Thursday, August 18, 2011

Unveiling the Kings of Israel by David Down


Archaeology! Who isn’t intrigued by these peeks into the past? The book Unveiling the Kings of Israel is filled with pictures, maps, descriptions of artifacts from Bible times and places. My whole family is enjoying this book!

This book, by David Down, is a great resource for families and learners, it gives pictures to things we read about/learn about from the Bible (for instance. . .check out the picture on page 54 of the statue of Neferhotep I—the pharaoh thought to have been king when God called Moses to lead his people out of Egypt!) Pictures of places, so familiar to us through reading—such as Jericho, Ur, Ninevah—and so many more!

Another helpful benefit from this book is all the explanations of what was commonplace in the time that the Scriptures were written. Traditions, common practices, other stories from the times and places, historical records, etc. These all enhance understanding of the Scripture passages.

It’s an attractive book, a nice size, great pictures, wonderful diagrams and charts. My entire family is loving the book. Even my young children are looking through it, exclaiming for us to come check out something they’ve discovered. I love it! I’d highly recommend purchasing this book for yourself, for another family, for your church library, for your grandparents, for your neighbors. . .you get where I’m going with this? :) It’s a great book, not just a reference book, but an interesting read as well!

I received a copy of this book for free from the publishers for the purposes of this review!

Saturday, August 13, 2011

check it out!

Cool homeschool tshirt giveaway contest! (not from me, but I thought I'd share it with you!)

http://www.wellplannedday.com/contest01.php

Wednesday, August 10, 2011

Prayer by Philip Yancey


I finished reading the book by Philip Yancey called “Prayer. Does It Make Any Difference?” Ahhh, now what to say about it. I don’t like to be too negative, but honestly I didn’t like this book. From a superficial standing, it is loooooooong and doesn’t flow well. There are little stories and illustrations scattered in text boxes throughout the body of the book, which I think detracts from the flow of reading—either you skip those sections with the intent to return to them later, or you read them and then go back to the main body of the book and have to remember what you were reading before.

As to the content, the book is full of questions regarding prayer, but not many answers, at least not definitive. Prayer is a subject which is addressed countless times in the Bible, but Yancey does not use too much Scripture to back up his teachings. Rather it’s stories about people and events. Reading the book made me question my own prayer life, such as is it important at all, etc. I had to return to what I know from Scripture to settle those questions.

I really wouldn’t like to recommend this book. There are many books written on the topic of prayer from a Biblical perspective and much of the Bible itself teaches about prayer. I prefer other alternatives to this book.

I received a free copy of this book from Zondervan publishers in exchange for my honest review.

Tuesday, August 2, 2011

Favorite Concert! Roy Hurd


A couple of weeks ago when we were at the county fair we got to see our favorite singer in concert. Roy Hurd is his name and we love his songs and his concerts too! He's an Adirondack singer and his songs are lots of fun. Here are some links to his songs on youtube. Check him out!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LIzR5-U1taE

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gDg80UwL__A

He also has a website: royhurd.com

He sings lots of songs about living in the north woods, but lots of other quirky folk-type songs too. Enjoyable for all ages!

Visitors


I cannot believe how busy July was! The kids had the Fair (showing chickens and rabbits and etc.) and then we had two visitors from China staying with us. Phew! Hopefully August will be a little less scheduled. Swim lessons and library reading program.

Back to the topic of visitors! :) We were blessed to have two girls who are university students in China come to stay with us while they were involved in a class at UVM. We learned SO much about China and they had many interesting experiences with us here!