Macbeth E-Guide - A TOS Homeschool Crew Review

 This summer I was selected to participate in a review for
Progeny Press. 

Different products were assigned for different age-grouped students. The product I got to review was the Macbeth E-Guide (for Grades 9-12). I knew my student didn't have time to read Macbeth this summer, but I was permitted to be the student for this review.

I had never read Macbeth, and I was up for the challenge. One of the most interesting aspects of educating my children classically has been realizing how many classic pieces of literature I myself have never read. Even before I learned I would be on the review I dug out my paperback copy of Macbeth and started reading.

Then one day I received the email from Progeny Press giving me instructions on how to download my E-Guide. I did so immediately. There was an interactive guide to Macbeth and an answer key to the same. After downloading both I made a second copy of the interactive guide so I would have one that I could fill answers in right in the PDF document.

Pausing from my struggle to read the "Olde English" of Macbeth, I turned to the pages of the Study Guide. The Guide is divided into these sections:

• Note to Instructor
• A Special Note on Shakespeare's Plays
• Synopsis
• Background Information
• About the Author
• Suggestions for Pre-Reading Activities
• Act I
• Act II
• Act III
• Act IV
• Act V
• Overview
• Writing Projects
• Additional Resources
• Answer Key (which is actually the 2nd download)

I found the Synopsis and Background Information particularly helpful. I suddenly better understood what I was reading. I was intrigued to learn the Macbeth was a fictional story that was created from some actual British history that was altered to serve the purposes of the story Shakespeare had conceived to tell!

Some of the student study guide assignments include:

• a vocabulary section, with definitions to match the vocabulary words to
• a quotation to unscramble and attribute to the speaker in the play
• general questions
• analysis questions
• a character study section, where the student dives into individuals in the play to create a brief character sketch of individuals they choose from a list
• explanations of literary tools and terms, such as foreshadowing, pathetic fallacy, understatement, extended metaphor,  and protagonist
• introduction to techniques Shakespeare used, such as soliloquy
• discussion of stylistic devices used, such as contrast,
  personification, hyperbole, anaphora, and metaphor
• "Dig Deeper" questions, asking the student to consider sections of Macbeth in light of sections of the Bible 
• Extra assignments - writing assignments which enable the parent to add depth to the study of Macbeth, making this a worthy segment of their student's high school literature and composition course; art assignments which correspond with the study of Macbeth, but give the student another avenue to delve into to further enjoy their study of Medieval England; suggestions for having the student(s) act out certain portions of the play, giving the integrated studies an opportunity for a "Drama" credit as well 

The Pre-Reading Activities suggested watching a presentation of Macbeth before reading the play. I searched Netflix and Hulu to no avail, but finally found a movie version on YouTube starring Ian McKellen. A newer version was made in 2015, but this 1978 version is just fine with me! This idea of watching the movie before reading the piece is entirely different for me, but now that I think of it I have loved the production of many Shakespeare plays that I have never read. They were, after all, originally presentations of the Shakespeare Company that were eventually written down! So, off to watch the movie!

I also went to the Study Guide at this point and played "catch up", answering questions for the segments I'd already read. Most of the type-in sections worked great, but on page 11 there was a place to unscramble a sentence-long quote... with only about 10 spaces for the answer to show. I had to print that page out and write the answer in by hand.

The beauty of this type of product (an e-guide) is that 1) it costs less than a printed guide and 2) you don't have to print a lot of the guide out! With a student you can have him work on line, type in the answers, and save the document. Then you can check the student's work or have the student check his own work. The student's work can be printed before checking (skipping pages you don't need to print). Or you can print out the entire study guide and have the student write the answers in by hand. I print everything double-sided in black ink only for more money savings. So many choices!

I have really enjoyed working my way through Macbeth with the Progeny Press Macbeth E-Guide. So many aspects of the content and the study methods have made it easier to work my way though the play learning more and comprehending better. I highly recommend this Macbeth E-Guide for you to use with your high school students.

In looking at the content, I realized that my son (scheduled to take the SAT in October) would benefit from the content of the study guide even without reading Macbeth. So I began having conversations with him about the terms I found he was not familiar with, such as soliloquy and anaphora.  

