Focusing on God's Plan for Our Lives Through Women of the Bible with Truth Becomes Her {A Homeschool Review Crew Review}

Disclaimer: I received a FREE copy of this product through the HOMESCHOOL REVIEW CREW in exchange for my honest review. I was not required to write a positive review nor was I compensated in any other way.

I was thrilled to be given the opportunity to read the latest release from the Bible Belles series written by Erin Weidemann. Several years ago, the children and I had read a couple of the original stories, all of which focused on women from the Old Testament. This new book, The Adventures of Rooney Cruz RINGLEADERS from Truth Becomes Her, continues the story of a young girl named Rooney, but this time the story focuses on women from the New Testament. 

Not only did we receive the hard cover book, The Adventures of Rooney Cruz RINGLEADERS, we also received a devotional titled, The Adventures of Rooney Cruz RINGLEADERS A Devotional for Girls, RINGLEADERS A Journal for Mothers and Daughters, and a RINGLEADERS Coloring Book.

These books work together to help girls realize that God is with them, cares about them, and has a plan for them. In the original HEARD stories, Rooney was given special "powers" from God, powers we can all have. She was guided by the angel Mari and through stories of five Old Testament women to learn about the powers of Prayer (Hannah), Patience (Esther), Bravery (Abigail), Loyalty (Ruth), and Leadership (Deborah). And in this continuation of her story, Rooney is again taken under the wing of the little angel when she is having struggles in her life. 

However, while Rooney learned about the Old Testament women through a series of five books, the New Testament stories are told in this 200 page chapter book. Rooney learns about six different women in nine chapters:

• Chapter 1: A Leading Lady
• Chapter 2: Setting the Stage
• Chapter 3: The Role of a Lifetime
• Chapter 4: The Show Must Go On
• Chapter 5: Waiting in the Wings
• Chapter 6: Into the Limelight
• Chapter 7: A Dream Role
• Chapter 8: A Tough Act to Follow
• Chapter 9: Center Stage

As you might be able to deduce from the chapter titles, this story revolves around a play. Rooney and her classmates are excited about their new school year and their new play. However, during the course of the year, Rooney has different concerns she needs to work through, and she needs to learn what God actually wants her to say with these "superpowers" he gave her.

First Rooney is concerned because she has these powers, but she still feels afraid and doesn't have confidence. Thanks to the encouragement of her friend, Dani, and the reminder from Mari, she is able to prepare for the audition. She learns, through the story of Elizabeth, Zechariah, and John, that God will set the stage, or prepare the way. She is then excited about the possibility of having the lead in the play, and quite disappointed when she doesn't get the part. In fact, she is given the role of understudy, which she isn't sure she wants because it seems like it would be a lot of work for the opportunity to just stay backstage and not actually be in the play. It is at this point that Mari shows Rooney the story of Mary and the birth of Jesus. She learns that God's role for our lives may not be the role that we planned for our own lives. And she says, "Yes" to God the same way Mary did. 

Unfortunately, Rooney's struggles still aren't over. She has feelings of being an outcast, and learns through the story of the Samaritan woman about Jesus being the Messiah and how he came to save us from our sins. In order to explain what sin was, Mari showed her how God is in charge of everything and when we are thinking of ourselves instead of others it is because of our selfish desires. 

And then, after she is content in her role, there is a twist in the story and she finds herself taking on the role of the lead in the play. You'd think she would be thrilled, but she now has new worries. Through the stories of Mary and Martha and their brother Lazarus, she learns that there is only one thing that is really important, spending time with Jesus. But she still doesn't understand how to do this or what exactly God is trying to tell her. 

It is right before the play is to take place that she is finally made to understand as she is shown the events of Jesus death, burial, and resurrection. And we see the role that Mary Magdalene had in spreading the good news of Jesus's resurrection to the disciples. It is also at this point that Rooney truly understands about Jesus, and gives her life to the Lord, and is prepared to share the message with those God brings into her life, through not only the words she speaks but the life she leads. 

