Proverbs and Song of Solomon Summer Bible Study with Good Morning Girls

One of the best things I ever did in my spiritual life, besides surrendering my life to Jesus, happened three years ago this coming August! I was at a low point in my spiritual growth and I knew I needed to do something. I had gotten into a lazy habit a lot of Christians do and that is depending on their Pastor and their Sunday school teacher for all of their spiritual growth.

When I realized that this was what I was doing, I immediately cried out to God for help. I prayed and asked him to help me learn how to study the Bible for myself in a way that I would grow closer to Him. The next step is what anyone would have done...

I Googled,  "Bible study to learn and grow". Funny, right?!

Well, God was in that Google search, and He led me to Courtney Joseph's blog, Women Living Well, where I discovered Good Morning Girls - a place where women from all over the world gather for Bible study and accountability.

I was ecstatic and so thankful that God would hear my feeble cries for help in such a magnificent way!

Fast forward to today and many GMG Bible studies later and you find me here at this place where I share with you today about our upcoming Proverbs and Song of Solomon Summer Bible Study with Good Morning Girls. God is so good!

What's also exciting is I'm now leading a Facebook group for Pastor's Wives, and I'm Blogging Through the Bible with Courtney and other lovely Good Morning Girls! God has answered the prayer I prayed so long ago in such amazing ways that I never even thought could happen. He gets all the glory for the wonderful things He has done!

We begin reading in Proverbs on June 15th. I realize summer is a busy time for many people - me included, but we can never go wrong by carving out precious time to sit at Jesus' feet in His Holy Word.

The Proverbs are known to be the book of wisdom. Ken Baugh, in his introduction to Warren Wiersbe's Be Skillful (Proverbs): God's Guidebook to Wise Living (The BE Series Commentary), says so powerfully:

I think there is a formula to wisdom: wisdom = knowledge + obedience. Solomon had all the knowledge; he always knew what God wanted him to do. He just didn't do it. There is a difference between knowledge and wisdom. Knowledge is knowing the right thing to do; wisdom is actually doing it. That's why I think the big idea that runs throughout the book of Proverbs is not just getting more and more knowledge - instead, it's choosing to apply that knowledge in ways that honor and please the Lord. True wisdom is seen through an obedient life.

Yes, the book of Proverbs is about godly wisdom. Let's read it and learn how we can get the godly wisdom God desires to give us. But let's also learn together how we can be obedient to use that godly wisdom to live a life that honors and pleases God.

It's going to be an exciting journey through Proverbs. We'll even take a whole week to focus on the Proverbs 31 woman, and then finish up our summer Bible study in a short study of the Song of Solomon.

I can't wait to get started! Watch here for another post in the next day or two where I'll be sharing more information about how to join a Good Morning Girls group as well as information about the resources I'll be using for our Proverbs and Song of Solomon Summer Bible Study with Good Morning Girls!

Will you be joining us in the book of Proverbs? I'd love to know...just leave me a comment below!

Walking in His Grace, 

Laurie

FishFlix.com Review

FishFlix.com is a great place to find Christian and family movies! As a Christian family, my husband and I are very careful about the movies we allow into our homes. We want to teach our children the importance of guarding our hearts by what we allow our eyes to see and our ears to hear. When the opportunity came up on the Schoolhouse Review Crew to do a review with FishFlix.com I was very happy to participate! I chose to review Torchlighters: The John Wesley Story in our home.





FishFlix.com has many DVD titles to choose from, including Blue-ray. Movie categories include:

• $5 Christian DVDs
• Apologetics and Creation
• Biblical Movies
• Biography
• Children's Movies
• Christian Comedy
• Christian Documentary
• Christian Family Entertainment
• Christian History
• Christian Living
• Christian Movies on Blue-ray
• Christmas Movies
• Educational
• End Times Prophetic
• Evangelistic Movies
• Family Bargain
• Fox Faith
• Music Videos
• PureFlix Entertainment
• Spanish Christian Movies
• Sports Film
• Wanderlust Films
• When Calls the Heart

When you sign up for their newsletter, you will get a 10% off coupon.

Family Movie Night

Our family watches a lot of G and PG movies since there isn't much on T.V. that is appropriate to watch. We have built up a great movie collection in our house. We had a family movie night to watch Torchlighters: The John Wesley Story. Family movie nights always include popcorn, candy, and lights out so it feels just like we're in the theater!

You can also watch the DVD on your laptop computer or in your car if you it's equipped with a portable DVD player. This faith hero movie would be great entertainment on the road for the kids while traveling on your summer vacation.



I love sharing real life faith hero stories with my son! Of course, I won't tell you all about the story, but I can tell you that also included on the DVD is bonus material such as a 51 minute documentary "The Faith that Sparked the Methodist Movement", the rest of the titles included in the Torchlighters series, a clip from The Voice of the Martyrs, and Study Guides. The teacher guide is 23 pages and the student guide is 25 pages.

These bonus items can only be accessed from your computer. For a Windows computer, double click on "My Computer" and if you have a Macintosh, the disc will appear on your desktop.

Here is a picture of the table of contents for the student study guide.

Student Study Guide for Torchlighter: The John Wesley Story

Language selections for viewing include English and Spanish. Subtitles are also available in English and Spanish. With the subtitles, you have the choice to this feature on or off.

Our kids need to hear these stories of real life faith heroes! Give them real heroes to look up to and imitate such as John Wesley.


You can connect with FishFlix.com on the following social media outlets:

• Facebook
• Twitter
• Pinterest
• Google+
• YouTube

You can read more TOS Reviews simply by clicking on the image below.

