love to paint

A few years ago, my husband and I were discussing the Bible and what is and isn't in it.  I have often been puzzled by how much narratives read into the Bible stories.  I became aware of it when I read Francine Rivers' novels about Bible women.  At the end of each book, she included a Bible study.  The first assignment in the Bible study is to read the story in the Bible.  What discovered with the story of Bathsheba was that there were details in my head that weren't in the Bible.  I was caught by surprise when I realized this. I discussed it with my husband and he said to me that God put what He wanted in the Bible.  The stories in the Bible aren't meant to point us to the people.  They are meant to point us to God. I was reading a book this morning, Welcome to the Story by Stephen J. Nichols, and came upon an interesting quote.  Nichols makes the point that as we're reading the Bible, we should begin to realize something.  "We, if...

I have been writing a slew of reviews lately and I have one more today.  It is for Kinder-Math.  It's a lesser known kindergarten math curriculum by Susan Mortimer and Betty Smith. There are all sorts of math curriculums available today.  There's traditional math curriculums.  There's modern, brightly colored math curriculums.  There's mastery curriculums, like Singapore Math, and then there's spiral curriculums, like Saxon.   I've looked at a lot of them over the past few years.  Much of that is because I had to switch math curriculums in first grade because Autumn was stuck and not going anywhere.  Her struggles compelled me to compare math curriculums and think about what made them different from one another. For preschool, I use a book by Kathy Richardson titled Developing Number Concepts: Counting, Comparing, and Pattern .  I highly recommend this book for preschool, because it explains the basic number concepts children need to le...

One of the books that I recommend to friends who are thinking of homeschooling is Help for the Harried Homeschooler by Christine Field.  It covers the bases of the big picture well of what it looks like to homeschool and what many of the challenges are.  It doesn't go in depth into curriculum recommendations because many other books do.  She does include a short chapter on choosing curriculum that is full of very good advice. Christine has written several other books for homeschooling. I do have one of her other books, Life Skills for Kids , which is also great.  It covers manners, chores, and all the other skills (besides academics) that we want to teach our kids when we homeschool.   This week I read one of her books that I've been curious about for a while, even though it doesn't apply to my family right now.  Sometimes I wonder if God is preparing me for what may be ahead by prompting me to read a book like the one I read this week.   Chr...

This post is the next is my series of art curriculum reviews. Yesterday, I posted a review of  See The Light's Art Class Curriculum .  See The Light has also made three illustrated videos with art lessons.  My kids and I have had the chance to watch 2 of them.   The Gift of Love  and  God's Runaway .  Each of the videos has a 10 minute story and three art lessons.  One is a creative lettering lessons, one is a drawing lesson, and the third is a chalk-art lesson.  They are each taught by different artists. As a mom, I love the lessons from the Bible and the art that illustrates them.  It was surprising to me how much my kids enjoyed the stories even though they weren't animated.  The way the stories are filmed the illustrations come to life.  I enjoyed the art lessons and doing them with my children.  The art lessons are a little more difficult than the first lessons in the Art Class series, so I would recommend them ...

Two weeks ago, I reviewed the first art resource I found.    The CD by Jim Weiss could be used as a supplement.  It could be expanded into field trips and artist studies of each of the artists mentioned.  It could be your base if you wanted to develop your own art history curriculum.   Today, I get to review a second art curriculum resource. See the Light Shine is a Christian ministry that has developed a video art curriculum.  There are 9 DVDs in the set.  Pat Knepley is the artist teaching the lessons in the series.  Each DVD has 4 lessons in it with one bonus lesson.  They are short, only about 15 minutes in length.  Each lesson also talks about God and His Word.  The art concepts are all related to biblical concepts and our faith.  It was neat to me to see how the art teacher wove in lessons about God.  Art does reflect the beauty of God and His creation.  Art is also a very special act because it is a way tha...

At lunch one day this week, Autumn brought a book with her to the table.  She actually wanted to read it instead of eating her lunch.  So, what was this book?  It happened to be a new book that's coming out on Athanasius.  Yes, Athanasius.  This book is newest release in a series written by Simonetta Carr on figures from church history. Earlier this year, I reviewed one of the other books from the series on John Owen .  Reviewing that book challenged me to think critically about biographies and what we, and our children, learn from reading them. There is a saying that if we do not learn from history then we are doomed to repeat it.  There are also other sayings about history and why we study it.  I always told my middle school students that we studied history so that we could learn from the past and not have to reinvent the wheel over and over.  Both of these sayings apply to this series of Christian biographies for children. I asked Simo...

