Guess what!!!    The Old Schoolhouse is letting me.. yes ME!!!   Give away some freebies from THEM to you!   Pretty cool eh?   It's rather neat, I've been working with these fine folks for quite some time now and they put out some good materials and are always striving to do more and do better.

I took some time to think about items I was interested in, subjects you might be interested, and then something that just might be helpful or an encouragement to you.

I came up with these three items.   I do so hope I chose well.  :)

A Path Among Ancient Rocks: Everyday Easels-Book 1
Art!    The posts that get the most comments on my site tend to my posts with art of some sort in them (that or science)... but art is always a good one to pursue.. it relaxes a body and gets the brain thinking in different ways which helps the learning process.  So I choose this one specifically for those who comment the most.... Let's do art eh?

To Market, To Market: Selling to the Home Education Sector
To be honest, I picked this one out for me.   I want to start selling things for the home education market and thought this might be helpful.  So why might YOU be interested in it?   Because perhaps YOU would like to do the same?   Perhaps you have a skill or talent that you should let shine forth?  

Perhaps there is an entrepreneur hiding in your skin somewhere.   If so, pick this up and learn a few tricks to the trade AND if are really interested in entrepreneurialism.. Go check out Mom's Plan who chose a book about this very topic as a giveaway. 

So what's the trick to getting these goodies?
Go to The Old Schoolhouse site and create an account.  Put these goodies into  your account and then use the code: AVCREW16.   It only works with these three items.   And it's good til the end of April. 

If you have a chance, why not stop by The Old Schoolhouse’s Facebook page?  It’s an excellent way to say thanks for the freebies.   If you “like” the page, you’ll get information on other great freebies as well!

Enjoy the freebies!   :)

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.  :)

Graham Blanchard along with Callie Grant has put together a delightful series of books for young children. The Classic Collection is part of the Learn, absorb and praise series, these three books set about to teach children important truths about the Christian Faith.

Classic Collection Synopsis: The perfect gift for baby showers, christenings, baptisms, birthdays and holidays—three beloved board books representing our Learn, Absorb, & Praise™ collection: Jesus Shows Me (from the Knowing My God series), All of Me That You Can’t See, and Mud Puddle Hunting Day.  This beautifully packaged set includes space for a personal note to the recipient, and a bonus, The Art of Gratitude, with creative tips and templates for a child to practice giving thanks!

My Thoughts: Oh... I wish I could have read these books to my lad when he was but a youngling yet... If i tried now he'd scoff at me... 10 year olds don't do board books well.. but wow.. these books are so delightful.

Mud Puddle Hunting Day:  Is about a young child's dash through the rain which leads to her seeing the wonders of God's creation in a different, wet and wonderful way.

All of me: Based on Mark 12:30, learning to see yourself as Jesus does.. right down to the soul of a person.

Knowing God, Jesus shows me;  Using animals to communicate the different ways God shows his love for us and the different gifts he bestows upon us.

All three books have cute full colour illustrations that provide additional talking points with your children.

Graham Blanchard has put together a Scope and Sequence form for all these books as well.  You can find ithere.

So what do you get when you order (or receive) the Classic Collection?
Three board books that come wrapped in a sleeve that opens up into paper where you can practice the art of thankfulness.  Sending a postcard to a friends, writing a thank you note for someone, colouring a page about thankfulness and more.

Now the fun part... doing the giveaway.   What will you win?    The Classic Collection.
If the rafflecopter isn't up yet, just leave a comment, and/or sign up for a subscription.  It's all good.  I'm not hard to get along with.  :)

Did you know that i turn 50 tomorrow?   I DO!

Imagine me.. half a century old.   :)   

Vinod asked if I would do a giveaway for a math program that I reviewed a bit back and I said "Sure!   That'll work well to help me celebrate my birthday!".   :)  Anyways, wasn't that sweet of him???   :)   I thought it was.   So you have GOT to check this out.   Just perfect for the beginning of the school year.

He is offering Adaptive Placement Test w/ Individualized Lesson Plan, and here is my review on it.  

The adaptive placement test is an excellent tool to use to show you what your children know and if there are any gaps in their learning.  

How does it work?

1. Student takes a "mini test" for each major concept to identify current skill level.
2. Program then creates an "individualized" lesson plan which includes everything you need.
3. Student follows an "individualized" lesson plan and you see various reports that measure progress as student masters various skills and closes learning gaps.

So as you start your school year and you want to ensure that you are starting off on the right foot, A+ has given you a very handy tool for doing so.

Use the rafflecopter below to enter for your chance to win!

Too many people now-a-days don't believe that the bible is true, in particular the historical aspects of the exodus.   How can it be true they ask.   Even Jewish scholars tend to think of the first part of the bible as being more of tradition than that of fact.

In this DVD, evidence is given to prove otherwise.

The movie starts out giving the reason for developing it.     People have gone from belief in the bible to treating it with skepticism and disbelief. 

I have to say I liked how they edited it, with all those maps at the beginning.   Well done that.

