Doorposts Bible Study Review

We were so excited to get to be a part of this review! My son had such an awesome learning experience while participating in the review for Doorposts "Because You Are Strong" A study of Godly Strength for Young Men by Daniel Forster. The softcover book retails for $14.00 but is currently on sale on the Doorposts website for $12.00. It's a steal even at the full price!
WOW!! What an awesome devotional book. I almost hesitate to call it a devotional. When I think of a devotional book, I tend to think of, oh maybe 2 or 3 paragraphs, a few thought provoking questions to ponder and a one sentence Bible verse that ties it all in. This is so not what Because You Are Strong: A Study of Godly Strength for Young Men is all about.

Doorposts is a name that our family has come to trust over the years. We have lots of their items that we have used over the years with great success and let me be the first to tell you (before you read what the other TOS Reviewers had to say.) this devotional for young men is
unbelievable, it's full of meat and potatoes and not just milk and honey. It digs down deep and makes the boys think and contemplate on what is being taught. Don't get me wrong, your son does NOT have to be a seminary student to understand the material presented in the Because You Are Strong: A Study of Godly Strength for Young Men, it's all done in an easy to read and understandable format.

On a side note the author of the book Daniel Forster is a homeschool graduate and also manager of Doorposts. Forster is married and has three children. My son thought that was pretty cool.

What this Homeschool Momma liked about Doorposts "Because You Are Strong" A study of Godly Strength for Young Men by Daniel Forster.

1) Well for one thing I can tell that this was written by a former homeschool boy in that there is ample room for writing. LOL...you know how our homeschool boys like to write? lol...lots of room to write, cross out, write some more. Love that. Usually there is like 1 tiny little line to write on smooshed in between sentences and the boys write in there and we can't read it! LOVE THIS!

2) I liked how this study was full of meat and potatoes and not just a few lines to read, a question and a single Bible verse like many devotion books of today, but thinking of the quality of Doorposts I knew it would be good.

3) I liked how this held my sons attention, I did not have to get after him to have his daily devotions. Which for a Christian homeschool momma that is a blessing.

4) The Bible study tools were incredible; we now have a desktop full of great Bible study tools at the click of a mouse.

5) I teach Sunday School to 1-3 graders at church and have shared many of the Bible websites with the kids as many of them like to play online. I thought these would be great for them to have some wholesome websites to play around on and learn about God's word.

6) Easy to use for boys ages 12 and up.

7) I enjoyed the History of the Strong's Concordance, I had no idea that there was any real history behind that book! So the old homeschool Momma learned something new!

8) Math skills! You all know that I like to pull in all areas of schooling when we are working on something. Well I see math skills in this book! They have some graphing activities...YIPPE!!!

9) Teaches Bible study methods which is a skill our young men will use for the rest of their lives and pass on to the next generation (our Grandchildren).

10) The book goes over literary style in the Bible, I am lacking in knowledged in this area and gleaned a lot from this. Teaches about context, cross referencing, biographical sketches, summary and application of the materials.

What this Homeschool Momma did not like about Doorposts "Because You Are Strong" A study of Godly Strength for Young Men by Daniel Forster.

1) I honestly could not come up with a single thing, well with the exception of there are no pictures in the book or cartoon images. Which that is not a dislike exactly, it's a personal preference on my part. I like to see pictures or cute cartoons.

What this Homeschool young man liked about Doorposts "Because You Are Strong" A study of Godly Strength for Young Men by Daniel Forster.

LOL...Where do I begin? There was so much going on in daily each lesson that I'm not sure where to begin so I will just start firing things off.

1) The Bible Study websites, I had so much fun digging around in those and I learned a lot by looking at the different maps and commentaries. We have a commentary in paperback, but it was neat to have one online that I could look at and cross reference as I worked through the book.

2) I looked forward to each day to find out what new thing I was going to learn.

3) I liked how I could do more than 1 study per day, seems like the every day ordinary old devotional you are suppose to stop and then start on the next day with a new devotional. Because You Are Strong: A Study of Godly Strength for Young Men continued from day to day for several days. So everything ties in together.

