Jennifer Lambert

A Sacred Balance

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Economics for Everybody Review

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August 4, 2014 By Jennifer Lambert Leave a Comment

Liz and I reviewed Economics for Everybody Curriculum by Roman Roads Media.

I like the Pinterest-ish, retro chalkboard look of the cover!

This is a Christian worldview economics program.

Liz attempted to begin the series on her own. She was not too successful because the content was unlike what she’s ever done before. I rearranged our school schedule so I could sit with her in the afternoons so we could view the video lessons and work through the questions together. I preview the outline with Liz and then we watch the videos together. We discuss and answer the short answer and discussion questions together. There is an answer key and additional links in the downloadable scope and sequence.

This material is pretty advanced! I took a high school economics course (which was nothing like this!), a great marketing class, and lots of history studies…and I have more life experience. I still find the material pretty dense and awfully quick-moving. The first couple lessons were a great overview and introduction, then lesson three is like, whoa – really meaty, loads of info, and lots of examples not mentioned in the video that we have to read in the outline for full understanding. It moves very quickly from then on and you can’t get distracted or you have to watch it again for comprehension.

I know why Liz was lost. She’s only 13. She doesn’t have the life experience to make the connections and understand a lot of the discussion questions or examples, but she was able to relate to the history mentioned and loves the old movie clips.

I really like the film clips from old movies, newsreels, and historical films that drive home the messages in the lessons.

Since we’re just now beginning year 4 in our history cycle, this program is a great supplement to our studies. And I think it will be a great plan to have Liz repeat this program when she’s older, for reinforcement.

What I love:

  • Combining worldview and economics. Academics and theology. Use of Bible verses, doctrines, and principles. This is not some mathematical “dismal and dreary” class. R.C. Sproul, Jr., mentions that successful economics cannot be divorced from God. God is everywhere and in everything.
  • Great for several different learning styles. Visual learners get the videos to view fun old movie clips and fast-paced examples to the lecture. Aural learners get the ability to listen to the audio portion of the video. Verbal learners get to read along with the outline (I love the outline!).
  • Several different levels of assessment: multiple choice questions, short answer, and discussion. Liz aced the low-level multiple choice, but struggled on her own to answer completely the short answer and discussion questions. I prompted and guided and discussed where he mentioned the answers in the video and outline.
  • Extra resources for further study: Christian economics textbooks, Christian materials, and very academic economics books are listed for more information for further study. I doubt Liz will want to explore all these on her own, but they’re a great list for someone who loves economics and history.

What is confusing:

A Christian worldview economics program, with 12 short video lessons with accompanying outlines, multiple choice questions, several short answer questions, and several discussion questions for each lesson – recommended for 1/2 credit of high school economics.

From FAQs on the high school credit: “by itself as a lighter study to introduce basic economics concepts (9th/10th graders), or used together with another economics textbook as a more in-depth study for students with worldview training (10th/11th/12th graders).”

I do not feel comfortable counting this video as high school credit at all. Suggested resources include three texts: the advanced Foundations of Economics by Shawn Ritenour, the highly recommended Basic Economics by Carson and Cleveland, and Prosperity and Poverty by E. Calvin Beisner which is very similar to the concepts presented by R.C. Sproul, Jr., I plan to purchase Basic Economics and review the material so my kids can get high school credit.

Is it a Bible study or an economics course? Perhaps I was expecting more of the economics. The short lessons move so quickly that most of the vocabulary is barely skimmed, certainly not learned. The concepts are so complex, yet the program glosses over the history and explanation to drive home the anti-socialist beliefs of the speaker. I would prefer more comprehensive lesson plans that dig deeper with the economics. This is more a worldview study than economics. There is little practical here.

Liz loved the mother-daughter time with the viewing and discussion.

Lessons 1 to 5 introduce key economic principles. Lessons 6 and 7 explain the relationships between theology, philosophy, and economics. Lessons 9 to 12 examine the application of economics in real-life systems.

