The ESV Grow! Bible is a full Bible containing the complete ESV translation of both the Old and New Testaments along with helps for young readers from 8-12.  This is the regular ESV version presented in two columns – no simplification for younger readers – so your child will need to be a confident, independent reader to be able to read this Bible.

Spread throughout the text are information boxes tackling the big ‘W’s’ – Who, What, Where, When, Why, and How to help your child dig into the facts presented in the Bible and to help your child go deeper by making connections and providing additional information.  4U boxes help your child personally apply certain sections of scriptures to your child’s life.  Cross Connections boxes help to draw connections between scriptures and how they point to the gospel of Christ – both prophetically in the Old Testament, and more directly in the new.

Six section introductions are provided along with an introduction for each individual book of the Bible (fairly standard book introduction information but a mini-timeline for each book is included at the bottom of the page – which is super-neat).  A helpful glossary is included along with colorful timelines, maps, articles, and charts, to help your child explore the Word of God more deeply. Illustrations are included throughout, but respect the growing sensibilities of tween readers by using photo-realistic art in most cases, for a more ‘grown-up’ feeling.

I LOVE the mini-maps that are included in the ‘W’ boxes as appropriate – like “Where is Nineveh?” included right at the start of the book of Jonah with a helpful illustrated map.  The illustrated family trees, timelines, drawings of notable buildings, descriptions and explanations of certain cultural traditions that are foreign to most modern readers, and other inclusions are all excellent and truly helpful additions.

In a few instances, our family doesn’t agree with the ‘4U’ sections because we don’t hold to many institutional church traditions (Christmas, Easter etc.), that wouldn’t be a big concern for us – we always encourage our children to ask us any questions they have or if they are confused.

Perhaps most importantly is the emphasis of the additions on the gospel, continually pointing children towards God’s saving love and the sending of His Son to redeem us – to pay for our sins.  A clear gospel presentation is included in the first Cross Connections Article and the Cross Connection callouts throughout the book keep reminding readers of the incredibly goodness, mercy, and forgiveness of God.

The ESV Grow! Bible presents a great balance between a straight-up Bible that includes just the text itself, and a full-blown study Bible where the commentary, notes, etc. can overwhelm the text itself and often overshadow it.  Just enough helpful information is included to reveal and clarify the meaning of the scriptures themselves without getting heavily into adding layers of external meaning to the text, which I greatly appreciate.  The helps it does include make this edition of the ESV a great support for young, growing Christians.

CLICK HERE TO BUY NOW AT AMAZON.COM OR AT CHRISTIANBOOK.COM!

Mark Stone starts hearing a cacophony of agonizing screams when he talks with people on the telephone.  These screams are followed soon after by the death of the person he spoke to on the phone.  When he hears these same fearful screams when speaking to his wife (whom he is separated from) he springs into action as he tries to save her.

Though not Mike Dellosso’s first novel, Scream is the first work of his that I read.  Dellosso successfully weaves the strands of suspense, and redemption together into a fast-paced thriller.  While some parts of the novel are somewhat formulaic (such as the spiritual tie ins) and unsurprising, he does manage to pull off a surprise twist at the end that I didn’t see coming.

If you’re just starting to read Dellosso though, I recommend some of his later works – Darlington Woods or Darkness Follows (both of which I have also reviewed) in which his writing has become more polished.  Both offer premises that are more unique than a kidnapping style suspense story, and are more engaging because of it.  If you just can’t get enough Dellosso though, this is a decent novel – just not his best work.

CLICK HERE TO BUY NOW AT AMAZON.COM (ALSO ON KINDLE) OR AT CHRISTIANBOOK.COM!

When astronaut Commander Christopher Burke and his crew return from Mars to Earth they find the planet deserted.  Embarking on a journey across a bleak, abandoned landscape they search for signs of life – for clues as to what took place.  As the crew struggles to stay together and maintain some sort of order they desperately attempt to solve the puzzle of the missing populace (just as you will as you read along with their journey).

Robin Parrish has this knack of writing books with great hooks.  They just keep you reading, wondering where Parrish will lead you, and trying to figure out what’s going on.  Offworld – while it may not end up ANYWHERE near where you expect it to – is a great example of this trait of Parrish’s novels.  I can’t really say more about the reason everyone is missing without removing the suspense that is so titillating, but it’s unexpected, and pretty far out there.

