A is for Anna (Women of the Bible)

I am so excited to be participating for the first time in Blogging Through the Alphabet, a series hosted by my friend, Marcy Crabtree!

I recently rediscovered a book, All the Women of the Bible, sitting on my book shelf that I had purchased years ago. I picked it up again the other day and began skimming through the pages. That's when it hit me - I can focus my Blogging Through the Alphabet series on the women of the Bible!

So for the next 26 weeks, I hope you will join me here as we learn together about the women of the Bible. Each week I will pick out one woman's name found in the Bible that's based on the letter of the week. Yes, I will be blogging A-Z, and I can't wait to share with you what I learn about each of these women!

A is for Anna.

Scripture Reference: 

Luke 2:36-38 (NIV)

There was also a prophet, Anna, the daughter of Penuel, of the tribe of Asher. She was very old; she had lived with her husband seven years after her marriage, and then was a widow until she was eighty-four. She never left the temple but worshiped night and day, fasting and praying. Coming up to them at that very moment, she gave thanks to God and spoke about the child to all who were looking forward to the redemption of Jerusalem.

Meaning of Name: 

Favor or Grace

Family Connection:

Daughter of Phanuel, who was of the tribe of Asher.

Interesting Facts about Anna:

• Anna was a prophetess.
• Anna served God and remained true to Him even in old age.
• Anna devoted herself to the temple.
• Anna served God with prayers and fastings.
• Anna gave thanks to the Lord.
• Anna spoke of God to all around her.
• Anna was widowed after seven years of marriage.
• Anna witnessed the fulfillment of the Old Testament prophesies concerning the birth of the Messiah when she saw baby Jesus in the temple at the purification of Mary, Joseph, and Jesus forty days after his birth.

What We Can Learn From Anna:

• Just as Anna believed in the Old Testament prophesies of the birth of the Messiah, we as Christians should also believe in the New Testament prophesies of Jesus' second coming.
• Recognize who Jesus is - the Son of God Who died for sinners so that our broken relationship with God could be restored.
• Proclaim the Good News of Jesus Christ and of His second coming to everyone!
• The blessedness of remaining a true servant of the Lord even into old age. 
• For the widow: devote herself to God Who promises to be a Husband to her. (Isaiah 54:4)
• Be a constant and devout worshiper through prayers, fasting, and assembling together with other believers in church.
• Live a self-controled life that crucifies the flesh in order to be devoted to prayer and fasting.
• Be patient in waiting for the answer to our prayers.
• Remember to be thankful for answered prayers.

Prophet Anna, by Rembrandt van Rijn

Rembrandt [Public domain], via Wikimedia Commons

Please join me here at Grace-Filled-Moments again next week and meet the woman in the Bible I've chosen for the letter B. I'd love to have you along for this journey! Feel free to leave me a comment below if there is a particular woman of the Bible you are interested in learning more about.

Thank you to Marcy Crabtree of Ben and Me for hosting this #abcblogging challenge! Click on the image at the top of my post to read more #abcblogging posts!

Walking in His Grace, 

Laurie

Get Into Art With ARTistic Pursuits ~ Review

Art is a subject in our homeschool that doesn't often get a lot of attention. At the beginning of our homeschool year, I did have my son work with chalk pastels and he created some lovely pictures that I still need to frame! Today I'm sharing with you our experience with ARTistic Pursuits, an art curriculum developed by Brenda Ellis and Daniel D. Ellis. I was given the Elementary 4-5, Book 1: The Elements of Art and Composition for this review.

Meet ARTistic Pursuits

ARTistic Pursuits provides a wonderful homeschool art program that encourages children to become visually aware of the beauty of the world through developing their skills of observation.

You can connect with ARTistic Pursuits on Facebook.

Children as young as age 3 can begin using ARTistic Pursuits! The following is a list of the books available and the ages specified for each one. Sample lesson pages of all the books included in this art program are available for viewing on the website. The price of each book is $47.95.

Art Books Available from ARTistic Pursuits

Preschool, Ages 3-5

• The Way They See It 

Early Elementary, Grades K-3

• Book One: Introduction to the Visual Arts
• Book Two: Stories of Artists and Their Art
• Book Three: Modern Painting and Sculpture

Elementary, Grades 4-5

• Book One: The Elements of Art and Composition
• Book Two: Color and Composition

Middle School, Grades 6-8

• Book One: The Elements of Art and Composition
• Book Two: Color and Composition

Senior High, Grades 9-12

• Book One: The Elements of Art and Composition
• Book Two: Color and Composition 

Sculpture Books, Ages 11-18

• Sculpture Technique, Construct
• Sculpture Technique, Model 

An art supply list is given in each book that tells you the art supplies needed for each unit. This is a very helpful list!