The Macbeth E-Guide has 54 pages and is designed to be completed in 8-10 weeks. A typical school year is 36 weeks, so if you selected four Progeny Press literature study guides, you would have material for a full-year's high school credit in Literature and Composition. Macbeth itself contains witches, murder and suicide. These are issues that different families want to tackle differently, but they should not be entirely avoided. Progeny Press provides a Biblical world view to enable you to open conversation with your student rather than ignoring these issues as if they don't exist.

The Homeschool Review Crew also reviewed e-guides for other grade levels, so if you have younger students you're going to want to click the link below to see reviews of the products for the lower grade levels. Here are the other products that there are reviews for:

• The Bears on Hemlock Mountain E-Guide (Grades 1-3)
• Charlotte’s Web E-Guide (Grades 4-6)
• The Silver Chair E-Guide (Grades 5-7)

In addition, Progeny Press also sells the books for the study, and they have a huge variety of other study guides. I encourage you to visit their web page. Let me know what you think!
 
To see other product reviews, please click the button below.

British Mideival Lightning Lit - A TOS Homeschool Crew Review

In early May I learned Hewitt Homeschooling was coming up as a vendor for a Crew Review.

I love materials from Hewitt Homeschooling! And we were being offered a huge variety to choose from. My student is in high school, so that narrowed down my choices. I finally settled on asking for British Medieval . I liked the literature it covered as they were mostly titles I already owned.

The beauty of Hewitt Homeschooling Lightning Lit & Comp materials is the way the teach the student because it has the student read classic literature and write compositions in response just the way they will have to in their college English classes.

The materials arrived. I received the Student's Guide and the Teacher's Guide. I'm the student on this one this time and when new school books come in the mail I feel like a kid in a candy shop! I can't decide what to "taste" first, and it is hard for me to settle down and really get started. When I was finally able to slow down and focus, I began by reading the Student's Guide Introduction.

I love the Lightning Lit Introductions. They start by talking to the student about who they should take this course, why to read literature and how to read literature. They also discuss how to read poetry. The Introduction discusses aspects of poetry: vocabulary, syntax, alliteration, assonance, rhyme and meter. Poetry can be easier to read an easier to understand if you read aloud. 

The author recommends the student consider memorizing poetry, and I am humbled to remember the original tradition of story-telling involved individuals memorizing classics like The Odyssey and Beowulf for the purpose of its retelling. Wow!

The Introduction then teaches the importance of learning to write well. Although it comes more naturally to some than to others, it is a skill that can be learned. The book discusses brainstorming, topic statement, research, outlining, and steps to turning the outline into a final product. 

The Introduction also (of course) discusses how to use the Student's Guide. There is information about what to do with the Lessons and what to keep in mind while you read. I really like that the Guide recommends the student keep a vocabulary notebook and a reading journal.

Next the Student's Guide jumps right to Unit 1, Lesson 1: Beowulf. Before starting Beowulf, I took a look at the Teacher's Guide.  The Teacher's Guide is 85 pages, plain white 3-hole-punched paper, stapled. I will probably get this put into a 3-ring binder sometime -- not having it in a binder causes it to get beat up. The Teacher's Guide also starts with an Introduction, so I started reading again!

The Teacher's Guide Table of Contents is linked on the Hewitt website. The schedule is available in both the Student's and the Teacher's Guide for both a one semester schedule and a full year schedule. The material as presented counts for 1/2 credit. For one full credit the student would need to complete two Hewitt high school Lightning Lit & Comp titles. Another option is to spread the material out over the course of a full year and supplement it with other English work such as grammar and further study such as author studies.

I began my studies of Beowulf. I was surprised as I read, because I have apparently read it before. I didn't remember that I had read it. The only thing I can figure is that I must have led my oldest daughter's literature class when they were studying Beowulf. In my defense, that was about 20 years ago. Yes, it really was. I was able to understand the story better this time because the introduction explained some things I just didn't figure out the first time. I really got into the story and just wanted to enjoy it, so I was frustrated to have to stop and answer the comprehension questions. I know this must be how my students sometimes feel, but at the same time it causes one to slow down and think more about specific aspects of the literature.

