Amy

It’s Time for a Teacher Appreciation TpT Gift Card Giveaway!

May 4, 2020 by Amy 1 Comment

It’s Teacher Appreciation Week! It comes at the perfect time for teachers – when cabin fever has set in for the students, when you’re short on sleep and long on things to grade, when trying to wrangle one more kid or, in this year, trying to get one more piece of tech to work properly that you feel ready to lose some hair. Those little reminders that the work that we do really matters and makes a difference, no matter how small those reminders might be, always change my attitude when I get impatient and help me to push through to the end of the year.

That’s why TpT is running a special sale on May 5 – 6. Many teachers need some encouragement right now, and TpT is saying thank you in a tangible way. Many resources will be discounted up to 25% with the code THANKYOU20. I love shopping TpT’s sales because I can get the resources I need to save loads of time while saving lots of money, too.

You can save even MORE money if you win this gift card! Enter using the Rafflecopter below for your chance to win.

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Good luck!

“Unveiling the Past” by Kim Vogel Sawyer – Review

May 3, 2020 by Amy 1 Comment

Newlyweds Sean Eagle and Meghan DeFord are no strangers to pain and loss. As cold-case detectives, they know intimately the anguish family members endure after the murder or disappearance of a loved one. But when a new case hits too close to home, it threatens to pull loose the fragile cords of their young marriage.

Sheila Menke was just a girl when her father left for work and never returned. An investigation revealed he had embezzled enough to start a new life elsewhere, but Sheila could never accept the court’s criminalization of her father. Meghan reluctantly takes the case, secretly fearing it will stir up buried feelings about her own biological father. And while Sean investigates the mysterious death of two young brothers, he longs to start a family. But Meghan worries that with a negligent mother and an absentee father as her parenting examples, she might never be fit for motherhood.

As they delve deeper into the past, both Meghan and Sheila must choose to either stumble along the road of bitterness and resentment or walk the difficult path toward forgiveness and healing. When the cases begin to break wide open, these young women are poised to discover that while earthly fathers may fail, there is one in heaven who is a father to the fatherless.

Sawyer brings DeFord and Eagle into a new story in a fantastic way! I love the fresh look at how each character has grown since they were introduced back in ‘Bringing Maggie Home,’ but Sawyer builds on their weaknesses again and creates a compelling story of faith and how your past affects the vision you have for your future. I enjoyed the parenting advice, the stories of personal responsibility, but especially the idea that we need to look beyond people’s actions to see the person underneath – the one whom God created. Our actions often don’t reflect our intentions, and this is important to understand. Sawyer shades in layer upon layer for each character, developing a real and dynamic cast of characters that are truly fantastic.

I loved the way that Sawyer wraps such deep truths in funny anecdotes. Each character had a bit of comedian in him, and that brought much needed relief to the weightiness of the story.

That humor, along with their determination to advance despite fear or uncertainty is why I’d like to know these characters. They seem like really great people, and they pick fantastic places to eat! I was wanting to go to DeFord’s favorite pizza place throughout the whole book! Seriously, though, their caring and compassionate nature would make anyone lucky to have them as friends, and I love reading about great friendships.

It would be tough to say which book I liked better, “Bringing Maggie Home’ or this sequel; but they’re definitely my favorite Sawyer stories thus far. If you haven’t read her books or are looking for your next meaningful read, give ‘Unveiling the Past’ a try. It won’t disappoint.

I received a free copy of this book through NetGalley from Barbour Publishing. All opinions are my own.

Curious about the book that started it all? Read my review for Bringing Maggie Home here!

Encouraging Hearts & Home Blog Hop – April 29, 2020

April 29, 2020 by Amy 1 Comment

And Now, for This Week’s Encouraging Hearts & Home Blog Hop!

Join your Encouraging Hearts & Home Co-Hosts each week for encouragement and support for your heart & your home. We hope to provide a space that builds each other up and lends a helping hand along the way. With all the negativity in the world, let’s shine a positive light!

The post with the most views from last week:

Gardening and Foraging.