I have to admit, having read a couple of the first books, it didn't really dawn on me that Rooney wasn't a Christian. It also appears that she didn't really grow up in a Christian home if she doesn't even know the story of Jesus. That was sort of a surprise. It almost seems like the story was told in reverse and she should have learned about Jesus and became a Christian and THEN been given the different powers to help her live out her Christian live and share the gospel. 

Even though it seemed a bit unrealistic in that aspect to me, I felt that this book did a great job showing the story of Jesus, and how God works in our lives. Helping us to understand our need for him, and his sovereignty over our lives. I do love that this was taught through the stories of women in the Bible. We see how God cares for all of us, even though the stories of the women are usually over looked. 

The book itself is of great quality. It is a sturdy book with thick, glossy pages. The are illustrations on at least every other page which help bring the story to life. 

I love that Mari shows Rooney the Bible stories through a window and they don't actually interact with the people from these stories.

Even though I read the other books to all the children, I had figured this book would be Hannah's. The other girls are a bit old for it now, and Harold isn't really interested. So, I had Hannah read the book independently.

I appreciate that each chapter ends with a Bible verse to help summarize what was focused on in that chapter.

I had mentioned that we also received other books. The devotional and journal fit in with the stories of each of the women featured. I had wanted Hannah to read through the entire story before going back and doing the devotions.

There are six weeks worth of devotions. The first five focus on the women, with the sisters Mary and Martha sharing a week. The final week focuses on Rooney and how the reader learns to share the good news. There is a devotion for every day of the week, which includes Bible verses to read, a reading that is derived from the story, pictures from the story, and activities to do, such as memorize a verse, discuss questions, draw, or write. 

The journal is filled with blank lines and prompts for both the mother and daughter to write on. This isn't something I am sure we are going to use as Hannah is not a huge fan of writing, and I don't want this to be a chore for her.

And of course there is the coloring book which has pictures that come straight out of the story.

Even though Hannah isn't a huge fan of coloring, I do think it will be a fun activity for her.

Altogether these books are a wonderful way to share Jesus with a girl in your life. I was thinking it would be a great Advent activity, or a great Christmas gift to then spend the next several weeks focusing on the story of Jesus. I will say,  it was helpful that we had read the previous books, but I can see this book standing along or being read first and then a girl getting to read the stories from the Old Testament. 

I highly recommend The Adventures of Rooney Cruz RINGLEADERS for a young lady in your life. 

You can find Truth Becomes Her on:

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/BibleBelles
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/truthbecomesher/

And don't forget to click on the banner below to see what my fellow Crew Mates thought of these great books.

Digging Into Archaeology with Drive Thru History® Adventures {A Homeschool Review Crew Review}

Disclaimer: I received a FREE copy of this product through the HOMESCHOOL REVIEW CREW in exchange for my honest review. I was not required to write a positive review nor was I compensated in any other way.

We had the pleasure of being able to review Bible Unearthed thanks to the Homeschool Review Crew. This is a course from Drive Thru History® Adventures that is helping us to really dig into archaeology and the importance of how it helps us to understand the ancient world, especially things from the Bible.

We were granted lifetime access to this 12-part digital series.  

The course is geared toward children in upper elementary grades and older. This means the older girls were the children who I felt would get the most out of it. However, one of the reasons I really wanted to review this course is because I am quite interested in ancient history (I have been since I took a course in college), and I love the thought of checking out the accuracy of the Bible. Another reason I was so interested in this course is because we have watched other Drive Thru History® videos in the past, and have really enjoyed them. 

This course features Dave Stotts, who is the host of Drive Thru History®. We loved following on his journeys around the Bible lands. Joining him are Dr. Titus Kennedy, an archaeologist, and Randall Niles who works with Mr. Stotts as a writer of the series. They gather together in their secret lair to teach us through the discussions they are having. They alternate between asking and answering questions, sharing information on a chalkboard, showing off artifacts, sharing slides, and watching videos of Dr. Kennedy in the field. 