For people who don’t like their sci-fi/speculative fiction to be mixed up with too much romance, Parrish is always a good bet as well – while there is a very subtle theme of romantic devotion in the novel – it’s just that, very subtle, and always takes a backseat to action, adventure, and ‘what’s going on here?!’

In the same vein, while Parrish is classified as Christian fiction, he’s pretty hands-off, keeping mentions of God brief – so brief in fact that his work is amongst the more cross-over style titles available from Bethany House.  Thankfully the writing is style is still clean (no language), but you can expect some somewhat gory fight scenes.  This is a fun read for those looking for some sci-fi, adventure-style escapism without having to deal with the explicit sensuality that much mainstream sci-fi contains.

CLICK HERE TO BUY NOW AT AMAZON.COM! (ALSO FOR KINDLE) OR AN EPUB AT CHRISTIANBOOK.COM!

Spiritual Warfare for Women is written by Leighann McCoy – a pastor’s wife, women’s minister, mom, and cancer survivor.  Having survived her own personal struggles with the enemy, she has drawn much of the material from her work from her own life and her experiences in ministry.

McCoy covers general spiritual principles such as God’s love for us, and who the enemy is, before digging into women-specific targets that the enemy tends to focus on because they mean so much to us: marriage, children, friendships, health, and church.  She then closes with encouragement by reaffirming our position in Christ – asserting that we are already victors!

Every chapter draws strongly upon scripture to support its teachings and closes with encouragement to dig into specific sections of the Word to gain further understanding, a prayer suggestion, verses to memorize, and tips to make that memorization happen.  Of course, McCoy liberally sprinkles the book with her own experiences to lend real life examples and context to her teachings.

Solid as the book is, somehow it wasn’t exactly what I was expecting. It certainly does cover a good range of entry-level topics and core knowledge one needs to enter into the battle with their eyes open.  Though it’s hard to exactly pinpoint, I felt like something was missing a bit – as though the book was a bit lighter and fluffier than I was expecting as opposed to giving me the real, nitty-gritty goods.  That could just be my perception, but for some reason I was expecting something a bit different.

CLICK HERE TO BUY NOW AT AMAZON.COM (ALSO ON KINDLE) OR AT CHRISTIANBOOK.COM!

I hadn’t read any of Athol Dickson’s work before, but I was curious about the acclaim his novels have received.  It was with some uncertainty that I opened the pages of his atmospheric, moody Winter Haven.  Set on a remote Maine island, filled with fog, superstition, and the appearances of dead bodies on the beach – including that of Vera Gamble’s long missing autistic brother.  Gone some 13 years, his body appears the same as the day he left home – one of the many mysteries she finds on this spooky island.

While variously appearing to be mystery, suspense, and possibly even paranormal at times – the novel’s heart instead lies in the relationships between the characters, and perhaps most importantly – Vera’s struggle coming to terms with her tortured relationship to the past and a newly forming tenuous hope that ties her to the future.

Without giving away too much, I will say that this novel kept me rapidly reading in order to uncover the mystery at the heart of Winter Haven.  I think I finished in two days, which is pretty fast for me considering I have a house full of children (4 at last count).  I’m not afraid to admit that the last few chapters wrung a few tears out of me as well.

Winter Haven is a bit of an emotional roller coaster ride, surging between fear, suspicion, trust, and even the tentative buds of romance.  Dickson is a confident writer who takes you through the trip with a sure hand at the rudder.

BUY NOW AT AMAZON.COM (CURRENTLY ON SALE!) OR BUY THE KINDLE VERSION HERE!

WriteShop’s curriculum for older students (their classic flagship title is for high school) has long been a standard for homeschooling friendly writing instruction amongst homeschoolers.  Though I’m not familiar with their classic products, their series for younger children is fascinating and well worth investigating if you want to explore writing with your younger children in a very parent-supportive environment.

My oldest daughter (9) and I dug into WriteShop Junior Book D – the first in the latest releases for upper-elementary students.  We have done some work with the Primary series, which was excellent, so I was looking forward to trying the Junior level books.

Designed for third and fourth graders (and even reluctant 5^th and 6^th graders with little past experience writing) – we found that there is enough reference information and review provided that even if you haven’t done much formal writing with your child yet, you can jump in with the Junior series without having completed the Primary books.  This was my biggest question because while we’ve skipped around here and there with grammar and writing instruction, we haven’t completed a comprehensive grade level course of study to date.

