I love telling you about great books to put on your library shelves. But, don't leave this one on the shelf. Pick it up and read it cover to cover!

Pilgrim’s Progress by John Bunyan is a Christian classic that was written in a jail cell. John Bunyan (1628-1688) was a Puritan pastor in the seventeenth century (1600’s).

​John was arrested for his faith and teaching which did not line up with the Anglican Church viewpoint at the time. From his jail cell, he wrote down a dream. Wow! What an intricate dream!

This allegory (symbolic story) follows Christian, the hero of the story and a pilgrim on a journey from the City of Destruction to the Heavenly City. An allegory is a story on two levels. On the first level Pilgrim’s Progress is a literal adventure story with all kinds of twists and turns. But, there is a second level to the story. The symbolic story is the story of every Christian who tries to live a pure Christian life. We each have our own adventure of trials, temptations, and tribulations.

John was not a godly little boy or young man.

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​Since we were studying Ancient History again in our home school, I thought I would do a little investigating on my own to find new stories and archaeological discoveries.

The title, The Secrets of Ancient Man, grabbed my attention and as I leafed through it, I was intrigued.

​After finishing the easy-to-understand, beautifully illustrated book, I was grateful. I learned new information about the Bible, ancient history texts, and archaeology.

Not only was the book easy-to-read and understand, it was packed with beautiful illustrations, charts, and quotes. 

I was so excited as I read through it and just had to tell you about The Secrets of Ancient Man.
 
Let me share a little bit from the book to whet your appetite.

The Swiss Family Robinson by Johann Wyss is a wonderful family classic! What a marvelous role model for homeschooling families!   

Our children love to hear this book read aloud. And we love reading it!       

The adventure story begins with a couple and their four sons being the last aboard a ship that wrecks.

The family prays, puts their hope in God and with creativity and ingenuity escapes to a deserted island where they begin a new life of adventure and hard work in isolation for ten years. During this time they maintain habitual morning Bible reading and prayer, as well as family worship services on Sunday. (Hmmm—I don’t remember those scenes from the Disney movie version of the book—go figure!)

Would you like to learn more about this amazing family and exciting adventure novel?

They are able to rescue many valuable things from the ship. Then the family explores and “subdues” their island home: acquiring pets, cultivating the land, hunting, building summer and winter homes, inventing machines, creating all types of things, making improvements, building bridges, facing disappointments, and overcoming obstacles. As they go about their daily lives, every opportunity is taken to teach their sons about nature, animals, morals, and other educational aspects of life. The parents share a deep and committed love with one another. The wife is treated with honor and respect by her husband and sons.     

Early on in their adventure the wise father tells one of his sons, “’I want to see my sons strong, both morally and physically,” said I. ‘That means, little Franz,’ as the large blue eyes looked up inquiringly at me, ;brave to do what is good and right, and to hate evil, and strong to work, hunt, and provide for themselves and others and to fight if necessary.’” (pg. 131 The Swiss Family Robinson by Johann David Wyss)

Making memories together builds unity in a group. Remembering the members of your church on special days and helping to make them special gives them a sense of value and worth. God calls His Church a family. Families celebrate special times together. 

Here are some ideas to make special days special.

Birthdays:

Call and sing "Happy Birthday" over the phone for a church friend’s birthday.
Gather birthdates of all church members and remember each person's birthday with a card, note, or postcard.
Let small groups celebrate all the birthdays from that month in one of the group meetings. Have a birthday cake with everyone's name on it. Pray over the birthday people. Thank the Lord for them and ask for God's blessings on their lives over the coming year.
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Anniversaries:

The Church is composed of all believers in Jesus throughout the earth and in your area, the Church consists of all believers in Jesus living in that vicinity. This large, diverse group is divided into local churches where people live out the teachings of God revealed in His Word. 
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Purpose of the Local Church:

God is a relational God. He wants to have a relationship with us. He wants us to have relationships with one another. When we are planted in a local church, we are able to build relationships and live out the commands addressed to Christians in the New Testament. We can love one another and meet one another's needs proving to the world that we really are His disciples. There is the protection of accountability. There are stronger Christians who we can model our lives after and weaker Christians we can help grow to maturity. Small groups foster relationship building.

While the is a common purpose and goal shared by all local churches (making disciples, worshipping God, reaching the lost), each local church has an unique calling and purpose. One local church might be very strong in teaching the Word of God and strong doctrine. One local church might be actively reaching a poor neighborhood meeting practical needs and sharing the love of Jesus. One church may be filled with gifted artists, actors, and musicians who are winning the lost to Christ through the arts:  drama, music, paintings, and sculpture. Most local churches attempt to be balanced, but truthfully, one church cannot do all there is to do.