Walking in His Grace, 

Laurie

Scavenger Hunt for the 2015 NCHE Conference Bookfair

The 2015 NCHE Homeschool Conference starts this Thursday, May 21 and goes through Saturday, May 23 at the Benton Convention Center in Winston-Salem! WooHoo!! I am so excited to be attending the conference again this year as part of the NCHE Bloggers Team!

It's going to be a great time! I look forward to this much needed time of refreshing every year for our homeschool. One of my most favorite things to do while at the conference is browsing through the bookfair. It is amazing! I remember the first year I attended as a new homeschooler, the bookfair overwhelmed me...but no more...lol! Now I just have to be careful so that I don't overspend {smile}. I always wait to do my homeschool shopping until I go to the NCHE Conference Bookfair each year. This give me a chance to compare curriculum up close and find the best price. It also saves me in shipping costs.

The NCHE Conference Bookfair is every homeschoolers dream!

The conference bookfair has everything you can imagine and more! I've created a fun scavenger hunt for the NCHE Conference Bookfair that you can print off and bring with you to keep your kids entertained and busy while you shop. Maybe you can give your kids a prize if they find all of the items on the list!

Grab your free PDF download of my 2015 NCHE Conference Bookfair Scavenger Hunt and have fun shopping at the NCHE Conference Bookfair!

Walking in His Grace, 

Laurie

Leviticus is Hard to Read, But Necessary

Welcome to week 3 in Leviticus, friends! We are continuing to read some difficult chapters in the Bible. Chapters that make us wonder,  "How is this applicable to my life today?" We tend to skip over books in the Bible like Leviticus.

But we must not grow weary in our goal with the Good Morning Girls to read through the entire Bible. Instead, we need to press in and press on so that we can finish strong! Leviticus is hard to read, but necessary. Why?

Because ALL of the Word of God is profitable to us as God's children. Even Leviticus!

"All Scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness, that the man of God may be complete, thoroughly equipped for every good work." -2 Timothy 3:16-17

This week we are going to see how God's love is shown in His protection through laws He set up to instruct the Israelites on what was considered clean and unclean, purification after childbirth, regulations about infectious skin diseases and mildew, cleansing from infectious skin diseases and mildew, and discharges causing uncleanness. Oh yes, this week's reading will be hard, but as we read through chapters 11-15 this week, let's remember that all of these laws were meant to protect the people who were unaware of the diseases carried by certain animals and bodily fluids and of the dangers of mold and mildew.

The love of God was protecting His people back then as it still protects us today with the instructions for holy living that we find in God's Word - the Holy Bible. That's why we must press in and press on in this week's reading, friends.

Here is our reading plan for Week 3 in Leviticus:

Walking in His Grace, 

Laurie

 

A+ Interactive Math Review

Homeschool math is a subject in our home that I am always looking for something new to use to keep my son's attention and interest peaked. So I was very excited to be chosen to participate in a TOS review for A+ Interactive Math, an online math program. For this review, I received a six month subscription to A+ Interactive Math Curriculum: Family Math Package.




I love that A+ Interactive Math offers freebies for homeschool families to try out what they offer before making the decision to purchase. It's a great way to discover if their online math programs are a good fit for your children. Two of their most popular freebies are the Free Math Placement Test and the Free Family Math Package. Check them out today! I think you're going to love A+ Interactive Math as much as we do!

Great news! A+ Interactive Math is having a 40% to 50% off sale on their Family Math Package and their Adaptive Placement Testing with Lessons from Monday, May 4 through Monday, May 18.

They also offer these popular freebies:

• Free Software Download
• Free Single Grade Level
• Free eBook

How We Used A+ Interactive Math

We used A+ Interactive Math: Family Math Package weekly in our homeschool.

My son has math learning gaps due to his special needs, so I was thrilled to discover that I can change his grade levels in the parent admin panel. In each grade level, topics of math study are listed for each chapter of math learning. This was beneficial to me because there are some math concepts that my son has not learned yet so I was able to skip over those topics until I'm ready to let him begin learning them. I love the flexibility of A+ Interactive Math!!

My son listens to and watches the video math lesson before any of the online math lessons are completed. These video math lessons are short and clearly presented through a teacher's voice while visuals of the math lesson are presented on the computer screen. After viewing the lesson, he then completes the Interactive Q&A and is guided through five practice problems that are covered in the video math lesson. If he answers the practice problem incorrectly, the teacher shows how to get the correct answer. Once the practice problems have been completed, there is a Update Lesson Status button on the top right of the computer screen that he can click on that will mark his lesson as being complete. On my parent admin panel, I can keep up with how many lessons my son has completed.

The math lessons can be done online after the practice math problems or they can be printed off. I chose to print off the math worksheets for my son because he works better with paper and pencil for math. If you choose to use the online worksheets, those are graded automatically for you. That's a great benefit if you have a child who likes to do their math work online! It's a winner for you too because all the grading is done for you!

I love being given the choice of either online or printable math worksheets!

The parent admin panel has a very helpful record keeping system that is every homeschooling parent's dream! You can see everything your child has completed online...the Interactive Q&As, worksheets, and exams.



For more information about A+ Interactive Math, read 12 Reasons to use Family Math Package program and 12 Reasons to use Adaptive Placement Test & Lessons program.

You can connect with A+ Interactive Math on the following social media outlets:

• Facebook
• Twitter
• Pinterest

To read more TOS Reviews, simply click on the image below.

Walking in His Grace, 

Laurie