My oldest daughter began reading in kindergarten.  Once she caught onto it, she ran with it.  In first grade, her reading level was that of a third grader.  In second, it was higher--4th or 5th grade.  This year, her reading  is at a 5th or 6th grade reading level.  Last year, her reading ability was higher than her comprehension, but this year it has caught up. I use the QRI-II to test my children for both reading and for comprehension.  It was very interesting to see the difference between the two skills in my daughters skils over the past three years.  When I first realized how high her reading level was, I wanted her to read more challenging books.  This often meant reading books without pictures and with smaller font, which my daughter resisted.  Her resistance caused me step back and relax.  I was concerned that she didn't want to read books without pictures so one day I posted my concern on facebook.  Several friends ...

I was intrigued by this book when I read a brief description of it in Family Fun Magazine as being two stories told side by side--one in pictures and the other in words. I had the chance to review it so I thought it might be interesting.  The cover made me think the story might somehow be scary or eerie, but it isn't. The cover belies the wonderful story inside the pages. Selznick's story and writing remind me of E.L. Konigsburg's books. This story begins by telling two stories. The first is Ben's story in 1977, set at Gunflint Lake, Minnesota. His mom has recently died and he is living with his Aunt, Uncle, and their children. Ben's story is told in text. The second story is about Rose. She is a young girl in 1927. Her story is told through pictures. As the brief description of the story says, both Rose and Ben are searching for something that they desire to find. I loved reading Rose's story through pictures. The black and white pictures are wonderful....

I am a planner.  I like to know what's ahead.  I enjoy planning actually.  It gives me a vision of what my goal is and where I'm going.   Before I got married, I always had a vision or goal for my life.  You might call it having direction.   Then, I got married and God took that away.  That may sound strange, but it is something I am very convinced of.  It is one way that God has shown me how real He is and that He knows what is better for me than I know myself.   You see, I am a strong willed woman.  When I got married, I was what you might call an evangelical feminist.  Within the first six months of my marriage, God convicted my heart about what the Word says about submission and I realized that I needed to submit myself to my husband's leadership of our family.   This is where my vision comes in.  I can see how the disappearance of my vision when I got married compelled me to trust my husband.  If I ha...

Last spring, a friend came over for lunch with her kids.  They were several years older than mine and had been watching the end of Ken Burn's series about the Westward Movement at home and needed to return it after their visit.  So, they watched the ending on our television.  The movie did bring the Westward Expansion of the west to life, but it was appropriate for upper elementary/middle/high schoolers.  My children are younger.  They do love history, though, so I am always looking for age appropriate resources. What supplemental resources are out there if you're a public schooling parent with a younger child who loves history and loves to read?  And what supplemental resources are out there for homeschooling parents who's child is interested in a topic you're not learning about that year?  And then... how do you find the time to enjoy and learn from those "resources"?   I know many parents might say, "just stop what you're doing, take a br...

I've written before that Amish fiction has puzzled me and given me a bit of concern.   But, every once in awhile, I take another chance on it.   This week I read A Lancaster County Christmas by Suzanne Woods Fisher.   Here's my disclaimer:   This is fiction.   It is not nonfiction.   Please keep this in mind if you read this book.   Suzanne Woods Fisher hosts a radio show called Amish Wisdom.   I listened to a short excerpt of the show yesterday, which I do have thoughts about, but those thoughts are probably better suited to a separate post.   So, I'll limit this review to this book.   Storyline:   Jaime and C.J. have been married for 3 years.   Jaime is having doubts about her marriage and her ideas about what life should be have gotten skewed by the influence of her father who has reappeared in her life after being an absentee father almost her entire life.   Mattie and Sol are Amish and live with their son, Danny, an...

I have discovered over the past three years that it is often difficult for me to get around to teaching my children art.  I appreciate and value art, but at the end of the day I find that I am tired and often don't want to get all of the materials out needed for our art lesson.  So, I've been searching for solutions to my procrastination when it comes to teaching art. As I talked with friends, I've discovered that many of this struggle with this same dilemma!  It's not an essential subject, but it is required by many states, including Maryland where we live.  Over the past two months I've come across several great resources that I am going to be posting reviews of over the next few months. The first resource I found is one of Jim Weiss' recordings on the Masters of the Renaissance .  When we began listening to this cd, I realized how little I know about Art History.  This cd is a wonderful introduction to Art History because it helps provide some of t...

Yesterday, I posted a review of the Great Science Adventures Series published by Common Sense Press.  In my search for a science curriculum that would cross age groups well, I came across another curriculum by a Christian publisher.  It is Eagle's Wings Considering God's Creation .  I was excited to review this curriculum, because the authors' goal is to "introduce our children to God through His creation".  Essentially, they want to help students see God in His creation--to see how truly awesome God is.     Last week, I reviewed Eagle's Wings comprehensive phonics handbook.  One of my major concerns with that text was its formatting and ease of use.  This book is very different.  Though the formatting of the teacher and student books are all black and white, the font is easier to read--both because of its size and style.  For each lesson, the headings are bolded and it's easy to read the lesson prep quickly.  Each lesson include...