The Teacher's Guide provides checklists for writing assignments followed by a grading template for grading the writing assignments. I love the sheets provided for the units to help the teacher come up with the grade. Grading has always been very hard for me! There are ten aspects given to consider when evaluating the student's work (giving a score from 1-10), and then you add the ten scores together to get the final grade. Great grading method. And when the student understands what things contribute to the final grade, it is easier to pay attention to detail. There are also templates for grading comprehension questions and for vocabulary work. The final grade consists of 80% writing assignments, 10% comprehension and 10% vocabulary. I decided to try to work at the one-semester pace, knowing that I might have to slow to the full-year pace if my life got too hectic.

Week 1 involves completing the Introduction and the first half of Beowulf with the comprehension questions.

Week 2 finishes the reading of Beowulf and calls for the Literary Lesson for Unit 1 Lesson 1.

Week 3 gives a choice of Writing Exercises and calls for a rough draft. The student begins Lesson 2, Anglo-Saxon Riddles, and comprehension questions. When you understand the riddles, they are so funny!

Week 4 had me finalize my Week 3 paper and begin a second writing project. The reading for this week was "Old and Middle English".

Week 5 finally let me start Piers Plowman. I had never read it before! It is so funny, what I've read so far. By now I really had to slow down; life is busy. I haven't finished my week 5 work yet.

Doing the British Medieval work on my own has been fun, but I am glad I don't have to grade my own writing assignment. It is hard to be objective about your own work. I have also had difficulty in the past being objective about grading my own kids' writing. I like the way the teacher materials tell the parent not to unnecessarily mark everything wrong. I always struggle with that. As the teacher, make positive comments and keep criticism unemotional. I'm not good at that, either. Avoid rewriting the student's work. I am working on it.

British Medieval is a fantastic program. The Hewitt Lightning Lit & Comp materials are all fabulous. I have previously talked about British Mid-19th Century and the Gr 7 Lightning Lit Set and I loved them both. I've never tried a Hewitt Homeschooling product that I didn't love. Give them a try!

Other members of the Homeschool Review Crew reviewed various Hewitt Homeschooling products. Click on the button below to see other Crew reviews of Hewitt Homeschooling products.

The Secret Bridge - A TOS Homeschool Review

In May I learned I had been selected to be part of a review with Lamplighter Publishing.


I received in the mail a beautiful book called The Secret Bridge.


I had not known what to expect. I had heard of Lamplighter in the past and even owned a Lamplighter book, but I had forgotten all about them. But receiving this beautiful book!... I was immediately impressed and couldn't wait to start reading.

The exterior is like a blue faux leather embossed with shiny gold. I opened and began reading. I was immediately hooked. The writing style was quaint, old-fashioned. Curious, I quit reading for a moment to look the book over. The setting seemed to be the 18th or 19th Century. Reading information pages at the end of the book, I learned that Lamplighter mission is to print "books of high-quality with an emphasis on character development, biblical insights, artistic design, excellence, and skilled craftsmanship". I vaguely remembered knowing this. I flipped through a few more pages and found mention of the one Lamplighter book I had already owned: Teddy's Button. Wait! What? It's written by the same author as The Secret Bridge! Are you serious?

So I went back to my reading. The story begins on board a ship traveling from India to London. We meet some of the passengers: Godfrey Bullingham, traveling alone; Bridget Channing, traveling alone. Godfrey has been watching Bridget, and he begins a conversation with her. Eventually we learn she was raised by her father, her mother having died at her birth, and now her father has passed away. Before dying, her father made arrangements for Bridget with a step-brother in London, who promised to take care of Bridget's support.

Upon arriving to London, Godfrey and Bridget part ways as Bridget goes to seek out her step-uncle. Shortly thereafter Godfrey comes upon Bridget in the street, and we learn that Bridget's step-uncle died before her arrival and left all his worldly goods to an unsympathetic housekeeper who refuses to permit Bridget to enter the uncle's house.

Godfrey wants to help Bridget, but Bridget feels strongly that she cannot rely upon the sympathy of a stranger, and she seeks to make a way for herself on her own merits. The times and customs being what they were at that time, she soon learned that she could not find employment without references, not as a teacher, and not even as a nanny or a maid! Godfrey continues to pursue her, having decided the only way to help her is to offer marriage. Godfrey is in the Navy, and time becomes short when he must depart for a tour of duty! As departure approaches, Bridget is reaching the end of her funds and becoming desperate. She finally agrees to marry, and on the day Godfrey is departing they are wed, and Godfrey moves Bridget into rented rooms in a country estate where she will stay while he serves his year at sea.

