becomes aware of how deeply blessed she is and that he has a deep secret: he's run away from home to join the circus but now he's trapped and can't get back home.  Just how can she help him? She trusts him and soon discovers she is going to need to trust God a whole lot more for something very special to her.

The activity book contains

•  27 pages
• An optional 28 day schedule.  The schedule paces the reading of the book alternated with activities.
• A chapter by chapter comprehension questions
• Bible Verse Bookmarks
• Vocabulary activity
• History and information on stilts.  
• Stilt making craft.
• Cross Word
• The Five Senses
• Jules Leotard: The Man on the Flying Trapeze
• the Flying Trapeze song and music.
• Telegrams
• Morse Code
• Geography mapping activity
• Answer key

Find Kregel Publications and Susan K. Marlow on Social Media:

• Twitter (Kregel Books): https://twitter.com/KregelBooks
• Twitter (Susan K Marlow): https://twitter.com/SuzyScribbles
• Facebook (Kregel Books): https://www.facebook.com/KregelBooks/
• Facebook (Susan K Marlow): https://www.facebook.com/SusanKMarlow?fref=ts

Our Thoughts
How do you know a book holds a child's interest? When they choose to switch off the television in favour of reading the book to find out what happens! We both enjoyed reading these two new books by Susan K.Marlow and are looking forward to the publication of the sequels to find out what happens to Andi. 

I am pleased at how the character of Andi owns her own choices and through her thoughts you can see how she wrestles with situations and comes to a biblical conclusion.  She apologizes when she is wrong.  Shares her struggles with praying and waiting patiently to see how the Lord will address her needs.  Asks for forgiveness when she needs to and appeals to those in authority on behalf of those who need help.

If you are looking for books for a horse loving friend or family member or a great birthday gift, look no further.  These books are an excellent choice.

Blessings
Chareen