It is March break here in Ontario, and though most years I just push things through with my lad and ignore it, this year I decided we would do things differently.

We would do review materials, bible, and history.  The lad would do his private reading but I would cut him slack if he was at the end of a chapter.   We would also do outside the house stuff.  Drama day, lego, mad science, a movie etc...

Within that I would scatter in other things.... like planting seeds.  :)

This year I decided to mix things up abit.  Three different ways of starting seeds.   The green one was a dollarama purchase it has three layers.   The second is a holding tray that I normally put cups into, but decided to just straight plant, and the third a planter I picked up late last fall somewhere....all different ways to plant seeds.

The question is.. which method (if any) will work best.

We will be rotating which is closest to the window and which direction they are facing.

Another thing we are trying differently this year is how we labelled our seeds.  Normally I do styrofoam cups and we either stick a popsicle stick in them OR we write on the cup.   Then I just layer saran wrap over top and the seeds manage to come up just fine.

This year we wanted to try covering them with the plastic lids so the popsicle stick didn't work (too tall).  We problem solved for a bit but weren't coming up with a good solution until Dad came along and said "why not cut down the skewers and use address labels"?   Therein a solution was found.

We have learned it is not a perfect solution as the labels are splitting on us, but we hope it'll do until the plants are big enough to tell what is what and then we can put in popsicle sticks if needed.

 Next week I am hopeful to plant some seeds outside under our plastic wrap.. things like lettuce and radishes and what not.  Good for the bunnies, good for people too.  :)

What did we start?
Tomatoes - cherry and beefsteak
Peppers - hot, small bells, red bells, green bells
Five different types of flowers: cosmos, marva, marigold, zinnia and snapdragon
Yellow Cucumber
Dill
Chives
and one other thing that slips my mind.

We aren't done.  Friday we'll plant a few other things like cabbage, broccoli and the like.  The lad sells them in the spring for 50 cents each plant.  Styrofoam cups make them easy to transport.

Have you started seeds indoors at all this year yet?   If so, what are you growing?

Delight-filled cries of "WOW...Mom, come see this"!      We've been using Rainforest Journey , a fun online science program from EdTechLens as part of our school day.  Our focus has been on grade five materials.

EdTechLens is a life science program targeted at the Kindergarten through grade five levels.   This is an on-line science program for elementary aged children.   Their delight is in creating supplemental programs that are creative and engaging for their students.   They want to help students learn as much as they want to help teachers track what their students are doing.  When you sign up you will have a teacher page, and each of your students will have their own page.  

On the teacher page you will find a host of materials to help you with your students.

On your page you will find such help as managing your class, hands-on activities, course outline, how to teach and the pedogogy of the course.

For my student his start up page looked like the picture below.  As you can see five units of study.  The primary sources section has a large number of videos (as does the blog) as well as interviews with the various team members.   Each unit of study is further broken into chapters and assessments.

You can set up the class so the student can do the course in whatever order they want OR that they have to complete one set before they can move on to the next.   As you can see my son mostly does the lessons in order, but occasionally skips ahead.   He can easily see which lessons he's completed, and which ones he has yet to do.

One of the interesting things about the program is how multi-faceted they have made it.  They have audio options.  As well as the option of printing off the entire lesson as a PDF.   Each lesson has a quick question answer review.

It has so many little options to make it a really handy program.
One of the quirky things my lad commented on...the audio program spoke too slowly and wasn't the same as the written version.

How did my son use it?
I set him up.   Had the computer remember his name and password.  So all he had to remember was "B" and it filled in the blanks.   YEAH  for auto remembering.  :)

He did one lesson a day, usually right after breakfast, sometimes before depending if it took me longer than usual to come in from doing chores.   He would tell me what he learned about and we called it a day.   I actually didn't even KNOW there were unit reviews until I did up the pictures for the review because well.. he never told me and I trust him to do his lessons.    Has he done them?  Haven't the foggiest, but does he know the material?  Yes, so to me.. it's all good.

What did my son think?
"I like it."
"It's easy."
"The lessons are short."
"I like the pictures".

What did I think?:
The photography is stellar.   It was really neat to see the clear, concise images.  My lad particularly enjoyed the animals, and on the odd occasion we'd look up more information up about them.

They had so many photos as part of this science program.   It was really good to see them as pictures are so worth a 1000 words.  It was an excellent opportunity to good photography of the Rainforest biome.  I loved how my boy would say, when I came in, things like "Mom, come see this... isn't this caterpillar funny"? 

