Zondervan's KJV Homeschool Mom's Bible Review

This review was so timely for me, because every new school year I like to treat myself to a new devotional book for homeschooling Moms. The TOS Review Crew was blessed to review Zondervan's KJV Homeschool Mom's Bible, I got the hardcover King James Version with the dust jacket that retails for $34.99, there is also an Ebook version Ebook version for $14.99 and a cornflower blue Italian Duo-Tone™ that retails for $49.99. The NIV version that can be found by clicking here NIV.

I have never found a homeschool mom's devotional that included the Bible in the text, so this was pretty neat, I could take it anywhere and not have to drag 2 books with me, my Bible & my devotional, it was nice to just bring along my KJV Homeschool Mom's Bible!! Actually I left this Bible in my car a lot, the devotionals were a quick read while waiting on my son at the library, mall, piano practice and other places.

Normally I would not spend $34.99 on a devotional book, but what a bargain the KJV Homeschool Mom's Bible is, you get a Bible too. The Foreword of the book is written by Vickie Farris who is an author and wife of HSLDA's Founder Dr. Michael Farris, I've read several of Mike & Vickie's books over the years so I knew if she endorsed the KJV Homeschool Mom's Bible it was going to be a good read! Vickie's opening lines say it all..."You and I share something incredible. We're called to the very challenging, yet very fulfilling life of a homeschool mom." Just reading those first few lines reminds me of the high calling of motherhood and of a homeschooling mom. WOW, that is so easy to forget when we are bogged down in our daily grind.

    The author of KJV Homeschool Mom's Bible Janet Tatman has homeschooled for more than 25 years with her four children. She has been a copywriter for Alpha Omega Publications in the homeschool division. She also spent 6 years writing the daily Focus, a devotional that comes by email each day. So I am thinking she has it going on, when it comes to knowing just what we homeschool mom's need for encouragement.

  

 

KJV Homeschool Mom's Bible is chock full of daily devotion to choose from, there are 365 in all. That is one devotion for each day of the year to help us busy homeschool moms on a daily basis. The book can be used in two different ways, depending on how you like to study the Bible, and if you have never studied the Bible, the KJV Homeschool Mom's Bible makes it simple for you. You can follow a daily format, (devotions are dated starting on page 3.) or you can use the topical index that you find in the back of the book starting on page 1489. I'm a topical kinda gal, because I don't like to go by the dates since if I get behind, it bums me out :O)

I only had one dislike about the KJV Homeschool Mom's Bible and it's really more of a personal preference. The devotions have nothing to do with the book of the Bible or the chapter of the Bible that they are printed in. For example devotion number 1 is "The Passion of Homeschooling" it's located in the KJV Homeschool Mom's Bible between Genesis 3:1-3:2. However, the verses in that days devotion are Ps 139:3, Rev 3:15-16, 1 Jn 1:9 and John 14:21. My personal preference in daily devotions is to read a passage of scripture and then have a devotional that goes along with the current Bible reading; there again this dislike is personal preference.

I love the topical index, because some days I am just in need of a certain thing, idea, fact or Scripture and I can glance through the index and find just what my soul needs that day. For example, there are listing of things like (some of which I had never come across in a homeschool mom's devotional) birth order, bitterness, deadlines, discouragement, food, freedom, hiding, material possessions, romance, seeds of faith, spiritual warfare and tragedy. Those were just a sampling of the topics; there are many more topics to choose from. It's so exciting to have a troubling day and just glance through the topical index to find the perfect devotional, it soothes the soul.

I also liked the questions in the text of the devotions in the KJV Homeschool Mom's Bible, they are there for you to meditate and think on. They were very revealing to me as I read, a reminder of things that I need to work on in my own life.

I highly recommend Zondervan's KJV Homeschool Mom's Bible for the new homeschooler as well as the veteran homeschool mom. Click here to read more reviews of the book from other TOS Review Crew members or if you enjoy the NIV version of the Bible, you can read the TOS reviews of that book too.

