Roar Like a Lion (New Devotional for kids~ Review + Giveaway)

Hello, friends! 

Goodness, but it has been quite some time since I have had a book to review here~ with the world so crazy and all for the past couple of years. I don't know about you, but oftentimes these days I find myself simply shaking my head, and wondering what on earth can be done to help tame some of the crazy. Levi Lusho understands that if the adults are feeling this sense of overwhelm, then the young ones in our lives probably are as well. He has written a  new devotional, Roar Like a Lion, filled with many little nuggets to help your kids navigate some of the unsteady, scary, and uncomfortable situations they are sure to encounter as they grow up, as well as learn to be bold in their faith. 

Although my kids are no longer the target age of this new devotional, having experienced the concerns of the younger ages, I do feel qualified to offer my opinion on this book. 😄

 

First, the less essential, but important details of the cover and graphics. This hardback book has a very eye-catching, colorful illustration of a roaring lion, and has a very smooth touch to the hand. It is an easy size to hold~ not too big and not too small. 

Each page has child friendly illustrations and colorful borders that give me a bit of a vintage Ruth Chrisman Gannett (Illustrator of My Father's Dragon, Miss Hickory, and other classics) vibe. Sorry for going a little geeky on the art, but that is a big part of a children's book's attraction for me. ;) 

For the more Nitty-Gritty, each devotional includes pleasing illustrations, fascinating facts, Bible verses and prayers, along with some simple action steps. This 90-day devotional will help your kids approach both fun moments and tough times with their hearts set on God's faithfulness.

                            

Roar Like A Lion covers topics like:

                            Facing fears about school and friendships

                            Dealing with peer pressure and bullying

                            Handling new challenges, disappointments, and grief

                            Having courage to try something new

                            Understanding how we each fit into God's great story

The devotionals are short and sweet (double-page spread), but pack a quick little punch of Biblical truth or wisdom that a child can understand and hold on to. I feel like even if you have older kids listening in, they might pick up on some of the truths, which are, after all, universal to all ages. ;) 

Whether using this as a start to your child's day, a before bed devotional, or a "tea-time" read (I think it would work well in an after school program for a snack-time devotional also~ just the right length!), these devotions offer simple encouragement to grow faith, and learn to share the Good News! 

Here's a look at the table of Contents: 

 #RoarLikeALionMIN
#roarlikealion
#tommynelsonbooks

Order Roar Like A Lion today and help the child in your life follow Christ more closely this Fall (or put it away and pull it out for a "New Year" new devotional option, Birthday present, Christmas present...). 

Tommy Nelson is also allowing me to give away one physical copy of this devotional to one of my US readers. It is a short turnaround for this giveaway, as I have to have your shipping information in to them by the 29th, so enter now! :)  


a Rafflecopter giveaway

Blessings~

Disclosure: Many thanks to Thomas Nelson for providing this product/product information for review.  Opinions are 100% my own and NOT influenced by monetary compensation.  I did receive the product in exchange for this review and post.

Kidzaw.com Master Kitz The Starry Night

This (last?) review of the TOS Review Crew 2018 year is a fun one! Kidzaw.com has put together some fabulous art kits for your young (or older) artist, inspired by the Masters. We were sent the Master Kitz The Starry Night, which, if you know your art titles, is obviously from Van Gogh. This made me very happy, as well as his older sister, who is an Art Ed major, and a fan of van Gogh. As a matter of fact, one of her major projects last year was a collage of the precursor to The Starry Night, and right now she is painting in oils a pair of old boots. So it's a lot of fun to have them both doing Van Gogh inspired projects at the same time, albeit 7+ hours apart. ;)

Van Gogh on the Left, Eldest on the Right for both pieces

If you visit the Kidzaw Website you will find more kits inspired by Klee, Kadinsky, Klimt, Monet, Rouge, and Hokusai. Each kit comes in a very nice, self-contained, magnet closure box, as you see here:

Inside this particular box, we found two pieces of deluxe art paper and a large Starry Night Cyprus Tree (Both rolled up, the stencil is green...) Washable (Yes! It comes off hands very well!) Blue, Black, and White Acrylic paint, 4 oil pastels (white, yellow, orange, and dark blue~ apparently the kit has been updated with a 5th, light blue pastel as well), low tack star sticker mask sheet, a Van Gogh texture roller, a sponge roller, instructions and a colorful information sheet. The Van Gogh roller has a protective covering on it when it arrives (as you see in my unboxing photo), but it has a nice texture to give the feel of Van Gogh's strokes. 