Experiencing the Call on your Local Church
 
The local pastors, elders and others leaders attempt to hear from God and determine His vision for the church. Then they motivate and equip the rest of the congregation to fulfill that vision. 

There will be a desire to care for the flock, reach the unsaved and love the Lord through worship, but these things may have an unique flair or style that is different from other churches. One local church's worship may be especially enthusiastic and demonstrative. Another church's worship may be more formal and dignified. One church may feel called to make disciples of the nations by reaching out to international students, taking lots of short-term mission trips and spending lots of their revenue on foreign missions. Another church may just support one missionary but be very active in training their congregation to share the Gospel and do lots of contact evangelism.
Small groups are a place to learn what beats in the heart of the church. 

Living out our Family Responsibilities:

While pastoring a church is a high calling, it can be a career filled with loneliness, frustration and burdens. Many people do not understand the great demands and responsibilities placed upon a pastor and his family. The encouragement, love and respect of a congregation can go a long way in making pastoring a joy and delight rather than a burden.

My husband has the privilege of pastoring a wonderful group of people who make his job of leading the church a blessing,not a burden. Not only do they express love for him, but for the children and me! 

Since our church family is so good at loving and encouraging us, I thought I'd share some things that they do. Be sure to try some of these things to bless your pastor and his family!

Believe the Best  

When you hear anything about anyone, believe the best rather than the worst as the flesh often would have us do. When people assume the best possible scenario, we are set up for success rather than failure. When people hear or see things and automatically assume the worst, we feel like a hunted animal—people are just waiting for us to mess up.

Let your pastor know that you believe that God has brought him to your church and will use him to do great things!
Let your pastor know that you support him and will stand with him as you move forward as a church to accomplish all that God has for you to do.
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Don't Expect Perfection  

"Oh, no! It's that time of year again already?" my husband grimaced. 

"Don't worry. It's only one week." I smiled brightly. 

"It feels like a lot longer," he sighed. 

"Let's have pizza tonight," one of my children interjected. "I love this week. We get to eat out!" 

​For years I have taken one week each summer and planned out the entire school year. 

Setting aside this week enables me to stay on target for the whole year. It is worth the time and mess to tackle the year all at once. 

Some folks prefer to plan a week at a time and that's fine. For those who are interested, read on and learn my strategy for lesson planning the entire year in one week. 

​Art Masterpieces to Color: 60 Great Paintings from Botticelli to Picasso from Dover Press is a great coloring book to invest in.

Because the coloring book comes with small postcard size reproductions in the back of the book, you can turn this into an art appreciate class. Have your children or teens color these pages of famous paintings exactly like the original artist did. Believe me, they will be scrutinizing these paintings as they color. 

Some of the famous works of art in this coloring book are The Peaceable Kingdom (Edward Hicks), Mona Lisa (Leonardo da Vinci), Girl with a Pearl Earring (Jan Vermeer), and Luncheon of the Boating Party (Pierre-Auguste Renoir). There is a wide variety of artwork from different periods and styles. This is a wonderful and vaied taste of art appreciation.​

​I have told other homeschooling moms that there’s just no fun way to do spelling. I have used workbooks for years, while I encourage moms to also consider making spelling lists from unit studies or books their children are reading too. There is just no way to make spelling hands-on, or so I thought. I stand corrected.

All About Spelling comes with a workbook—of course! But there is more in the package! An Audio CD-ROM with a clear pronunciation of each phonetic sound is included. You press the alphabet letter, consonant team, vowel team, or phonogram and hear the sound! This is fun for those who like to touch and press (every kid under the age of ten!). There are also letter tiles to touch and handle. This is another plus of the program—it is very hands-on! There are also flashcards, letter tile magnets, and a magnetic tile board. You hear the sound, see the sound, and touch! This is truly a multi-sensory way to learn spelling!

My favorite part of the package was the games! Bingo with phonograms and several other games that you make by pasting the game to simple file folders. There were five cheery, colorful games: A Day on the Farm; Bunny Garden; Dog Walk; Horse and Pony Show; and Wild, Wild West. The games will be a hit with children!

​Do you enjoy the drama and personalities of history more than dates and facts? If so, these books are for you! Though written for grades fourth to eighth graders, your whole family will enjoy reading or listening to this book read aloud. We got together with another family and everyone from grade two to senior in high school listened each week as mom read the stories (lessons) aloud. Filled with information, little known, but thrilling facts and stories are included.
         
The author, Linda Lacour Hobar, takes us on a trip back in time to meet those who have made history and to experience them ourselves. What an adventure!
 