2 DVDs, Spiral-bound guide, 236 ages is $45.00 (download coming soon!)

The recommendation is for 6th grade and up.

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HomeschoolPiano Review

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July 21, 2014 By Jennifer Lambert 1 Comment

HomeschoolPiano is a program exactly like I was looking for. A comprehensive music program with solid lessons and every component to learn how to play piano well. And I don’t have to drive anywhere.

We were given a LIFETIME SUBSCRIPTION for up to five students to: HomeschoolPiano.

I had planned for the kids to view the lessons at their own paces on their iPads, but we haven’t gotten Internet at our new home yet. So we cluster-watched the videos at the library a few times each week and practiced what we learned at home using the workbooks.

Homeschool Piano Review
 
This also comes on disk.
Homeschool Piano Review

I don’t have to drive anywhere. I don’t have to pay for 30-45 minute weekly lessons with a teacher I don’t know – with lessons that seem to consist of too much time wasted with checking answers in workbooks than teaching.

The kids can watch videos and listen to the audio and complete their lessons and practices on the piano keyboard with accompanying workbooks.

Each lesson is very complete and consists of 7 components:

  • Technique
  • Rhythm
  • Ear training
  • Reading music
  • Song
  • Improvisation
  • Bonus

My three girls did great with their lessons and aced their quizzes on rhythm and listening to measures. I am so proud of them!

The first set of lessons is Core Piano and teaches all the basics from the black and white notes on the keyboard to sitting correctly and proper hand and finger movements.

Book 1 is 6 units and 52 pages. Book 2 is 6 units and 30 pages. Book 3 is 6 units and 39 pages. And Core Piano has 46 pages of practice notation to play.

Kate especially loves this program. She can retain the info she watches in the videos (we have to use the library wifi since we haven’t gotten home Internet service yet in Germany). When we get home, she practices with our full electronic piano keyboard. She likes to show off and teach her sister.

sisters at piano

Kate really is learning lots of basics. Dad and big sister help fill in any blanks if she has questions.

Dad piano lessons

I am very not musical and thankful that Dad and Liz are and can help when I don’t understand her questions.

Big Sister Piano Teacher

She was very obedient to practice her scales and learn her notes before moving on to the fun stuff. She is so excited to play several little songs for us now.

Alex is learning some basics and wants to sit at the piano. He is really good at rhythms. He so wants to be like his sisters!

watching piano videos

Dad thinks there are gaps in the program and it moves too quickly, skipping some basic important lessons. He took music classes for years in piano, voice, and trumpet. He likes old-school and traditional. But this is working for Kate really well. Tori and Alex may enjoy it later when we have home Internet and they can watch and play and rewatch the videos for full comprehension.

HomeSchoolPiano has two payment packages:

1. Success Package (One payment of $299)
Unlimited life-time access to HomeSchoolPiano along with all bonuses (downloads, jam tracks, sheet music) for up to 5 students.
2. Payment Plan (Payments of $99.97 per month for three months):
Unlimited life-time access to HomeSchoolPiano along with all bonuses (downloads, jam tracks, sheet music) for up to 5 students.

For all ages.

View this blog post to see updates on their video program. Lots of improvements! We look forward to learning more piano and completing this program. Kate loves it.

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Free Printables Collection

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July 16, 2014 By Jennifer Lambert 1 Comment

I’m not a big printables creator. It’s just not my thing. I am not energized by it and there are so many other bloggers and teachers who do such a great job!

Here are the few printables I’ve created surrounding Doctor Who, with which we’re just a little obsessed:

Music Study with Doctor Who

Unit Study with Doctor Who

Homeschooling with Doctor Who

I have a homeschool planner:

Homeschool Planner for Teens - We made our own student planner, Frankenstein-style. | http://royallittlelambs.com/

And here’s a beauty and makeup unit study I wrote for moms and daughters.

That’s about the extent of my free printables collection. Check out the great ones from the rest of the Crew!

