Faith Builders Bible Review #HSReview #FaithBuilding #Bible #NIrV

I have my kids start having their own personal devotions every day as soon as they learn to read. I had them start with a short story bible and as soon as they were done they moved on to a regular bible. I'm sure they didn't get anything out of reading the bible for awhile, but I wanted them to establish their own quiet time with the Lord. Alaina was excited to get the new Faith Builders Bible recently from Zonderkidz to use every day.

The Faith Builders Bible is written in the NIrV translation. This 8 1/2" X 5 1/2" hardbound bible has a brick building theme throughout with a presentation page. A dictionary and a list of 92 Great Bible Stories is in the back of the book.

The building brick theme makes this bible bright and colorful. I'm sure kids of all ages will be very attracted to it. There are 24 glossy pages of some best loved bible stories with color photos of building blocks depicting the event. A short paragraph describing the event and the bible reference of where the complete story can be found is included as well as a bible verse to go along with it.

The New International Reader's Version is based off the NIV but it is written at about a third grade reading level, so it is easier to read and understand. In this translation some of the longer words and sentences have been shortened to make them easier to understand for children and people new to the bible. Sometimes things in the bible have two different names, but in the NIrV they are only called by one of them. Where the bible uses quotes from other books of the bible the reference to where it is found has been added.
 

Having girls at home our Legos are Lego Friends. She set up some of the bible stories using girls. Here she has them at the Last Supper.

Alaina has been reading this bible for her devotions, she thinks it is very easy to read. She loves the colorful pictures of the building bricks, but thinks there should be more of them. She also loves the page with the Old and New Testemant books listed. They are divided into sections with different color bricks for different types of books. Like the books of the law are green, history is orange and brown, poetry is red and pink and so on. This would make a cute poster to hang in our school room or a Sunday school room.

 

I have read through some of the bible also and the colorful bible story pages. The translation flows well and is easy to read. I love that the bible quotes found in the bible have their references right on the page with the quote. The only thing I have a problem with this bible is one of the colorful pages has the ABCs of salvation. It says that you just need to follow the ABCs to become a Christian. They say A stands for Admit you have sinned, B is for belief in Christ, and C is for Confess your faith in Jesus. They fail to indicate that you need to repent and be baptised (Acts 2:38) in order to be saved.

This bible is made for kids and it is very cute. I can see both boys and girls liking this bible just for it's theme.

Social Media

Facebook

Twitter

SimplyFun Review #HSREVIEWS #FAMILYGAMES #LEARNINGGAMES #HOMESCHOOLRESOURCES

We love playing games. Of course my girls have their favorites, but they love when we get a new game to review because they know I will let them play it any time even during the school day.  

I’m reviewing Climbing Knights, one of four of SimplyFun new releases. SimplyFun is not a new company for us, we have been playing Shape Whiz since last summer. 

Climbing Knights is a game of strategy and spatial reasoning for children ages 8 and up. It is a game for 2-4 players unlike any we have every played. The game board is the castle, it is very sturdy and a couple of feet tall. The sides of the castle are magnetic and the game pieces stick to the side as they advance up the board. 

The game pieces are knights that are competing for the title of the King's Climber, protector of the castle's tallest spire. The knights must scale the castle to collect two Coats of Arms from the top. The first knight down is the King's Climber. On the way up the knights need to watch for the guards and avoid the windows or they will be sent back to the bottom of the tower. The guards are black and grey. There is one guard on the bottom rise of the castle and the other is on the next rise. The guards can only look up & down and in one direction. There are three dice to be used with the game. The black die moves the black guard, the grey die moves the grey guard, and the last die moves your knight.

 

My girls were so excited when our game first arrived. Of course they had to stop what we were doing and play the game right away. I was cooking dinner when it arrived and the girls read the directions and figured out how to play right away and we have played it several times since then. The game takes about 30 minutes to play. When there are more players you really have think about how far the guard will move before your next turn.

We love games from SimplyFun partly because they are so different from any other game, they are educational, and they are fun.

SimplyFun is a young award-winning company that has big dreams of making the world a better place through play. They have over 100 products that meet educational needs of children ages 3-103, but are fun for the whole family. They offer games for many concepts including math, science, geography, language development, and more. The games can be played in 30 minutes or less or longer when your kids won't want to quit.  If you are into saving money on games or making money selling them you can join SimplyFun as a Playologist, join their discount club as a Play Saver if you are planning on purchasing several games, host a Laugh & Learn Party with SimplyFun online or in your home.
 

The other three new games from SimplyFun are Archery Dice, Water Balloons, and Do It Again. Other members of the Schoolhouse Review Crew received the new game Archery Dice. You can read those reviews by clicking the banner below. 

Social Media

Facebook

Twitter 

Instagram: @SimplyFun

Blog

HelpTeaching.com Review @helpteaching #HSReviews #printableworksheets #onlinelessons #readinglessons

There are times we like to study things that we don't have a textbook for. We use living books, encyclopedias, and trips to the library. Sometimes we write papers, keep a notebook, or create a lapbook to record what we have learned. I'll admit that once in awhile I don't want to spend a lot of time figuring out what we should do. Recently I have been using worksheets and tests from the Pro Plan available at HelpTeaching.com.

HelpTeaching.com offers K-12 printable and online tests, activities, lessons, and games. They offer a limited free Membership, the Pro Plan for teachers and parents, and a Group Pro for businesses and schools.