Laid out in chronological order, beginning with Creation, each week has three lessons accompanied by writing, craft and cooking projects. There are test and quizzes too. We normally ignore tests, but we enjoyed these tests too. 
         
Can you guess that these are my very favorite history textbooks? You learn what was going on in the world—at the same time. While one nation is in its height, another is beginning. It even covers China, India, and Africa!       

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​Times Tales: Times Tables Made Easy is a creative, innovative Mnemonic-based program that makes it fun and easy to memorize the upper multiplication facts.
 
With the same style and format, difficult to memorize times tables can be mastered easily by many children.  
 
Symbols are used for each number. 
 
See the picture of the page below. Can you see the numbers in each illustration?
 
What follows the numbers symbols page in the book is a collection of quick one page stories involving butterflies, chairs, Mrs. Week, Mrs. Snowman, the Treehouse, and the First Grade Class.  

“Miss Meredith, can I borrow the “Laundry book?” Josh asked after looking through the Clean N’ Flip Charts. “I really want to learn to do laundry.”
           
“I can teach you to do laundry,” his mother interrupted, overhearing our conversation.
           
“That’s okay, Mom.  I want to learn from this book,” he replied. “I am so excited to learn laundry. I’ve always wanted to learn to do laundry.”
           
“Since when?” his mother queried, perplexed.
           
“Since I saw this book!” Josh admitted with a grin.
 
There are three adorable flip books in the series: Clean N’ Flip Bedroom Cleaning for Kids, Zone Cleaning for Kids, and Clean N’ Flip Laundry for Kids.
 
The books are sturdy and shiny, pleasing both mom and children. 
 
Simple to read, easy to understand, and engaging for children with its conversational style, cute illustrations, and bright colors, this book makes kids want to learn to clean. Seriously!
 
These books are worth their weight in GOLD!

Happy Cleaning!
Meredith Curtis

​"Don’t open it. I want to take a picture tomorrow,” I reminded my children who could not keep away from the pretty purple package containing the nativity set we had just received.

“It’s so cute,” my teenage daughter cooed. “Let’s open it now!”

There is not one child under the age of ten in my house, so I was confused as to how to review this little play set. I need not have been.

My five children adored it! After taking several pictures, my youngest son tore into the box and carefully set it up. If only we had had a nativity set like this when the children were younger.
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What a great idea! 

To read Understanding the Times is to take on a mammoth project. The book is over 500 pages long and not light reading. 
 
This book is "must read before you graduate" book and here's why: I want my children to understanding where each of their professors are coming from when they go to college. 
 
The worldview on the typical American college campus (even many Christian campuses) is far different from what the Word of God teaches. 
 
I want my children to be prepared to not only recognize different worldviews, but to defend their faith in Jesus Christ and the Bible. 
 
Here's where Understanding the Times comes in. 

Some of our children have vivid imaginations and want to create stories to share with their family and friends. Crafting a good story isn't as easy as they think it is. Author Susan Marlow to the rescue with her creative writing curriculum for middle school and upper elementary students.

Reach for the Stars​ by Susan Marlow, a creative writing curriculum, covers all the bases like "Show; Don't Tell us about Your Characters" or "Hook Your Reader." Students learn to plot stories, create scenes, and bring characters to life. 

Younger children who love to write will love this book. It is easy to work through the lessons and fun to put together your own story. 

You can purchase Reach for the Stars at Media Angels (E-book) and at Amazon.

Happy Writing!
​Meredith Curtis

"What is a Quiz Pack?" I wondered aloud. 

I clicked on  the E-book and scanned quickly through the contents. I was interested. 

"Wow! It covers a lot of information...in great detail." I had just finished teaching Ancient History and came across things I hadn't covered. 

This is a set of quizzes and puzzles to test your middle and high school children's knowledge of Ancient Egypt. Information tested includes famous pharaohs, dynasties, daily life, family life, and geography of Egypt. 

There is another way to use this quiz book. I would like to use it to get ideas of what to study when I am beginning a unit study of Ancient Egypt. It give me all of the major things I need to make sure we learn. I like that!

I took some of the tests myself and checked them with the answer key. Oh dear, it's time to do more studying of Ancient Egypt. 

Yesterday my mother would have celebrated her 80th birthday. I lost her ten years ago and I still miss her. 

Four days ago, I lost a close friend who had been battling chronic debilitating disease. Even though we knew he was sick, his death came as a shock. It was so sudden. 

As I comforted his widow, who is a dear friend, I was reminded once again how horrible death is. You are never truly ready to lose someone you love, never ready to say goodbye. 

If you are hurting now, my heart goes out to you. ​

An online unit study? I felt scared.

And the unit study is written by Techie Mom? Oh no. I can barely turn on my computer. 