I particularly like that it's a safe program that has a logical run to it.   Each lesson follows a similar format.   Each lesson builds on the one before it.

I like that it gives alerts, so a student can see how they did on a quiz

In a nutshell what do I like about Rainforest Journey?    My son seemed to enjoy it.  He learned a few things (which is the point right?).   He has no hesitations about loading it up and doing it, it worked equally well in all browsers and computers.   I like the dual formats for doing lessons.. so if you can't do it at home and want to take a lesson on the road.. just print and go.   They make it so easy.   Great photography along with audio if you don't feel like reading.  For how we used it, it is a great program and I'd happily recommend anyone else use it.  :)  I plan to have my son finish out the journey.

Product Details:
Vendor: EdTechLens
Product: Rainforest Journey
Received: One Year Subscription
For grade levels K, 1, 2, 3, 4, or 5
Price: $50 per grade level for one year
Type: Supplemental Digital Science Program.

EdTechLens can be found on Social Media.

Twitter:  https://twitter.com/edtechlens
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/edtechlens
Pinterest: https://www.pinterest.com/edtechlens/
Google +: https://plus.google.com/+Edtechlens
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/edtechlens

Today I welcome Michelle to my blog, talking about how she does school with her kiddos.   Please, enjoy seeing how this mom (a new TOS crew friend) helps her children learn well. 

The Virtual Curriculum Fair is still going on.  The theme this week is: Exploring Our World: Social Studies and more Science---includes history, geography, world cultures, worldview, biology, botany, geology, etc., etc., etc.

Full Definition of social studies

1. :  a part of a school or college curriculum concerned with the study of social relationships and the functioning of society and usually made up of courses in history, government, economics, civics, sociology, geography, and anthropology

First Known Use of social studies1926
noun plural Definition of social studies

1. :  the studies (as civics, history, and geography) that deal with human relationships and the way society works
   

This year for geography we are studying Europe.  We started with a course called Drawing around the World: Europe.   It was a fairly simple study that my son wasn't keen on doing due to the repetitive nature of the program so we morphed it into something else.   We watch videos, we learn some facts, we ask questions, and we make a meal.   We make the meals for the most part as fun as we can, inviting friends to come and join us and help create them.   It's GOOD to do these things.     We've done Finland, Sweden, Georgia, Russia, Iceland and Azerbaijan.

Studying Europe is fascinating because each country teaches us something new about the people.  For instance in Azerbaijan, a predominately muslim country, they are open to other faiths practicing, while in Georgia they often have toasts when friends and families gather.   Different things capture me and my son's attention which is good.

sci·ence
noun
noun: science
the intellectual and practical activity encompassing the systematic study of the structure and behavior of the physical and natural world through observation and experiment.

For science we do a couple of things
God's design series by Answers in Genesis.

We do at least one lesson a week, we strive for more, but often other things intervene like.. gardening, yard work, feeding the birds at the local provincial park, nature walks, learning about air movement with a fan, or whatever.   It's all good.  As long as somehow he's learning about the world and how it works from a scientific point of view it's all good. 

On Fridays we do things a bit differently around here.
We learn about Canada.   As we engage in our Canadian Studies we are doing art, watching videos. doing some geology (digging up gems/minerals and talking about them), science, math, history and whatever else I can squeeze into a morning.  We try to combine as many things as we can on Fridays.  Anything we can't work into our Canadian studies we do differently than the rest of the week (and sometimes (oh horrors) skip it completely).  :)   Newfoundland pt 1 and pt 2.   Nova Scotia pt 1 and pt 2.   It is by no means a speedy process but we'd rather enjoy the journey eh?  :)

So that's a bit of a touch on what we do here for social studies and science.  It's by no means the end all and be all, but it's a least a glimpse.

If you would like a glimpse of what others do as well, check out the links below (when I get them added!).   :)

Book Synopsis:
The world already knows Meg and Charles Wallace Murry, Calvin O'Keefe, and the three Mrs - Who, Whatsit, and Which - the memorable and wonderful characters who fight off a dark force and save our universe in the Newbery award-winning classic A Wrinkle in Time . But in 50 years of publication, the book has never been illustrated. Now, Hope Larson takes the classic story to a new level with her vividly imagined interpretations of tessering and favorite characters like the Happy Medium and Aunt Beast. Perfect for old fans and winning over new ones, this graphic novel adaptation is a must-read.

iMy Thoughts:
It has been a few years since I've read A Wrinkle in Time (the novel), but I still remember the impact it had on me and how I then devoured the rest of Madeleine L'Engle's book.  I even remember my aunt telling me I aught not be reading them because the author's faith was suspect, which I didn't understand.   Nevertheless I devoured all her books.   So it was with some eagerness... yes.. it was eagerness that I said I'd take a look at A Wrinkle in Time in graphic novel format.