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Progeny Press Review

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June 2, 2014 By Jennifer Lambert Leave a Comment

The kids and I loved reading the novels and completing the literature guides for Progeny Press.

We reviewed the literature guides for The Hunger Games and Little House in the Big Woods.

Liz had begged to read the Hunger Games books and this was perfect timing. She hasn’t watched any of the movies yet. So we have a deal.

Progeny Press Review
Little House in the Big Woods is a perfect accompaniment for our history studies.  The girls loved this book!

We visited Stately Oaks Plantation in Jonesboro, GA, that was about the same time period and the girls were fascinated.

Many of the items in the historic home were items mentioned in the book and the girls loved seeing them in person.

Another tourist mentioned he had just visited and toured the Laura Ingalls Wilder home and he told the girls about some of the highlights he enjoyed.

The girls were very interested in the simpler time where Laura had never been to a store and Ma and Pa lived off what the land provided.

The files are interactive pdfs. I had Liz complete The Hunger Games lessons on my laptop, but I printed out two copies of Little House in the Big Woods guides for Tori and Kate and placed them in colorful pocket folders with prongs for them.

Teal and green of course.

Little House in the Big Woods study guides

Tori and Kate loved the vocabulary pages! They begged me to read and discuss and help them with their notebooking each evening.  We completed lessons before bedtime and they wanted to stay up later for more!

Notebooking in TLF

They begged to continue working at Grandma’s house. They love the story of Laura and want to read the whole series now.

We did the discussion questions orally, otherwise it’s a lot of writing.

The activities at the end of each lessons were fun and engaging. We have done many in our history studies recently. We made butter and have studied pioneer ways. The girls really loved making a calendar and drawing pictures for that (see their folders above).

notebooking at Grandma's house
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Liz works independently on my laptop and uses the actual book a friend gave her for review. I then bought her the whole trilogy on Kindle.

I like the different levels of questioning in this guide that encourages Liz to think. Some were just basic comprehension and others were more intellectual and required her to research the symbolism. We had some great discussions about the vocabulary, questions, and thinking skills. I explained literary terms to help her. I’ve read all the books too.

I plan to have Liz complete the optional activities once we get more settled. It’s a great incentive before she sees the movies.

She’s been writing fan fiction too!

completing online notebooking

These are good quality literature guides with lots of options – from vocabulary and multi-leveled questions to fun extension activities. I am impressed. I don’t usually use lit guides when we read books, but these are really great and the girls enjoyed them and begged to do their work each day and didn’t want to stop to do anything else.

The Hunger Games eGuide is recommended for grades 8-12 and the Little House in the Big Woods eGuide is recommended for grades 3-5.

The groups are divided like this:

High School: Recommended for Grades 8-12
Middle School: Recommended for Grades 5-8
Upper Elementary: Recommended for Grades 3-5
Lower Elementary: Recommended for Grades K-3

The eGuide for The Hunger Games is $21.99.

The eGuide for Little House in the Big Woods is $16.99.

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Apologia What on Earth Can I Do Review

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May 27, 2014 By Jennifer Lambert 1 Comment

We love, love, love Apologia Educational Ministries and are thrilled to review volume 4 of the What We Believe worldview series! Apologia Review

We received the following:

  • What on Earth Can I Do? (hardback book for ages 6-12)
  • What On Earth Can I Do Notebooking Journal (for ages 10-12)
  • What on Earth Can I Do? Junior Notebooking Journal (for ages 6-9)
  • What on Earth Can I Do? Coloring Book (perfect for preschoolers)
Apologia Review
Apologia ReviewApologia Review

Liz has completed the whole series now.

What is covered in the What We Believe series?