Wow! Was I in for a big surprise. This online unit study was the coolest thing ever!

Famous Birthdays by Beth Napoli is a unit study, just like other units, that starts with a topic and integrates multiple subjects to make learning easier and more fun.

Now, here is the twist: EVERYTHING in this unit study is done online! 

Getting started is easy. You follow "Techie Homeschool Mom" on Pinterest and create your own "Online Unit Studies Project" Pinboard on Pinterest. Next, you join "Techin' Your Homeschool" Facebook Group. 

Students make a fabulous online timeline with Prezi, adding all the birthday men and women as they meet them in each lesson. They are also encouraged to use Grammarly for proofing and VidAngel for streaming videos. 

After you finish each lesson, you press the "Complete and Continue" bar to go to the next lesson. Are you ready to talk about the Birthday Men and Women?

I am so excited to tell you about this curriculum!

​If you have a preschooler, you are probably teaching him letters and/or letter sounds. Annette Breedlove has created a 689-page letter workbook, Apples to Zebras, just for you to teach letters and sounds to your little ones.

With bright, cheery illustrations and easy-to-understand instructions for Mom, Apples to Zebras is divided into nine sections with three letters each. Children learn letters F, B, and M first. In the next sections, students learn K, T, R; followed by P, S, N; J, H, D; C, L, G; W, Y, V; Z, Q, X. Finally, at the end of the book, after learning all the consonants, it’s time to learn the vowels. A, E, and I are first, followed by O and U.

Take a look at each of the letter combinations. Do you notice how different each letter in the triplet sounds from the other two? This makes it easy to tell the difference between them so children can tell the letters and their sounds apart. When they review, it’s easy to tell them apart.

I love how kid-friendly the pictures are! In fact, each page has kid appeal. The pictures throughout the entire workbook are adorable.

I kid-tested them on my grandson who loved the bright happy colors and pictures. 
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Have you ever thought about writing a book? Is there a novel inside of you waiting to get out? 

If so, once you get through the hard work of writing, what do you do? 

Don't worry, this book has the answers you need about writing and publishing. Short and easy-to-understand, this book takes you through the complex maze of getting your book out into the public arena. 

​Felice has taken her book from idea to her reader's hands. She understands the process thoroughly as the author of numerous books.

​Best of all, she wants others to succeed and enjoy the fruit of their own book ideas. Felice is a born coach and this book is like sitting down for a cup of tea with her and listening to her good counsel.

Restoring America's Biblical Foundations​ by Pilgrim Institute is a DVD course for high school students and adults on a topic that is dear to my heart: Truth. 

Over the years,  history has been taken out. Godly men are glossed over or their faith is hidden. Many people have only heard revisionist history--they know nothing of the truth of our Christian heritage and biblical foundation. 

I applaud the Pilgrim Institute for speaking out!

This course covers the biblical view of government and a Providential view of history. God gives a plan for government in His Word which the founders respected and tried to follow. The Lord intervenes in the affairs of men. Our Founding Fathers believed both.

​As Christians, I believe it's time to teach the truth to the next generation, starting in our home schools. Restoring America's Biblical Foundations is a great start! 

​Let me tell you about the kit.

"I know! Let's write a murder mystery for fiction writing next year!" I was so excited that I clasped my hands together in delight. 

"I love it!" Jenny Rose replied.

"We'll read Agatha Christies and Dorothy Sayers..." I began.

"Wait, Mom. Do you know how to write a murder mystery?" Jenny Rose looked a little worried. All of children take one year in high school to write a novel. 

That is how our journey began. It seemed like a fun idea. And, hey! We're homeschoolers--we can do anything!

Little did I realize how challenging and educational (in more ways than writing) this new adventure would be. 

1. Reading Comprehension with Aesop's Fables​ by Bonnie Rose Hudson includes ten of the fables of Aesop. Popular for centuries, the timeless tales have been retold so that a first-grader will enjoy them.

​Mom reads a fable aloud followed by fun comprehension activities. These include tracing, vocabulary practice, sequencing, coloring pages, and sight word puzzle.

​I love the coloring pages. They are adorable and fit in perfectly with each story, while being kid-friendly.

​Often Moms wonder if children understand the stories they read aloud to them. These comprehension activities will help Moms to discover how much little ones understand.

​Though this was created for first graders, I think older children would benefit from Reading and Comprehension with Aesop's Fables. ​They might even read and do the work on their own.

​Aesop's stories have been enjoyed by all ages, so everyone will love listening in, including teenagers. A timeless story never grows old.

You can purchase Reading Comprehension with Aesop's Fables at Currclick. 

​Happy Homeschooling,
​Meredith Curtis