A Net in Time

Curriculum and book reviews, faith, homeschooling and more!

Bible

Review: Adventure Bible “I Can Read” books

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Today I have two lovely “I can read” books up for review.   They are Adventure Bible books, one named “Great stories of the Bible” and the other “Heroes of the Bible Treasury”

 These are lovely books for children that are filled with full-colour illustrations.   Each book contains six books in the one.  They have a solid hard-cover that feels good in the hand.  They open nicely to that children can see the whole picture easily, without any part being cut off.

 Heroes of the Bible Treasure presents us with stories about

  • Paul Meets Jesus
  • Brave Queen Esther
  • Joseph the Dreamer
  • Noah’s Voyage
  • Elijah, God’s Mighty Prophet
  • Moses, Meets the People

 Simple children’s stories, that don’t tell the whole story, but do give children a glimpse into the lives of these Bible heroes.  Good stuff.

 As you can see, the full colour illustrations continue from one page to the next which is just a lovely feature. 

Contained within the pages of Great Stories of the Bible are the following stories:

  • God’s Great Creations
  • Facing the Blazing Furnace
  • Ruth and Naomi
  • Miracles of Jesus
  • A Father’s Love
  • The Good Samaritan

These books are level two readers, great for children who are learning to read on their own but might need some help reading larger words.

The illustrations help to tell the story, which is also of good benefit to early readers.

One needs to be aware with these books that the stories are greatly simplified and the whole story is not told, and sometimes it is simplified to the point of not being accurate.   This is where one can start teaching children discernment in what they read.  Just because a book says (bible-based or not) doesn’t mean it is telling the truth (or the whole story).  That is why God gave us his word so that we can know the truth.

BUT books can be helpful in introducing us to some of the stories of the bible, and THAT is what these books do.  They begin to teach children about God’s action in the lives of his people.   Just teach them there is more to it eh?  🙂

The library and more

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Today overall was a good homeschool day.
we did a lot of reading today, and played ‘rats’ and went to the library to do some book work.

After doing morning devotions we started off our day playing rats upstairs.  Today the rats (who somehow became mice overnight) were GOOD mice and had to learn to ask for things and to trade for what they wanted.  🙂  they wanted a soft bed made of paper and to be able to play drawing games so they traded back all the things they took without asking (because mice see something and it Immediately belongs to them).  and so they became better mice.

We then moved on to reading about black-tailed prairie dogs in the Ultimate Guide to wildlife in North America. 

Mommy?   Why are they called dogs?  shouldn’t they be called gophers?
and the very next sentence I read said that they barked and that’s why they are called prairie dogs.   Interesting that.  🙂   I like having an observant boy child.

Then off to read from “the Lamb”. Today we did chapter seven.   Both of us are enjoying this book but we find the questions very simple.

Then we read from our world history book.   We are learning about pirates. 


T
This sticker book has it’s focus more on the life of a pirate, what the ship was like.   The lad wanted to do  two pages again today, but we were at the library, the weather was looking very grey and I had bunnies on the lawn and was feeling nervous about that.  So ended up only doing one.


We have started to go through this book called “the big book of questions and answers about Jesus.”

I expect we’ll do one page at a time.
Each question is laid out over two pages.  It starts with reading material and introduces the topic and then has activities for the child to do.   Today’s lesson was on where Jesus lived.

While at the library we did some bookwork.
But first we returned some books.  it was a bit nerve-wracking because I knew we had 27 books out, but I counted 26 and simply couldn’t find the last one.   It was like ACK!!!  I don’t want to pay for this book!!!   but somehow between home and the library it showed up in the library bag.
 