The core of the program consists of the Teaching Guide and the Student Activity Pack that contains the printable sheets your child will need to complete the lessons.  Both are available either in print or digitally – something to keep in mind is if you buy the physical copy of the Activity Pack you’ll need one per child – it isn’t reproducible.  The digital copy is reproducible within your family.

WriteShop Junior is what I’d classify as a more parent-intensive program.  There is advance prep work and supply gathering required on the part of the parent, and there is quite a bit of direct teaching provided by the parent in each lesson.  Once you get into the swing or the program and get your basic supplies gathered and organized, the advance prep is cut back a bit.

A great way to reduce the prep time is the handy (optional) Time Saver Pack.  I HIGHLY recommend you get this – what a lifesaver it has been for me!  It really cuts down on having to create your own graphics and hands-on activities for the course.  Available digitally and in print, both options are reproducible (though the physical copy is limited to only certain pages).

Because of the many hands-on elements this is such a great program for children who need a multi-sensory approach to help cement new ideas and concepts in their minds.  My daughter absolutely loved the time we spent together making the Fold N’ Go reference’s – these are like little lapbooks that emphasize certain rules of writing so your child can refer back to them at any time – there is one completed for each lesson.  There are 10 lessons in all and each contains a wealth of activities (each lesson follows the same basic pattern) – each is designed to be completed over a period of three weeks, though the speed can be bumped up to two weeks per lesson.  A suggested teaching schedule is included to help you see how the different parts of each lesson can be spread out throughout the three-week teaching period.

In all, my daughter loves WriteShop Junior Book D and has consistently ASKED for her lessons (this is always a huge bonus to have children motivated to do their work!)  As a mom, it has taken me a little while to become familiar with the pattern of the lessons and the way the course is structured, but to see my daughter so excited by writing and the hands-on activities that I don’t have to think of (I’m so bad at planning those) makes it worthwhile for us.

Don’t forget to visit WriteShop’s website to read more about this curriculum.  You can buy WriteShop Junior Book D directly from WriteShop here in both digital and print options ($33.95 digital, $39.95 print, $13.95 for the Time Saver Pack either format).

You can find more reviews of this and other WriteShop products at the TOS Crew review blog here!

A partial definition of the word inference, taken from Merriam-Webster online is,
“the act of passing from one proposition, statement, or judgment considered as true to another whose truth is believed to follow from that of the former”

The new Inference Jones series from  The Critical Thinking Company is unique in that it uses reading comprehension activities to guide your child towards an understanding of how often we make inferences, and to carefully examine all facts to examine if the conclusions we make are in fact true and stated, or are instead inferred and assumed.

Designed primarily for children in 3rd and 4th grade, Inference Jones: Beginning is a reproducible student worktext (everything is included – stories, room to write, answer key) includes 18 stories with comprehension and critical thinking activities.  A helpful chart at the beginning of the book helps you to see at a glance which stories address specific types of thinking skills.  Though not all skills are included in each story, the list of language arts skills addressed is quite extensive.

Here it is: compare/contrast, define vocabulary in context, distinguish cause/effect, distinguish fact/inference, draw conclusions, find supportinv evidence, identify main idea, make inferences, make generalizations, read for details, use tables, illustrations, etc., analyze character traits, identify thee, identify setting, sequence events.

While many children will naturally pick up these skills, Inference Jones helps you point out these skills and tasks in a meaningful, purposeful way as your child works through the questions.  The book can largely be completed independently, but it also provides a great many opportunities for talking with your child about the assumptions we make, how we come to conclusions, and how we make inferences all the time.

Each activity is around two pages in length including the story (with numbered sentences for future reference and ease of answering), and the questions.  A variety of questions are provided including multiple choice, true, false, or unknown, short answer, and probably true and probably false answers that ask your child to support their conclusion based on their own evidence and personal knowledge (this is truly a unique answer form in my experience).

We received a digital copy of this title for review (it is normally only available in print form to purchase), and I was so thankful because my oldest (newly 9) loves working directly on the iPad.  I introduced the book to her, worked through some sample activities, and then let her have at it!  She had some questions now and then about the new types of questions and thinking the stories and responses generated, but she adored them!  She ASKED me if she could do more Inference Jones for FUN.  After school hours.  On her own.