I found it poignant the reason it is so important to counter this skepticism.   Some people will very much falter in their faith if they understand that lack of physical evidence.  They might see it as God lying, or (as I would), experts not truly understanding the evidence in front of them, or the bible being wrong.  

He brought up the problems with conventional theory about who was the pharoah of the time, and posited there were other options, for how to think about the Israelites and the time of the Exodus.   Mentioning the difficulty in pinning down events to Egyptian chronology...when it is rather in flux as well.

I have to admit, the information presented was interesting.   It wasn't highly compelling to me though.     Many questions were raised for me and my hubby.  They made the point that the tomb would be from Joseph because of the coat of many colours...the question is... was his coat of many colours?   Was his coat colourful or was it just a coat of a rich man...one too long to useful for work (coming to the palm of the hand). 

People interviewed came from various parts of the world.  Looking at the various evidences.    They started from before the exodus through to the conquest of Canaan.   The variety in people interviewed was good.  

I thought it an interesting movie.  It provided some definitive options for proving the biblical account to be accurate with hard evidence.    I found it intriguing to watch them put the pieces together.

I will be hanging on to this movie to watch with my 10 year old when he's a bit older (teenish) as a way to help him develop his critical thinking skills.

This is your opportunity to apply to win a copy for yourself.  Open citizens of Canada and the United States only.  

To enter, leave a blog comment blog.    Name of the winner will be picked out of a hat by my lad.  :)   Leaving your email makes it easy to notify you.  :)

Contest closes August 7th, 2015

"Disclosure (in accordance with the FTC’s 16 CFR, Part 255: “Guides Concerning the Use of Endorsements and Testimonials in Advertising”): Many thanks to Propeller Consulting, LLC for providing this prize for the giveaway. Choice of winners and opinions are 100% my own and NOT influenced by monetary compensation. I did receive a sample of the product in exchange for this review and post.

 Only one entrant per mailing address, per giveaway. If you have won a prize from our sponsor Propeller / FlyBy Promotions in the last 30 days, you are not eligible to win. If you have won the same prize on another blog, you are not eligible to win it again. Winner is subject to eligibility verification.”

I have to admit, when I first read Farewell Floppy by Benjamin Chaud it made me angry.

Why?   Because it talks about leaving a bunny in the forest to fend for itself when a child gets tired of it.   That makes me angry as tamed animals should NEVER be abandoned in the wild (or even near a farm) to "just survive".

But I gave the book another read and realized it was actually a pretty good book.  :)   It really wasn't about what I first thought.  :)

Surprised I was.

The book initially presented itself one way, but the second read helped me see a different level of reading.

A child struggling with maturing.
A child having a beloved pet.
A child wanting to fit in.
A child trying to figure out how to change and stay true to themselves as they mature.

And a child learned and developed new friendships.

No pets were abandoned forever in the forest.  :)

My son's response was "It's okay.   Why do you think he was going to do that with his Floppy in the first place mom?   isn't it good that he didn't?"

What's great is that YOU have a chance to read and have this book for yourself isn't that cool?

Do NOTE: this contest is open to Canadian residents only.   Thank you for understanding.

Product Details:
Received: Hardcover Picture book
Title: Farewell Floppy
Author: Benjamin Chaud
Pages: 40
Age Range: 3-5 .. though I easily see it going beyond that... good for any child under 10 struggling with maturing and some of the changes expected.
Reviewed for: Raincoast Books.

Raincoast books can be visited on social media at the following links:
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/

It was my pleasure, along with some fellow Canadians, to review Picaboo Yearbooks.  I've reviewed for them in the past, so jumped at the chance to do so again.     It is great for the individual family as well as for groups.   Come along for the memories, won't you?

Picaboo Yearbooks come in two formats, hardcover or softcover.  I reviewed the 20 page softcover version.   This version provides

• Available sizes: 9” x 12” or 8.5” x 11”
• Full-color, 10pt cover stock with gloss or silk-matte lamination
• 100 lb archival paper
• 4 free personalized student pages
• Free digital eYearbook

The way Picaboo yearbooks works is that you layout your yearbook out in sections.   This is very handy if you have different people working on individual sections, such a church, youth, or homeschool group.   It can be a bit irritating if only one person is putting it together as once the sections are set, you can't change them.

One of the things that I really like about how they do things is with their pre-made page set ups.   You just pull up what you are looking for, one or two page spread, with how many pictures you want to add, and it pulls up different options for you AND if you change how you want the page set up to be, it's automatically changes where the pictures are.  I found that feature to be VERY helpful.  :)   Another nice feature is that even if you choose a premade layout, you can take out comment sections or photos that you don't need just be clicking delete.

You can add coloured backgrounds, unique to every page, and stickers to make theme pages.   I let my nine year old son pick the background for most of the pages.  He found it easy to do.

Overall working with Picaboo Yearbooks was a good experience.   They have helpful videos if you get stuck trying to figure out how to do things (came in helpful for me a time or two).  Not everything is intuitive about their site, but once you figure out how they generally do stuff it's pretty easy.