Use the form below to share your family-friendly posts this week, and please consider these nice things you can do:

Follow and/or subscribe to your host’s blog.
Visit a few other bloggers and show them your support. We all love getting comments, and who knows what inspiration you may find? Be sure to share the love–that’s what a blog hop is all about!
Check out our Encouraging Hearts & Home Pinterest board where each host pins her 10 favorite posts each week.
Join us every Thursday!
If you are interested in co-hosting, contact Linda at Apron Strings & Other Things!

“The Hidden Message of the Great Seal” – Review

April 29, 2020 by Amy Leave a Comment

Disclaimer: I received a FREE copy of this product through the HOMESCHOOL REVIEW CREW in exchange for my honest review. I was not required to write a positive review nor was I compensated in any other way.

My kids both love obscure historical facts. They love digging into history and finding out what things mean and how they really work, and so when they heard about The Hidden Message of the Great Seal by The Hidden Seal, LLC., they were crazy excited. A whole book about a single item dating back to our nation’s founding? Perfect!

My Little Man couldn’t wait to read it. He confiscated the book as soon as it arrived, and it wasn’t seen again for quite a while. He loved the inset boxes full of information and neat facts. That’s totally his thing.

My Big Helper loved that those boxes contained so much information! The author uses these to showcase his evidence and to support his claims. There are also charts, graphs, and lots of pictures of documents and artifacts. My Big Helper loved studying these. As we’re a history-competition family, I appreciated the way that the author makes his case. It’s hard to argue with visually-documented evidence, and it also shows how important good research skills are. My kids love to go back to the original source when studying history, and The Hidden Message does this fantastically.

My Big Helper also really liked the quotes that are included in the beginning of each chapter – and the great quotes throughout. She was actually so excited to find a quote from her favorite Founding Father that she called to me from another room! Excerpts of Patrick Henry’s famous speech are included in the book, among others by him, and this incredible to see. Although Henry played a crucial role in the founding of the United States and the creation of our government, too few people know anything about him. That cemented our confidence in the author and his vast stores of knowledge.

My Big Helper’s very favorite element of The Hidden Message was the way that it explains the connections between the symbols and their scriptural meanings. She loved seeing a direct explanation of the faith of our Founding Fathers and the way that they incorporated that into our country’s infancy.

Physically, the book reminds me of a coffee table book. It’s large in size and full of color – it has many pictures, charts, graphs drawings, and more. That’s where the resemblance ends, though. The Hidden Message of the Great Seal is so much more than a coffee table book: it’s a message from the Founding Fathers brought straight to the modern age. Through extensive research and linear structure, the author makes a compelling case for his belief that we live in important times.

In fact, The Hidden Message of the Great Seal is so meaty that I think it’s definitely for older kids, those who would be most likely to have the background knowledge of our country’s founding and the people who created it, as well as the roles they played. That alone is a mighty task, but when you through in the abstract thinking skills and connection to scripture, this isn’t a book for elementary students.

It would a great supplement to a class about the Revolution or Civics, or to walk through as a family, when you can discuss the elements and be sure that everyone is understanding what’s happening between the pages.

The Hidden Message of the Great Seal contains important lessons about the creation of the United States and the Founding Fathers. This information is critical to understanding how our country was designed and is supposed to work, and it’s something all Americans should know – but don’t take my word for it. Click on the image below to read other reviews from the Homeschool Review Crew.

The Hidden Message of the Great Seal {The Hidden Message, LLC Reviews}

Michael Kanis, the author of The Hidden Message of the Great Seal, wants to help you get your own copy of his book. Although it retails on Amazon for $29.95, you can purchase it for 50% off until May 30, 2020, with the code HOMESCHOOL if you order directly from his website.

“30 Prophecies: One Story” – Review

April 23, 2020 by Amy Leave a Comment

As a parent, I want to be sure that my children are reading and studying the Bible. I want to make sure I’m modeling that and helping them to set good habits that can grow with them into adulthood. It can be hard to find the right tools and to know how to answer all the questions to do this, though. With both of my kids are interested in Biblical prophecy, I feel way out of my depth on that particular topic – and that’s why we’re so excited to read 30 Prophecies: One Story from Christian Focus.

I was excited to receive this book and to start reading through it, but My Big Helper walked by as I pulled it out of the envelope. After asking if she could look at it, she grabbed it, started flipping through it, and walked away. It was difficult to retrieve – a sure sign of a winner in this house.