With 18 activities included, this book won’t make up a full year’s worth of work, but it can be used as a thinking supplement sporadically to keep those thinking skills fresh!  I’m thrilled that my daughter has enjoyed it so much, glad she can work on it independently and very pleased with the precise thinking skills that it helps to form.

Inference Jones: Beginning can be purchased as a reproducible, 48 page paperback for $11.95.

Disclosure: I received a digital copies of this title to write this review.  All opinions are honest and my own.

For more opinions of this and other Critical Thinking Company titles, please visit the TOS Crew Blog here!

Chemistry is my oldest daughter’s favorite subject EVER (she’s nine).  We were very excited to receive digital copies of Christian Kids Explore Chemistry and it’s accompanying Christian Kids Explore Chemistry Resource CD.  There still isn’t a lot of choice in the realm of Christian science texts (that aren’t super textbook-like), and the Christian Kids series is well respected and a solid program.

We have a copy of Christian Kids Explore Biology – another title in this series, but I’m SO impressed by the changes that the 2^nd edition and its incredibly valuable resource CD have brought to the series!  If you’re familiar with other titles in the series, there are quite a few similarities between this and others in the series.

Designed to provide a year of science lessons for students in grades 3-8, the 30 lessons are divided into five major units: The Basics of Chemistry, Atoms and Molecules, The Nature of Chemistry, States of Matter, and Organic Chemistry.  The program is designed with teaching science twice a week for 60-90 minutes daily in mind.

The lessons contain opportunities to memorize scripture and vocabulary, read to your children from the text, review previously learned materials, complete coloring pages, read from the Kingfisher Science Encyclopedia, complete hands on activities, think critically about the activities, and engage in optional supplemental reading (from the resource list – not planned, you choose), and test knowledge learned in the ‘wrap-ups’ at the end of each unit.

The book’s coloring pages though they aren’t nearly as elaborate as the ones found in the biology text, and many children in grades 4-8 may feel that they are beyond the coloring stage.

What totally MAKES the program though is the resource CD.  Often the success of a homeschooling curriculum is due to how well organized it is, how easy it is to get up off the ground and to run with it.  While the author is a homeschooling mom herself and her books tend to be ‘do-able’, the resource pages make it so easy to get started.  My FAVORITE parts of the resource CD are the pre-written lesson plans (more on these later) and the detailed supply lists – broken down not only unit by unit but also lesson by lesson, so you have lots of time to plan ahead for supplies.  A section of the CD also includes ALL of the reproducible pages you need for the course – these can be printed all at once and bound to create a student activity book, or printed as needed for a more notebooking-based approach.

So, more about those lesson plans!  This is really where the 2^nd edition with the resource CD shines – the lesson plans basically show you exactly how to use the text and which parts of it on a day-by-day basis to get all your bases covered.  Each lesson is scheduled over 2 days (to be taught in one week), and a wrap-up for each unit is also scheduled over 2 days, for a total of six teaching weeks per unit (that’s 30 weeks total).  This is great because it reminds you to work in vocabulary, review, supplemental reading etc. I tend to lean towards open and go programs, and some elements can be a bit tricky for newer homeschooling parents in particular to figure out when to do (review etc.) so it’s nice to have the pre-planned lessons available to use (totally optional of course).

The resource CD even includes a full literature guide from the Bright Ideas Press Illuminations program for a biography of the Christian scientist Blaise Pascale – A Piece of the Mountain, though it seems to be missing a couple of the graphic organizers called for in the guide that are included in Illuminations.  A huge resource list is also included in the appendix as well as further source of biographical study.

Overall, this is another very well done offering in the Christian Kids series of science books from Bright Ideas Press for moms looking for a realistic, do-able guide to science – and with the resource CD it’s now even easier to plan and use, making it simple to get going!

The main text for Christian Kids Explore Chemistry costs $39.95 (with the resource CD) and the accompanying resource CD can be downloaded for $12.95 and is compatible with 1^st and 2^nd editions (currently on sale for $9.95).  Also available at major retailers.

Disclosure: I received digital copies of the main text and the resource CD in order to write this review.  All opinions are honest and my own.

For more opinions of this and other Christian Kids Explore titles, please visit the TOS Crew Blog here!