Spiders on the case Lasky, Kathryn. – this book we are still reading.
Diary of a spider Cronin, Doreen. the lad LOVED this book 
Spiders of North America Squire, Ann. factual, interesting book
Minerals Miller-Schroeder, Patricia. didn’t actually get to this one
Tell me about the world. — we like this book , we renewed it as we’re still going through it
Math for fun projects King, Andrew,
1961- ditto on this.  
Science and technology Winnick, Nick. never got to this book.
A million dots Clements, Andrew, 1949- Can we get this again mommy!?!?   Sure lad.
Life cycle of a spider Fridell, Ron. factual book, helpful  
The life cycle of a spider Kalman,
Bobbie, 1947- ditto 
Daddylonglegs Anderson, Catherine,
1974- NOT accurate.  Daddy longlegs are NOT spiders, though they are somewhat related.
The garden spider / Jan Ethelberg
Ethelberg, Jan. factual, interesting  
Spiders Gibbons, Gail. it was okay, not great 
Black widow spider Harris, Monica,
1964- this one intrigued the lad
Tarantula Harris, Monica, 1964- never actually looked at this one
The magic school bus spins a web : a
book about spiders West, Tracey, 1965- a hit this one 
The last loon Upjohn, Rebecca, 1962- took it out, never really got to it 
The Snow Blew Inn Regan, Dian Curtis. good story book
The long white scarf Trottier, Maxine. semi-historical, it was interesting.  the boy thought it great how the girl got her scarf back
My cat, the silliest cat in the world
Bachelet, Gilles. What a HOOT!   Get this book, laugh with your child.
Dolphins on the sand Arnosky, Jim.  We liked this one, the little dolphin was a tease at the end of it. 
A winter walk Barasch, Lynne. Just a simple book.  
Big bear hug Oldland, Nicholas, 1972- MOMMY!  YOU CAN”T BRING IT BACK!!!  (complete with tears)…but buddy.. we can get it out again.. Oh, okay then.
Madeline and the cats of Rome Marciano,
John Bemelmans. Enjoyed this book.  
A bumblebee sweater Waterton, Betty,
1923- Caused smiles to appear on the face of one six year old boy.  Surprised me as I thought it more a girl book, but he liked it.
The sabre-toothed tiger Solomon, Evan,
1968- Liked it the first two times we read it, but didn’t ask for it again. 
Time to get out Testa, Fulvio. – This book was just so so.  Got one thumb up and one thumb very down.
We did book work in: 

First grade fundamentals: we focused on reading stories and answering questions.
 

Numbers and counting: Practiced greater than and less than. 
 

Daily Smart:  he continued to practice putting word puzzles into equation form.  Learned today that sometimes you can’t just write the numbers in as you see them.  That was tricky!


We have learned that we thoroughly enjoy going to the library to do our book work.
it means we have to focus.   We have to be quiet.  We can’t argue about what we get to work on.  AND if if a certain young lad is good and smart he can earn extra stickers for thinking of new things he can work on with his mommy.  🙂  Always a good thing that!

Reading, copywork and fun

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Today overall was a good homeschool day.
we did a lot of reading today, and some art, and played ‘rats’.

After doing morning devotions we started off our day reading about muskrats in the Ultimate Guide to wildlife in North America. 
the lad was quite surprised that they are more closely related to lemmings (one of his favourite creatures) than they are to beavers.

Then off to read from “the Lamb”. Today we did chapter six.

Then we read from our world history book.   We are learning about pirates. 


Today it was about the corsairs who were pirates of the Mediterranean Seas, and they mostly wanted to capture people to be slaves or to sell for ransom.

The lad had fun when we finished our knights section in doing a sticker book on them, so he asked if I could pretty please find a sticker book on Pirates.   I said I’d look around and see what I could come up with and voila!   two sticker books.   They have a different focus so it seemed right to do so.

this first one is from the same series as the knights one.  Dress the pirates.  See the differences in their outfits from area and time.    We’ll do one or two pages at a time in this book as we learn about different pirates.


This second one has it’s focus more on the life of a pirate, what the ship was like.   We did two pages in this book…getting ready to sail and life aboard the ship.   This is where the lad learned about rats that live on the ships.. and hence the game of rats we played later. 🙂


We have started to go through this book called “the big book of questions and answers about Jesus.”
I expect we’ll do one page at a time.
Each question is laid out over two pages.  It starts with reading material and introduces the topic and then has activities for the child to do.
Today we learned that Jesus’ name means “the Lord Saves” and it is similar to the name Joshua.   We talked about how Joshua was used of the Lord to save the people, and so Jesus saved the people of God from their sin.   One of the activities asked of us was to read through Exodus 3 and draw a picture of what we read there.   This fit in well with what I had hoped to accomplish today.. that of reading and then drawing a picture of what we got in our minds from it.   So we killed two birds with one stone. 🙂

the picture the lad came up with
 and what I did.  

It was interesting doing this with the lad.. I was going to put smoke above my burning bush but the lad said “but mommy, the bush didn’t burn…and if it didn’t burn there won’t be smoke!”   and it was like.. duh.. you’re right buddy.. there certainly wouldn’t be smoke!  (never EVER thought about that before).  AND I was just about to put boots on my Moses but the lad reminded me that God said TAKE OFF your shoes.   So, once again, the lad reminded me of important details.  🙂   Always good to have that.

I wanted to do some copy work of “I am who I am” but the lad was typical for a Tuesday.. reluctant to do what didn’t really interest him at all.. so I said okay.. what would you like to do for copywork?   “the names of the people I know from Seaquest”.   Okay I can do that.   He named name, I wrote them and we agreed that he’d put the 10 names into alphabetical order.  Since he often does copywork better if I make myself scarce I went to check on the laundry.   I came upstairs to find him in tears and all upset.