As they mention in the first episode, when we are watching the Drive Thru History series, we are getting the archaeology second hand. So, they wanted to have a chance to really get into the archaeology itself. 

When I first logged into the course, I was able to check out the welcome information and the course guide, which helped me decide how we were going to make our way through the course.

Here is a list of the twelve episodes we are working through:

1. What is Archaeology?
2. The Impact of Archaeology
3. Locating Archaeological Sites
4. The Life of an Archaeologist
5. What's Being Discovered Today?
6. Archaeological Mysteries
7. Top Discoveries in Bible Archaeology
8. Getting Involved with Archaeology
9. Trends in Archaeology
10. Weird Archaeology
11. Accidental Discoveries in Archaeology
12. What's Left to be Discovered?

As was to be expected, they started out by defining what archaeology is. Dr. Kennedy is the teacher in the course, the one with the PhD. So, he is quite serious while giving the lessons. And he goes into details using more technical ideas at times. Such as going into the fact that the word archaeology comes from two Greek words which mean "Study of the Ancient." He then goes on to give a long definition, which Mr. Stotts asks to be given in easier to understand terminology. The definition is ultimately boiled down to, "Digging up old stuff." We had to chuckle at that. Where Dr. Kennedy is the serious teacher, Mr. Niles acts as if he is the attentive student eager to learn, and Dave Stotts is the mischievous one.

We are given a brief look at the history of archaeology. They discuss how it started as people who were treasure hunting or even grave robbing. However, during the Renaissance period, there became a real interest in learning about the past. And the discipline we know as archaeology today was birthed out of these "antiquarians."

They go on to discuss some early archaeological excavation sites, such as Pompeii (which we have learned about in our core curriculum) and Troy (which is the topic of the book that captured Dr. Kennedy's attention when he was younger). 

Dr. Kennedy shows us many artifacts. Here he is discussing the Rosetta Stone (of course, this is just a small replica):

This was fun to watch, because we had studied Ancient Egypt a few years ago, and learned about it, and the importance it had in helping us to understand Egyptian hieroglyphs. 

Looking through the slides of some different archaeological sites was quite interesting as well. Some of the places we had learned about, such as Pompeii, Troy, and the Great Pyramids, but we also learned about some new places, such as the Minoan Palace of Knossos in Crete. 

Here's the slide he showed us of Pompeii:

As we have been making our way through the course, it has been impressed upon us that archaeology is so important because it helps us to better understand the historical context of the Bible, and to understand the historical narratives. We can see the reliability of the Bible, which was thought to just be mythology or propaganda. And when archaeologists have gone in, hoping to DISprove the Bible, they have actually found evidence of it being true. 

It goes on to explain that archaeology helps to fill in the gaps and illuminate passages. We get to see important inscriptions that prove the people, such as King David, actually existed, and events in the Bible actually happened, such as the wandering of the Israelites around 1400 BC. 

They also show and explain different maps of excavation sites.

It was definitely quite interesting learning about the specifics that they have to record while out on the field.

I really enjoyed the clips of Dr. Kennedy out on the field. I think that is because it reminds me more of the Drive Thru History® videos we are used to, with Dave Stotts wandering around in different areas to teach us about them. I admit, this Bible Unearthed course is a bit different than we were expecting, knowing how the other Drive Thru History® series have been. Don't get me wrong, that doesn't mean we don't like this course. It was just. . . different. I do think the children don't have as much interest in it as I do. However, we will continue to make our way through it.

I've really enjoyed learning about the different artifacts found, artifacts that help us prove that the Israelites were in the land of Canaan, and that King David actually existed as an important historical figure. I was intrigued by the finding of royal seals and steles. Proof that the events in the book of Daniel actually happened. I found it interesting that they are still looking for the exact location of Emmaus, mentioned in the New Testament. There is just so much out there that is being discovered, and is helping to confirm, instead of disprove, the Bible. 

