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Heroines of the Past

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I am so excited to share this review with you today.
not just because I got to use my binding machine,

But also because I’ve been on the lookout for a resource just like this,
and here it has landed in my lap as part of a TOS review!


Heroines of the Past Bible Study
By: Amy Puetz

An Inspiring Thirteen-Week Virtue Study Celebrating
the Noble Deeds of Women and Girls from History.

This is a 5 day/week, 13 week course taking children through
some amazing historical accounts of virtuous women.

The Daily Lessons Include:

Daily Reading: For each day there is a short story for children to read and respond to. The characters in the stories are all girls or young women who displayed particular virtue(s) during their lives. The exerpts are short, only about three pages long but I think they are just the right size for a reflective study. Many stories are broken into parts so you read the first part on Day1, the second part on Day2…untill you have finished the story. There are still study questions at the end of each daily reading.

Study Questions:These focus on the story, and relevant Bible verses
There are a few questions that reflect the comprehension of the story, meant to draw out the specific virtue displayed. Girls are also given key scripture references that apply to the story. They can look these up in their bibles to see what God says about the virtue. (Just a side note here: I love that children are prompted to look up the verse in their own bibles and not provided the scripture.)

Box of Visual Reminders:
Every so often girls are prompted to add a specific item to this box to help remind them of the virtuous choice that was made. This is such a great idea to review, I love the visual aspect of this study and I see this being a great addition to a hope chest.

Idea: We might spend a day and modge podge a shoebox or something to make it extra special.

Virtues listed in back
This is probably my only con, if you could call it that because it is so minimal. But, I would have loved to see the virtues defined in the back as a reference. They are all listed, which is helpful, but there are no definitions. Just a couple of sentences or an example would be sufficient to keep the conversations moving fluidly. Sometimes it’s hard to define two similar virtues on the fly. It would also be nice to be able to look at the table of contents and see what virtue was going to be covered.

How we’ll be using this:
Eventhough I could read this on my kindle if I wanted to, I printed the entire book and bound it instead. Of course I personalized a title page with my daughter’s name. There are so many pages to print so I did print two pages per sheet, both sides of paper, and fast draft ink. For those of you who dislike the hassle of printing ebooks you can purchase this study in printed form.

I am hoping to use this as a Mother-Daughter bible study. We will read the short story at bedtime together, and maybe even try out our funny acting voices with a few of them. I haven’t decided yet on the study questions, I might have her answer them on her own with a special journal or we might discuss them instead of write them.

The way the book is set up you could easily use this in a group setting,
so if you are looking for a young women’s study plan, this is the one to get!

You can purchase Heroines of the Past in e-book or printed form from Golden Prairie Press.

Golden Prairie Press is owned and operated by Amy Puetz, a homeschool graduate and self taught Historian. She has a website full of similar resources, some for boys even! I just listened to a sample of their audiobook “Ten Girls from History” and I was hooked! Amy has some wonderful things on her website, be sure to check them out!

Disclaimer: As part of the TOS Homeschool Crew, I was sent this product free of charge in return for my honest product review. You can read more reviews by other TOS Crew members here.

NEW! Family Math, Art, Geography, & Science Curriculum…..

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boy

Recently my 4 year old son (Bubba) has been showing interest and readiness to learn at a higher level then I’ve been presenting to him. I’m really excited to see the changes over the past few months:

He will sit for extended periods of time
He can hold a pencil the correct way most of the time without help
He knows his letters and the sounds they make
He is writing his name and other short words
He is beginning to recognize common words (Thanks Starfall!)
He is showing an interest in having “HIS OWN” school books (instead of sharing with Sissy)

I’m really excited because he has been such an “Energetic” little scout, and it’s been really hard to even attempt to lead any type of learning experience that required “FOLLOWING INSTRUCTIONS”

SIGH.

But I see that we are coming around the bend, and my little Preschooler just might be ready for some more one-on-one instructional learning.

Thus, I’ve been spending the past couple of weeks RE-Arranging my LIFE Homeschool schedule to fit him in a bit more, and of course researching curriculum choices that I could use for both children. I haven’t got it all just perfect yet (do we ever) but here are a couple of new additions to our Homeschool Curriculum that I wanted to share:

Science

The Complete Book of Science:

I love this book not only because it is in full color (total score for entertainment factor) but it has 12 different sections that provide hands on learning alongside worksheets and reproducible charts and diagrams. One of the first topics we started with this book was “Our Human Body” and we made these life size representations of our organs, bones, and muscles. You can imagine that both kiddos were giggly excited to do this. (Now, we’re learning about Rocks and Minerals) You can read sample pages here….