There is a "Getting Started...What Parents Want to Know" page listed in each book that explains to parents the different aspects featured in the lessons of the book. A similar page, "Getting Started...What Students Want to Know," is included for the students which gives an overview of what is expected of them.

Our Experience with Elementary 4-5 Book One

We worked on Unit 1 Space and Unit 2 Line and Shape during the review period. We took two weeks to complete each unit. 

Our schedule went like this:

Week 1

Day 1, Lesson 1: Vocabulary and Creative Exercise page - here we learned which topic we were focusing on and given our objective in the lesson.

Day 2, Lesson 2: Art Appreciation page - here we were shown the how the topic is used in artwork and learned about artists and the time period in which they lived.

Day 3: Continued learning about artists and viewing artwork that used the topic we were learning about. I searched the internet for artists and we looked at their artwork.

Day 4, Lesson 3: Techniques - learned how to use the art materials, which in our case was ebony pencils, and made an original piece of artwork.

Day 5, Lesson 4: Application - this is when the final project is assigned. The vocabulary from the unit is reviewed, a list of supplies needed, and a list of drawing ideas to choose the final project from.

Week 2 

We used this week to work on the final project.

My son and I really enjoyed having art each day in our homeschool. It was nice to be able to use this art curriculum to get art back into our homeschool!

My Opinion of ARTistic Pursuits

My son and I are very pleased with ARTistic Pursuits! 

• The book has a nice layout that flows well. 
• I appreciate the user-friendly wording used in the text that made it easy for my son and I to understand what we were learning. 
• Step-by-step guidance is given for the student learning to draw. 
• The list of supplies that is needed for each unit helps me to stay on track of what I need to buy before starting a new unit. 

ARTistic Pursuits is perfect for teaching art - a subject that I have no idea how to teach. I highly recommend all homeschoolers to get into art with ARTistic Pursuits!

Walking in His Grace, 

Laurie

Friday Freebie Book List! (as of 4/25/14)

Every Friday I'm going to be sharing my list of FREE Kindle books! Be sure to check back each Friday to check out the books on my list. If you don't have a Kindle, no worries! Simply download their Free Reading App for your computer. Remember to check on the price to make sure it is still being offered for free as prices change daily.

These are my favorite finds listed for FREE as of 4/25/2014! Hurry and grab your copy too before the price switches back!

Asperger's: Parenting a Child With Asperger Syndrome: Signs, Symptoms, and Treatments (Aperger Syndrome and Asperger's)

Scheduling - The Secret to Homeschool Sanity: Plan Your Way Back to Mental Health (Coffee Break Books)

Overcome Your Fear of Homeschooling with Insider Information (Learning Abled Kids' How-To Books for Enhanced Educational Outcomes)

The Pursuit of God 

 The Holy Bible, English Standard Version (with Cross-References)

Lord, Teach Us To Pray

Enjoy! I'll see you next week with my new Friday Freebie Book List!

Walking in His Grace, 

Laurie

 

The Brinkman Adventures Review

The work of missionaries in spreading the Gospel message is very valuable. I've always admired their courage and dedication as they come face-to-face with people who do not always favorably accept their presence or the message that they carry in the places where these people live. I want my son to learn how important the work of a missionary is. We have been so excited to take part in a review of The Brinkman Adventures, stories that are based on a real life missionary family as well as true events that have taken place in the lives of other missionaries from all over the world. We were given The Brinkman Adventures Season 2: Episodes 13-24 to use for this review.

What's Included on Season 2 of The Brinkman Adventures

Season 2 of The Brinkman Adventures includes twelve episodes (13-24) on 4 CD's. It's over five hours of missionary stories featuring events from real live missionaries! The Brinkman Adventures is perfect for all ages - even mom and dad will love listening with their children! You can listen in the comfort of your home on any computer with a media player device or a CD player. If your vehicle has a CD player in it, you can even take The Brinkman Adventures along for trips and outings and listen to them as you are traveling.

Here are the story titles you and your family will be able to enjoy together as you listen to Season 2 of The Brinkman Adventures:

Disc 1

• The Mystery Ring
• Blue Hat & T-Shirt Bible
• How Big is Your God, Part 1

Disc 2

• How Big is Your God, Part 2
• Mexico By Bus
• Treehouse Academy

Disc 3

• Pirates of Mayan Island
• Sapphire Slaves, Part 1
• Sapphire Slaves, Part 2

Disc 4

• Hadi's Choice
• Castle of Secrets
• On the Run

I appreciated the fact that a disclaimer is given beforehand for audiences under 10 years of age to listen with an adult during some of the more intense episodes - not that anything was included that would necessarily present a problem for children under the age of 10 - I just thought that was nice of them to care enough to include that.