The series includes four volumes:

  • Volume 1 – Who Is God? (And Can I Really Know Him?) Biblical Worldview of God and Truth
  • Volume 2 – Who Am I? (And What Am I Doing Here?) Biblical Worldview of Self-Image
  • Volume 3 – Who Is My Neighbor? (And Why Does He Need Me?) Biblical Worldview of Servanthood
  • Volume 4 – What on Earth Can I Do? Biblical Worldview of Stewardship

Why do we love Apologia Christian worldview curriculum?
We are bombarded with the world all the time – through TV, radio, Internet, billboards, print media, friends and family, and even church. I am continually amazed at how Christians compromise the gospel and teachings of the Bible in favor of the world and concern over offending someone.

I say: “Take back your family and stand firm in your convictions that are Bible-based.”

I have never found a discrepancy Apologia worldview helps immensely by affirming our beliefs and why I teach my children what I do.

We are different and I am ok with that.
What did we do with this curriculum?
I read aloud from the book each morning and we discussed the lessons, stories, biographies. The journals have schedules for each day, but we found ourselves reading, reading, reading and loving it so much that we did above and beyond the daily lessons. The journals make things so easy, but they’re not necessary to have.

Alex was super excited to have a coloring book and he’s just the right age and ability to complete a page during or after our read aloud time. The coloring pages are the same as in the junior journal and he loved coloring in his book while his sisters colored in theirs.

Apologia Coloring Book

Tori and Kate shared the Junior Notebooking Journal so sweetly (since I couldn’t find an additional one for a few weeks). Tori was thrilled when her own journal arrived!

The girls love the lapbooking components, coloring pages, copywork, and puzzles. Some of the free writing assignments we skipped since the girls weren’t ready to do those. Kate and Tori really loved making blueberry and lemon walnut muffins as one of the assignments.

Sharing the Junior Journal

Liz had her own Notebooking Journal and completed the assignments daily. Occasionally, she had to complete the reading if she missed the read aloud time.
Catching up

I am amazed at how God has orchestrated events in our lives the past couple months.

We’re in the transition of moving from Utah to Germany and it’s been quite stressful and confusing for our younger three who have no memory of past military moves. (My husband is Air Force and this is the first PCS I’ve experience not being pregnant or nursing a newborn!)

The opening stories in the first few lessons about World War II and German and British characters delighted my kids who are eager to learn everything they can about our new home. Great images and biographies accompany the stories. And we all love history.

We haven’t quite reached this era in our history studies, but God’s timing is always perfect. My children immediately related Colin and Jenny’s experiences to the Pevensie kids in the Narnia books! They’re excited to visit these historical places mentioned and read more about the historical events. And they’re tickled to realize that the BBC existed that long ago as a radio station before the modern TV station with the Doctor Who shows they know and love.

Even Dad enjoyed listening to the read alouds during our roadtrip. The stories and fictionalized retelling of Jesus’ parables are real page turners. This is my favorite in the series, I think.

We continue to read our lessons aloud and complete the journals while we are staying in temporary housing on Ramstein AFB in Germany. We found a house and are awaiting our household goods. How appropriate is our lesson on greed and not coveting too much that we don’t need. We downsized a great deal before we moved, but we will not have room for some of our stuff in our new German house. I love how God is pruning us in this area. Good thing I don’t really have emotional attachments to many of our things.

I discovered neato devotional on YouVersion app called What On Earth Am I Here For. It’s so complementary!

No teacher manual needed. Great for the whole family. My kids are 4, 7, 8, and 13. The lessons are even powerful and interesting enough for family devotional time.

What on Earth Can I Do? is $39.00
What On Earth Can I Do Notebooking Journal is $24.00
What on Earth Can I Do? Junior Notebooking Journal is $24.00
What on Earth Can I Do? Coloring Book is $8.00

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Trident Cyclops iPhone Case Review

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May 19, 2014 By Jennifer Lambert

My husband and I reviewed the Trident Case  for iPhone 5 or iPhone 5S (Cyclops Case).

Trident Case Review
It’s PINK!

Here’s what green looks like:

Trident Case Review
My husband was SO GRACIOUS to put this case on his phone for a few weeks and test it out. I still have the iPhone 4, but we’re getting new phones as soon as we arrive in Germany and this will be my new case.

