Who is My Neighbor? Why Should I Love him? 2 good questions with a message for all

 This year the boys and I are once again participating in several service projects within our local community including harvests and donations involving school supplies. I want my boys to appreciate what we have and know that even when it doesn't seem like much something simple can make a big difference in someone else's life. I also wanted them to understand what the Bible says about helping each other and loving our neighbor even our enemy.
When Apologia's Who is my Neighbor curriculum came up for review on the Schoolhouse Crew I was excited because it fit so well with the direction I was going this summer with the boys.    I had seen the other books in the Who is series from Apologia and while they sounded interesting and useful I wasn't as drawn to them as I was with this title.

 Who is my Neighbor is the 3rd book in the series from Apologia and can be used as a stand alone or in sequence with the first 2 books.   Who is my Neighbor textbook is a hardcover full color book full of stories , scripture, lessons, and real life scenarios for the whole family. The textbook retails for $39.00.  Also available is the Notebooking Journal which retails for $24.00 and a color book that retails for $8.00.
We are using the whole program as a family so we are doing most of the questions as narration rather than having the boys write them down. I purchased an extra coloring book so each of the boys have their own and as we read the various lessons from the book the boys can color and discuss the picture that coordinates with the message and story.
I am thoroughly enjoying this Bible Study with the whole family and have been  very excited to see the boys enjoying this too. Now that we have used a portion of this program I am really looking at getting the first 2 books as well as the newest book in the series over the next few years as a family devotional lesson.
If you are interested in this program, Apologia has samples of the books as well as the coloring pages that can be downloaded.
This is a very good value for the price, even if it seems high, the overall content and the way it is written pulled my whole family into the Word so it is a good value and a blessing.

Check out what the rest of the crew thought of the program below

disclaimer: We received a copy of the above mentioned product as a member of the Schoolhouse Review Crew in exchange for our honest opinion of the product.

Nook learning

So last month I won a Barnes &Noble Nook thanks to Currclick.com and Read an E-Book Week.  For the last couple months I have been eyeing an IPod Touch but when I received word that I won the Nook I couldn't have been more excited, mostly because while eyeing the Touch, I knew the budget wouldn't allow for it.  I did hit Costco during March coupon book and purchased an 8-gig micro SD card with the OK of husband/ Principal... Since the Nook was going to be used for school he agreed that the SD card would make it a lot easier to move more of the e-books to the Nook.  I received my Nook on a Tuesday via UPS and immediately cracked open the case and started playing... First off the USB cord / charing unit, what an ingenious set up... the wall plug has the USB port of the back so I only have 1 cord..  Second the size, just big enough to see , just small enough to literally fit inside a Staples brand plastic pencil box with my other small electronics that travel with me (cords, wireless network card for the laptop, various thumbdrive, and SD cards) and stows away nicely in my purse. Couple of things I'm still getting use to, the screen itself is not lit  (saves on battery life, but hard to read at night), and need to get a card charger for it...  I love the fact that my Hands of a Child Project Packs can be read (no more printing research guides for classtime). And Barnes & Noble has a large variety of free e-books.  Can't forget the built in wi-fi and since it is At&T based it pulls from the local AT&T cell phone tower... I haven't taken it to a Barnes&Noble store yet as the closest ones to me are about 50 miles away and not high on my list of places to go.

This little piece of modern electronics has been a blessing just in the 3 weeks I have had it.. I still have over 6 gigs of space on the Nook and sd card combined, although if I really wanted to spend time sorting through all my wonderful e-book resources I could fill it in no time; can also add MP3s for the onboard MP3 player or jpegs for the screensaver/ wallpaper functions.

I have a little Nook wish list: a clip-on LED light (about $10 for one at our local book store), the card charger piece ($5.00 for parts express), a an e-book of the Bible (really want a KJV or NKJV from B&N so it will search easier...)

Another sign of Spring

The other night while I was shooting pictures , I decided I needed some new pics of the waterfall in our backyard. I love the sounds and just watching the water. I would never have built something like this in a backyard, the pond and the waterfall are huge. When we moved in , everything was already here so we have just been cleaning it up and enjoying it. Some days I feel so out of place at home. Our house is too big and the backyard is huge. I should feel blessed I guess, we got it at a good price and at the right time. Of course shortly after we moved out here we had our second child and life has been changing ever since. I want to use the space for something good, I'm just not sure what.
We planted a garden this year, a small one that I think I will expand to try and keep our costs down... Eat off the land, and work to make the surrounds more peaceful.
I know the boys are loving the space and I don't have to take them to the park as we have such a big back yard... If gas prices weren't so high I could have friends down to play but we live in the country and far enough away from people that it is hard. I guess it is a mixed blessing.