Godfrey's family is away, though, when they are wed, and because Godfrey hasn't been able to tell them he is getting married he asks Bridget to keep their marriage secret until his return in a year. Godfrey wants Bridget to meet his family and wants them to fall in love with her before he tells them he has married her. We learn that his parents would not approve of him marrying a woman of unknown pedigree...

Godfrey leaves, and as Bridget begins to meet people, we learn of the familial feuds of the area dating back to the time of Henry VIII. The house Bridget is staying in belongs to the Bullinghams but used to belong to the Fitzroys, but they fell into disfavor with the king because they were Catholic and the king banished them and gave the property to the Bullinghams, who never saw it necessary to permit the Fitzroys to reacquire it. Of particular dispute is a carved mantle the Fitzroys want back, which the Bullinghams adamently refuse to let them have.

We meet family members from both clans, and learn even of a Fitzroy daughter who is never spoken of. Eventually we learn this daughter ran off and married someone not approved of by mother and father, and sailed away only to die after a year or so of marriage.

I begin to see foreshadowing, only to have my suspicions confirmed fairly early in the book: the missing Fitzroy daughter was Bridget's mother! A Bullingham has married a Fitzroy and no one even knows it! Meanwhile, through letters they have been exchanging, Bridget and Godfrey are falling in love.

The pressure and stress Bridget is experiencing weighs her down. She begins to find an outlet in a new-found relationship with her Savior. She and Godfrey regularly exchange letters, and she agonizes over what and how much to tell him about her new found discovery. How it all resolves is very satisfying.

Every good book usually has some point at which the reader can think, "So that's why that is this book's title." I really loved when the book revealed the reason for its title, The Secret Bridge. Very fun!

I really enjoyed The Secret Bridge, and I think you will too. I can't wait to pass it along to my adult daughter so she can enjoy it too. I really love Lamplighter Publishing's goal of developing "Christlike character one story at a time."

To learn more about Lamplighter you can touch base and follow them through social media:

Facebook: 

https://www.facebook.com/lamplighterministries/
Twitter:  

https://twitter.com/lamplighterbook  @lamplighterbook
Google+:  https://plus.google.com/107546529632801860503

Other members of the Homeschool Review Crew also reviewed The Secret Bridge. To see other product reviews, please click the button below.

Movies that used to be books...

"Who would have known that some of these movies used to be books?" This is a question my friend at Three Giggly Girls Blog asked, and I loved the premise. I thought it would be fun to use her post as a springboard to list books we have enjoyed in our homeschool that are also now movies or television shows. This list is in no particular order, but as I mentioned I am using my friend's list to jog my memory. I am only listing books we have read, though, so my list is different.

1. Peter Rabbit;
2. The Little Engine that Could;
3. Curious George;
4. Charlotte's Webb;
5. Peter Pan;
6. Pinocchio;
7. The Velveteen Rabbit;
8. Little House on the Prairie;
9. Winnie the Pooh (The House at Pooh Corner);
10. Heidi;
11. Black Beauty;
12. Mary Poppins;
13. The Story of Dr. Doolittle;
14. Five Children and It;
15. The Wind in the Willow ("Frog and Toad" stories);
16. Pilgrim's Progress;
17. Joan of Arc;
18. A Little Princess;
19. Alice's Adventure in Wonderland;
20. Through the Looking Glass;
21. Caddie Woodlawn;
22. King of the Wind;
23. Misty of Chincoteague;
24. The Jungle Book;
25. Robinson Cruso;
26. Gulliver's Travels;
27. Johnny Tremaine;
28. Pollyanna;
29. Secret Garden;
30. The Railroad Children;
31. Bambi;
32. Chronicles of Narnia;
33. Lassie ("Lassie Come Home");
34. Gentle Ben;
35. Kidnapped;
36. The Incredible Journey;
37. Robin Hood;
38. King Arthur;
39. Little Women;
40. A Christmas Carol;
41. The Adventures of Tom Sawyer;
42. Treasure Island;
43. Anne of Green Gables;
44. Oliver Twist;
45. Rikki Tikki Tavi;
46. The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings trilogy;
47. Mr. Poppin's Penguins;
48. A Series of Unfortunate Events;
49. The BFG;
50. Charlie and the Chocolate Factory;
51. James and the Giant Peach;
52. Charlotte's Web;
53. The Lorax;
54. The Cat in the Hat;
55. How the Grinch Stole Christmas;
56. The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn;
57. Little Men;
58. Jack and Jill;
59. Watership Down;
60. When the Tripods Came series;
61. A Tale of Two Cities;
62. Seven Alone;
63. Harry Potter books