4) My favorite chapters of the book were A Topical Study on the Omnipotence of God and A Character Study of Sampson.

5) LOVED the Bible programs and Mobile Apps. I'm still having fun with these even after the review.

6) I liked the word studies and the "For additional study" sections of the book. They helped me to get a better understanding of the topics I was studying.

What this Homeschool young man did not like about Doorposts "Because You Are Strong" A study of Godly Strength for Young Men by Daniel Forster.

1) NOTHING!

I think a few things you might want to have on hand (you can get these for FREE online if you GOOGLE them.
Because You Are Strong: A Study of Godly Strength for Young Men author recommends using a Nave's Topical Bible and Strong's Exhaustive Concordance.
I would add the following items.
2 Bibles with different translations
Study Bible
dictionary
topical Bible
Bible dictionary
commentary (the book recommends Matthew Henry's, but we were fine using one we had on hand already)
thesaurus

So all in all we are saying this one is a KEEPER!! We would expect nothing less from Doorposts!!

Notgrass Company Homeschool Review

As part of the TOS Review crew we received five ebooks in the series from Notgrass Company which included the physical book Proverbs and the following Ebooks: Draw to Learn Acts, Draw to Learn Proverbs, Draw to Learn Psalms, Draw to Learn the Letters of Paul, and the Draw to Learn the Life of Jesus.

 

I must say that this was one of the toughest reviews that we have been given to do. My son is not an artsy type of person, he does not enjoy drawing or even doodling. I thought maybe this would be a review that would change those things, but it did not. When he did draw he thought his drawings looked babyish and like stick figures, he was quite embarrassed by his drawings. So please as you read my review be thinking of your own child and how they may enjoy the Draw to Learn K-8 series in your homeschool. Kids and adults would be a good fit for this product.

Here is a bit of history on the Notgrass Company, they are a family owned and operated business that started back in 1999. They are meeting the needs of homeschooling families by providing Bible based curriculum that are easy to use by homeschooling parents. My favorite quote from the website is "We are proud of you for making the choice to homeschool, and we believe that you can be successful. Why are we so confident? Because we believe in God who daily provides everything we need to do what He asks us to do. You are on a wonderful adventure. Don’t forget to enjoy the ride!" This is so true and from reading their website and using their products I can tell you that the Notgrass Company truly cares about our home educating families.

The Notgrass Company website has some fun things to check out too! Besides links to all their K-high school materials, they also have a section with articles, new product news, family activities,  and much more.

We used the Draw to Learn K-8 series as part of our daily devotions, I was very excited about reviewing the Notgrass Company products and using the sketch book, since we were going through a Proverbs devotional book during our family devotions time. I thought it would tie right in. It did tie in perfectly, but I had a reluctant drawer. The materials are spot on Biblically and are easy to read and understand. In the back of my mind I wish that we had also been given the Learn to Draw, I think that might have been helpful to my not artsy son. I think that if your child does NOT have perfectionist tendencies they will be happy just drawing away on the pages.

Using the Notgrass Company's Draw to Learn K-8 homeschool art curriculum I found that it helped our son to think more concretely about the Bible passages that we read in Proverbs through using his imagination in his drawings. Ray and Charlene Notgrass have done an awesome job at bringing the book of Proverbs alive through the Draw to Learn series.

Below are the Ebooks that we were given during this TOS review.

Ebook $9.95



Ebook $9.95

Ebook $9.95

Ebook $9.95

The instructions for use are very simple and easy to use. The authors offer up these suggestions.