The suggested donation price for the CD set is $25.00 with free shipping. You can also order the MP3 album for the suggested donation price of $17.00. The cost is absolutely worth what you will receive. Plus you will have the satisfaction of knowing that your money is going to support a worthy project that focuses on missions.

I love how "the story behind the stories" is included on the website of The Brinkman Adventures! Further information on other details included in each episode is also listed here as well. Be sure to listen to the episode before reading this behind the scenes information based on the missionary story.

You can connect with The Brinkman Adventures on Facebook to keep up with all the exciting updates.

Our Experience with Season 2 of The Brinkman Adventures

We have thoroughly enjoyed listening to Season 2 of The Brinkman Adventures! My son and I listened every day during our homeschool time. Every day he anticipated for the time that we would sit on the floor together in our homeschool room to listen to these exciting missionary stories! Some days he would say as we started our homeschool day, "Mom, can we please listen to The Brinkman Adventures first?" There were days I used our listening time as a reward for his focus and attention during his other subjects. It did not take us very long to listen to all twelve of the episodes included in Season 2 of The Brinkman Adventures.

He and I both were fixed on listening to each episode because the stories were amazing and exciting! I loved Caleb's reactions as the missionary stories unfolded. One of his comments during an episode was, "God is always on time!" Another comment he made during another episode was, "He needs Jesus!" There were times as we were listening that we both were anxiously awaiting the outcome of the episode. I even found myself "on the edge of my seat" during several of the episodes. Caleb had his ears glued to the computer as he listened intently to the missionary stories while sitting on the floor in our homeschool room.

My son listened intently during every single episode...just like you see him here!

My Opinion of The Brinkman Adventures

I am so happy to have had this opportunity to review Season 2 of The Brinkman Adventures! We enjoyed listening to these amazing missionary stories so much that I plan on purchasing Season 1 so my son and I can listen to those episodes as well. I highly recommend this wonderful series to any family who have the desire to teach their children about missions through highly captivating, true life missionary stories. You will not be disappointed with The Brinkman Adventures!


Walking in His Grace, 
Laurie
 

CTC Math Review

Homeschooling in the subject of math can be difficult for both parents and students. I know I need all the help I can get when it comes to teaching certain math concepts. My son has had difficulties in math from the beginning of our homeschooling journey, so I have to go slow and repeat often. Anytime I can get us both the help we need, I eagerly accept it! I am so excited to bring this review to you today as part of the TOS Review Crew! CTC Math is an online math program for students on all levels of math. I was given the 12 Month Family Plan to use for this review.

Meet CTC Math

I was very excited to discover CTC Math and have the opportunity to use this online math program with my son in our homeschool. You will need a computer and an internet connection in order to use CTC Math as your homeschool math program. You can use CTC Math with every grade, K-12. The cost is $118.80 for a family subscription. Your membership includes access to all of the lessons across all of the grade levels on the CTC Math website. At the time of this posting, CTC Math is holding a homeschool sale for their online math program.

Pat Murray, a well-known Australian math teacher, writes and teaches each lesson presented on CTC Math through his online video lessons. After the video lesson, the student then completes the online worksheet assignment. Answers are scored immediately as correct or incorrect. If needed, the student can repeat the lesson if more incorrect answers are given on their online practice worksheet. A diagnostic test is available for immediate feedback on all the lessons within a given topic. A standard test of 11 questions and a comprehension test of 22 questions are available too.

Every math concept needed through 6th grade, plus all of the following math concepts for upper level math are covered in the lessons on the CTC Math website:

• Basic Math and Pre-Algebra
• Elementary Measurement
• Elementary Geometry
• Algebra 1
• Pre-Calculus
• Calculus
• Algebra II
• Geometry
• Trigonometry

You can connect with CTC Math on the following social media outlets: Facebook CTC Math and Facebook Aus (Maths Online).

How We Use CTC Math

We use CTC Math at least four days every week in our homeschool. Each time we log into our account and find our lesson that we are working on. Caleb and I watch the video lesson together, then we do the online worksheet of problems that go with the day's lesson. There is a convenient "questions" icon placed to the right of the screen that we simply click on after viewing the lesson that takes us straight to the worksheet for that lesson. I love that! I also love that Pat demonstrates the lesson with two examples before asking the student to complete the online worksheet questions. Those examples are included in a "lesson summary" icon to the right of the screen underneath the "questions" icon. If we need to review how Pat explained to solve the questions, we simply click on the "lesson summary" icon. If that isn't enough for my son, we simply replay the video lesson until he grasps how to do the concept we are learning. 