I am so excited.

I do love Trident cases. We have these cases on all our devices and I am very pleased. Lots of great color choices and amazing protection. I don’t have to worry about the devices getting maimed or broken if they fall or are dropped with their Trident cases on!

We have these: AEGIS CASE FOR APPLE IPAD  and KRAKEN A.M.S. CASE FOR APPLE IPAD MINI 1/2
all the devices

Aaron likes the protection this case offers. He was so sweet to review it for me and loved showing off his pink phone!

pink phone case

Aaron liked this case and wants to upgrade his own case now that he can have any color (the Air Force changed their regs – they used to allow only black phones). It’s very sturdy and offers solid protection. He dropped it on the sidewalk and it was fine. It didn’t even show a mark on the corner of the case. The screen protector keeps the screen free from fingerprints, scratches, dust, and cat hair. It’s still just as as sensitive as it needs to be to get work done. Aaron uses his phone all day every day – for personal and work.

Aaron did mention the port covers are difficult to access for big fingers. But they offer great protection and keep them dust-free when not being used. Headphones and chargers fit well and operate as they should.

I love the little label that says Military Tested (for Drop, Vibration, Dust, Sand and Rain):

  • Drop (Mil-STD-810F, Method 516.5) – 26 drops onto concrete from 4ft.
  • Vibration (Mil-STD-810F, Method 514.5) from 20-2000Hz across 3 different axes for a total of 18 hours.
  • Dust (Mil-STD-810F, Method 510.4) – blow dust for 3 hours at 29 ft / sec.
  • Sand (Mil-STD-810F, Method 510.4) – blow sand for 3 hours at 59 ft / sec.
  • Rain (Mil-STD-810F, Method 506.4) – 7.9 inches per hour of rain at 40 mph wind velocity for 1 hour.

’Cuz I have 4 kids and 2 cats. ’nuff said. I need this level of protection, y’all.

I love the double level protection – especially the built-in screen protector! The Thermo Plastic Elastomer (TPE) and polycarbonate cover and corners keep it safe under most conditions.

Trident covers are the best I’ve ever used. I love how they keep dust out. I’ve never had a case that did a better job keeping out dust. With 6 feisty people in our family, these cases are time-tested and get the job done by protecting our devices well. They’re eco-friendly and offers the most protection of any case I’ve ever seen.

I love, love, love Trident cases. They are at the top of my list when friends and readers ask about child-friendly device cases. I always recommend Trident since all of our devices have been well-protected for years.

They are listed in my Top Ten Homeschool Items! (I’m still using it in 2017!)

The Cylcops iPhone 5 case comes in all these colors: black, blue, gray, red, pink, and white. Price is $39.95.
The Kraken AMS case for iPad mini comes in pink, red, green, and blue. Price is $59.95.

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Golden Prairie Press Review

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May 12, 2014 By Jennifer Lambert Leave a Comment

The kids and I reviewed Digital Heroes & Heroines of the Past: American History Curriculum by Golden Prairie Press.

Golden Prairie Press Review
 

We enjoyed the books and audio files with this excellent classical/Charlotte Mason homeschool history curriculum.

 
Golden Prairie Press Review

We focused on Book 2 with The Civil War since that’s an extension of the studies we’ve been working on.

I LOVE the format of the reading. I LOVE the age and ability divisions for the reading. I opted for the longer readings and read aloud to all four of my children each morning.

Many of the reading assignments were divided into two sections: 1-3 grades and 4-6 grades. I just read the selections for older kids each day to my 4 kids. They had more detail and repeated the selections for the younger kids and there was no confusion. My kids are 4, 7, 8, and 13 – and the reading was just fine for all, not too difficult but interesting enough.

I LOVE the end of each lesson with all the fun activities – from songs and skits to writing and mapwork. We narrated orally and did some notebooking and drawing. Our printer is in storage while we’re moving and so we just used drawing paper instead of our typical printed and formatted notebooking pages.