Well, there are probably more, but that's my list. What books have YOU read that have also been made into movies or television shows?

When Worlds Collide: A Schoolhouse Crew Review

I've been receiving emails with writing tips from Sharon Watson for some time now, so I was delighted to learn that I would get to review a product from Writing with Sharon Watson.

The Review Crew had the opportunity to review Illuminating Literature: When Worlds Collide by Sharon Watson. The products we received were:

Illuminating Literature: When Worlds Collide: Student Book
Illuminating Literature: When Worlds Collide: Teacher's Guide
Illuminating Literature: When Worlds Collide: Quiz and Answer Manual
Illuminating Literature: When Worlds Collide: Novel Notebook (Free PDF Download)

The author also very kindly sent us the first two books covered in the curriculum: 
Pudd'nhead Wilson, by Mark Twain and The War of the Worlds, by H.G. Wells.

I requested this review because I was intrigued by the literature choices. I am quite familiar with Mark Twain, but I had never heard of Pudd'nhead Wilson. I already possessed a borrowed copy of The War of the Worlds but had never used it as a high school literature choice. 

Now we all know that delight when a box of new school materials arrives on the front door-step. There is that anticipation as you gently slice through the packaging tape. But I have to tell you, the "Wow Factor" of this program jumps out at you when you fold back the flaps of the box. This cover and the color combinations are just stunning. I still love looking at the photo of--well... canning jars in a row in some long grass. The jars look like they contain lavender liquid, yet there is a glow at the bottom, brighter than lightning bugs, and maybe a lit candle. Under liquid. How did they do that?

Diving into a program like this, with four books and so much content, the first question the student and teacher ask is, "Where do I start?" The teacher has the "Teacher's Guide", and the book that is not specifically marked is the student's main book. The teacher, the bibliophile, lovingly flips through page-by-page, glancing at the cover pages, information about other books, a multi-paged Table of Contents, and lands on a page that begins, "About the Course: Welcome, Teacher!"  A typical student looks at the cover, not opening the book until instructed to, "Go to page ___." If your student is also a bibliophile, he/she may begin the way mom did, flipping curiously through the beginning pages and stopping abruptly, yet with certainty, at Chapter 0, and the words, "Start Here".

I liked that from the very beginning. Chapter 0 does for the student what I wanted to do next, tell you the literature choices covered in the program. When Worlds Collide was created based on the concept of creating a once-a-month literature club with teens. Each month the selection will be read, the corresponding literature comprehension materials (in When Worlds Collide) covered, and the students then come together to discuss the book. The books covered in this set are:

1. Pudd'nhead Wilson by Mark Twain;
2. The War of the Worlds by H.G. Wells;
3. The Friendly Persuasion by Jessamyn West;
4. Peter Pan by Sir James Barrie;
5. Warriors Don't Cry by Melba Pattillo Beals;
6. A Tale of Two Cities by Charles Dickens;
7. Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury; and
8. The Screwtape Letters by C.S. Lewis.

I had only read the last two of these myself, and   Tale of Two Cities had been in my mind for use this year. I wanted to read the books myself, not just teach, so the first thing I did was read Pudd'nhead myself as quickly as I could before I handed it off to my son. What an interesting book! My husband was probably amused as I babbled about its content (without giving away all), and I think I interested him enough that he himself will also read the book.

While my son worked on Pudd'nhead, I looked more deeply at the Illuminating Literature materials. As I mentioned, the concept is to create a literature club where the students can discuss the books. One of the methods of doing this can be to create a closed Facebook group (that the parents and students both join). Our Schoolhouse Review Crew did this, and I joined, but I was not able to get my son to engage with this. He does want to home school, and he tries to be obedient and respectful, but he just does not want group situations for home schooling. So, in using the Illuminating Literature program, we had to tweak it to work with my son's style of learning.