CTC Math student desktop

My Opinion of CTC Math

I could not be more pleased with CTC Math! I love how each lesson is explained and broken down with clear step-by-step directions by Pat Murray. My son loved his accent on the video lessons which in turn kept his attention during the online math lessons! Teaching math can be hard, but with CTC Math I can turn the math lessons over to Pat with confidence that my son will learn what he needs to in his daily math lessons. 

Another benefit of CTC Math that I absolutely love is the CTC Weekly Math Report that is sent to my email every week. In this report parents are given the weekly activity log and a summary of the performance of each student enrolled in your family account. This has been so helpful to me in keeping track of my son's math progress and to pinpoint areas of math weakness. I can use this weekly report as I sit to plan out our lessons for the upcoming week. If there was a math concept that my son had difficulty in, I will have that information on the CTC Weekly Math Report, and will know that I need to review those online math lessons with him. I can repeat those lessons as many times as my son needs to so that he can form a solid math foundation from the bottom to the top.

I love how I am in control of how fast or slow we move through each math concept, how we can repeat lessons if needed, and how we can move across grade levels. I am extremely happy that my son has his very own online math tutor, as well as the fact that I have every concept necessary for teaching math from K-12, for a price that we can fit into our homeschooling budget! I'm getting 2 for the price of 1 and that calculates into happiness for everyone in our family!


Walking in His Grace, 
Laurie

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DISCLOSURE:  The above information was provided by Purex. I received no compensation to post this reminder to enter the contest hosted by Purex.

Home School Adventure Co. Review

Stacy Farrell of the Home School Adventure Co. is the creator of resources that help to equip parents to instruct their children within the guidelines of loving the Lord God with all their heart, soul, and mind. I was excited to be able to review one of their many wonderful resources, Philippians in 28 Weeks.

What is Philippians in 28 Weeks?

This is a wonderful resource to help guide users to memorize the book of Philippians in 28 weeks. It comes in ESV or KJV versions. The price for the print edition is $28.95 and is available in both ESV or KJV. The price for the ebook option is $14.95. The ebook option is only available in the ESV. The memory cards (ESV) and instructions are sold separately for $9.95.

Age Range of Philippians in 28 Weeks

For ages 9-11, this resource is best used as a read aloud followed by discussion as a family. For ages 12 and up, Philippians in 28 Weeks is also great for family discussion or just with parental/teacher guidance. High schoolers can easily use this on their own.

My Thoughts

I am a big advocate for memorizing Scripture. This was the first time I've attempted to memorize an entire book in the Bible. I love the tools Home School Adventure Co. has provided in Philippians in 28 Weeks to help individuals and families memorize God's Word.

I received the ESV ebook version for my review. I printed off the ebook and put it in a 3 ring binder. I also printed off the memory cards. I will be laminating these and placing them on a ring so that they will last as we continue through these 28 weeks.

Materials for memorizing Philippians in 28 Weeks

The 5 step process for memorizing Scripture in Philippians in 28 Weeks has been very helpful!

1. Read
2. Record
3. Repeat
4. Review
5. Recite

This simple approach uses Bible memory cards to present Philippians in manageable portions, copywork verses that help get the verses in your mind as you copy them on paper, journal questions that ask though-provoking questions to help apply the verses to our lives, weekly reflections to help cement what we've discussed and learned during the week, recitation charts to help test our retention of the verses we've learned, and a tracking tool called “The Log” that is a tracking tool you can use if you so desire. All of these tools are provided in the book to ensure enough repetition of the scriptures to help anyone memorize Philippians.

My son and I have enjoyed using Philippians in 28 Weeks. It is very important for me to help my son memorize Scripture. We were able to incorporate Philippians in 28 Weeks as our Bible curriculum in our homeschool. We read for each day, did the copywork verses, and answered the journal questions together. It has been a wonderful spiritual journey for us both to work on together.

Home School Adventure Co. has provided a terrific resource for any family to memorize Philippians together. Stacy is offering 10% off any download purchase through May 15, 2014. The code is: CREW-10.

You can connect with Home School Adventure Co. on the following social media outlets.

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/HomeSchoolAdventureCo
Twitter: http://twitter.com/HomeSchoolAdven
Pinterest: http://pinterest.com/HomeSchoolAdven
Google+: https://plus.google.com/u/0/b/115241518288669984312/+Homeschooladventure/
Instagram: http://instagram.com/HomeSchoolAdven

We have been given a responsibility to train our children in the Lord. The resources available from Home School Adventure Co. can help us fulfill this call as parents.

Walking in His Grace,
Laurie