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Kids need Heroes, you know that right?

Their folks serve well as heroes, and then as time goes on they find new people to emulate.

Right now my boy is fascinated by the character Will in the Ranger's Apprentice.  He has built entire stories around him.   How he's good, how he trains others to work and fight hard, how he works with a team for the safety of his people.   It's SO GOOD to see him with a good hero.

But you know what's even better.... when children have biblical Heroes as well.  When they have people of faith to look up to.   People like Joseph and Moses, Ruth and Esther.  People, just regular people, that God loved and worked with.  

So let me tell you about Grapevine Studies.. they have a "heroes" bundle for you this month.  Can you imagine...you can save 20% this month if you get the bundle.  Help your children develop some biblical heroes as well.  

Grapevine is one of my favourite methods of studying the bible.  Drawing pictures as you put God's word into your heart and mind.. EXCELLENT.  :)   Keeps hands busy and minds thinking.   Maps, history, and God in action.   It's GOOD.

You need to check out this sale though eh?

Just to clarify, 20% off until July 31st.   Nice eh?    Get a copy, use your own bible translation if you want to, get your children talking and learning about the bible, let them draw the pictures their own way if they don't like the suggested picture, let them draw their own....sometimes that brings out additional questions and more learning happens.. it's totally cool when that happens! 

Anyways, check out the sale today.  :)

Games, people, characters, facts and bible....Tie it all together and you get Veritas Press Bible...my son's all-time favourite bible (or for that matter.. any type of learning other than hands-on science) program EVER.  Over the past several weeks my son has been happily reviewing Old Testament 2 by Veritas Press. This Self-Paced Bible online course contains the stories Judges to Kings.

I have to admit, my son got hooked on Veritas Press when we reviewed a history program for them a while back.   Since then we've purchased a couple of programs for use as well as the first of the bible series.  So to say we are fans is a bit of a understatement.  :)   Anyways, let me tell you WHY we like this program so much.

Clicking on a course opens it up showing what you see in the image below.   Every five lessons is a test covering that unit as well as a bit of the previous lessons.   This helps the student to retain information learned.   I have to admit, he's not doing as well in the Judges to Kings program as he is in the Genesis to Joshua program, but that is due to needing to know dates and as my son says "dates are boring mom".

We love this online bible course because it has interesting characters in the interactive video, the lessons are clear.  The set up is that it will quiz with six or so questions to see if you know anything about the subject matter to be talked about, and at the end of unit it will test you on everything presented in the material, plus questions from previous lessons.. focusing on the dates.

Games, activities, questions and answers... presented in different ways.  I won't tell you that every game is going to be hit, but there will be sufficient variety to maintain interest. The song is a great way to aid in remembering the order events happen in... he'll hum along when he is struggling to remember the order something happened in.

My son likes doing the maps since they allow him to keep trying until he gets it all right.  I like that it forces him to keep trying so he has to remember this important geography.   Currently we are reading through a book on Ancient Civilizations and when we are on Israel my son would pop up with "MOM!   That town is here and did you know _____________?"   As he spills out information he learned through Veritas Press.  I LOVE IT!   I love how he is learning all this stuff and remembers enough of it to tell me about it.  It's great!  :)

Our morning routine is get up, take care of the critters, catch up on tablet stuff and have breakfast.  My son has taken to modifying this routine in that he gets done taking care of his critters long before I do and he pops into the house to work on Veritas Press.  He loves doing it first thing because "Mom, it's fun and I learn stuff!".    This is a familiar scene for me....coming in to find my lad sitting in my chair listening and learning.

My laptop is a touch screen which apparently is THE BEST for playing the games.

I've offered to sit with my boy and learn with him, but he has nixed that.  "Mom, I like learning it.  Then I can tell you later and surprise you with what I know."   I do occasionally get called to help him with the odd game though but get told "DON"T answer the questions mom.... I want to!"    That speaks volumes to me about how much he likes this online bible curriculum.

My pastor hubby appreciates that they haven't sacrificed knowledge in the pursuit of a fun learning environment.  The bible stories and the history around them are presented clearly without fudging details.  Scripture references are always included.

Visit Veritas Press on Social Media

Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, and Pinterest.
Twitter they are @VeritasPress

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.  

You know how you meet a program that works well for you?

One creative boy, one bible, one study where he can choose what he understands of the bible story, and if he can't think of something there are words to give a clue and if you are STILL stumped your mom has access to a teacher's manual that will give you even more clues?