There are different methods of working through literature guides. My personal preference is to have the student give the book a quick read, and then to go through it a second time while they fill in the answers to the questions in the student book. I do not think I have met a student who likes this method, though, as the student does not want to read the book twice. The second method is to assign chapters and corresponding questions, having the student answer the questions section by section. A third method, which I am encouraging my student to use, is to read the question section first, then read a section of the book. The student can stop and right down the answers whenever he wants to, because he already knows what the questions are. This method also prepares the student for taking college entrance exams like the SATs or ACTs.

The author also has an on-line quiz feature that corresponds to the Quiz and Answer Manual that I received as part of the set. I like having the Quiz and Answer Manual so that I have written documentation to keep in my son's 10th Grade Portfolio. Sometimes colleges wish to see the student's actual paperwork, not just the grade the teacher has recorded. The quiz material is broken up into a "Yes I Read It" Quiz and a "Literary Terms Quiz", followed by an "Opinion Survey" (which is graded for "participation", not for their opinion choices).

The grade for each literature selection's chapter is based on not only the above three items, but also for the quality of their participation in discussions, completion of lessons and assignments, completion of activity assignment, and completion of the book. The student knows in advance what contributes to the grade, making it easier for the student to know where to apply himself to get the better grade. I like that a lot. I think it is helpful for the student.

The chapter for Pudd'nhead contained seven chapters to be completed in four weeks, which confused me. Fortunately the author was way ahead of me, putting in a "Before You Read the Book" section a guide that stated, "Week 1: Complete Lessons 1-4; Week 2: Read chapters I-XII of Pudd'nhead Wilson; Week 3: Read chapters XIII - XXI of Pudd'nhead Wilson; Week 4: Decide on one activity... Complete lessons 5 - 7," etc. I didn't expect Lessons 1 - 4 to be pre-reading work. Who knew! My son was already reading. ::sigh::

The fourth book provided, the PDF download, is the Novel Notebook. It is a place for the student to take notes while he reads. You might look at it and think, "I don't need to print this out. My student can do this in a spiral notebook." This may be true. I know printer ink is always a painful topic of conversation in my house. When I opened the Novel Notebook PDF, though, my reaction was, "This is awesome! This would inspire my student! This would not use much ink." So, the buyer gets to make her own decision. I take items of this nature and print out one lesson at a time to reduce overall ink impact, or I put the PDF on a jump drive and head to my local copy store.

I am loving Illuminating Literature: When Worlds Collide. My son is enjoying the literature choices, but the additional work, not so much. He's not much of a literature guy -- more of a science and technology guy. I do think When Worlds Collide will help him enjoy this year's literature more. I am so thankful to Sharon Watson for permitting me to review Illuminating Literature. It gets my highest recommendation. If you would like to have a sample view before you buy,  downloadable samples and information can be found here.

Other members of the Review Crew also reviewed this product. To see other product reviews, please click the button below.
 

If He Had Not Come - A TOS Homeschool Crew Review

In September, I learned that author David Nicholson was letting the Schoolhouse Review Crew review his new book, If He Had Not Come.  This looked like a beautiful book, suitable for families with children ages 6 and up, and I figured surely all the other reviewers would be given this review. After all, I only have one child, and he is almost 15. Imagine my surprise and pleasure when I learned that I would get to review this beautiful book!

If He Had Not Come is a reprint of a story written by Nan F. Weeks. The original story came from an anthology copyrighted in 1938 by Pearl Maus, titled Christ and the Fine Arts. If He Had Not Come is a beautiful reproduction by David Nicholson to introduce this wonderful story to a new generation. It is chock-full of lovely illustrations that look to be, possibly, colored pencil, or some medium similar (which encourages me to keep pulling out those art supplies in my home school!).

David Nicholson originally heard If He Had Not Come read to an adult Sunday school class, and Mr. Nicholson was captivated from the start. At that time a desire was planted in him to read this story to his family every Christmas. Thirty years have passed since that day, and in that time the original copyright on the story expired, making it possible for Mr. Nicholson to create this beautiful book to share the story with a new generation of children. All proceeds from sale of the book will be donated to the National Christian Foundation (How cool is that?). Nan Weeks was very active in spreading mission stories to children, and I think she would have approved.