So, we are * almost done with this project~ There are a few steps involved, not the least of which is getting the paper and the stencil to lie flat (Paper is easy~ tape it down. The Stencil was a little more tricky, and after having it flat on the table overnight with the box and a few things stacked on top of it, we still needed to use tiny rolls of masking tape in strategic areas to get it to lie flat on the paper). I'll go over the process as we followed the included instructions. 

First, the star masks are placed on the upper half of the paper, then the entire paper is covered with Van Gogh strokes with the roller using blue paint, followed by a "cloudy" layer with white paint.
The star masks are removed, and when the paint is dry the stencil is laid down and the sponge roller is used to apply black paint.

After waiting for it to dry (It really is very fast-drying paint), the stencil is removed, and it is time to apply the oil pastels.

This is one of the places where we have figured out how we want to do things differently on the second piece of paper.
Probably do a blue sponge layer of paint first.
A darker layer with the Van Gogh roller of blue and black paint mixed across the top, but stopping more halfway, because we found the oil pastels didn't cover quite as well as we'd hoped.

And this is as far as we've gotten at this point. The pastels definitely take a little more concentration and time. I will say, that looking at this as a photo, from a distance, it looks much better than looking at it up close in person, which is often the way of impressionist art. :)

I am always a fan of well-done art kits that engage kids in the process and create an interest in the specific artist. Because of my Eldest's major, we do have a lot of discussion and exposure to art and artists, and Youngest was pleased to be doing something that coordinated with his big sister. I think this would be a fabulous gift to give to any aspiring young artist.

Not So Nutty Nitty Gritty 

• Company: Kidzaw.com
• Product: Master Kitz The Starry Night
• Ages: ? with help, as young as 5, but even at 11, I was assisting some.
• Price: $29.99

You can visit Kidzaw on their social media pages: Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube

Please click the banner below to visit the TOS Homeschool Review Crew and see what others had to say. As always, I hope that this review was useful to you as you choose where best to spend your homeschool budget.

Blessings~

#hsreviews #art #homeschoolart #masterkitz

Forensic Faith for Kids (More Apologetics for kids)

A couple of years ago David C Cook introduced us to J. Warner Wallace when we reviewed the  book Cold-Case Christianity for Kids, and the accompanying Case Makers Academy website. J. Warner Wallace is a real-life cold-case crime detective who was an atheist until he was in his 30's, when he applied his investigative skills to determine the evidence for Christ. Forensic Faith for Kids is the third in his series of books for children who may begin wondering about the apologetics of their faith as well as corresponding books for adults.

The timing of this particular review was especially fortuitous because my youngest had recently been interacting with a cyberfriend, where he and other online friends were discussing Christianity and it's validity with a young person who had "all the questions." He was very concerned about her questioning the reality of God, Heaven, and what happens when we die because he felt he couldn't give her answers to make her see the truth. I told him that we can't *make anyone believe, all we can do is gain the knowledge we need to be able to plant the seeds and let God do the growing (I Peter 3:15).

Just a note* In case you might think that a book about apologetics for kids might be dull and dry~ I asked Youngest to read the intro, the preface, and the first couple of chapters... but he didn't... he read the whole thing in one sitting!

About the book:

Forensic Faith for Kids combines a story-line about a group of kids in a Junior Detective Academy, working with their local police detective to find a lost puppy's owner along with discovering how to use their forensic skills to help answer a friend's questions about Christianity.
-> See what I mean about fortuitous timing? ;) <- br="" nbsp="">
One of the key things learned is that there will always be questions, but even great court cases that are built on good evidence have unanswered questions. If they didn't they wouldn't need a jury and/or judge to determine the outcome. In the same way, we need to understand that we will never have ALL the answers (I Corinthians 13:12), but we need to make good use of the ones that we do have. 

About the Academy: 

Along with the book, the Case Makers Academy website offers many resources to help your reader engage with the story and the process of investigation.

Each chapter includes a video, a training activity sheet, an academy notebook sheet, and an adult leader guide. I will mention here that while this is perfectly wonderful to use on your own, it is set up very well to be used in a Sunday School class or as an after-school Bible club, or if you prefer, your own Junior Detective Academy.


The videos are J. Warner Wallace speaking directly to your young investigator(s) before they read the chapter. He lets them know a little bit about what they are going to be reading and gives a little background information. He really ties everything all together in the video. As a small example, in the video for chapter 4 he talks about "connecting the dots" and the activity sheet is a connect the dots activity. ;) He also encourages the kids to pay close attention to the sidebars in the book~ they are filled with Detective Definitions,  CSI Activities, reminders to Dig Deep (By completing the activity sheets and notebook sheets), "tools for the Detective Toolbox."