Price is $9.49 softcover and $18.99 for hardcover for 20 pages.  You can add more pages if desired.  Vendor is Picaboo Yearbooks.   For more reviews you'll need to check out this link (it's not quite ready yet but will be soon).  Bunch of us Canadians had fun reviewing Picaboo for you inspiration.  :)

Details: 5 winners will each receive 1 Picaboo Yearbook - softcover, 20 pages, 8½x11 size. CAN only. 18+ ends May13th @11:59pm EST.

I need to tell you about this little book I read recently with my son in order to review it.  It's an easy reader, all about this little rabbit and her friends, who are learning bunjitsu.     It is called Tales of  Bunjitsu Bunny.

This book is written for the 6-8 year old group, and is all about Isabel who is the best bunny in her class for doing bunjitsu.  It's a series of 13 short stories.   All with a theme of showing off different skills. 

My son is nine and sorta liked the book but he wasn't leaping up to grab it for our reading time.  He thought the bunny was quite clever in the story about The Locked Door and that the rest of her class was quite silly in how they tried to solve the problem.

the story about The Rock made us laugh and then confused us.   We couldn't figure out how after making a nice rock garden with a HUGE boulder, she managed to make a bunch of smaller rocks in towers with no big boulder.   Made no sense to us.    But that story was the exception to the rule.   The rest of the stories were very clear cut and well written.  Perfect for starting conversations with children, or just to have a good story time read.

The book closes with the code of a Bunjitsu Student.   To do things like practice their art, study the world, try things that are hard to do and much more.

You can visit them at the following places:
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/

 Product details:
Received: Tales of Bunjitsu Bunny
Type: Hardcover easy reader
Age: 6-8 years
Author and Illustrator: John Himmelman
Publisher: Henry Holt and Company
I reviewed this book for Raincoast  books.

I received a copy of this book in exchange for my fair and honest review.  Nothing more was expected of me.   I've graciously been offered the chance to give a copy away, courtesy of Raincoast Books.

See contest details below please. :)  Name the bunny!   Win a  Book!     I decided it was better to make them separate contests, so make sure you enter both (if Canadian) and name the bunny (if not Canadian).  :)

Mr. Gentleman/Miss Stubborn has a tale to tell.  Like Isabel she is a determined little warrior.   I am running this contest in her honour.   To read more about her tale you need to Kits, kids and Growing up Stubborn where I did a guest post for my on-line friend Carol.  So go check it out and then come back here and enter the contests.  :)

DO note: This is a contest for Canadian citizens only.  :) 

This contest is open to everyone.   Canadians and more.  :)   My son will choose the best name of all listed here.  :)

FlyBy Promotions recently sent me the DVD Grace of God for me to review.  I have to tell you this.  Usually Christian made movies leave me feeling like "ah, it was okay, but they could have done a much better job of it" with that leaving you feel blah about the whole movie.

THIS MOVIE on the other hand I enjoyed.  :)  I have no clue why Dove.org recommends it for ages 12 and up because I would have zero problem watching this with my nine year old.  :)

Here's the story synopsis: Having lost his faith many years ago, Detective Bill Broadly is called to investigate the disappearance of the local church’s collection plate. As he questions its various church members, rumors swirl as more congregants learn about the theft. When one unexpected church-goer confesses to stealing the funds, the confession resurrects Broadly’s views on God, and helps him see that through faith and belief there really is rebirth and redemption.

Simple enough story line eh?  :)

But throughout this story you see redemption at work.

A mom helping her daughter.
A ex-con doing what is right.
A Private Investigator seeing a different perspective.
A Pastor admitting his faults.

Of people getting over their "I'm better than you" attitudes and realizing a singular truth.  We are all sinners together.  

Having everything work out in the end makes it all worth while of course.  I have a STRONG dislike for movies where the bad guy wins or story lines are left undone.  Don't you???

Product Details:
Title: Grace of God, a Story of Easter Traditions.
Received: one DVD
Publisher: Parkside Pictures.
Director: Kevan Otto
Viewing Time: 99 minutes
Reviewed for : FlyBy Promotions.
Where can you buy it?  CLICK HERE.  (good for USA)   sorry Canadian folk, I can't figure out where we can buy it.  BUT you can enter below for a chance to win it for yourself.  pretty cool eh?  :)   AND A link to get in Canada on VOD.

"Disclosure (in accordance with the FTC’s 16 CFR, Part 255: “Guides Concerning the Use of Endorsements and Testimonials in Advertising”): Many thanks to Propeller Consulting, LLC for providing this prize for the giveaway. Choice of winners and opinions are 100% my own and NOT influenced by monetary compensation. I did receive a sample of the product in exchange for this review and post.

 Only one entrant per mailing address, per giveaway. If you have won a prize from our sponsor Propeller / FlyBy Promotions in the last 30 days, you are not eligible to win. If you have won the same prize on another blog, you are not eligible to win it again. Winner is subject to eligibility verification.”