Special Connection Homeschool

With Gess now being in what many call middle school it has been hard for me to find appropriate curriculum. She can read really well and her comprehension is even pretty good, but it is not yet ready for middle school level. Couple that with her inability to read small print and it makes finding a text book hard. We have also been all over the place on science. It has turned out to be Gesserine's favorite subject and many times I have let her choose the topic. Her fascination with weather comes alive every spring and in the winter when she is often sick she focuses on human anatomy and biology. While we have done some studies on plants and animals and various other things, I fear there are some things she has missed. So this year we are doing a full science review. For that I purchased the book The World of Science from Master Books . The book is divided into 7 sections. It covers 6 majors areas of science with the final section being experiments that correspond with the oth...

Not only did I sign Gess up for the library reading program but I also participated. I only had to read 10 books and they can be any 10 books but I always challenge myself to read something outside of my usual reading patterns. They must be new authors, or genres, or something to that affect and I can only check out what I find by browsing the shelves. I figured I would tell you about all the new items I explored because after all, now that Gess is older I don't really read with her anymore so I can't tell you about the books she read. I can, however tell you about mine. Summer Reading List 2015 My first selection was The Aushwitz Escape by Joel Rosenberg. This was on my "to read" list anyway and I was excited to get it. It was an exceptional book and I highly recommend it to everyone. I have done much reading, study, and research on the concentration camps myself and I could tell that while this was fictional, it was very careful to be as historically accurate...

I can't think of a better way to start thinking about the Christmas holidays than with the book I received for my latest review. David Nicholson is a retired teacher and missionary who brought back to life a Christmas story that he often shared with his own children. Originally written by Nan F. Weeks, If He Had Not Come shares the meaning of  Christmas that reveals the true impact that Jesus has made on the world. With beautiful color illustrations this story comes to life and makes one consider what Christmas is truly all about. In the story Bobby and his Father are reading the Bible together on Christmas Eve before Bobby heads off to bed. As they read John 15:22 the words "If I had not come" jump off the page to him. After he falls asleep he hears a voice wake him up abruptly on what he thinks is Christmas morning. Instead he finds himself in a world in which Jesus had never come! There is no Christmas tree with presents underneath, but more importantly there ...

I love teaching Gess the Bible and she loves learning about it. As she gets older there are deeper and tougher questions to tackle, questions adults don't always have the answer to. How did we get Bible? Where did it come from? How do we know it is true? Apologia Educational Ministries is helping us tackle some of these issues with their iWitness book series. I was blessed to be able to review three of these books for you: Old Testament iWitness , New Testament iWitness, and iWitness Biblical Archaeology . The iWitness book series was created as a way to get "scholarly" information into the hands of those who might not otherwise pick up a book on these topics. They are very visual and presented in an investigative format. They have notes pinned on every page instead of just text. It is trying to help you visualize how you would do things if you were really investigating the issue, piecing information together bit by bit until you come to the final conclusion. It...

I have a daughter who loves to read therefore we spend lots of time at the library. As a parent I wish she had more access to books that promoted a Biblical worldview. That is why I was glad to have an opportunity to review one of the books from Wizzy Gizmo . Wizzy Gizmo  is a company that offers children's books that not only have a biblical worldview, but are actually about the Bible. Using a fictional narrative their characters end up in situations where they learn about and experience events from the Bible. For the purpose of my review Gess chose to read Book Two: In His Image . Wizzy Gizmo  derived their name from the main character in their books. The character Wizzy Gizmo is a science professor and an incredible inventor. His invention Gizmovision has the ability to make any book literally come to life. He uses this invention to help teach children about the most important book of all time, the Bible.  Book One: Who Created Everything?  was of course ...

My goal for both Gess and myself is to find books at the library simply by browsing the shelf. I don't want to have a specific book in mind, I want us to just search. In both fiction and non-fiction we found some interesting reads. In fact, we found some books we might not have otherwise thought of! Gess is up to 4 books read now.  Her first two were from The Magic Tree House collection. I made her find something different after that. She seemed to enjoy this one about Sir Lancelot. It was in the fairy tale section. This book her and I read together for a review we are doing. I would have her read a chapter all by herself. Then we read it together the next day for review, so we could answer review questions about it. My first book was The Hobbit. I can't believe I just read this. I loved it! I will, however take a break from reading more in the series just yet. However, I have caught both of the movies and while I enjoyed them immensely, I do believe the boo...

Every summer we sign up for the reading program at our local library. Gess is usually through her minimum number of books well before the end of summer. On your left you can see Gess signing up for door prizes during registration. Since the theme this year is science they let you get a photo of yourself as a mad scientist! However, the summer program is not all about reading, though mostly it is. There are lots of fun activities that go along with reading all those books. There will be movie days, story time, crafts, and playing with food. The zoo is coming but we will be at camp that week and near the end a real mad scientist will come and do some fun experiments with us! This is also Gess' first year in the middle school reading program. I am excited about that. I am glad that juvenile books still count for this. Her skill level is good enough for Young Adult, but when she sees the size of the book or if the font is too small she thinks its too hard. Here are some books...

Gary A. Haugen the President and CEO of the International Justice Mission will soon be releasing a new book, The Locust Effect: Why the End of Poverty Requires the End of Violence .  As you know I am very mission minded and have been an advocate of IJM since I discovered them a few years back.  The work they do to help save people from the bonds of slavery is nothing short of amazing.  As we know there are no victims more vulnerable to the threat of trafficking than those who live in poverty.  They are the ones with out the resources and power to speak out against the oppression that faces them on a daily basis.  Their desperation will make them trust those who actually seek to bring them harm or simply give up all hope.  However, poverty alone is apparently not the only problem.  To address poverty we need to end the senseless violence that surrounds it.  The Locust Effect: Why the End of Poverty Requires the End of Violence will address thi...

My most recent review turned out to be a pretty cool way for young kids to learn about far away places and cultures.  Carole P. Roman with Away We Go Media has written a series of children's books titled If You Were Me .  Each book shares what life was like in various places.  For our review we received the books: If You Were Me and Lived in...Mexico If You Were Me and Lived in...South Korea If You Were Me and Lived in...France If You Were Me and Lived in...Norway   What I loved about the way these books were written was that it wasn't just explaining what they do in that country.  Instead they try to get you to imagine what it would be like if you lived there. The first page says something like "If you were me and lived in France, your home would be here in Western Europe."  Then they show the illustration that is on the cover where they are pointing to that place on the globe.  To make sure Gess got this we had her find it on the globe t...

This last month we have done a delightful book driven study by YWAM Publishing .  Since I was already familiar with their Heroes series I knew that we would be in for a treat with the selection we were asked to review George Washington: True Patriot . While I had read some of their other titles that I found at our church library I did not realize that they offered a curriculum guide to go along with them.  Now you not only get to read about the hero, in this case George Washington, but you get to take what you read and turn it into an entire unit study.  For the purpose of my review we received both the ebook George Washington: True Patriot and the PDF version of the George Washington: True Patriot Unit Study Curriculum Guide . The book itself was an enjoyable read.  Because of her special needs, Gess and I read the book together, taking turns doing the reading.  We were both captivated right away as it took us into George Washington's childhood....