If He Had Not Come is an interesting story in many ways. My very nearly adult son willingly sat with me on the couch and snuggled (similar to the front cover of the book) with me as I read the book to/with him. 

He enjoyed the sweet, shared reading time, as well as the book itself. He quickly noticed, as did I, similarities between the book and a Christmas movie our family is fond of that stars Jimmy Stewart and Donna Reed. So I researched that movie, and it says it was based on a different story published by a different person in 1939, but it sure has some similarities...

Anyway, in If He Had Not Come, a boy named Bobby hangs his stocking above the fireplace before going to bed on Christmas Eve. 

Before going to his room, though, he sat with his dad as his dad read a section from the Bible. He went quickly to bed, wanting to fall asleep quickly so that Christmas morning would arrive quickly as well. As he fell asleep he kept remembering five words from what his dad had read to him, "If I had not come."

Bobby woke to a voice calling, "Get up, Bobby, get up right away!" He quickly dressed and went downstairs. He found the house dark, and all signs of Christmas had been wiped away. Bobby ran to the front door and looking down the street, saw that the factory was up and running as it would be on any normal day. At this point Bobby left the house and began a neighborhood journey of discovery of what his neighborhood would have been like if He had never come.

If He had not come, everyone would be working on Christmas Day. If He had not come, there would be much more despair and much less hope. If He had not come, we would not have the Church as a place of refuge. And if he had not come, all those good projects that have been started by the Church would not exist.

And everywhere he goes Bobby sees the reminder message, "If I had not Come". Finally Bobby runs to his home. Running through the living room, he stops to pick up his dad's Bible to look for the verses they read the night before. The New Testament is gone, and all that is left is every page of the New Testament blank except for the words, "If I Had Not Come".

Suddenly, though, Bobby wakes up and learns this was all just a bad dream. He is thankful afresh for all that Jesus has done and thankful that He came.

The book ends with thought-provoking discussion questions that can be helpful to focus your little ones on the content and enable them to get as much as possible from If He Had Not Come.

If He Had Not Come is a wonderful Christmas story, produced in an heirloom quality book. This is the type of story you do want to pull out to read to your children every year at Christmas time. It is a great book to buy as a gift to give to your friends and relatives. I might have bought this for my brother-in-laws' families in years past (they're all older now). Instead I'm more in the bracket where I might buy this for my niece and nephew and their families.

If He Had Not Come sells for $18.95 - it is a beautiful hardbound book that measures about 8"X12" and is about 1/4" thick. If you order it now you will get it in time to give it as a Christmas gift, or just to have it to read to your own children as Christmas approaches. I think this is a real nice book, and I am thankful I had the opportunity to review it.

To read what other members of the Homeschool Review Crew thought of If He Had Not Come, click the button below.

 

For the Temple - A TOS Schoolhouse Crew Review

 In early September I learned that Jim Hodges Productions would be sending selected Crew members CDs from their collection of recorded books by G.A. Henty. There was a large selection to choose from, and it took me a while to decide to request For the Temple as our book of choice, because it was a good fit with the era of history we were studying.

The full title of the book and CD is For the Temple: A Tale of the Fall of Jerusalem. The setting for the story is Palestine and Jerusalem, and the time frame is AD 70. In addition to the physical CD, we also received a digital version of the For the Temple Study Guide.

I never cease to be amazed at the way our studies regularly intertwine, making it easier for us to grasp the material we are studying. Our church has been going through the book of Acts, and in Acts 26, Paul is being tried before King Agrippa, Herod and Bernice -- all of whom are mentioned in the story of For the Temple! So immediately this reinforces to me that someone who saw Jesus could have still been alive when the temple fell! Flavius Josephus is also mentioned -- he is not mentioned in the Bible, but he was a major player in the time and left a written record that is considered a major historical source for this time period.

I love this type of learning, where the era we are studying in history and in our Bible studies can be reinforced in our literature reading and in other ways. The study guide that was created to be used with the CD makes it possible to further intertwine the educational disciplines. The study guide's vocabulary lists can be used to:

• increase vocabulary;
• strengthen dictionary skills;
• create spelling lists.