Honestly.. I have mixed feelings.    Remember, I am new to the graphic world of novels.  :)   Still getting used to have real books in this format. 

The book continues to be as good as ever but something for me is lost in the drawings as the characters in the book are no longer left up to my imagination.  Is this a bad thing?   No, it's just for me a different thing.   BUT I still found myself captivated by the story line.. just like in days gone past ....and that's the point right?

At the same time, having someone else picture things can totally bring the book to life instead of waiting for one's imagination to make all the connections.

Can the story move from one type of book to another?   DEFINITELY. 

So if you have a child who likes graphic novels but reading a book is something they would rather not do, then see what they think about this novel.   The story will captivate and that in the end is that matters.  :)

Raincoast books can be found at the following links:
www.raincoast.com
https://twitter.com/raincoastbooks
https://www.facebook.com/raincoastbooks
https://instagram.com/raincoastbooks/
https://www.pinterest.com/raincoastbooks/
http://raincoastbooks.tumblr.com/
https://plus.google.com/+raincoastbooks/

In Him we live and move and have our being. Acts 17:28

Lyrics
Living for Jesus, a life that is true,
Striving to please Him in all that I do;
Yielding allegiance, glad hearted and free,
This is the pathway of blessing for me.

Refrain
O Jesus, Lord and Savior,
I give myself to Thee,
For Thou, in Thy atonement,
Didst give Thyself for me.
I own no other master,
My heart shall be Thy throne.
My life I give, henceforth to live,
O Christ, for Thee alone.

Living for Jesus who died in my place,
Bearing on Calvary my sin and disgrace;
Such love constrains me to answer His call,
Follow His leading and give Him my all.
Refrain

Living for Jesus, wherever I am,
Doing each duty in His holy name;
Willing to suffer affliction and loss,
Deeming each trial a part of my cross.
Refrain

Living for Jesus through earth’s little while,
My dearest treasure, the light of His smile;
Seeking the lost ones He died to redeem,
Bringing the weary to find rest in Him.
Refrain

i grew up singing this song in Calvinettes (a girls club in my home church, now called Gems).   My son is part of a boys group called Cadets, he also is learning this hymn.

This past week was Cadet Sunday at the church my son attends Cadets at.  He was one of the flag bearers for the service.

This hymn was written by Thomas O. Chisholm.   Chisholm was a self-educated man, born in Kentucky, who became a teacher, associate newspaper editor, pastor, hymn writer and insurance saleman.   He didn't serve as a pastor long due to ill  health.   By the time he retired, he has written over 1200 poems, many which were set to music.

This particular hymn started off as a catchy tune written by C.H. Lowden in 1915, a couple years later, he decided it needed better words, and called the tune Living for Jesus.   He sent it to Chisholm for a new text.   Despite Chisholm's protests that he didn't write hymns for pre-existing tunes, Lowden insisted saying God had sent him his way for such a task.   Chisholm returned the tune along with four verses and a refrain, and thus a very popular gospel song was born.

This hymn calls us to live for Christ, a life what strives to please the one who died for us,  doing so gladly and freely because he is our only Master.  To live for Jesus despite any afflictions that come our way, knowing the weary will find rest in him. 

Homeschool Resources:
Lapbook on the life of Jesus.
To be like Jesus. (PDF)
Following Jesus. (PDF)
Jesus for Children. (PDF)

Sources:
Psalter Hymnal.    Discipleship Ministries.   Hymntime.  

Over the past two weeks my son and I have been reading a delightful book about Irenaeus of Lyons.   My sweetheart picked these books up a couple years ago at a Banner of Truth Conference he went to, and we are now making our way through them...I think we have three of them.

What a fascinating man!  

Keen believer.
Writer of books.
Firm love for God and the ability to help others see God clearly.
One who warned believers to stay away from false teachers and teachings.
You could palpably feel his love for God in this book.

I SO want to read more books in this series.
Sinclair Ferguson does a great job of helping children understand who our heroes of faith are.  Easy reading, with focus on what the heroes did best. 