A boy couldn't ask for a bible study more suited to who he is.

Let me then introduce you to Grapevine Studies.   I'll be doing a full review next week, but this week I have the marvellous opportunity to let you win a copy of the Resurrection study for yourself.  Pretty cool eh?

Grapevine Studies is a company that takes the student through sections or stories of the bible step by step.   They encourage the student to draw pictures to help them remember the story.  We are thoroughly enjoying working our way through the New Testament, complete with memory verses, memory challenges, learning to use a bible dictionary and so much more.

So here's your chance to win a copy for yourself.  :)

I have to admit, this has NOT been a great homeschooling week.   Been a combination of things setting us off.

1. Monday was Family Day here in Canada so we basically took the day off.   We had a cart ride with some horses, visited with neighbours over cookies, watched a movie in the community and had pizza for supper.  :)

2. Tuesday was odd...trying to remember why.  OH.. NO ONE felt like doing school AT ALL.   Tiredness or what. .Not sure what was at play but schooling with books was SO nt for us, so we worked on building mouse feeders instead.  Project based learning is good too right?

3, Foodbank Day.   So the lad does bookwork and helps out as needed.   Normally we have a shipment come in but something got messed up so it didn't come in so the lad helped me with some organizing instead.

And that brings us to today.

Math... the lad was brought to tears today by math.   It was odd.   If I asked him the question he could do it in his head. Explain it all to me and everything, but doing it on paper simply wasn't working for him today.   So we did four questions verbally and said "done".    It was beyond frustrating for him .. I can see the answer mom but every time I try to write it down it's WRONG and it's NOT MY FAULT!!!!  Seeing as he could do it verbally I had to agree that it wasn't his fault it was just a brain glitchy day.

Grapevine studies.  We've started a new review for Grapevine.   Working through the New Testament.   I have to admit, the lad was simply having fun with drawing the characters today...i would show you up close what he was drawing but he begged me not to,but this image passed his inspection.   I don't mind silliness as long as the message is getting through.

Geography.  We changed this up a bit.  The lad HATED drawing out the shape of the country.  He could never get it perfect enough and it was driving him crazy, so now he has to find the country that we are studying and colour it in.  This week we are learning about Azerbaijan.  It's rather interesting how studies of other countries help us understand our own.  How like many Azerbaijan's are Muslim by identity but not by belief.   Much like Canada eh?

We did our reading together.   We covered Octopus/Squid; John Knox; Hudson (after whom Hudson bay is named for), Mrs. Quack; Two poems...one which just weirded me out (and the lad found interesting), and something else.  :)

The lad did his narration, copywork (starting a new study on Astronomy), and... Logic of English.

I have to admit, we aren't following the lessons very well with Logic of English. We just aren't, if we do my lad stresses out too much, so we use their materials in our own way.  Today we were working on knowing if phonographs have two letters or one.  He had fun!   OH MY.   So nice to see my lad having fun with phonographs.   Our biggest battle is helping him figure out what things sound like... he gets that from me, its just the way it is.  We often guess at how words sound and hubby is frequently correcting us both.  :)

We also use the cards differently.  I give him three cards per week to study,  One of the cards always has a spelling list on the back and I'll randomly throughout the week ask him to spell words.   Keeps him practicing without adding the stress of "I HAVE TO BE PERFECT" to his day.

So that's our week/day.  Tomorrow will be different again as we'll planning to be out of the house most of the day.

The title to this chapter is  Hospitality: fellowship or entertainment.   It's not a long chapter, it is not about telling us HOW to be hospitable, but rather to show us the biblical injunction TO BE hospitable.

Consider these bible verses:
Rom 12:13 "seek to show hospitality"
Rom 15:7  "welcome one another as Christ has welcomed you, for the glory of God"
1 Pet. 4:9 "Show hospitality to one another without grumbling"
Heb 13:2 'show hospitality to strangers, for thereby some have entertained angels unawares".

What is hospitality?    "Providing a welcoming, relaxed atmosphere of kindness without expecting anything in return".  (p.100)

So who would you invite?  
Anyone.... members, non-members, guests, members of the governing body (elders/deacons) and such like.   Invite one or more.   Encourage the building of friendships.

When you ask people to come (unless very spontaneous), find out if there are food allergies and work around them.

If you ask, you are showing thoughtfulness, and that denotes kindness.

Keep your meal simple.  The focus is on being kind and encouraging relationships, not on providing an elaborate meal.

Enlist the help of family to tidy up the house.

