Over the past few weeks my son and I have been working with Brookdale House, reviewing a geography curriculum called "Drawing Around the World: Europe".   This curriculum uses mapping to teach where countries are located.  We've had some fun.

Brookdale House is a company that publishes educational materials to help the home-educated student, as well as public and private schools.  It was started by a homeschool mom, who searched for the materials she wanted but was unable to find, and thus a new company was formed. 

The Outline of Drawing Around Europe

As laid out this is meant to be a four day curriculum.
Day one: Trace the outline of the country and draw it, find some pertinent information out about it.  Find the country on the map.
Day two-three: Locate and label each new country onto the dashed, black and white
map.
Day Four: List, from memory, the countries studied thus far.
Using the blank textbox, draw, also from memory, all of the countries
you have learned.

If you want to help children retain their information you can do timed drills as well.This can add a fun element for the children as well.

How we Used it.
My son rebelled.   That's all I can say.  When it came to HOW we were supposed to use Drawing around the World: Europe my son simply rebelled.  "I DID THAT YESTERDAY!!" was his comment of dismay.

So I did what home educating parents do.  You stop and re-examine things.  What exactly do you want your child to learn?  I wanted my son to know the countries of Europe and engage his creativity at the same time.  I had thought the drawing would be enough, but alas...he wanted, no indeed, he craved something more.

Ergo.. let's draw the country but add things to the mix.   We added music, videos, and food.  We added, can you find the country on our globe?   Oh you can??? What if I toss it over to giving it a spin, can you still find it??   (We have a balloon type globe).   OH MY.. can I say how much my picky "I don't want to eat that food" boy has changed.  HE LOVES the food.  :)  He thinks it's so much fun to gather folks in and together we cook a meal.  Sometimes he's the recipe reader and other times he had his fingers in the mixing bowl himself.

And VOILA!   We have a curriculum that we have enjoyed and used.  :)    It's a great way to learn about mapping Europe.    We will continue to use it as well.  :)

An example of the country touring we did:

  And the music:   Don't you think learning the music of a country just adds to your knowledge of it?   Just so you know another in the series is for the USA.   Wouldn't it be fun to discover music from all over the United States?

 And the FOOD... oh my.  :)  We invited friends and family to enjoy this time with us.   We sampled breads, pancakes, fish, apple pie, wraps and so much more.  :)

All told, Drawing Around the World: Europe made an excellent base of study for us, to the point when my son is asked to draw a given country I don't get complaints, but rather "Mom, what are we going to do this week?   Can we make something interesting?   What is the music like of that country mom?"     Isn't it good to have questions asked?   Isn't it great to have something that is SO easy to use as a springboard to going deeper?   I think so. :)  Good job Brookdale House.

Product Details:
Received: Downloadable PDF.
Title: Drawing Around the World: Europe
Vendor: Brookdale House
Price:$22.95–$25.95 depending on format
Series: Geography Drawing
Grade Range: Grade four and up

Click below to read the reviews of this product and more from the vendor:
Drawing Around the World: Europe
Drawing Around the World: USA
The Fun Spanish
The Grammar Workbook Set
and the Writing through History Series.

Social Media Links

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  I have to admit, I had not heard of this fellow before today.   Zeno of Citium was a philosopher from  Cyrpus (the town of Citium) who was a stoic.   He was a follower of Diogenes.  Like Diogenes he had little patience with metaphysical speculation.

Teaching on the "Sto" of a building, Zeno became the founder of Stoicism.   Formerly a merchant, he found his true calling in Philosophy.

He studied under a variety of philosophers, picking gems of thought up from each one.   Deciding the saying "NO" was defining yourself, and saying "yes" was allowing someone else to define you.   Therefore we must be slow to say yes.

His approach to Logic was this:
"Zeno said that there were four stages in the process leading to true knowledge, which he illustrated with the example of the flat, extended hand, and the gradual closing of the fist:

Zeno stretched out his fingers, and showed the palm of his hand, – "Perception," – he said, – "is a thing like this."- Then, when he had closed his fingers a little, – "Assent is like this." – Afterwards, when he had completely closed his hand, and showed his fist, that, he said, was Comprehension. From which simile he also gave that state a new name, calling it katalepsis (κατάληψις). But when he brought his left hand against his right, and with it took a firm and tight hold of his fist: – "Knowledge" – he said, was of that character; and that was what none but a wise person possessed."

The nature of the universe was that God was like a divine fire foreseeing all and working through all through eternity.  And as fire has different forms and life, the universe will regularly go through change as well.

