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 A Record of the Learning Lifestyle
Balancing The Sword
Created for Work: Practical Insights for Young Men
Everyday Graces: A Child's Book of Good Manners
Gershwin's Rhapsody in Blue
Jon Gnagy Original Learn to Draw Kit & Jon Gnagy Art Studio Set
Presenting Miss Jane Austen
Say Goodbye to Whining, Complaining, and Bad Attitudes in You and Your Kids!
So Much More: The Remarkable Influence of Visionary Daughters on the Kingdom of God
Story Starters: Helping Children Write Like They've Never Written Before
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A Record of the Learning Lifestyle
by Charlene Notgrass
A review by Karen Andreola
One of the constant tasks of a homemaker/home teacher is to make order out of what (if left to itself) would be chaos. Those reading this know exactly what I mean down to the last detail. With a little planning, however, daily lessons and a marathon of meals, run more smoothly and steadily. I like the writing spaces of this record-keeping book (or planner). The carefully worded subtitles cover the school subjects in flexible way. Jot your activities in these boxes and this will show you how well you are accomplishing your goal to create a well-rounded lifestyle of learning. You'll have to plan your meals elsewhere but on second thought . . . you could jot a simple dish in the box marked "Learning to Work: Chores, Service, and Life Skills" and guide your children in doing a little of the cooking. Other boxes help you focus on character building along with academic knowledge and skills.
A two-page spread provides a-week-at-a-glance, leaving a margin for the child fill in "What I Did This Week." Each week greets you with a new decorative photo and a verse of Scripture. Although the covers are "cute" we are using one for high school.
--Karen
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Balancing The Sword
by Allen B. Wolfe
A review by Dean Andreola
I visited my sweet-old Italian aunt, years ago, just after she became a Christian. Over tea, we discussed the wonderful things she was learning from her Bible. My uncle Nick, irritated at this, said, "Gracie, you reda duh Bible a wunsa, now forget it!" Well, here is a course designed so we won't "forget it"!
Right on the cover of it states, "You must know what the Bible says before you can know what it means." That's the main focus of Balancing the Sword. These two beautifully bound volumes can take you and your family on an incredible journey through the entire Bible, gleaning deeper wisdom and inspiration directly from the pages of Scripture. Every lesson begins with a Bible reading followed by a series of carefully crafted questions designed to test your comprehension and draw attention to vital details you may otherwise overlook. Virtually all the major points of each chapter and book are highlighted through these revealing questions, so retention is vastly improved! In addition, both volumes contain thousands of cross-references, detailed antique illustrations, maps, tables, and an answer key. Ample room is provided to write in answers, as well as journal your discoveries along the way. I particularly enjoyed the many hundreds of inspiring quotes from people like Washington, Webster, Spurgeon, and Moody on the importance of Scripture reading. It's big, but never overwhelming because the bonus CD offers a Bible Reading Planner so you can create a plan that best suits your family or student's schedule. Though ideal for devotional study, Balancing the Sword is challenging enough to be used as part of your homeschool Bible curriculum or group study. It has already been met with great success as a12-credit hour lecture course at a major university!
Balancing the Sword is one of the best spiritual armor building tools I have seen in a long time. Learn to love God more and live right, by the Book! ---Dean***(For all ages, as younger folks will benefit from listening to the readings, questions, and discussions that follow.)
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Created for Work: Practical Insights for Young Men
by Bob Shultz
A review by Dean Andreola
Every boy dreams about what he might be when he grows up. Parents pray that whatever he chooses, he may be successful. Yet even a good education is no guarantee. Without a healthy attitude toward good old- fashioned WORK, young men may continue to dream and not attain God's best for them! Is your son required to do household chores? Does he have a part-time job after school to earn some extra cash, or is he taking his first scary steps toward a real vocation? Bob Schultz, (author of Boyhood and Beyond), offers a warm hearted guide, filled with stories from real life, to teach young men what it means to be good honest workers, even in the humblest of positions. Created for Work teaches the importance of: following directions, thinking creatively, respecting authority, handling money, happily completing tasks in a timely manner, and much more. Created for Work will encourage young men to develop excellent working habits that will benefit them, their families and employers for a lifetime! This is a highly recommended one-of-a-kind resource for boys 12 & up.
Questions at the end of each chapter also make Created for Work a great read aloud for father & son or youth group discussion.
