CHRISTEPHI

This has got to be one of the most gorgeous Bibles for adults (i.e. not a children’s Bible) I have ever seen. The full color printing simply makes it a pleasure to read. Yes, I am addicted to color. Life is too glorious to be drab. When I received my copy for review, I was nearly giddy with the pleasure of its colorful and illustrated pages.  I told Hubby, "I wanna take this to Bible study tonight so I can be one of the cool kids."  Ha! In all seriousness though, I’ve always appreciated Thomas Nelson Bibles.   I’ve seen Bibles from some other publishers ( cough-Zondervan-cough ) fall apart in less than a year, but Nelson Bibles seem to be put together quite a bit better. This one is no exception. In fact, it comes with a lifetime guarantee. That, of course, doesn’t cover normal wear and tear, but if the pages suddenly start falling from the binding by the handful as has happened to me with other Bibles in the past, they should replace it for you. Here’s hoping I...

Here on Sycamore Hill, we love audio dramas.  It probably stems from my own childhood memories of living without a TV.  There I’d be sprawled out on my back in the middle of the living room floor, listening to Children’s Bible Hour on the radio and watching the ceiling fan go ‘round.  I can still “see” many of the dramas that played out over the waves just as I “saw” them in my mind’s eye way back then. Nowadays we don’t listen to the radio much but we have plenty of options via CD, mp3, and internet streaming.  My kids especially love to listen to audio books and audio dramas as bedtime stories to help them wind down and prepare for sleep.  So when we received  Who Created Everything?  from Wizzy Gizmo  to review, we were ecstatic! Who Created Everything?  is a 36 minute audio drama about the events found in the first chapter of Genesis.  Professor Wizzy Gizmo puts the Bible on his Gizmovision machine and before you k...

One of the most exciting times in a child's life is when they are beginning to unlock the mysteries of the written word. We are just starting to get there with my son. He'll be five soon and has been working his way through our kindergarten curriculum. He's beginning to find -- and read! -- words everywhere! From street signs to grocery store advertisements to picture books to song lyrics. He is beginning both to recognize familiar words and to sound out new-to-him words! I know it won't be long before he develops into a fluent and avid reader, just like his big sister, and just like me! Because Little Guy will soon be reading on his own, I wanted to get him a Bible, God's Holy Word, of his own. Although it is somewhat more difficult than a children's translation, Hubby suggested we get the NKJV for Little Guy since that is what he uses. Like father like son, right? I was very pleased when I received a free copy of the NKJV Adventures Bible from Zondervan . ...

My daughter is nothing like me.  Her personality is her very own!  Even her taste in books differs greatly from mine.  When I was her age, I didn’t care a fig for non-fiction books.  I specifically remember looking at the Children’s Non-fiction Section at the public library and thinking how boring it was.  (I did, however, borrow every Alexander Key book the library had over and over and over again). Miss M, on the other hand, shows no discriminatory tendencies toward non-fiction.  In fact, she adores the  Who Was...  series of books and has asked for specific titles on more than one occasion.  Rosa Parks, Helen Keller, Martin Luther King, Jr., even J.K. Rowling!  So when I had a chance to review  Jesus  from the Get to Know series by Nancy I. Sanders, I just knew it would be a hit! About the Book "Jesus  - part of the Get to Know series - is a unique biography about Jesus, the Son of God. Focusing on th...

We love books.  (You probably know that by now.)  And my kids love to be read to while they eat lunch or play with clay or sit in the hammock chair on a gorgeous spring day.  One of the latest books we read together is Panama Girl by Ida (pronounced EE-duh) Freer. Panama Girl Written by Ida Freer ISBN: 978-1480076792 Publisher: CreateSpace Independent Publishing Platform 156 pages This is a story about a 12-year-old girl named Surni from the Embera people in the Darien jungle of Panama.  As you read, you get a clear picture of life in the village and how the Embera have lived for generations by finding everything they need for food, clothing, shelter, and transportation in the jungle.  But change is coming to the jungle.  Visitors from Panama City are arriving with increasing frequency and Surni and her people must learn to adapt to new ideas, new technology, and new beliefs.  Surni herself faces many challenges and proves that she is a girl...