Why?  because there is no “E” name and needs for there to be a “e” name.   I don’t get this.

A tear-filled discussion followed…with the end result being that he decided he’d write out each name three times and NOT put them in alphabetical order and he would NOT get a sticker for doing so.  

We normally play a board game of some sort and we alternate who gets to pick the game.  Today we played Topple.   My sister gave this to the lad last year at Christmas I think.  We pull it out to play.

After lunch we played rats.   “cause every pirate needs to watch out for rats nibbling at your toes and stealing your stuff.  AND THEN every pirate knows you have to teach those rats to behave themselves!  🙂   It was good fun for an hour.

Cleaned the bathroom.  Not great…but better.  Toilets and countertops and tub ledges only.  The lad cleaned out all the recyclables.  AND hubby oh.. my dear hubby hung up my birthday present from last year.. a looped shower curtain hanger.  we have more room in the tub (or at least the feeling of more room!).  WOOT WOOT!

Out for a walk around the block.  Home for supper and caring for the bunnies, bedtime reading and whatnot.

A good day overall.  Better than many Tuesdays.  🙂

Friday activities

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Yes, I know I’m posting two days late, ah well. 🙂

Friday was a fix the computer day. It finally decided that having the internet was optional, and was moving dead slow so… Jim “killed it”(my language). I saved everything I could to the external drive and he saved the rest there as well. We mostly have it working again.

Justin and I worked on a Moses activity book and played a game or two. We also practiced some letters. He had to think and memorize. He asked lots of questions about why would God send all those bad things to the Egyptians?

Bible Sticker Activity books : The story of Moses (isbn 0-8423-2017-2) is the booklet that we used. I got it years ago from Focus on the Family I THINK. Hmm… the book came up on Amazon, but without a price so not sure if it’s still available through them or not.

Books of the Bible

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found in the adventure bible.

This just intrigued me for teaching the lad the books of the bible.
Genesis tells how God created us.
next comes Exodus and Leviticus.
Numbers and Deuteronomy tell
great stories of wandering Israel.
Joshua has stories of war and victory.
Judges tells of problems in Jewish history
Next comes Ruth – you’ll find in this book
the story of Boaz and the wife he took.
Samuel contains books one and two.
Kings and Chronicles also do.
In Ezra and Nehemiah the Jews come home.
Esther is the story of a rise to the throne.
Job is a story of hope and sadness.
The Psalms are poems of praise and gladness.
Proverbs gives us wise things to do.
Ecclesiastes contains much good advice too.
Song of Songs – a poem of love and devotion –
Is expressed in words of strong emotion.
Isaiah and Jeremiah are books of prophecy.
Lamentations laments a sad time in history.
Ezekiel and Daniel take place in captivity.
Hosea, Joel and Amos are the next three.
Obadiah is a short little book.
Jonah is a great story – take a look.
Micah, Nahum and Habbakuk prophesy.
Then come Zephaniah and Haggai.
Zechariah and Malachi are at the end;
Then a long time of silence God did send.
Matthew and Mark with Luke and John
Tell of the teachings of God’s son.
Acts reports on the apostle’s work
With the people of the early church.
Take a look at Romans – you’ll find within
How faith in Jesus can cover sin.
Next comes First and Second Corinthians.
Followed by Galatians, Ephesians and Philippines.
Colossians explains what Faith can do.
Thessalonians and Timothy have books one and two.
Titus tells us to carry on.
The next in line is Philemon.
Hebrews follows – a well-known book –
Chapter eleven at the subject of faith takes a look.
James tells what a Christian should do.
Followed by Peter – books one and two.
Then comes John’s letters – one, two and three.
Jude is next, and as brief as can be.
The Revelation of John comes at the end.
And tells of a Saviour who’s coming again.

Children’s Bible Studies

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Children’s Bible studies

325 bible studies of the entire Bible free to download and use for nonprofit use. Each study features quizzes, puzzles, and a picture to color. Free Adobe Acrobat is required to view.

Keys for Kids

Unlocking God’s Word for young faith
You can learn more about God’s love every day! Read a fun story and hide God’s Word in your heart with the Key Verseof the day. Check out today’s Key, or look for your favorite story in the archives!

Uncle Noah’s Children’s bible study I thought this site interesting. It Even has studies for little children…non-readers. Most sites don’t do that.

I’ve been familiar with Calvary Chapel’s stuff for years now. I’ve often used it as inspiration when doing Children’s bulletin’s.

This Geocities site looks promising. I’ll have to check it out more sometime.