We previously reviewed an AIMS title on early geometry and I was so impressed with the way their pre-planned hands-on learning activities reinforced concepts that I jumped at the chance to review their title for time telling skills – It’s About Time.  Designed for children from kindergarten to grade 2 in mind, I actually wanted to try this one with my grade 3 daughter who, though we’ve taught time over a few years, still struggles with understanding it completely.

I think it’s so common for children to have a tough time getting to the mastery stage of telling time from what I’ve seen in our home and my conversations with other homeschooling moms.  It takes a lot of practice, practice, practice for this skill to become second nature – some public schools are even abandoning the teaching of reading time on analog clocks and only going with digital (which honestly shocks me).

The book includes 22 fully planned activities complete with printables and teaching plans that move from understanding the passing of time conceptually, through to learning about and reading different clocks, and learning about elapsed time (how much time has passed).  The activities are listed on a traditional table of contents which is also followed by a list of the activities broken into the major concepts taught and the specific concepts taught in each activity to really help you focus in on the skills your child needs more help with.

The book is filled with playful illustrations appropriate for young children and the manipulatives you make and use together with your children are a lot of fun for everyone and really help to cement the concepts – the AIMS books are so great at doing this.  There is even a booklist (ah booklists) of books for young children that help to develop a sense of time and a conceptual understanding of it.

Because a wide and comprehensive range of time concepts are covered, this book is easy to use as a supplement and hands-on reinforcement for any existing time concepts that are included in your math curriculum.  Most math programs inclue teaching time, but sometimes they move too quickly, don’t have enough review often enough, or don’t include multi-sensory learning – you can use It’s About Time to remedy those problems.

Something to keep in mind is that although the teaching instructions and printables are all pre-planned, the directions are written with classroom teachers in mind.  You’ll find some activities that ask for you to place four children at each table etc. and you’ll need to be flexible and a bit creative at times to make these activities work for your own family – single children will be the trickiest if they don’t have siblings to do group activities with (you’ll have to get involved in one of the student roles yourself!)

The book includes reproduction rights for up to 200 copies of any part of the book – that means it will serve pretty much any homeschooling family for their entire homeschooling career, even if you have multiple children!  The book is available either as a PDF (easy to print from) or as a printed book with a CD that includes all of the reproducibles on it.  If you look at the PDF version you can see a free preview of the book online.  The reproducibles are also printed directly in the book if you prefer to make traditional photocopies (I personally hate doing that, I love the CD we received with our printed copy).

To read more reviews of this and other AIMS titles, please visit the TOS Crew Review blog here!

Disclosure: I received a physical copy of this title in order to write this review.  All opinions are honest and are my own.

In a world filled with evolution-this, evolution-that, it is so refreshing to find a gentle picture book for children that celebrates God’s unique design of each of His creatures, and how the special features he has equipped them with make it possible for them to exist where He has placed them.

Homeschooling mom of four, Debra Haagen, has written the fact-filled Amazing Animals by Design.  The story follow a family of four (mom, dad, girl, boy) through a zoo and explores the unique characteristics of a variety of animals, both common (the elephant) and slightly more unusual (carcacal anyone?)  Once the trip to the zoo is over the family marvels together over God’s unique plans for each animal and the care He has taken in designing them.  Another aspect of this title that I LOVED is that the family also reflects together upon how God has made humans different from animals, and what the main differences are.  Humans are too often lumped together with animals, and I love seeing this differentiation presented respectfully.

Written with early elementary children in mind (K-3rd) my two girls in this age range cuddled together on the couch with me as we read this title together.  My 6 and 9-year-olds both really enjoyed this title and the resulting conversations that stemmed from reading it.  They give it 5/5, most definitely .

This title is published by Tate, and in my time as a book reviewer I’ve come to associate them as a self-publishing house, but don’t let that deter you AT ALL.  The quality of the PDF version of Amazing Animals by Design that we received is simply excellent.  The English is well written, clear, and accurate – the illustrations are lovely, this is a high quality production.

Available as a PDF e-book for $7.99 (which we read together on our iPad – it looks great in landscape view in a pdf reader) or a paperback for $8.99, you can find this title at Tate Publishing here.  You can also find this book available at major retailers online (like Amazon) so if you’re ordering from there, grab a copy!

Would you like to read MORE reviews of Amazing Animals by Design?  Head on over to the TOS Crew blog to find more thoughts!

Disclosure: I received an electronic PDF copy of this title in order to write this review.