Here's the first video from the introduction to the book:

The Activity Sheets have fun puzzles or activities to complete (like dot-to-dot, spot-the-differences, etc...), the Notebook sheets are Fill-in-the-blank type worksheets that help to make sure your readers understand what they just read. The Adult leader guide talks about important concepts in the chapter and offers discussion question suggestions.

All around, I give David C Cook and J. Warner Wallace 5 Acorns out of 5 for an excellent resource to help train some of the youngest defenders of the faith.

Not So Nutty Nitty Gritty 

• Company: David C Cook and Case Makers Academy
• Product: Forensic Faith for Kids
• Ages: 8-12
• Price: $9.99 list price

You can visit Facebook for more interaction with the Case Makers Academy.

Please click the banner below to visit the TOS Homeschool Review Crew and see what others had to say. As always, I hope that this review was useful to you as you choose where best to spend your homeschool budget.

Blessings~

Home School Navigator (Reading/Language Arts Curriculum Review)

We've been checking out the interactive notebooks by Home School Navigator for the past few weeks. They are part of the overall Home School Navigator Reading and Language Arts Curriculum which offers 6 different levels of instruction which are indicated by color, with Red, Orange, and Yellow indicating earlier learning, and Green, Blue and Indigo more advanced. The interactive notebooks are included in the upper levels, and are what my review will focus on, although I will also give an overview of the whole program.

So, what is an interactive notebook? Well, it's a notebook with shapes and flaps that provide a more interesting and interactive way for your child to record their answers to comprehension and discussion questions about a particular chapter book instead of simply filling in blanks or writing on a plain sheet of paper.

Home School Navigator has placed their discussion questions, vocabulary words and comprehension questions into simple graphic formats that are then glued onto a notebook page and filled out. When you become a Home School Navigator subscriber, part of the monthly handouts includes the graphics for the Interactive notebook. You can see below a screenshot of some of the pages we used for the Because of Winn Dixie Interactive Notebook, which is found in the handouts for Month 6 of the Blue Level.

As your child reads through the book, there are items to fill out for every 4-5 chapters.

I recommend printing on colored paper if you have it, as it helps to add interest for most kids. :) Here is what our printed pages looked like before they were put into the notebook.
You don't need anything crazy~ I chose to use a wide rule, spiral bound notebook for my son's work.

A note: Know your children, and even if you think they know what they are doing, check in on them... ;)  Because my son is on the upper end of the age range, I figured he could take ownership of this activity more or less on his own. I handed him the pages, instructed him to cut out each piece and showed him how to glue them down. The pieces are flat with a dotted line where you fold the page up to write the answer beneath. I showed my son that you only glue down the part that is above the dotted line, but he got a little confused a couple of times~ you can see the orange pieces were folded the other way and glued down the wrong way... oops... These pieces are a little different from others we've used before with a similar idea. :) Another thing that wasn't in the instructions, but that I added was to draw around the edge of the shape so that when the flap was lifted he would know his boundaries for writing.

This set of pages shows vocabulary and discussion/comprehension questions with flaps up (kind of) and down.

And here you can see that there are a few pieces included that are informational (middle blue strip), and another that requested an illustration rather than an answer.

If your children are hands-on and enjoy cutting and pasting, this would probably be a hit for them. My son, sadly, is not in that camp. However, this was very good for him to continue practicing his cutting skills, which he generally avoids like the plague (no worries about important papers being turned into snowflakes by HIM! ;), and we had a few discussions that were interesting.
I will say that I do wish that the Master Book List was readily available to the public, as I am very picky about book choices in my home, and want to know up-front what the focus will be. I am sure there are other families with a similar wish. There were definitely chapter books in the upper levels that were not as good a fit for our family, so it was a little difficult for me to find one to use with my son at the appropriate level.  We had a false start with "The Invention of Hugo Cabret" which I thought he would enjoy, but freaked him out instead... (he has a bit of a phobia about robots which translated to the automaton in the story, which I didn't expect), and we ended up with "Because of Winn Dixie" as you could tell.