We aren't just getting to watch these amazing videos though. With the Drive Thru History® Adventures, we get additional resources, such as Dig Deeper articles, and worksheets which include summary information and other details (some not included in the videos), plus questions for the children to answer, Bible passages to read, and optional activities, such as mapping an archaeological site, making a time line, and using geography to locate an ancient site.  

I have been watching the videos with the younger children, but it is the older girls who have been working on the worksheets. I have them watch a video each week, and then they are to read the worksheet information and answer the discussion questions. They have mentioned that they have trouble finding the answers at times, and they haven't really been interested in the Digging Deeper articles, but I have found them quite intriguing. 

Amelia has stated that she loves they watching the videos has given her an idea on a story to write. Plus, she said, "we have actual evidence to prove people wrong" when it comes to the events in the Bible.

As we go through the course, I am looking forward to learning about the accidental discoveries and what is left to be discovered. 

This really is a great course, and one I highly recommend. However, if you are used to the other Drive Thru History® series, just be aware that they aren't quite the same. 

If you haven't viewed any of the Drive Thru History® series, I invite you to read my review of Drive Thru History® - The Gospels.

You can find Drive Thru History® Adventures on Facebook, Instagram, and YouTube.

Don't forget to click on the banner below to see what my fellow Crew Mates had to say about Bible Unearthed. 

Relaxed Learning with Lessons & Unit Studies from NatureGlo's eScience {A Homeschool Review Crew Review}

Disclaimer: I received a FREE copy of this product through the HOMESCHOOL REVIEW CREW in exchange for my honest review. I was not required to write a positive review nor was I compensated in any other way.

We have always been relaxed in our homeschool style, but lately, we've been even more so. I love being able to find different curriculum that allow us to study in a relaxed way. For the last several weeks, Tabitha and Amelia have been using the NatureGlo's eScience MathArt & Science Course Bundle from NatureGlo's eScience. Gloria Brooks, who holds a BA in K-12 Education, is the creator and teacher for these courses. She is a relaxed eclectic homeschool & unschool coach & teacher who has been teaching/facilitating homeschoolers and unschoolers from around the world for the past nine years. Plus she has over 20 years of teaching and child self-directed learning experiences.

As members of the Homeschool Review Crew, we were given a full year's access to 25 different MathArt and Science courses that had been bundled together. When the children log into our account, they can click to see all the courses available to them. Here's a small glimpse of what they have available.

There are science courses in Botany, Bubbleology, Geology, Herpetology, Invertebrates, Mammals, Marine Biology, Marine Reptiles, and Marine Zoology. 

The MathArt lessons include the following lessons: Introduction to MathArt, Math Connections with the Real World, Intro to Patterns & Shapes, MathArt in Ancient Cultures (which we had reviewed a couple of years ago), MathArt in Arts & Science, MathArt in Patterns in Nature, MathArt in The Geometric Beauty of Snowflakes, plus a look at the Life and Mathematical Art of both Leonardo da Vinci and M.C. Escher.

Some of these courses are just one lesson long, while there are others that span 2-6 lessons or even 3 or 6 weeks. And the 1-lesson Unit Studies will take longer than the 1-lesson classes. 

In order to use this site, we have to have internet access. A printer could come in handy for printing out such things as the study guides; however, a student can also use a notebook to take notes and answer questions, or could type in answers in Adobe. 

The girls started out by studying independently, finding topics they were interested in. Amelia chose to go through some 1-lesson courses. She watched the videos for Exploring the Giant Redwood Trees, Intro to Rockhounding, and Introduction to MathArt. Tabitha had been working on Tide Pool Communities when Amelia joined in and they continued together.  I've allowed the girls to work together on their lessons if that is what they choose to do; however, I could make them each their own student accounts, so their individual progress could be kept.