Later, when I finally got the book back and sat down to read it, My Little Man sat down beside me. He promptly tugged it out of my hands, put it on his lap, and started reading. Lost it again.

Since we are in history competition season and workloads are high around here right now, we’re spending less time on our read-alouds than we normally might. My kids are both teenagers, though, and they’re very capable of reading on their own – and read it they did (it’s geared for kids ages 5 – 12). With our time constraints, I never was able to read it with them, but when I tried to talk to them about it, they bubbled over with all of the things they liked about the layout of the book.

My Big Helper really liked the features of each chapter. Most chapters are a double-page spread, although some are a little longer. Each section is marked by the symbols above, and each element is clearly spelled out. The language is simple and direct and easy to understand. We all enjoyed this. I like not having to worry about figuring it out or misunderstanding something, but I also like the section that explains what the scripture would have meant to people of the era. Knowing that culture, traditions, language, and customs are all different, it’s hard to know how meaning might change over time – and having this spelled out is important.

I also really like the application section. I think this is something that many people miss when they hear sermons or read the Bible. If we’re not looking for those ways that it all applies to us, it’s easy to miss those important items – especially when they’re wrapped in terminology that isn’t so common anymore. We have to look deeper, and this book helps kids do that.

As a kid, teen, and young adult, I tried many times to read the Bible. I really wanted to – but I never made it even halfway through Genesis. I had no idea how to do that, and I always got lost because I didn’t know how to fit the pieces together. Reading the Bible chronologically helped me to put the pieces together, and that’s why I appreciate the timeline that’s included in 30 Prophecies: One Story. It will help kids see which prophecies were happening when, and that helps you to put the whole story together.

There are several other cool features like this in the back of the book. My favorite was a list of character profiles. For each person, it lists what that person did, what that person wrote, and where you can find his story. As a student, I was taught how to study – and when I started looking at the Bible as a text I wanted to study, it made it much more approachable. This list will do the same thing for even very young kids.

You can see that the pages are simple but clear. The icons show what each piece of text is, and the illustrations bring home the point without being distracting.

30 Prophecies: One Story is a great book for kids in elementary grades and older. It would make a great read aloud, but if your kids are like mine, bringing it in the house is all it would take for the book to disappear and to be read. The author does a great job of showing that the Bible contains different kinds of text, and that one of them is prophecy. These scriptures are made clear and applicable, with a great deal of context and information that is suitable for the whole family.

Most important of all, everything in the book relates back to the Gospel message. Whether your children have chosen faith for themselves yet or not, there’s something for everyone in this book – but don’t take my word for it. Read other reviews from the Homeschool Review Crew to find out what other people are saying.

Psalms for my Day, 30 Prophecies: One Story & Not If, But When {Christian Focus Reviews}

Encouraging Hearts for Home Blog Hop – April 22, 2020

April 22, 2020 by Amy 2 Comments

My Little Man turns THIRTEEN today! I’m not sure how that happened, but time is flying by WAY too fast.

And Now, for This Week’s Encouraging Hearts & Home Blog Hop!

Use the form below to share your family-friendly posts this week, and please consider these nice things you can do:

Follow and/or subscribe to your host’s blog.
Visit a few other bloggers and show them your support. We all love getting comments, and who knows what inspiration you may find? Be sure to share the love–that’s what a blog hop is all about!
Check out our Encouraging Hearts & Home Pinterest board where each host pins her 10 favorite posts each week.
Join us every Thursday!
If you are interested in co-hosting, contact Linda at Apron Strings & Other Things!

Book Club, Sherlock Holmes Edition: “Death Cloud”

April 17, 2020 by Amy Leave a Comment

My Big Helper is a freshman in high school now, and finding good books for her to read with her friends – who range in age by a few years on either side of that – has been increasingly tricky. I look for challenging yet interesting stories in a variety of genres, and oddly, mystery stories have been especially difficult to find – at least until I found Death Cloud.

A book named Death Cloud may not seem the type to have a positive message, but it’s a fascinating story on many levels! Written by Andrew Lane, this book is the first in a series about Sherlock Holmes as a teenager. It’s also the only book (series) approved by the family of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle – and with the wealth of Sherlock spin-offs out there, that says something.