OK, that being said let me give you a quick glimpse of the rest of the program, even though it wasn't the focus of our particular review (I contemplated switching our focus, but chose not to as many of the books used were books that we had already read/studied/discussed, and that would not have been a good use of our school time~ another reason to make that book list public...),

Each level is broken down into 9 months of work. Each month focuses on a different genre of writing, including:

• Author Studies (Usually two or three in each year)
• Biography/Autobiography/Memoir
• Fables/ Tall Tales
• Folk tales/ Fairy tales
• Historical Fiction
• Mythology
• Nonfiction Texts/Persuasive Texts
• Poetry
• Procedural Texts
• Realistic Fiction
• Traditional Stories

Here is a look at the basic scope and sequence which can be found on the FAQ page 

You can see that there is a lot more to this program with a focus on many reading and writing skills. The monthly handout download I mentioned above is a good thing to skim through to give you a bit of an idea of what the month will hold.

The next item you will want to download is the weekly guide which shows everything you need for each day, each week as well as a breakdown of the day's activities. *Note: You don't have to do EVERYTHING for every day~ this is a "Buffet" of activities~ pick and choose what will work best for your own situation...

You can print these or just use them from your computer.
The rest of the program is accessed from the student dashboard. Each day has a bunch of buttons, for lack of a better word, that are clicked on in order, with all of the instructions and links required. If you haven't already printed out the month's handouts, they are linked individually here as well.

Almost every section includes a video with your child's guides (Ashley and Beth) showing them what to do, and explaining things along the way. This could be very helpful for the new homeschooling parent.

One other item that may be of interest to some parents is the fact that you can upload your child's work to the website, and they will save it/compile it into an end-of-year portfolio (there are reminders to do just that at the end of the daily teacher's guide).

Not So Nutty Nitty Gritty 

• Company: Home School Navigator 
• Product: Home School Navigator Reading and Language Arts Curriculum 
• Ages: Kindergarten to Fifth Grade
• Price: $97/year
  
  You can visit Home School Navigator on Facebook and Instagram

Please click the banner below to visit the TOS Homeschool Review Crew and see what others had to say, especially if you are more interested in the actual day-to-day use of the program, because many others focused on that in their reviews. As always, I hope that this review was useful to you as you choose where best to spend your homeschool budget.

Blessings~

#hsreviews  #readingsuccess    #readingstrategies   #makinglifelonglearners

Kids Email (An email provider review)

If you have been reading my blog for a while, you may recall a review in September 2106 for Kids Email. We have once again been provided a one year subscription to Kids Email Safe Email for Kids for review. My Youngest was delighted with the prospect as we do follow internet safety regulations, and will not allow him to have his own email from any of the generic email providers until he reaches their required age (typically 13, I believe).

We also were quite happy that we were offered this review, as it is a good primer for him, and it also allows him to keep in touch with some friends as well as send us emails. It also provides him a way to move some things he's been writing on the ipad (via attachment or even copy/paste) to a computer. He's begun writing stories and a potential chapter book, but he needed a way to get it to a computer, so this was perfect! ;) ).

Some of the features that make Kids Email stand out as a great option for younger children:
There are many settings and features that parents can use to help keep their children safe and still allow them the freedom to communicate with family and friends.

• Contact Manager~ Add family and friends to a contact list. 
• Safety Settings 
• Receive email for contact list only (yes/no)
• Send email to contact list only (yes/no)
• Allow child to edit contact list (yes/no)
• Block Senders~ If there are no contact restrictions in place, you can still block specific senders by blacklisting the emails. 
• No Ads~ Even if there are no contact restrictions in place, your child will never generic ads generated from Kids Email, because they don't offer advertising on their site. 
• Spam Filtering ~ Again, if there are no contact restrictions in place, Kids Email filters out spam. 
• Mail Monitoring ~ exactly what it sounds like 
• Safety Settings
• Send parent copy of incoming email (yes/no)
• Send parent copy of outgoing email (yes/no)
• Allow images in incoming email (yes/no)
• Allow links in incoming email (yes/no)
• Allow attachments (yes/no) 
• This can be customized to specific attachment types
• Filter bad words from received email (yes/no)
• Add Tagline to bottom of message to alert recipients that email was sent by a child (yes/no)
• Mail Queue ~ intercepts emails that fail safety rules~ notifies parent who can then approve or deny the email
• Safety Settings
• Send a notification to sender to let them know their email has been delayed, pending parent approval. 
• Time Restrictions ~ You can choose to restrict the time of day or day of the week that your child can access their email. 
• Activity Log shows when your child has logged in, or if they attempt to log in during a restricted time. 
• Custom Mailbox Folders~ Child can create their own customized email folders~ helping to teach organization skills. 
• Template Options allow your kids to change the way their email looks, which can be a fun option. There are 36 templates to choose from and there are appropriate templates for all ages, even teens! 

This is my son's current template, with some of the other options available shown

If you child has been begging for thier own email, and you have been hesitant because of all the the junk out there, Kids Email might be something you'd like to look into.