MORE MORE.  :)

Here's a video so you can learn more. 

Yeshua.. died, buried, risen.    Clavius, Rachel, each with their own stories to tell.   Romes and The Jews.   This is a motion picture retold.

Book Synopsis:
The Story of the Resurrection as You’ve Never Seen It Before
Epic in scope, yet deeply personal, this novelization offers a unique perspective on the story of the resurrection. Roman Tribune Clavius is assigned by Pilate to keep the radical followers of the recently executed Yeshua from stealing the body and inciting revolution. When the body goes missing despite his precautions, Clavius must hunt it down.
His investigation leads him from the halls of Herod Antipas to the Garden of Gethsemane and brings him in touch with believer and doubter alike. But as the body still remains missing, Clavius commits to a quest for the truth–and answers that will not only shake his life but echo throughout all of history.

My Thoughts:
This novel by Angela Hunt is based on the movie Risen.

Ms. Hunt says this: "As I wrote, I tired my best to properly represent Scripture, history and the Risen film/screenplay.   Though the premise - what would the resurrection look like through the eyes of a Roman tribune? - is entirely fictional, I took a few small liberties for the sake of the story."  She went on to give some specific examples.  "A screenplay is not nearly as long as a novel, so of course I found it necessary to add several additional developments in order to flesh out the story".

I have not see the movie Risen so I cannot compare it to the book.   This is, for me, a difficult book to review well.   I struggle when books tell a biblical story and yet details are changed... I understand the need to tell a compelling story, and yet a big part of me says, but HERE you are not being accurate...and I find that hard to look beyond.   I have the same thing in the telling of history stories though... if a history is certain, changing it to be something else is a struggle for me UNLESS you are adding a character like a talking mouse or something.  :)

Was the book well-written?   Indeed.
Was the book interesting?   Yes.   How would Rome react?   What was the temple's involvement?
Were the characters compelling or well-developed?   Yes.   Both Rachel and Clavius were intriguing characters, their mental processes and questions felt very real to me.

Would I recommend it?   No.
I cannot recommend someone read a book that contains items that portray biblical scenes inaccurately.  It sets wrong in me.

Apart from that, it was a decent read.

Mmmm.. I have to admit to a bit of trepidation moving into this chapter.   I don't do criticism well if I don't feel loved/cared for during the process.  And even then I don't always handle it with grace.  :)   The official title of this chapter is Handling Criticism: two Approaches.   It is written by Mary Beeke.

Handling criticism is part and parcel of being a minister's wife.
People will criticize and they will definitely criticize your husband.  Rightly or wrongly, this will happen.    So what does one do?   We all have tender hearts toward ourselves and our loved ones.   How does one handle criticism?

First off Be Prepared.  Know that it will happen.  Don't let it come as a surprise to you.   How do we know it will come?   Jesus himself told his disciples that he was sending them out like sheep among the wolves (Matt 10).

As someone who walks the way of Christ, criticism will happen.   It will happen because we are sinners and we are dealing with sinners.   A fallen world that fights against the Lord.   The mentally ill, the gossipers, the controllers, the attention seekers and more.  They are all part of the people we are called to serve.

So LOVE the body of Christ.  Love her despite herself.   Show the people that you love them.  

Then show grace.  You are no better and no worse.   Just show grace/mercy and walk in the light of who God has called you be.   Treat others with the mercy you would want to be treated with.

And walk humbly with God.  Keep your eyes fixed on him.   Take Micah 6:8 to heart.

Second: receive the criticism that is launched at you.   It may come in ways unexpected, it may be a calm (or intense) face to face meeting.  It will come.   Just take it, listen to it without reacting to it.    Humility demands that we listen to it.   As we listen we may prepare an answer, or we may have to simply say, I will get back to you on this.

As you formulate a response you need to consider the following
a) motive - what is the reasoning behind the criticism?  
b) yourself - how are you reacting?
c) content - is there something in you that needs facing up to?
d) scripture and God's honour - how do we respond in the light of Scripture, our response must be measured by the Word of God.
e) Christ and his love - how will we continue to show God's love through it?

Lastly, follow through on what you said you would do.   Show your integrity.   Don't hold a grudge.  Let bygones be bygones and move forward. 

The chapter closed with a section called "how to lovingly criticize your husband".   Love is indeed the rule.   Choose carefully when you talk to him.  When he's tired might not be the best time.  :)   Don't criticize him in public.  Resolve differences between yourself.   Praise him to others...showing a different way to talk about your spouse.