He taught that people should control their passions and by doing so they will achieve wisdom and knowledge.    By use of meditation one can develop and indifference to pain and pleasure and thus apply oneself to gaining wisdom.  Wise people should have children.   He believed that "If one is self-aware, one is also aware of others and, further, recognizes that it is in simplicity that true contentment may be found".

Sources:
The philosophy book
Wikipedia
Philosophy basics
Crystal Links.
Ancient History.

One of my greatest struggles is in this area.   I marvel at people who find the time and consistency to daily have a personal time with the Lord.   This chapter was again a motivational tool for me.

When I say motivational tool I mean that it was an encouragement to me.  To show me how my need for the Saviour drives me need to spend time with him.   The more time I spend with him, shows even more my need for him.  And thus my actions in the world around me are affected.

How does one minister to the women of the church.    Some of whom will be more versed in the bible than you are?

A couple of things to consider.
1. How should I think about my spiritual ministry to other women in the body?
2. With all my other responsibilities,  how can I have a problem effective Devotional life and memorize the Scriptures?

First off remember this....  It is your husband who has been called to pastor.   YOUR job is wife and possibly mother in your home.     This along with your spiritual gifts is what will shape your ministry.    Yes,  people may have expectations of you,  but those expectations should not shape what YOUR ministry is.

Second realize that life is always busy.    Learning how to carve out time for having a personal time with God and memorizing Scripture is important.    "Plan your daily routine in ways that reflect your spiritual goals".   (P. 41)   Realize this truth... God's Word is an "endless supply of truth and nourishment for your soul". P. 41

Delight in God's Word will grease the wheels of Devotional life and Scripture memorization.   P.41

Personal devotions and Scripture memorization are precious means of grace and growth ministers do by a loving heavenly father.   P. 42

If our hearts are convinced of the life-giving qualities of God's Word,  we will find time for it.   P. 43

Deut 32:46-47

We need to acknowledge how easy it is to push off our time with God considering that oh... I can do that later when later never actually comes.    We need to encourage each other graciously and lovingly to see the connection between our spiritual growth and time spent with God.

Examine the lives of those who have gone on before helps us to see God's Word lived out.   1 Cor. 10:11

We have to remember that God's Word "is not in your the instrument of new birth.   It is God's chosen ingredient,  along with his Spirit,  for the work of sanctification."   P. 45

2 Timothy 3:16-17

• Teaching - function of scripture
• Reproof -  correction when we are wayward
• Correction -  making right what went wrong
• Training in righteousness - How you keep correcting what goes wrong

The more we know God's Word  the more infectious of love for him will become.
The more we see God meeting our needs the more we share of him with others.
Our need draws us in closer.    We need to see our sin but we also need to see the hope and promise of God.

Let our souls pant for God.    Ps. 42

Psalm 19:7-11

•    Let him revive us.    Let the perfection of his law be a boon to our spirit.    It will convert us/transform us.
• God's Word is sure.   Unchanging,  steadfast.    A guide and foundation for our lives.
• God's Word directs our lives  by their rightness.. We can live and be productive for his glory.   This will bring us joy.
• God's Word enlightens us.    It shows us what we might not have seen or considered before.   It shows us where darkness might yet hide.
• The fear of the Lord is clean,  enduring forever.    No defilement in God's Word.    Since they are flawless they endure forever.
• Rules of God are true and righteous.    If we walk in his way we have no fear of going wrong.
• God's ways are more important than anything else in the word and are desired above all things.
• Be warned.    If we keep to God's rules and ways we will be okay.   If we depart from them we won't be.

The more time I spend with the Lord, the more I learn.

If I want my actions to show my love for the Lord, I need to spend time with him.   How can I accurately show of God's grace toward me if I don't spend time actually understanding how his grace affects me so deeply?

The more I understand of God's grace, the more I see my need for him, the more I see MY need for Christ, the more I see the need for others to see his grace bestowed freely into their lives as well.

It is this understanding that drives my service to others.   Not my natural leanings or giftings, but Christ's grace at work in me.

It's God's job to put these desires into our hearts, to grow and learn and develop and see.   HIS job.  NOT mine.   So if I fail to have daily devotions, I am failing to listen well to his promptings.   it doesn't mean that I am a terrible Christian, it means that I am not prioritizing God when he is prompting me to do so.   (rather than do facebook, blog, care for bunnies, do yard work, sleep in etc.).   I need to figure out what is most important and then listen to the promptings of the Lord God.  His grace, his knowledge, his everything, is sufficient for me and the rest just needs to be let go and I need to be aware that all my needs will be met in HIS timing.   My job is merely to listen and to respond and as I learn and grow into his knowledge, everything else will come.