My kids delighted in the American folk song musical selections and danced around the room and begged for more! It was the best part of our morning.

Dancing to American Folk Songs

They discovered a fun “stage” in the yard of our TLF (base hotel) under a couple humongous evergreen trees like a big umbrella – and they performed the little skits in the additional materials file for each other and for me. It was darling.

Doing is learning.

This program is perfect for multiple learning styles – kinesthetic, visual, auditory, and anything in between. All of my kids enjoyed this curriculum and learned so much.

Each lesson has a variety of fun activities to choose from – like recipes, songs, writing assignments, timeline work, art study, map work and geography, Bible memory verse, listening to historical documents, experiments, and more!

It’s a classical and Charlotte Mason schooler’s dream.

Civil War Lesson Collage

We spent about ten days in TLF and then went on a weeklong road trip from Salt Lake City to Atlanta. We had to adapt our schooling while cramped in a car!

We read a chapter in the car each morning of our roadtrip. We discussed the readings and review questions and the kids narrated. We listened to the songs and studied the images. All the kids and I practiced our memory verses and looked up the maps and timeline events on our iPads. Even Dad enjoyed listening to the read alouds while he was driving.

Included in the Digital Heroes & Heroines of the Past: American History Curriculum:

  • Heroes and Heroines of the Past: American History Part 1 –
    Lessons for the first half of the year. View the Contents and Introduction. View a sample.
  • Heroes and Heroines of the Past: American History Part 2 –
    Lessons for the second half of the year.
  • Historical Skits View the table of contents and sample pages.
  • Sing Some History Listen to a sample.
  • Listen to Some U.S. History MP3 Listen to a sample.

Literature Books (optional and sold separately for $59.99)

  • Ten Great Adventurers by Kate Dickinson Sweetser, edited by Amy Puetz
  • Ten Girls from History by Kate Dickinson Sweetser, edited by Amy Puetz
  • Heroines of the Past: Bible Study by Amy Puetz
  • Two Little Americans in Spanish California by Frances Margaret Fox
  • Jack and Jill by Louisa May Alcott

Coloring Book: Heroes and Heroines of the Past: American History Coloring Book (optional and sold separately for $9.99)

Digital Heroes & Heroines of the Past: American History Curriculum is $98.99 and recommended for grades 1-6 or even older kids.

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Brinkman Adventures Review

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April 28, 2014 By Jennifer Lambert Leave a Comment

The kids and I reviewed The Brinkman Adventures Season 2: Episodes 13-24 by Brinkman Adventures.

Run-ins with pirates, Chinese close-calls with the Communist government, French castles, and other fascinating adventures are experienced with this missionary family and their friends.

The little kids tolerated listening to these ok. Liz did not like it at all. And she’s my only aural learner! I think it may be difficult for her to follow the different narration and storylines with her ADHD.

We’ve never had great success with audiobooks or radio shows of any kind.

Brinkman Adventures Review

I think the stories in The Brinkman Adventures are good, well-done audio shows. The actors’ enunciation is great and easy to understand. But I can see why Liz doesn’t care for it. It does sound a bit affected and exaggerated. She said it just sounds like they’re reading a script. I suppose they are, and it’s a bit stilted for her tastes.

The plotlines are great lessons. Musical transitions help us to understand flashbacks or changes in narration. Little ads midway through the stories help break up the “action” and provide other transition. There are stories within the main story – from real missionaries’ experiences.

Little Hope is adorable. Her lines and sweet voice make us giggle.

The main male narrator is more the faithful one who prays and trusts God. Another man is the voice of doubt. The woman provides dialogue, questions, and furthers the narration along. The kids help the family and listeners explore characters’ motives and historical facts. There’s a call to action and summary of the moral at the end of each episode.

And we looked forward to mentions and appearances of Ripcord the Rooster.

We did especially like Episode 14 – Blue Hat & T-Shirt Bible – about Chinese Christians. It was most interesting to us. I love the story behind it.