--Dean
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Everyday Graces: A Child's Book of Good Manners
Edited By: Karen Santorum
A review by Karen Andreola
I've seen my friends' houses. Their shelves, like ours, are lined with classic children's literature - an indication that they've been homeschooling for some time.
In Everyday Graces excerpts from children's literature are used to teach manners.
Children learn consideration for others through stories, poems and commentary. Beginning with love and honor within the family, taming the tongue, table manners, washing and dressing, its chapters fan out to include befriending the elderly, seeing good in people, working hard, curtsey in church, and good citizenship. Chapters from familiar favorites as Anne of Green Gables, Winnie the Pooh, The Secret Garden, Aesop's Fables, Pinocchio, and Pollyanna dot the book as do works from; Lucado, Lewis, Twain, Potter, Emerson, Kipling, Chaucer, and others. Dickens' description of the death of little Nell shows tenderness and I was glad to find this lesser-read novel of his (Old Curiosity Shop) referenced on the subject of funerals. When introducing the subject of weddings to my youngest child I would have skipped over Lorna Doone's wedding day. Overall I find Everyday Graces an excellent tool for passing along the concepts of unselfishness and civility - moralities of living the good life.
--Karen
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Gershwin's Rhapsody in Blue
by Anna Harwell Celenza
A review by Nigel Andreola
My father said that while growing up Rhapsody in Blue was the most listened to of all the records he owned. So, naturally I have heard this piece often. Being a piano player myself, I have always wondered what inspired Gershwin to write such a radical yet beautiful concerto.
One day when I was sick in bed a box arrived. In it was a collection of picture books. From the big pile, I feverishly stumbled upon Gershwin's Rhapsody in Blue! I was surprised to learn that Gershwin had only five weeks to come up with something completely new and different. He was searching for a sound that no one had heard before. What a challenge!
My fascination for music has led me to books of all sorts, but seldom have I seen one that captures the style of the times the way this elegant 32-page picture book does. The beautifully stylized watercolor illustrations offer an uncanny view into the 1920's and it reads with the same fast pace rhythm of the rhapsody!
Follow the witty dialog, inspirations, emotions, and reverie that lead up to the fantastical jazzy climax of the composing of Rhapsody in Blue! Then listen to the included CD preformed by Gershwin himself (from a1925 piano roll) and the Columbia Jazz Band. For music lovers of all ages who desire to be more Gershwin savvy.
--Nigel
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Jon Gnagy Original Learn to Draw Kit & Jon Gnagy Art Studio Set
by Jon Gnagy
A review by Dean Andreola
Are you looking for a modestly priced art course with a proven record for awakening hidden talent? This is it! Past generations may remember Jon Gnagy as the TV instructor who could teach almost anyone to draw! I got my first kit when I was ten years old, and loved it. With no previous experience I drew a Great Dane that looked real enough to jump off the page! Our children have all drawn pictures from Jon's Learn to Draw kit. Nigel's friend James was recently a beginner at drawing. We loaned him our old copy of Jon Gnagy's book. James made such rapid progress in his drawing ability that I decided to find out if the old course was still available. And here it is. A blast from the past! It still comes with art pencils, sketching chalk, paper, eraser, shading tool, a drawing board, and the 64 page Learn to Draw book. The student first learns how to use the artist tools to make shapes, shades, textures and shadows, then moves ahead to composition and perspective. Jon teaches, using a step-by-step method, how to draw eight pictures. Children (&adults) will be surprised at how much their finished pictures look like Jon's. The principles learned in this course will be employed when students create their own pictures.
The current edition puts all instruction into three languages, so the English text now appears smaller than in the books of yesteryear.
Jon Gnagy Art Studio includes additional books and materials for pencil drawing, watercolors, and oil pastels. Ages 8 to adult. --Dean
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Presenting Miss Jane Austen
by May Lamberton Becker
A review by Sophia Andreola
I'm a Jane Austen fan. Sense And Sensibility is one of my favorite films. Hit the pause button at any point in the movie and it is like gazing at a beautiful painting. Even so, the book is better. There is nothing like Jane Austen's own words to bring her characters to life and paint the world they live in so vibrantly. And yet, as we've come to know to her characters so well, the author herself is shrouded in mystery. What do we know about the life of this young woman who wrote with such passion and insight about every day life? Presenting Miss Jane Austen uncovers the mystery. Reading about Miss Austen was as intriguing as reading about as her own characters. Her playfully quick wit, even as a child, endeared her to me. If you, too, are a Jane Austen fan, you will especially enjoy reading the quotes and letters by Miss Austen and her family. This lovely biography gives us a window into the life of one of Britain's most beloved authors.