Death Cloud is a YA book for obvious reasons. It includes fights, death, murder, weapons, first crushes, and more, but it does not glorify the violence. Instead it concentrates on the ways that young Sherlock defends himself and his friends against it, on the lessons that he learns from his mentor, and the ways that he takes a stand for what he believes is right. There are moral and ethical dilemmas within that make for great discussion, and the vocabulary alone makes for a challenging read.

Best of all, though, Lane nails the essence of the famous detective. He proves that even at the age of fourteen he has the ability to make amazing observations and enough scientific knowledge to draw wise conclusions from them. These situations make the reader want to cheer Sherlock on and propel the reader through the story.

For all of these reasons, I was excited to choose Death Cloud as our book club pick for February. We started out by discussing the story and many of the ethical dilemmas within. Is it ever okay to lie? Does truth ever trump obedience? To what lengths should you go to defend yourself? Your friends? What is a friend?

I was really excited about our second activity – an escape room! My kids love to pit themselves against characters from their favorite stories, so I created an escape room-style challenge based on this book.

With only four girls in attendance that day, they opted not to split up but to solve the puzzles together. I love seeing how happy they are to stick together!

Although it was February, the weather was mild, so we held our meeting outside. One puzzle required the pieces to be hidden, so I hid them around our yard for the girls to find.

After collecting all the pieces, they moved to the deck, where they worked to put together all the pieces. In the end, they were able to solve the whole thing – but just a few minutes late!

Finally, as marionettes play a role in the story, the girls each crafted her own. They brought long-limbed stuffed animals from the local dollar store and used craft sticks and string to create a simple puppet.

It was a lot of fun, easy to do, and they each got great results!

I really enjoyed making the escape room challenge for Death Cloud, and so I’ve added it to my TpT store here. It’s completely printable and utilizes skills and information from the story. There’s a vocabulary challenge, math puzzles, a bee puzzle, literary elements from Charge of the Light Brigade, and more. Check it out!

What are you reading right now? Do your students like escape rooms? Let me know in the comments!

Encouraging Hearts & Home Blog Hop – April 15, 2020

April 15, 2020 by Amy 4 Comments

How are you doing? I hope this finds you and your family well.

We are continuing to stay at home. As the weather improves, we’re working outside in our gardens and playing games as a family when time allows. We’re powering through schoolwork, too, so that we can take a more extended break when this is all over.

And Now, for This Week’s Encouraging Hearts & Home Blog Hop!

The post with the most views from last week:

No Housework Day.

Use the form below to share your family-friendly posts this week, and please consider these nice things you can do:

Follow and/or subscribe to your host’s blog.
Visit a few other bloggers and show them your support. We all love getting comments, and who knows what inspiration you may find? Be sure to share the love–that’s what a blog hop is all about!
Check out our Encouraging Hearts & Home Pinterest board where each host pins her 10 favorite posts each week.
Join us every Thursday!
If you are interested in co-hosting, contact Linda at Apron Strings & Other Things!

“Kings Falling” by Ronie Kendig – Review

April 10, 2020 by Amy Leave a Comment

Leif Metcalfe and his team, dubbed Reaper, need to recover the stolen, ancient Book of the Wars if they hope to stop the Armageddon Coalition and their pursuit of global economic control. But their attention has been diverted by a prophecy in the book that foretells of formidable guardians who will decimate the enemies of ArC. While Iskra Todorova uses her connections in the covert underworld to hunt down the Book of the Wars, Leif and Reaper attempt to neutralize these agents but quickly find themselves outmaneuvered and outgunned.

The more Reaper tries to stop the guardians, the more failure becomes a familiar, antagonistic foe. Friendships are fractured, and the team battles to hold it together long enough to defeat ArC. But as this millennia-old conspiracy creeps closer and closer to home, the implications could tear Leif and the team apart.

Ronie Kendig is the MASTER of suspense! Kings Falling starts off with a bang and doesn’t let up; instead, she ratchets up the action with each chapter.

I love the premise in this series; that the Book of the Wars mentioned in the Biblical book of Numbers has been found. Governments around the world are hunting it down. It’s fascinating to think about the information that book might contain.

This next chapter in Iskra’s story is really exciting. She’s a character who is full of contradictions. That will keep you on your toes as you try to figure out what she’s up to. She’s not the only character to fall in that category, either.