WORK DILIGENTLY
Each lesson should take 45 minutes or longer. They ask that you spend time making your drawings,
add details and show the surroundings.
USE COLOR
Notgrass Company recommends purchasing Prismacolor Thick Lead brand colored pencils by Sanford (these are a bit pricey so be sure to use a 40% off coupon from your favorite craft store  :O)  I have used these myself and they are wonderful, I would put the Prismacolor pencils away after each use and let the kids use the cheap-o colored pencils for other stuff. I think sometimes it makes art time fun when we as homeschool moms bring out the "special" tools of the trade.
USE A MODEL OR A PICTURE
They recommend using real objects, people and scenery to look at while drawing, instead of just your imagination. I think this was a major issue with us in my son just wanting to use his vivid imagination.
DRAW PEOPLE
The authors tell you that you can draw "realistic" people, "cartoon style" or "stick people", this was a hard concept for my 13 year old as he was embarrassed by his drawings being so childlike.
FILL UP THE FRAME
They ask that you use the entire drawing box for your art work.
PROTECT YOUR DRAWING SURFACE
Put a piece of heavy paper behind your sketch book page so that you don't get indentations from drawing or coloring on to your next sketch page.
SKETCH FIRST
The authors explain that you should sketch your drawing in first, using a light hand, then darkened up the drawings as you go. My son was not much of a sketcher, he would just start drawing away.
PREPARE FOR TOMORROW
Look over the lesson for tomorrow to see if you need any props or pictures to guide you.
HAVE FUN
The authors tell you to "always keep a sense of wonder at God's amazing power."

You know I am always looking to see how one subject matter can lead into another subject? Well you have that right here with the Draw to Learn K-8 series, you can do further Bible study with older students, you can work on handwriting by copying the Bible verses each day, work on art skills which have been lacking in our homeschool, work on science as the authors explain "when you make drawings about crops, read a book about farming." As for history, geography and math by researching about weights and measures, of today and in Bible times. Creative writing can be worked on through writing stories or research papers on the materials being studied. You can also work on Notebooking and Unit Studies using the materials from the Notgrass Company. As well as character studies. So I am thinking that we are covering a wide variety of subject matter here with JUST ONE BOOK! The Draw to Learn K-8 series Proverbs book retails for just $14.95 for the physical book. The Ebook is just $9.95 and the exciting thing about the Ebook is that you OWN IT! You can make as many copies as you want for use in your household. So if you have 5 children, you do not need to buy 5 Ebooks, you can legally make copies of the Ebooks for each of your children.

Even though this review as not the best fit for our family I do hope that you will give the Notgrass Company a try, some good has come out of this TOS review for us, I see that we are lacking in the art department and need to work on that.
Click below to see what my buddies over on the TOS Review crew thought of the products that they had the privilege to review from the Notgrass Company.

Thankfulness during the Pantry Challenge?

As I think about being thankful for the surplus I have and how I am able to be wise in using it, the 10 leprous men come to mind that Jesus healed.

Luke 17:12-13 ^12"And as he entered into a certain village, there met him ten men that were lepers, which stood afar off: ¹³And they lifted up their voices, and said, Jesus, Master, have mercy on us. ¹⁴And when he saw them, he said unto them, Go shew yourselves unto the priests. And it came to pass, that, as they went, they were cleansed. ¹⁵And one of them, when he saw that he was healed, turned back, and with a loud voice glorified God, ¹⁶And fell down on his face at his feet, giving him thanks: and he was a Samaritan."

A couple of key things here, 10 guys with leprosy (some sort of nasty skin disease that is painful) and only 1 guy says "THANK YOU to Jesus for healing him", only 1 guy fell down and gave thanks and praise to Jesus, and that 1 guy was a Samaritan! Which is very key because "Samaritans were hated by the Jews as part of a complex and ancient racial prejudice." In James MacDonalds book Lord, Change My Attitude he says it like this

"The point is, no one has an acceptable excuse for ungratefulness.Everyone can make the choice to give thanks and acknowledge the goodness and the grace of God. Sadly, however, only a small fraction of the human population ever personally thanks God for His grace."

Have you taken time to thank God for His saving grace? For the things that you have in your life? Good things and things that you suffer for? Take time today to thank God and pick up a good read. Lord Change My Attitude Before It's Too Late by James MacDonald with forward by Dr. Erwin Lutzer. Our 11 year old son read this book first and then told me that he thought I should read it. I have been wowed by many things it the book. The most captivating so far is the fact that many of us, including me (gasp!) are living in the 'wilderness' like the Israelites. If you are a Child of God, you have it all (not meaning stuff either) yet you may not realize it and suffer for it.

Get out of the wilderness!
Moe