 







Review of Joyce Herzog's Budding Authors & 6 Weeks to Understanding Grammar

Joyce Herzog is an accomplished author and speaker of many resources for homeschoolers. I've seen her speak a number of times at homeschool conventions on a variety of topics. She is a real gem to say the least. We were given copies of the Budding Authors series to review for The Old Schoolhouse Review Crew. Now let me start out by saying that I am so use to using Turn Key Operation homeschooling materials, this left me a bit out there. I like to see Day 1 we do this, Day 2 we do that. We are not in Kansas anymore Toto...lol. But this material was very easy to follow despite my worries and fears...lol. We used this material with our 12 year old 7th grader.
The first book is Step Into Writing Budding Authors in the Budding Authors series and is $10.00. The second book Step On Into Writing Budding Authors in the Budding Authors series is also $10.00. Both stressed the importance of using your best penmanship, punctuation and work spacing. Your students daily work should take around 10 minutes at most. This book is suppose to contain dictionary pages, which I did not find in the book. I really liked the idea of C,P,S, paper. Each page has a section off to the side marked with those letters. Once the child is done writing, they know to check for C=Capitalization, P=Punctuation and S=Spelling. Even though we did not use this book (it was too easy for our 7th grader) I plan to implement the use of the C,P,S, system since it's easy for our son to forget to go back and look over his work.

I really liked the quote in the book "Do not expect your learner to correct and concentrate on all skills at once!" Oh, as homeschool mommas we all need to hear that sometimes, don't we? Many times we expect way too much from our kiddo's in the area of picking up on concepts and them putting them to use.

These first two books are set up with copy work, dictation (love that, helps kids to learn to listen), experience story in which the parent and child discuss the picture that is on the writing page. The child tells you the story and you write it out in their own words in the first book, the second book you do the same thing except the child writes out the story.

We started out with book number three Adventures In Writing Budding Authors in the Budding Authors series which is $10.00. This book concentrates on "Writing short stories in a single paragraph." Again each page has a picture to look at to get an idea and then there are word boxes to help the student write the story. Later on there are blank word boxes for the child to get key word ideas down first before writing the story.

We also got book number four Then and Now Budding Authors in the Budding Authors series which is $12.00. Your student will learn to "Write comparisons in two paragraphs." This book has a note to the reader with a touching story of how the book came into being. This book teaches what a good paragraph is, ordering of ideas, using 3x5 index cards to get ideas down and in order. Your student will learn thinking, organizing and writing skills through the use of this book.

We did not get to the Writing U.S. History Budding Authors in the Budding Authors series yet, but plan to work through it this summer. This book is $15.00 and gives a quick overview of how to take notes on 3x5 index cards and work on researching topics and writing them. There is a letter to the student (I think that this helps the student to feel important and take ownership of the material) giving details of how this book is laid out and what is expected of the student. After glancing through this book I can now see where our former curriculum went wrong! It was not detailed enough and expected way too much from the student too soon.

We are very pleased to be able to use these materials from Joyce Herzog and I totally recommend these to any homeschooler, but especially to those that have struggling writers, they can become budding authors through using Joyce Herzog's materials.

We were also given a copy of 6 Weeks to Understanding Grammar to review. WOW!!! What a little book this is! It's like a Cliff Notes book for grammar. We loved this! The only thing that I found a problem with was that on page 12 there is a partial sentence and the rest of the paragraph is missing. I think that this little book would be a great study companion for the SAT/ACT testing. It's definitely worth the $12 for your student!

 

The Joyce Herzog website has a lot of great links and explanations about her books on it. If you even have the chance to hear Joyce Herzog speak do it. I've come away with so much from her talks.

 

We did not find anything in this review that we did not like. We had fun and our son learned how to write and form well read paragraphs. Thanks TOS Review Crew for another fun learning experience.

Exciting News for 2013!!!

I am really excited to announce that I have been chosen to be part of the Review Crew of The Old Schoolhouse Magazine. The Old Schoolhouse Magazine was first introduced to me by my friend Lori, she began home educating way back before homeschooling was fashionable.  lol. She has 1 college graduated daughter, 1 daughter in college and 1 senior in high school left. Lori has been a wealth of knowledge over the years and I'm so glad that she introduced me to The Old Schoolhouse Magazine.  The magazine is REAL, with REAL people and not full of just happy homeschooling articles. They share the good, the bad and the ugly of home education. You will read the magazine and come away with ideas, hope and blessings. Not a feeling of failure or envy of what others are accomplishing.

I'm thinking that January will be the first month of reviews. I am pretty excited!

Our 2013 is starting to take shape on our calendar. We have some fun 4-H activities coming up like our Christmas party, cupcake decorating and a sewing class. I know I have a boy, but every boy/man gets holes in his clothes and needs to learn to sew.  I'll being hanging out in the class too, maybe I can pick up a few tips. I'm also teaching some gluten free cooking classes at a local college. 2013 will be here before we know it! What do you have planned for the new year?

Moe