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FamilyMath

Family Math:

I saw this book at a thrift store (after I read that a friend picked it up at a thrift store) and decided to give it a shot. I mean $2 is worth a shot right? Totally worth it. I love this book already, it has transformed Math time at our house in a matter of days. Both of my kids love the hands on activities, and they love learning alongside eachother when an activity fits both their ability levels. The best part about this book is that it tells you very clearly, what ages each activity is for, and then it has pictures and additional ideas for how to explore the concepts with each child. Here is Bubba playing one of the sorting and counting games:

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TeachingArt

Teaching Children ART:

Okay, I know…we don’t really need books to teach children art do we? Aside from subscribing to Art Projects for Kids, I’ve been using this book to make sure that the kiddos recieve some sort of formal traning on Art (you know like color theory and all that technical stuff) So far we’ve done a couple of lessons as a family, and both children have been very interested. Here are some photos of them learning about line (horizontal, vertical, and diagonal)

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Little Passports

And for Geography…..Did you see? I won the 6 month Subscription to Little Passports, and should be receiving some fantastic learning materials soon! I can’t wait, so stay tuned for photos of those!

I’ve added all of our new books and resources to our Homeschool Curriculum page, in case you’re interested in what we’re using for the other topics too!

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Early Reader Bible Study

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Early Reader Bible

Oh, I just love the days when we find good books that fill a need in our classroom.

Lately, Well, Okay For a while now I’ve been feeling more and more tired….just plain ole’ lazy sometimes….but really just tired.

Tired and Homeschool are just two words that don’t mesh very well together are they?

Anyway, now that Sissy is 6 years old, and that I’m so tired.….I’ve been on the look out for homeschool materials she can utilize independently…… and one of the things on my list has been a Daily Bible Study plan.

Nothing to daunting or serious

Just something she can use to begin building the necessary skills of seeking God’s will for her life.

(You know like……..Read God’s word…..Find Answers to Questions…..Spend quiet time in prayer and devotion…….Ask more questions….Read God’s word again…ect…)

But the catch is I wanted her to start to learn to do it independently

Which means:

Bible Stories she can read on her own
(i.e. No more “Mom, what does this say?”)

Questions she can read and answer without help
(i.e. No more Mommy asking “What did Joseph’s father give him” ect.)

Too Tall an Order?

Would you believe that just this week I found the answer to this little desire?

It’s called the Early Reader Bible,
and it’s about the best thing since fried rice.
(do people still say that?)

Anyway, Here are a couple of photos of my favorite parts!

The stories are three pages long.

There are colorful and engaging Illustrations for each page

Before each story there is a Word Bank, of the new words introduced.

At the end of each story there is a “Something to Ask” which has comprehension questions, and personal reflection questions.

After that there is a “Something to Do” section, which provides ways for children to apply what they’ve read about God to their daily lives. (After reading about Creation, children are encouraged to thank God for the different things, people, and blessings in their lives)

I’m really excited to add this to our routine,

And Today, I helped Sissy to understand what would be expected of her when I ask her to do her “Bible Study”.

Here’s what happened:

Me- Sissy, you’ll need to read the pages of each lesson, then answer the questions in the back. You can use your notebook to answer them.

Sissy- But these stories are really long (3 pages) ……..sigh.

(Sissy reads the first page in like 10 seconds)

Sissy-Hey, reading can be fun when you get good at it.

Me- (Haven’t I said that…..like a million times this year?) Yes, Sweetheart, it’s fun when you get the hang of it.

So it’s not the most challenging of text for her,

but you know what….

The purpose of this book is to encourage and equip her with the confidence and skills necessary to explore God’s word on her own….and I think it’s a pretty good fit for what’s needed at our house lately!

(Not to mention the new little Kitty journal that fits pretty well too. Sometimes a pretty journal makes all those writing tasks a bit easier to bear!)

If you’re interested you can read some more sample pages here.

I’ll be adding this review to our Homeschool Curriculum page, which if you haven’t already noticed it….this is where I am (slowly) beginning to post about the different materials we use on a daily basis. Be warned this page is a work in progress ……….LOL, ….(as is our Homeschool)