This movie,  Faith of our Fathers DVD, 2015 Edition,  by FishFlix.com was not what I expected,  and yet it was exactly what I expected.   Two young men,  searching for answers.    Their fathers, friends in the war, and two young men looking to understand who their fathers were.  Letters written became a crucial part of this journey.

Storyline: John Paul moves into his mom's house after she passed away.     While sorting through her accumulated boxes, he finds a box labelled keep.    Looking through it he discovers memorabilia concerning his dad who died during the Vietnam War.   He learns his dad had a friend so looks him up discovering the friends' son instead.

Events unfold leading to a road trip to the Vietnam memorial.... Going the long way around.    The son of the friend proves to be somewhat a difficult character for straight-laced John Paul.  They both learn much about themselves and each other as they journey to the Memorial Wall.

We got to watch the voyage of the sons while watching short vignettes of their fathers during the war.  Helping us to understand the pain of the war, along with hard-won friendships, loyalty and so much more.   There is a strong Christian theme throughout the entire movie.

FishFlix.com is a company that produces a variety of Christian movies to entertain and inspire.   They believe that media and entertainment are gifts from God to help spread his message with creativity and excellence.   Faith of our FathersDVD 2015 Edition is one such example.

What did I think?

I thought the movie Faith Of Our Fathers DVD 2015 Edition  was overall well done.  :)

I liked it enough that I have chosen to share this movie with my extended family.

I appreciated the good cinematography.   The interaction between the actors, the growth exhibited by both as they learned important lessons throughout the movie.  Their solemnity as they were at the Memorial wall.   Good stuff this.

I thought the portrayal of the fathers and their actions during the war to be interesting.  To see how they overcame fear, stood by their comrades and developed firm friendships. 

Was it one of the best movies I've ever seen?   No.   It was worth seeing though.   Giving an interesting perspective on faith during difficult times and how people can persevere even if they don't want to or they are pushed by folk they don't necessarily like very much but through it all becoming more of the people God wants them to be.

I invite you to check out what others of the Review Crew thought byclicking this link or the banner below.
The movies in the review are:
Faith Of Our Fathers DVD 2015 Edition
Do You Believe DVD
Little Boy DVD
When Calls the Heart Heart of the Family DVD
Living Waters Intelligent Design DVD Design of Life

Product Details:
Vendor: FishFlix.com
Title: Faith of Our Fathers (2105 Edition)
Received: Physical DVD.
Release Date: October 13, 2015.
Rating:  PG (Parental Guidance)
Length: 95 minutes
Set in : 1997 with flashbacks to the past (during the Vietnam War).

"Mom!   I like swedish cooking.   Can we make more sometime?"

Last night, as part of our Drawing Around Europe Study we made food from Sweden.   My son was VERY enthusiastic about our meal.  

We had a dinner guest, so he and my son made the apple pie and the cucumber salad.   They did a good job.   I did cut up the apples for them as we were using older apples that needed some picking through.     This apple pie was SO good.  :)

Swedish Apple Pie
Ingredients

• 2 1/2 cups peeled, cored and sliced apples
• 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
• 1 teaspoon white sugar
• 1 cup white sugar
• 3/4 cup margarine, melted

• 1/2 cup chopped pecans
• 1 cup all-purpose flour
• 1 egg, lightly beaten

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C). Lightly grease a 9 inch pie pan with margarine.
2. Fill 2/3 of the pan with sliced apples. Sprinkle with cinnamon and 1 teaspoon sugar.
3. In a medium bowl, mix 1 cup sugar with the melted margarine. Stir in pecans, flour, egg and salt. Mix well. Spread mixture over the apples.
4. Bake in preheated oven for 65 minutes, or until golden brown.   In MY oven, 55 minutes is all that is needed.

Swedish Pickled Cucumbers

Ingredients

• 2 cucumbers, thinly sliced
• 1/2 cup white vinegar
• 3 tablespoons white sugar

• 2 tablespoons water
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 2 tablespoons minced parsley (optional)

Directions

1. Put sliced cucumbers into a bowl.
2. Stir vinegar, sugar, water, and salt together in a separate bowl to dissolve the sugar and salt; pour over the cucumbers. Sprinkle parsley over the cucumbers.
3. Refrigerate cucumbers 3 hours to overnight.