Let's take a closer look at one of the courses the girls worked on: Tide Pool Communities. 

For these lessons there are videos to watch, plus there are downloadable PowerPoint slideshows and study guides to help guide the student in the lesson. In the video, Gloria teaches the lesson with the information found on the PowerPoint slides.

Here's a screenshot of the slide being discussed:

Another fun aspect of this course is the interactive activity. I remember Amelia really enjoyed these when we were going through the MathArt in Ancient Cultures course. From that course we know some of the interactive activities allow you to click through to more information. However, in this lesson, clicking on the pulsing dot or the name of the item would bring up a box with more information about it.

As they went through the course, they wrote notes and then answered the questions from the study guide right in their notebooks.

The girls also used the Quizlet to review the terms. There are several different options available.

These are the different Study Modes:

• Match - Student is timed matching the word/phrase to the definition
• Learn - Student answers multiple choice questions to learn the material
• Test - Student answers various types of questions and receives a grade
• Flashcards - digital flashcards showing word/phrase on one side and picture plus definition on the other
• Spell - student sees the picture with the definition, hears the word/phrase, and has to type it out correctly

This one lesson class was quite informative, even mom enjoyed learning new information about tide pools. 

I had seen how fast the girls had completed this lesson, so I was confused as to why another one lesson course was taking them longer. It was then that I realized there is a difference between the one lesson class and the one lesson unit study. 

The girls were also interested in learning about Komodo Dragons. This course is a one lesson unit study. 

This unit study contains seven different parts which include various subjects. Students will learn about Komodo Dragons and also study history, geography, art, literature, and creative writing.

The girls are currently working through the main lesson slideshow and taking notes. 

There are then some really interesting facts about komodo dragons they can read about, there are even some videos for them to watch.

The interactive activity from this course was the map activity.

Plus there is a video to watch to draw a komodo dragon. 

There are so many intriguing courses that the children can choose to take. I love the combination of Gloria teaching in the videos with the slides and the interactive aspects that make even online learning hands-on. And I have always loved unit studies, being able to incorporate multiple subjects in our lessons. The girls are also enjoying being able to delve deeper into topics that are of interest to them. 

I do think they are enjoying these science topics more than the did the MathArt course we reviewed a couple of years ago. Of course, they are also older now. When we reviewed it last time, the girls were at the low end of the recommended age range. Now they are 12 and 13 years old, and I think better able to take notes and pay focus on what is being taught. 

Whether you choose to supplement your current curriculum, or use the courses as a full curriculum, I highly recommend NatureGlo's eScience for your children to learn not only science, math, and art, but to be able to incorporate multiple subjects. 

You can find NatureGlo's eScience on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Pinterest, and YouTube.

Don't forget to click on the banner below to see what my fellow Crew Mates had to say about NatureGlo's eScience.

Learning to Code with Simply Coding {A Homeschool Review Crew Review}

 Disclaimer: I received a FREE copy of this product through the HOMESCHOOL REVIEW CREW in exchange for my honest review. I was not required to write a positive review nor was I compensated in any other way.

Tabitha has been interested in coding for at least a year now. She had taken out a book on the topic from the library a while ago, but of course, that had to be returned. I have tried to encourage this interest, as I realize how important knowledge of computers is these days. So, when the opportunity arose through the Homeschool Review Crew to review the Coding for Kids Annual Membership from Simply Coding, I was quite excited. And when we learned we could have three family member accounts, hubby and I were both thrilled, because that meant Amelia could also get to try it, and so could the hubby. 

Simply Coding offers both single student memberships and family memberships for homeschoolers. Additionally they have curriculum for schools. You can even try out the course with a 10 day free trial period. This membership gives your student(s) unlimited access to the entire pathway of courses. In addition to the Simply Coding pathway, there are three additional pathways: Simply Media, Simply Tech Essential, and Simply Tech4Kids.