I have plenty of resources for the lower grades, so I wanted to see what they had to offer my high school student. I could find what I was looking for by browsing by grade level or subject. Amber is working on some ninth grade subjects and some tenth grade this year, so I started browsing by grade level. I was shocked by the tremendous amount of topics that are covered in this resource. Ninth and tenth grade both cover the Arts, English Language Arts, Math, Physical Education, Science, and Social Studies. Ninth grade also included Life Skills and Study Skills/Strategies. Under each subject are many topics.

There is also a test making feature. In this section you can create your own tests and answer key. You can add your own question, browse all the available questions, or browse your own library of questions. You can edit your tests by moving the questions up and down or adding page breaks. The test can be scheduled, timed, and emailed to individual students or classes and can be saved as a PDF.

Self-directed lessons are also available for high school. After a short introduction there are videos and links to online resources to help the student. There are questions to answer before the lesson and worksheets and tests for after the lesson.The links are to pages with more information about the topic.

A game generator can also be used to create Bingo Cards, Word Bingo Cards, and Word Searches. Any word or number can be added to generate games to cover any topic the kids are studying.

I wanted to get a good feel for high school resources, so I chose several different lessons, worksheets and tests for Amber. While I was browsing it was very easy to print the worksheets right away, save them to My Content to find later, or save them on my computer as a PDF. She is about to get her learners permit to drive, so I was thrilled when I found questions to create a Road Safety test. She also loves critical thinking, so I found her a worksheet with Logic Statements. Another one of her favorites was Analyzing a Eulogy.

HelpTeaching.com is a great resource to have no matter where your kids go to school or what grade they are in. Generating tests and worksheets is very easy and there are plenty of topics available for the whole family.

Social Media

Facebook

Google+

Pinterest

Twitter 

Wordless Wednesday Grey Ombre Cake with Snowflakes #lisacayscakes #ombrecake

Home School in the Woods U.S. Elections Review @HSintheWoods #HSReviews #HistoryUnitStudies #HomeschoolHistory

This time of year there is so much talk about the Presidential debates and the elections, and it makes the perfect time to study about it with my girls. We just finished the HISTORY Through the Ages Hands-on History Lap-Pak: U.S. Elections from Home School in the Woods.

This U.S. Elections Lap-Pak is available on a CD or as a download. It will introduce children in grades 3-8 to the Presidential elections. It includes 21 projects that cover the presidential election process to create a lapbook or notebook. A list of additional reading material is also included.

We received the download version from Home School in the Woods. Once the download is complete you click on start and that will take you to the main menu . There are instructions on printing and creating a lapbook or a notebook. The step-by-step instructions for each project and the lapbook assembly are very easy to follow and include colored photos. The reading text can be printed in a booklet to store in the lap book or full-size to include in a binder. There is also an audio that will read the text to the student while they work on their projects. The directions are very specific and indicate any special instructions like if the page needs to be printed on card stock or colored paper. The supplies needed are very minimal and include a file folder, scissors, glue, tape, packing tape, colored pencils, and a piece of sticky velcro.

I decided to work on this together with all three of my girls ages 11, 13, & 14. All three of them used to love to create lapbooks together, but Amber decided she is to big to spend so much time cutting and gluing. She still joined us while I read the text booklet out loud and she did more reading on her own. Once we were finished she wrote a paper on the U.S. Elections. Delaney and Alaina completed their lapbooks together. We have studied about the election process before, but Alaina didn't remember much about it and we all learned from this unit study.



I printed each project on plain white paper because Alaina loves to color and she wanted to color all of hers. The cover image we printed on card stock as indicated in the directions. I read the text booklet out loud and then the girls completed each project. We worked on this a little every school day and covered a lot of information. My girls learned about the branches of government, term limits, platforms, stump speaking, suffrage, the electoral college and so much more. Alaina and Delaney both liked the "Vocabinet" project where they added definitions inside their presidential cabinet. They also like the National Convention project because they got to add glitter to celebrate a win.

I have used the Project Passport World History: The Middle Ages  and  Hands-On History Activity-Pak about Composers from Home School in the Woods with my kids and we loved both of them, so I knew we would enjoy this Lap-Pak on U.S. Elections. If you have never completed a lapbook with your kids this is a great place to start. It was very user friendly and creates a beautiful book your kids will want to keep. This is a great hands on study of U.S. History elections to use with your kids while you are following the election yourself.

Social Media

Facebook

Google+

Pinterest

Twitter

Sweet Sixteen Zebra Striped Cake

I made this cake for a sixteenth birthday. I have made this young ladies birthday cakes for most of her life. Her family is not big fans of fondant, but they liked to the look of the fondant zebra stripes. I baked three 8" round layers and one 4" round. I covered the cakes in buttercream, but I used fondant for the ribbon, zebra stripes, and the #16 topper.

 The young lady was very pleased and her friends were very impressed.

 

Basketball Cake #basketballcake

This was a fun cake to make, I really like the bouncing basketballs on the bottom tier. This was a 6" & 8" cake with half of a ball on the top.

 I think I need to work on my food photography because lately I have been noticing a lot of things that need fixed with my pictures.

Gringotts Bank Cake #harrrypotter #harrypottercake #gringottsbank #cake #harrypotterwedding #diagonalley #wizardingworldofharrypotter

My niece got married back in November. I traveled to Florida to make her wedding cakes and of course visit family. She is a huge Harry Potter fan and she wanted Gringotts Bank as one of her cakes because her husband proposed in front of the bank at the Wizarding World of Harry Potter  in Orlando.