We were all fascinated by the Chinese pictographs representing Christian symbols.

And, of course the kids wanted to know the symbolism behind the “blue hat lady.” Of course, it’s part of the Communist uniform but they wanted more.

I did some research and found these great symbols and explanations of blue hats:

  • The Chinese called Muslims, Jews, and Christians in ancient times by the same name, “Hui Hui.” Christians were called “Hui who abstain from animals without the cloven foot,” Muslims were called “Hui who abstain from pork,” Jews were called “Hui who extract the sinews.” Hui zi or Hui Hui is presently used almost exclusively for Muslims, but Jews were still called Lan mao Hui zi which means “Blue cap Hui zi.“
  • In A Tale of Two Cities by Dickens, the blue cap worn by the mender of roads represents pre-revolutionary France.
  • China’s State Food and Drug Administration (SFDA). This registration is referred to in English as a “blue hat” because the registration logo visually resembles a blue hat. From China dietary supplement info.
  • Blue Hat is a term used to refer to outside computer security consulting firms that are employed to bug test a system prior to its launch. Hacker security.
  • The blue hat tends to be the outward-looking, leader or trail-blazing hat that attracts the leaders of all groups. Metacognition. From Edward de Bono leadership.

I know we’re in the minority of not absolutely loving Brinkman Adventures. All my friends were shocked when I mentioned we weren’t especially enjoying it. We don’t really like audio books.

I had hoped my kids would enjoy listening to these audios since we put our TV in storage and have limited Internet access as we travel across America.

They balked every time I mentioned listening to an episode. It was hard for them to sit still and quiet and listen.

Kate enjoyed listening the most. She asked for more, to just have a listening marathon. She loves drawing and listening.

Listening to The Brinkman Adventures

Audiobooks and radio shows have never been at the top of my kids’ wishlists and they just don’t hold their interest for long. I’m not that great for it either. We’d rather read I guess. Tori, Alex, and I aren’t aural learners.

I was able to discuss the plots and character lessons with my daughters. They  more obeyed me than enjoyed the time listening. The lessons in the stories are really great, even if the presentation was a bit boring for my kids.

In our conversations, the girls and I used the audio as a starting point to:

  • Focus on the missionary aspect of the stories
  • Discuss how a family can serve together
  • Review good character lessons

The Brinkman Adventures is great for kids to listen to if they feel destined for missionary work or want to learn more about it. I found it interesting that the stories are based on real events with this real missionary family.

I enjoyed reading the background info behind the adventures.

 
Brinkman Adventures Season 2

12 Episodes – 5+ Hours!

  • 4CDs -$25.00
  • MP3 Download – $17.00

Recommended for all ages. Great for background listening while working on seat work, coloring or drawing, completing chores, or during mealtime.

Follow The Brinkman Adventures on Facebook!

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The Wise Woman Review

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April 21, 2014 By Jennifer Lambert Leave a Comment

just have to say, of all the Home School Adventure Co. products we’ve reviewed, The Wise Woman with Literary Analysis Journal Questions is blessing us the most.

We throughly enjoyed The Wise Woman Review.

We were expected to cover at least one chapter per week during the review period. We covered a chapter a day! We really enjoyed the text and Q&A and discussion time together. It was great mother-daughter bonding.

The text of The Wise Woman is by George MacDonald, a Christian minister, author, and poet (1824-1905). We love the story of a lost princess and only stumbled over a few sentences with difficult syntax. It was delightful and hard to put down to do other work. We read a chapter each day and completed the questions together. It didn’t even feel like work!

I used my comb binder and printed off the books to make things easier for us. The pdf is editable, so students can type their answers right in the file if they choose.

comb binding

Fourteen chapters with 16-24 literary analysis questions after each – and vocabulary pages for language review make this study quite comprehensive.

Who says developing critical thinking skills requires dry and somber study?

Liz sees herself in this too much, to her chagrin. I love it. And she’s really really thinking and learning lots about herself. Thanks, Stacy!