In the Simply Coding pathway, there is a "Just for Fun" course (Minecraft Mods in Java), along with Beginner, Intermediate, and Advanced courses. As you can see in the screenshot above, three of the courses are light gray, while the others are dark gray. The light gray courses are the beginner courses which are initially unlocked. In order to unlock the more advanced courses, the beginner courses need to be completed. 

The Simply Media pathway includes such courses as Digital Photography, Digital Videography, Adobe Lightroom, Adobe Photoshop, and Camtasia Studio 8, among others, and more advanced courses. 

The Simply Tech Essentials pathway includes Microsoft Excel - Fundamentals, Build Your Own Computer, Prezi, Microsoft Powerpoint, and more.

And the Simply Tech4Kids pathway includes Intro to Electronics, Intro to Programming: Scratch Parts 1 and 2, Blogging 4Kids (which Amelia is interested in),  Photography 4Kids, Internet Safety 4Kids, and more.

I actually hadn't realized how many different courses Simply Coding had available. However, as we had wanted to review the coding, we started with the Simply Coding pathway. I wasn't sure if my girls would prefer JavaScript Game Design or Intro to Web Development, though I was leaning toward the Game Design. Imagine my surprise when they both decided to start with Intro to Web Development.

Let's look at how the Intro to Web Development course is set up. 

There are eight lessons, and they contain from two to six sections. You can navigate to previous lessons by clicking on the blue lessons tab on the left side of the screen, which will pull out the menu. Clicking on each lesson's folder will show the different sections of the lessons. Each lesson also has a quiz which must be successfully passed before moving on to the next lesson. 

The course starts with a welcome and introduction, explaining how the course will work. The instructor makes sure to mention that the gray arrows on the slides will move the student through the slides in that section of the lesson, where the "Prev" and "Next" buttons at the bottom of the screen will take the student on to the next lesson. And the student will need to download certain files, their workspace folder. My husband helped the children with the downloading

For the interactive lessons themselves, the student can read through the information in the slides, clicking and typing when prompted to. They can also click the green "Click Here For Video Review" to have the instructor give a run down of the lesson. 

My girls didn't realize at first that watching the video would help them understand the lesson, so they were struggling. Once they realized they were supposed to watch the videos, the lessons made a lot more sense to them. As I am a hands-on learner, I really do appreciate that even though they are on a computer, the lessons are just things they are reading and watching, they get to interact with this program and they are learning to write their own code following the instructions, understanding it as they go, and actually have websites they are developing. 

Here's a look at the how the video appears on the screen. It can be enlarged to full screen, but I also like that the student can keep it small so they can see their slides.

And as they work, their text editor, Sublime, can be right on the screen with their lesson.

Here is the first project the girls were working on. They learned how different HTML tags manipulated the text.

Here is Amelia's:

And here is Tabitha's

And then they started working on their own websites. They are both obsessed with animes, so they are focusing their websites on some of their favorites. 

Here's a look at what Amelia has so far:

She has really enjoyed making her website and even though she struggled at first, she is understanding it better now. She appreciates being able to follow the  instructors instructions and pause the video to pull up her text editor and copy what he did. 

Tabitha has been working through the course a bit slower as she wants to make sure she comprehends what she is being taught. She is also enjoying it so far, and also mentioned appreciating that she could pause the video to keep up. 

Personally, I am quite impressed with what they are learning and very thankful for the chance for the girls to learn such an important skill for this day and age. I took some time to work through some of the beginning lessons, and I really appreciate the videos because I also would be confused if I had only the slides to go by. 

If you are looking for a coding course for your child(ren), I highly recommend Simply Coding. You may even find another course they are interested in.

You can find Simply Coding on Facebook and YouTube.

Don't forget to click on the banner below to see what my fellow Crew Mates thought of Simply Coding.