We also made Swedish  meatballs.  NOT the type with the white sauce.
The recipe I used needed some tweaking but turned out well none-the-less and will be part of our meal for our potluck thanksgiving meal at my mom's.  :)

Swedish Meatballs
ingredients

• 1 tablespoon butter
• 1 tablespoon minced onion - double this
• 1/3 cup fine dry bread crumbs
• 1/2 cup water
• 1/2 cup half-and-half
• 3/4 pound ground beef - I didn't use beef

• 1/4 pound ground pork - use 1.5 lbs of pork
• 2 teaspoons salt - Don't need this much
• 1/4 teaspoon ground white pepper
• 1/3 teaspoon white sugar

Directions

1. Melt 1 tablespoon butter in a frying pan over low heat; cook and stir onion in melted butter until lightly browned, 5 to 8 minutes.
2. Mix bread crumbs, water, and half-and-half in a large bowl; let stand for about 2 minutes. Stir cooked onion, ground beef, ground pork, salt, white pepper, and sugar into bread crumb mixture until thoroughly mixed. Shape mixture into about 48 very small meatballs.
3. Melt 3 tablespoons butter in a skillet; add meatballs. Brown slowly, allowing about 25 minutes, until meatballs are fully cooked in the middle and no longer pink. Shake pan occasionally to cook evenly.
   

Do you like to read books with your children?   Do you need help sometimes in assisting them to understand what they are reading, or would you like to help them delve into those books just a bit better?   Allow me to introduce you to Progeny Press, producer of quality Study Guides.   I reviewed the Stone Fox Study Guide.

 Progeny Press is a company that specializes in producing study guides for literature.   They work from a Christian Perspective.   They offer study guides for lower elementary through to high school level, teacher resources, and audio books.  Their study guides come in a variety of formats such as a physical book, a cd with a PDF ebook, or a downloadable PDF file with many of the PDF files being interactive

In the Stone Fox E-guide I found an interactive study guide with questions about what happened in the story, questions that encouraged thought, vocabulary, bible tie-ins, and much more.   It was interactive, allowing students to type in their answers rather than having to print it out for children to write on (though that's an option as well). 

When you purchase the study guide you are not purchasing the book.   Many of the books they use are readily available at your local library.   We bought ours, promptly lost it, and then borrowed it from the library.  (silly us eh?)   :)

How did we use it?

I have to admit, we proceeded through this study guide quite slowly.  It's the first time we've done a formal study guide.  Change is difficult for my boy, ergo proceeding slowly so it doesn't seem such a huge shock/change is best in our household.    I would have him read a chapter, tell me what he thought, then read the second chapter.  

Then we would answer one page of questions, and another day answer another page.   MOST of the time he did all his answers using the interactive study guide.   The blue area above shows the students where they are to type.  I have to tell you how much my boy LIKED this.  "I can do it here mom"? was his delighted response.

BUT occasionally I would print off a page (especially if I thought my lad could do the work while on the road somewhere).  (see below)

I deliberately didn't read the book before giving it to him to read.   I want him to be able to answer the questions as much as possible without my intervention.   If I know all the details it's too easy for me to "help, or lead" so it was good to see how well he could read and think on his own.

He did well.

I have to admit though, the "read the bible verses and see how they relate to the passage" section, completely stymied him and we chose to set those aside for now.    I will occasionally bring them up again in a less formal way.   When asked to say what he thought a bible passage meant he did a good job, it was just the applying it to the book that caused him to struggle.  I liked the interweaving of faith with thinking about a book.

Would I recommend Progeny Press?
Yes.
Although my lad is not keen on doing study guides (but seriously...does any child who'd rather build and create like taking the time to think his way through a book?) it worked for him.   He thought, he considered, his vocabulary comprehension grew and this was good.

Did he struggle with some aspects?   YES.
But that's good too.  It's good to be stretched when you are learning, and if it's too much, to set it aside and approach it from a different angle.   It's part of the beauty of multi-age materials.

Product information:
Received: Digital copy of Study Guide for Stone Fox.
Vendor: Progeny Press
Item: Stone Fox E-Guide
Price: $23.30
Grade Range: Upper Elementary (grades 3-6)
Length: 60 pages with separate answer key

To learn more about study guides from Progeny Press CLICK HERE or click on the banner below.

Social Media:
 
Facebook: http://facebook.com/ProgenyPress
Youtube: http://youtube.com/progenypress
Twitter: http://twitter.com/progenypress
 

Are you a person who homeschools?
Do you have a blog?   Able to write a review?
IF so.. TOS is looking for you!    For details check this post out.