If you have a teen that has problems being responsible you can set them up with a @kemail.org address, so that you can help guide them/monitor them without their worrying about a "kidsemail" address~ because we all know that wouldn't go over too well... ;)

Not So Nutty Nitty Gritty 

• Company: Kids Email
• Product: Kids Email Safe Email for Kids
• Ages: 
• Price: 
• 30 day free trial
• $2.99/month billed annually ($38.95) for up to 6 email accounts
• $4.95 monthly for up to 4 email accounts

Visit Kids Email on their social media pages; 

Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, Instagram, and Google+

Please click the banner below to visit the TOS Homeschool Review Crew and see what others had to say. As always, I hope that this review was useful to you as you choose where best to spend your homeschool budget.

Blessings~

#hsreviews  #parenting  #kidsemail  #emailforkids  #safety #kidfriendly

Creation Illustrated~ now available in both Print and Digital editions!

I was first introduced to Creation Illustrated a number of years ago and was impressed with the beautiful photography (reminiscent of National Geographic), and articles written from a Christian Worldview, so I was delighted to check out two of their new Nature Unit Studies which I was sent for review, along with the corresponding newly available Digital versions of their magazine.

The Unit Studies are a natural complement to the format of the magazine, which is set up in three different coordinating sections~ here is an example of the table of contents taken from one of the issues we were given access to (Offered free for your perusal as well), the Fall '17 Digital Edition, which is the issue corresponding to the Pine Trees Study, one of the two studies we were sent to review.

Creation Illustrated
           

There are currently eight Nature Unit Studies available:
Badgers, Black Bears, Dragonflies, Fragrance
Joshua Tree National Park, Manatees, Pine Trees, Snow
and the 9th study on Butterflies (which corresponds to the latest issues, Spring '18 Digital Edition), will be available soon.

PINE TREES UNIT STUDY

The Pine Trees Unit study is the one that we chose to look at more in depth, in part because we have already covered snow in our studies, (perhaps to a greater degree than some, because my daughter takes amazing macro snowflake photos... ;), so Pine Trees was the more natural choice for us. 

The Lessons included in the Full Unit Studies include a list of Reading Resources, Educational Video suggestions, Vocabulary and Spelling pages, a Bible Study, Geography, Science, Math, Writing and Penmanship, Art, a Puzzle (Wordsearch), and Teacher's Answer Keys. 

 I had my son do parts of this study independently, and the lessons vary in difficulty. He was able to complete the Vocabulary, Spelling, Geography and Puzzle pages with ease (he chose not to complete the pine tree drawing on the Art page), but the Bible Study, Science and Math pages required a little more time, and/or some hands on help from mom. This tells me that the age range of 5th-8th grade is pretty accurate. 

We were also sent the Snow Unit Study from the Winter '18 Digital Edition.

 

In looking it over, I can say that I really like the Art page in the snow study, and will probably pull that out next winter~ he can go through his sister's photographs and see how many of the 35 snow flake shapes she has captured with her lens (did you know there were that many different basic shapes???!!!).

I will note that each issue already includes a study guide that covers many of the articles in the issue, but they are different from those in the full unit study (that addresses one topic in depth from the issue). The Full Unit Study is appropriate for grades 5-8.

A few more general bits of information about each Creation Illustrated issues~
They include coloring, photo, and poetry contests for homeschoolers, as well as Genesis Cuisine recipes to try out. You can subscribe to the Print Editions (which come out Quarterly ~ currently 25% off) and subscriptions to the Digital Editions will be available soon. In the meantime, there are some print back-issues available and the digital back-issues are being made available as they are uploaded ~ you will find all of that including another Sample Digital Back Issue, a Sample Unit Study on Fragrance, a character-building lesson, and more at Creation Illustrated. 

Not So Nutty Nitty Gritty 

• Company: Creation Illustrated
• Product: Pine Trees Study and Snow Unit Study
• Ages: Unit Studies 
• Price: 
• Unit Studies ~ Regularly $9.95, at the time of this post, 30% off at $6.95
• Print Magazine Subscription $14.95/year (Quarterly) 
• Digital Subscriptions (soon) $9.95/year
• Limited Print Back Issues also available $4.99 each

You can visit Creation Illustrated in on their Social Media Pages on
Facebook, Instagram, Pinterest, and Twitter

Please click the banner below to visit the TOS Homeschool Review Crew and see what others had to say. As always, I hope that this review was useful to you as you choose where best to spend your homeschool budget.

Blessings~