In addition, the discussion questions can count toward "reading comprehension", and also make it easier to make sure your student is listening well and making sure they are following the story and understanding what is said. Additional language arts skills covered in the study guide are character sketches, personification, idioms, alphabetization and creative writing (newspaper article). Study Guide activities also cover Geography, Art, and discussions of climate. There are quizzes at the end of each chapter, and an answer key at the end. The Study Guide enables to reader to make a complete unit study out of the reading of For the Temple!

For the Temple contains 11 hours of listening, broken up into 19 chapters. That means each chapter takes less than an hour to listen to. My son did quite well focusing on the story while just listening. I myself found that difficult, as my mind would stray and I would stop listening. For some of us the best method would be listening with our ears and reading with our eyes, so I checked books.Google.com and found there is a FREE pdf version of For the Temple available for download. Using this I can read and listen simultaneously and stay focused.

Our schedule was carrying a very heavy workload while we were listening to For the Temple, so what was comfortable for us (to balance the listening with the Study Guide) was to listen to the story chapter and then to cover part of the study guide orally. My son is in 9th grade and already knew part of the vocabulary, and could also understand part of it through the way it was used in a sentence. I did not cover every vocabulary word, but selected ones I thought he would not know. I quickly acquired definitions through an on-line website so that I could ask him, "Do you know what 'ubiquitous' means?" And if he did not know I would provide the definition. I did run across vocabulary not in the online definition database ("sestercest"), and it wasn't in my hard copy dictionary either. The answer key does not provide definitions for the vocabulary. I'm glad I did not assign that one to my son! It always frustrates kids when you assign them something they cannot do!

I also used the reading comprehension questions to make sure my son was really getting what he was listening to. He was. (Not being such an auditory learner myself, I desperately wanted to find that he needed to read along while he listened, but he just didn't!) So at the end of a chapter, I asked him about vocabulary words and we discussed some comprehension questions. The other items in the Study Guide looked real appealing to me, but we were very busy and opted not to do more. My son has previously done some of the crafts (making model war machines) and Geography,

I was not really able to get my son very interested in the story. Now I myself am a lover of history, and I love when literature makes historical facts easier to remember, but my son not so much. History does not interest him, and historical fiction does not interest him. He also has never had any particular interest in "war" stories. So while I myself enjoyed our time learning about the fall of the temple, my son was merely obediently doing his assignment, with no particular interest, and the ever-present question in his eye ("Are we done yet?). So this historical fiction got a yawn from my son. 

I myself always appreciate recorded literature, and I consider the Henty historical fiction line to be very worthwhile. I really enjoyed listening to For the Temple with my son, and working through the study guide with him. Since I did not listen/read the entire way, there are huge chunks of content that I feel I missed, so I am planning to read/listen again to get the full understanding. It amazes me how much I miss with just listening! It amazes me how different my son and I are in that respect!

For the Temple and G.A. Henty's other works are best for ages 10 and up. The CD is an MP3, which means that it will play on your computer's CD/DVD player. It will also play on most DVD players, and it will play on any CD player that is a CD/MP3 player (not all are).

For the Temple CD sells for $25, or you can get a digital download for only $10! You can listen to a Free MP3 Download of Chapter 9 to get a taste of listening to Jim Hodges reading aloud, and you can also listen to Jim's comments on this book.  G.A. Henty historical fiction falls into the category of books that takes some patience to get yourself interested and involved in, but then builds to a fever where you don't want to put the book down (or turn the recording off, or both)! The For the Temple Study Guide sells for $12 and really expands and deepens the learning experience for both teacher and student.

If you have never "tasted" G.A. Henty, the thought of reading one of his books to your children may be overwhelming. Previously you may have dismissed Henty literature as a goal you could never accomplish. Don't miss Henty just because the the novels are daunting! Their content is amazing, and their educational value is huge! Now you can acquire most Henty books for free on line, since the originals in the public domain. Select a topic, pick a book, order the CD and enjoy a taste of living history. If you are like me, read along while you listen. Integrate the Study Guide content, and your student will have a deep learning experience that he/she will long remember.

The Schoolhouse Review Crew received a variety of G.A. Henty CD titles to review. To see other reviews of this and other G.A. Henty titles carried by Jim Hodges Productions,  click the button below.