I have to admit that I liked this chapter.  The thinking through the different steps and why one should expect criticism.   Good food for thought.  

My son enjoys doing Grapevine Studies so when we had a chance to review another series, we signed up for it in a flash.  This time we reviewed New Testament Overview Part 1: Level 3 Birth of John to Jesus' Ministry.   It did not let us down.

First off... what is Grapevine Studies?
A Bible Study method and curriculum that helps teachers and parents impart solid biblical information to their children using stick figures.  They work their way through the bible, or bible story, or section of scripture, one small segment at a time, drawing stick figures to help with memory retention.   They teach the student to read maps, work with a variety of biblical tools and improve memory work. 

They break up the study into a four day a week schedule with Day 1 for doing the Timeline Review; Day 2 is Lesson Page 1, Day 3 is Lesson Page 2; Day 4 is the Student Drawing Pages (5-15 minutes).   BUT it is SO easy to play around with it.  You could do it all in one day like a Sunday School lesson, or  break it up even more or not even do it four days in a row.   Whatever works, works.

Supplies can be as simple as.. a device to display teacher's manual (or printed pages),  a bible to share or each have their own, pencil (or pencil crayons if you like colour), and printed pages for each child.   If you'd like to draw out the figure for younger children to copy you'll need something to do that with.. a dry erase board, an easel or a piece of paper.   I used my laptop so if my lad needed creative inspiration he could see what they suggested.  Sometimes he agreed and sometimes he did his own thing.  :)   We keep our completed pages in a three ring binder.

My son is familiar enough with Grapevine Studies that he has fun with some of the drawings that he does.   He vets now the pictures that I take as "mom, I don't want them to see some of my crazy fun drawings".    I don't much care what his drawings look like as long as they help him to remember the stories.

And they do.

He doesn't always keep all the names straight, but he remembers the stories.  Like Zechariah going mute because he argued with an angel.   

We worked on Level Three, but one of the joys of working with Grapevine Studies is the ability to work with a more divergent group of children on the same study. As you can see from the poster below, the different levels are described, each level asking more of the student.    At Level Three the students are encouraged to draw pictures of different aspects of the story as well as learn basic Bible Geography.   My son enjoyed this part of things, looking to see where the story happened and how much people needed to walk in those days.  

One of the things I particularly appreciated was that teachers' manual is for level 3 and 4 which means that even though the level three student manual doesn't have the dictionary and other bible study tool questions in it, the teacher's manual does.    This gave me the opportunity to ask my son to do things like define words (which gave me the chance to see if he really understood some of the language used). I was so pleased that most of the words he could define quite handily.   This makes it helpful as well if you have an older and slightly younger student.. only one teachers' manual to get. :)

Occasionally we would run into a storyline that my son would say "what should I draw for that mom?".   For instance, Luke 1:80, John growing up.  My lad didn't know what to draw.   To the rescue came the Teacher's Manual.

When you download this digital bible study my recommendation is that you don't simply dive in (though you can) but take the time to read through the teacher's notes.   Doing so will show you where to find the maps, design of the study and much more. 

The lessons are set up in such a way that you could do one lesson a day or divide it up over the course of week.   (We do the later, preferring to take our time through the lessons).   Each lesson contains a bible verse to learn and write it out area, and a chance for children to say what part of the story they liked the most (or in my son's case, what part of the story caught his attention). 

What did we think?
Well.. we like it.  My son enjoys the creative outlet (most of the time).  I like how they break the story down into bite sized pieces, enabling us to take our time with the story, and giving us time to learn a new bible verse.   I like how they tell the bible story simply.  Having us read the passage, and then as the student(s) draw their picture, giving words to explain it in simpler language if necessary, which ensures the important details aren't missed.

What did I struggle with?
Generally I don't find anything that makes me go "hmmm" but this time I did. The story of John the Baptist is with Zechariah and Elizabeth, but in the teacher's manual and student workbook, the name Zacharius was used.  I have sent an inquiry in to ask about this as it just strikes me as odd.  I honestly didn't even see it until I was doing up the review.   And you know what.. it's simply due to different translations and how they well.. translate names.  Here is the answer that I received.

Have I mentioned yet how much I love their customer service?   :) I love how I can email and get an answer usually within the day.   I love how, if my son has a question he can call and they talk nicely to him.