--Sophia
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Say Goodbye to Whining, Complaining, and Bad Attitudes in You and Your Kids!
by Scott Turansky, Joanne Miller
A review by Dean Andreola
Wow, the title packs a wallop, and the book delivers it!
In a way it reminds me of a touching scene in the old film Our Town where the teenage son forgets to do his chores. When father comes home from work, he has a heart to heart with his son, focusing on the disrespect the boy has shone toward his hard working mother who had to do the work in his place. This startling knowledge (of how he had dishonored his mother) was enough to bring the big teen to tears. My how times have changed!
Now it's our turn to re-introduce the old fashioned and Biblical notion of honor back into our families. Say Goodbye to Whining teaches you how to overcome all forms of selfishness, build character & foster obedience in your children. The goal is to restore a peaceful home atmosphere as family members learn to honor one another in love and self-control. Family activities outlined in the back of the book will help you put your newly learned honor-based parenting skills into practice! Highly recommended!
--Dean
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So Much More: The Remarkable Influence of Visionary Daughters on the Kingdom of God
by Anna Sofia, Elizabeth Botkin
A review by Karen Andreola
Many will think this book is a little "over the top." Perhaps it is. I like it anyway.
When it comes to daughters understanding how they can, "rise above their God-hating culture and change it for the better," this book points the way with boldness. Its refreshingly straightforward opinions are based on the Biblical ideal.
The authors admit that this isn't the typical Christian survival guide on "how to be swept into a horrendously perverse culture while still hanging on to the teeny little shred of purity that the world allows you to have." Rather, it makes more bold comparisons of our present culture's opinions with that of the Bible.
Dean and I had to sift out worldly philosophy when it came to decisions concerning our own daughters. Once they became young women new questions arose. This book addresses the nitty-gritty questions on being a girl who honors her parents, is protected by her father, ministers to others, and is allowed to long for and anticipate being a wife, a mother, a homemaker -- a woman who ministers within her family. Besides the Botkin sisters, fourteen other girls share their personal transition from worldly thinking to a Biblically inspired womanhood.
Some nitty-gritty questions:
How do I love and honor my father and learn the principles of being a helpmeet?
Have there ever been any women who found complete "liberation" from men?
What are the different roles God gave to men and women?
I would love to get married and have children but isn't wrong to think about it too much?
How can I make courtship a possibility for my life when it is such a new concept to me?
In what ways can a woman be strong without being masculine?
How should a godly "protected" woman dress?
Where did the "outside the home" careerism concept come from?
How does being in our homes count as ministry? What about going away to college?
--Karen
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Story Starters: Helping Children Write Like They've Never Written Before
by Karen Andreola
 Years ago I gave my girls a story starter. I was amazed at the results. They wrote in ways they had never written before. It was only when I gave my son a particularly exciting story starter that his creative writing, too, began to “take off.” Therefore I am happy to present you with the same kind of writing exercises in my new book. I sought to put the right ingredients into my story starters to inspire even the reluctant writer or the student who has experienced discouragement.
Why does a story starter work so well? Each story suspends the student in the middle of a predicament. He is then faced with the question “What happens next?” This is his cue to expand and embellish the story however he wants. He learns to write freely, with imagination and zest—and with far more boldness than he may be accustomed to.
The action-packed stories are especially appealing to boys. Thumb through the pages to choose whatever story catches your fancy. My large selection is meant to satisfy the varied interests of both boys and girls.
To spark even more curiosity, each story is illustrated with one or more engaging 19th-century pictures. The settings are sometimes intense, sometimes funny, sometimes sweetly domestic, but they always pose a challenge. Here is your child’s opportunity to rescue those in danger, comfort the sick, cheer the lonely, laugh with the ridiculous, tame the wild, and do battle for good. Awaken the dormant writer in your child with this lively approach to creative writing!
Story Starters is a one-book-per-family, non-consumable, lavishly illustrated, multi-skill level, supplementary English course. For grades 4 through 12—with tips so younger siblings can participate. 460 pages.
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