So why should you bother?
1 You'll meet a great group of people.   Seriously.  Nice folks.  Good hearts.   Challenge you to be better than you already know you can be.
2. Free product.  yeah I know.. awesome eh?   Free product that you can use as long as possible, or as little as you like.   4-6 weeks to review it and then tell folks what you think (isn't it nice to tell folk what you think of something). Just so you know.. if you hate, that's okay.  You'll learn how to tactfully say that as well.  :)
3. Advice.   From what to do with a problem situation with a child, a quirk in lesson material you don't know how to work through, to how to be a better blogger.   It's all there in a group of mostly women, BUT we have some men too.  SO if you are a dad homeschooler.. JOIN US we WANT YOU.

Those are the highlights for me.
There may be others that you discover (and I'd hope you share them with me).

So come on, check out that post and give reviewing for TOS a whirl... you won't regret it.  :)  really.  :) 

Swift Things are beautiful
by Elizabeth Coatsworth

Swift things are beautiful:
Swallows and deer,
And lightening that falls
Bright-veined and clear,
Rivers and meteors,
Wind in the wheat,
The strong-withered horse,
The runner's sure feet.

And slow things are beautiful:
The closing of day,
The pause of the wave
That curves downward to spray,
The ember that crumbles,
The opening flower,
And the ox that moves on
In the quiet of power.

  What is this poem about?
That is the question I asked my lad BEFORE I actually read the poem.
His response:
Spiders jumping, flies zooming, jumping spiders leaping

Was the Poem about what you thought?
No.  It wasn't a good poem mom.   It wasn't about what I thought it would be.

Can you think of how it was kinda like what you thought?
With a wrinkled brow he thought and said... well Spiders weren't mentioned...THEY SHOULD HAVE BEEN... but she did talk about some things that were fast, and jumping spiders are slow to when they creep up on something.

BUT why he asked, did she start her poem off talking about fast things when she had slow things in it?

We didn't know the answer.
We did talk about comparison though and that perhaps that might have been her point.

Vocabulary
Withers: the highest part of a horse's back, lying at the base of the neck above the shoulders. The height of a horse is measured to the withers.

What do you see in the poem?  How is it set up?
Some of the words rhyme... every other line.   But not every other line, just some of them.

I have to admit, when my boy and I first start reading The Iridescence of Birds by Patricia MacLachlan we wondered where the book was going.

By the end of it though, my boy smiled (as did I).   And we learned why Henri Matisse paints the way he does.

Do you want your student to get a touch of why an artist might have turned out the way they did?

In this book, Ms. MacLachlan draws us in to the childhood home of Henri Matisse, showing us how is mom let him arrange the produce, the flowers, etc and how we decorated the house.  Red was a dominate colour.

ow Matisse was raised, had a direct impact upon how he painted his artwork.  (Which makes sense right?   What we are raised with affects us in many ways, no reason why it wouldn't affect artists as well).  :)  It's just not always so obvious right?   With Matisse and the red rooms he grew up with and the blue tablecloths.... it's so common and familiar that everyone knows. 

In the book we see all the colour he grew up with and the illustrations are done in a similar style to what Matisse drew.   Matisse attributes his artistic style to his mother, saying "I got my sense of colour from my mother".   His type was "Fauve" which meant wild beasts.   Painting emotions and feelings rather than "things".

So how would you draw if you were a boy named Henri Matisse who lived in a dreary town in northern France?   Would you draw with colour and emotion, or do it differently?

Product Details:
Received: soft cover picture book
Title: The Iridescence of Birds
Author: Patricia MacLachlan
Illustrator: Hadley Hooper
Publisher: Roaring Book Press
Ages: ages 4-8
 Reviewed for: Raincoast Books               

• 3 eggs
• 1 1/2 cups milk
• 1 cup all-purpose flour

• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 1 teaspoon sugar

Directions

1. Combine the eggs and milk in the container of a blender. Add the flour, salt and sugar, and blend until smooth.
2. Heat a skillet over medium-high heat, and coat with cooking spray or butter. Scoop about 1/4 cup of batter into the skillet, and tilt the pan to coat the bottom. Cook until the top looks dry, about 30 seconds. Carefully slide a spatula under the pancake and flip. Cook for a few seconds on the other side, just until browned. Remove to a plate, and repeat with remaining batter.

My son ate them with icing sugar, rolled up.  YUM!  
Our international student, did them with maple syrup like a regular pancake.