For a question chapter 11, number 7:

If Rosamund made The Shepherdess miserable, why did she cry when she sent her away?

Liz answered: “The Shepherdess cried because she was a bad mother.”

I asked: “So, does that make me a failure as a mother?”

Then Liz stammered and stuttered and realized she had made some progress herself, but still had a long way to go for heart change, similar to Agnes and Rosamund showing external change but internal was more difficult to grasp. Liz quickly backed up and assured me that I am a good mother, unlike the Queen or Shepherdess, who were too indulgent. She told me that I do try to teach and train her and her siblings, and she admitted she doesn’t always listen or try hard enough to learn or obey.

It was an awesome mama moment.

I have been so pleased to see Liz mature over the course of going through this study with me. She was sullen and disagreeable in the beginning and saw herself in the two characters immediately, much to her horror. She has shown great improvement in her behavior and attitude lately and I am so, so happy to see it.

She’s a natural leader and reading this text and doing the analysis together really helped us work through some heart issues and prune our thoughts and attitudes.

Photographer

I love literary lessons. This is a perfect lesson for readers!

We were sad when it ended. And I love the ending, but I won’t tell!

$28.95 for print and $14.95 for Ebook Download (Additional shipping charge for international orders.)

For read aloud and discussion as a family: ages 9-11. For ages 12 and up, also great for family discussion and/or parental/teacher guidance. High schoolers can do this on their own. 

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Pinterest Marketing Ideas

This blog may contain affiliate links: disclosure. Please see my suggested resources.

April 17, 2014 By Jennifer Lambert Leave a Comment

I love Pinterest and I could waste so.much.time. on it, so I have to limit myself to playing working on it a few minutes each day.

I have a Pinterest strategy with pinning, boards, organizing, and marketing.

I love Pinterest for recipes, homeschool ideas, and holiday themes.

I started out pinning what I liked – like a virtual bulletin board.

It was fun, addictive, and a huge time waster. I loved every second. And then, the comparison hit and I felt like a loser, a failure. The craft and food porn I viewed on Pinterest made me feel more and more less than. I realized I could never compete.

So I took a Pinterest break and reevaluated how this could be used for my blogging and personal life better.

I very strictly limit myself to a few minutes each day pinning pins on Pinterest. I scan through the homepage and then I search for hashtags to repin that are relevant. I love the “send a pin” feature and my husband and daughter and friends often send me pins that they think I’ll like. And I use that feature a lot to send pins I find that make me think of others.

I have public boards for all my interests.

School subjects, boards about parenting and homemaking, WAHM boards for blogging and essential oils. I try to limit my boards to under 200, but it’s so hard! I recently combined some boards and deleted others that were merely silly little personal boards. I contribute to many boards and I just can’t let go. And I can’t figure out why my little bacon board is so, so popular!
 

I organize my boards.

 
Each month and season so that the first 14 visible on my profile are relevant. These are the first boards a reader sees, so I want them to be interested! I have toyed with ABC order and ordering by subject. I have them mostly organized by topic now. I have food boards together and blogging boards in a line and homeschool boards by units and all my Christian boards in a row. I put my contributor boards at the bottom since they don’t benefit me so much from being at the top of my profile.
 

I use Pinterest for marketing.

I have a Pinterest business account. I can use tools (like rich pins and widget builder) and get analytics for my pins.
I market pins for brands and my own blog content and I help other bloggers by pinning their content. I’m a member of Ahalogy and use Viraltag to schedule pins. I work as a virtual assistant and pin for another blogger. I love that job!
 
I discuss Pinterest Marketing Basics here. I love my Pinterest readers and it’s such a fun tool to use for business!
 
Here are some of my Pinterest boards that are really popular:

Jennifer Lambert’s board Leadership on Pinterest.
Jennifer Lambert’s board Parenting on Pinterest.

Here’s my post on Homeschooling with Pinterest.
 
Check out some other Pinteresting ideas from the Crew:
That's Pinteresting
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