Leif, on the other hand, is just off the charts. Every time I thought I had a handle on his backstory I later decided I was wrong. He’s the most awesome kind of male lead: strong, protective, decisive, smart, and yet vulnerable in critical ways. That vulnerability causes him to struggle with himself as well as the main conflict.

With multiple antagonists who take the search for The Book of the Wars world-wide, Leif’s team crisscrosses the globe tracking down clues. Kendig keeps you guessing here, as well, as she dribbles out new information expertly. I love stories where I can’t figure out the details before turning the last page, and they’re hard to find. Kendig kept me in the dark the whole time, though!

I loved this book and I read it in a single sitting – I couldn’t put it down. Kings Falling is the kind of story you think about long after you finish it. You’ll be contemplating the characters and the action and wondering what will come next. Unfortunately, I’ll be wondering for several months until the sequel releases – but I’ll definitely be first in line to read it when it does.

If you like suspenseful, high-action, prophetic-type stories with likeable, hunky characters, you have to read this series. (Pssst! Don’t start with Kings Falling. Start with Storm Rising because it’s too good to miss.) Grab your copy today!

I received a free copy of this book from the author. All opinions are my own.

“History on Horseback: The Early Years” – Review

April 8, 2020 by Amy Leave a Comment

My family loves history. We love history of all kinds, but we get really excited when we discover a little-known fact or detail that helps to open up understanding in a new way. That’s why we’re so excited to share History on Horseback: The Early Years from Sonrise Stable Books with you.

This book is really unique. It begins with the arrival of horses in the Americas in 1493 and continues that story all the way until 1866, and it’s the perspective of this time period that makes this unlike any other history I’ve ever seen.

Each chapter is super short – usually around two pages – and each chapter has two special features. There’s always at least one picture or piece of art, and sometimes a lot more than one. Sometimes the chapters include logos or other artifacts, too.

The other element that each chapter contains is a sidebar full of fun facts. These are little-known nuggets of information that aren’t crucial to understanding the history told in the chapter but definitely up the interest factor. My Little Man loves these!

The story isn’t told from perspective of horses – that’s been done; and it’s not a history of horses, exactly, as it doesn’t focus solely on a single breed or the animal alone. Instead, it’s a joint story of people and horses and how their stories influence each other. There are many more details about horses and animals than in a typical history book, then, but there are still facts and figures and anecdotes about the legacy of the human action. It’s a really neat way of looking at it!

My Big Helper was excited to see Ezra Meeker featured in one chapter. He’s the guy credited with preserving the Oregon Trail, and she did her very first National History Day project about him several years ago. She read several of his books, visited the websites of memorials all along the Trail, and studied everything she could get her hands on connected with his story. As I read it out loud while the kids cracked nuts, I kept seeing her shake her head as if saying, “yes, that’s right! That’s how it happened!” We enjoyed the detail and depth put into this chapter, and My Big Helper liked seeing how much she remembered – and how much her research matched the author’s.

The chapters are organized chronologically and often relate to each other. Readers will really be able to see the cause and effect patterns in history.

I mentioned that I read some of these to my kids – this is something that we often do. They find a project that allows them to work with their hands while listening, and I read something to them. This book worked very well for us with this structure; they were able to listen and then we could discuss it together, immediately, without having to pass the book around or wait for anyone. It could be paired easily with other activities to expand learning like journaling projects or research into the people or primary sources mentioned. It would even be fun to build or create versions of things in the story, like the manchila from the Pony Express chapter.

Right now, you would have to create those things yourself (and it wouldn’t be hard, because the chapters are definitely high-interest and meaty); but there’s help coming for those who don’t want that added step! There’s a study guide on the way, so while you can read this however you choose and leave the learning there, soon there will be more to help you dig deeper into the history.

Because of this, the book works well as a partial history credit if that’s what you’re looking for, or you can pair it with another program or other books to create a full-credit program. When the study guide is ready, it will be able to stand alone as a full credit.

I think History on Horseback: The Early Years is the perfect way to look at history over time in a way that keeps the learning moving but digs deep into the real story – but don’t take my word for it! Go here to read other reviews from the Homeschool Review Crew.

History on Horseback: The Early Years {Sonrise Stable Books Reviews}