Get to know your guests, encourage them to help if they so wish to, ask questions of where they are from, what they do for a living and such forth.

You might want to consider having a guest book, something for people to sign showing they have been there.   Gives you something to look back on with fondness.

My Thoughts:

I have to admit, this is a hard one for me... the whole hospitality thing.  It's something that I have to work hard at.  I'd rather people stay out of my house and I can go visit them.  Then I don't have to worry about them gossiping about how the pastor's wife does, or does not, keep her house up.  It also gives me the ability to leave when I just want to go and not have to wait for others to decide to get up and out.

BUT my needs or wants are not what this is about.   it's about being kind to others.   That's all it is.  Can I work at being kind to others even in my house?

GrapeVine Studies is a winner in my household.   For the last few weeks we been working through Old Testament 1: Level 3 Creation to Jacob.   We have had a lot of fun doing this review.

THOUGH I have to admit something.  When we started this review my son was not happy.   "Making STICK FIGURES!   MOM!!!   That's what little kids do!!!   What if I don't want to do that"?   This was his rather vocal complaint.   So I said okay.. Let's call them up and see what they have to say.  My son talked to the person of the phone himself asking if he HAD to draw stick figures, she was so charming and told him that he could draw the pictures however he wanted.   My son's heart was eased and he immediately became a fan of GrapeVine Studies, to the point of asking, "MOM.. are we doing GrapeVine today"?

First you need to understand that GrapeVine Studies has a number of studies ready for you to use with  your children.  Their goal is to help children learn the bible stories, and through drawing them REMEMBER them.   Each level adds it's own level of difficulty/level of learning materials used by the students.  It is perfect for single child OR multi-child use.   I can SO easily see this being used in a multi-level Sunday School just as easily as with a larger family.    They study the bible in chronological order rather than jumping from one story to the next.

Since each topic has a number of different levels, you'll want to check out these three links to help you decide which is best for you.

• Information About the Levels
• How to Choose? Where to Start?
• SAMPLES

The first lesson you do with your children is a general timeline.   Students learn to overarching timeline that they will be working through.  From Creation through to Jacob.

This is followed by breaking the story down into bite-sized pieces, working slowly through each story to help the children focus on each and every part.

Coloured pencils are used with this Children's bible study to help them retain the information they are learning.  Purple for God, blue for boys, red for girls, and so forth.  As you see from the picture above, review questions are included on the sheets to test the student retention of the information.   Bible verses to learn are included throughout the study.

I appreciated that the teachers guide followed the students workbook exactly.   It would give the bible passage to read along with suggestions about what you should talk about.  Suggested images to draw.     I remember one section talking about the provision God made for the people and asking my lad to think about what provision God could have made for the people "What does the teacher's book say mom?"   I refused to tell him as i wanted him to think it through and he thought of how God sent the Adam and Eve out of the garden so they wouldn't live forever in their sin.     I was so pleased with his answer.   So he didn't just draw Adam and Eve wearing clothes, but also of them leaving the garden.     This varied from what was expected of him, good thinking eh?

A part that my son particularly enjoyed was the Drawing the best of story.   (in the lesson is says favourite but I've learned not to say that with my lad as it's too precise and it's not worth the anxiety).    I loved this picture he drew of Adam naming the animals and the spiders being ever so helpful.  :)  Everyone needs some help right?

My son's opinion of GrapeVine Studies

"I like it.   I get to draw.  It's easy most of the time.    Though I don't like the memory work and having to write them out."   

My Opinion
It works for our household.  Why?
1. I don't have to complete a whole lesson at once, I can take my time with it throughout the week thereby allowing thinking to occur over a longer period of time.  Not making the study of the bible onerous but enjoyable with the plan to build that skill into daily bible study/devotional time.
2. The teacher's manual fits with the student manual so nicely.
3. The provision of teachable thoughts in the teachers' manual to emphasize with the student.  (helpful in case I or my son blank out)
4. The ability to print off exactly the number of pages I need for the week and the number of people participating.
5. The ability to use whatever bible version suits our household best.
6. My son's enjoyment of doing bible study this way. 

The crew has been reviewing these different programs.   Click HERE or on the banner below to read them please.  :)
Birth of Jesus: Beginner
Birth of Jesus: Multi-Level
Old Testament 1: Level 1 Creation to Jacob
Old Testament 1: Level 2 Creation to Jacob
Old Testament 1: Level 3 Creation to Jacob
Old Testament 1: Level 4 Creation to Jacob

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