I’ve had several people ask me lately about how we use copywork and dictation in our homeschool. I'm still learning about both of these simple-yet-powerful tools, but I'm happy to share what we've done up to now and what I hope to do in the future. Copywork Copywork is an excellent tool to teach children a whole bunch of things at once. At its most basic it is handwriting practice, and as we all know "practice makes perfect!” But it is ever so much more than just a handwriting worksheet. Good copywork passages will be taken from good sources and will include lofty thoughts and rich vocabulary. A well-crafted sentence will introduce basic punctuation, capitalization rules, and even grammar that the child will internalize as they spend time with it. The concept of copying beautiful passages of poetry and prose is immensely appealing to me. I want to sit down and fill up a journal with pretty passages! Unfortunately, Miss M is not of the same mine as I am ...

I've never been a particular fan of Bible storybooks or toddler Bibles.  See, nothing can quite compete with my memories of my own childhood Bible storybook.   (I spent lots of time pouring over  The Bible in Pictures for Little Eyes by Kenneth Taylor, which has since been "updated" with cartoonish illustrations rather than the beautiful artwork of the original.)  Even before I could read, I would feast my eyes on the artwork; later when I could read, I revisited an old familiar friend.  In spite of this, I've always been drawn to children's Bibles, perhaps hoping the next one I pick up will be as good as the one I remember from my past.  They're cheery and cute and appealing, even if I never do become a big fan of them. When I received a copy of 101 Color & Sing Bible Stories , I wasn't overly enthusiastic.  Still, I vowed to give it a chance and keep an open mind. This Bible storybook is a bit different than others I've browsed.  Thr...

Welcome back!   We spent a couple weeks setting the stage for our year ( Part 1 ,  Part 2 ) before learning about our own country ( Part 1  and Part 2 ).   We decided to visit our neighbors to the north before heading south to Mexico.  That way we could study several Spanish-speaking countries at once instead of splitting them up.  We "flew" into Ottawa and spent three weeks exploring Canada. School under the table for a mid-winter change of pace! Bible We listened to John 3:16 in French and read about the Garifuna in Window on the World.  We read about William and Catherine Booth in Hero Tales .  There isn't much hands-on to show you, but the kids do enjoy the readings very much! Language Arts Most of our language arts have been integrated in other subjects these past weeks.  We're still using the copywork pages from Mama Jenn for Hero Tales and geography terms .  Between that, spelling, and memorizing a poem, ...

We spent two weeks introducing our year ( Part 1 , Part 2 ) and shared Part 1 of our travels in the USA. Here's part two before heading off to visit our neighbors to the north. Bible This year we are reading through the book of Matthew.  To help us along the way, we made bookmarks featuring the name Matthew or Matthaios  in ancient Greek.  This is the language the book of Matthew was originally written in.  The back of our bookmarks have the readings for the year broken down into portions with a space for checking off each one as we go. Miss M never reads her Bible without a dry highlighter in her hand…and she highlights everything she reads.  I think she would eventually like to have her entire Bible highlighted.  Hey, if that's what it takes to get her in the Word, then it's fine by me! Music Somedays when you wake up and it's bitter cold outside, you just need some fresh scones and a tea party to get ya going! For US...

After our first two weeks ( Part 1 , Part 2 ) of introductory material, we were ready to start out on our traveling adventures! We spent the next three weeks "traveling" around the USA, learning about it's geographical significance. Bible One of our texts for this year is Window on the World .  In it we read about a couple different people groups in North America where Bible translation work is on-going.  The kids loved that each section includes a list of items to pray about and to praise the Lord for!  We each take turns lifting these items before the Lord. We also started reading about Christian heroes from Hero Tales, beginning with Dwight L. Moody.  I printed the copywork pages from Mama Jenn.  Miss M enjoys illustrating these pages.  Though at times her zany sense of humor comes through rather strongly! Math Miss M has been trucking along through Singapore Math 2B.  I've been faithfully remembering to have her drill her ba...