Read for the Heart New TOS Review

Read for the Heart: Whole Books for WholeHearted Families
By Sarah Clarkson

Apologia Whole Heart Books
1106 Meridian Plaza
Anderson, IN 46016
888-524-4724

Apologia.com   Look in Resources for Parents

Sample Chapter available with book description

$17.00 Paperback Book

Apologia is well known throughout the homeschooling community for their science curriculum, but they also have numerous other resources as well. Some of these other resources include Apologetics studies, and parenting and homeschool reference resources.  Some of these are specifically targeted to homeschooling parents, but they have many which could be valuable to parents in general.

Read for the Heart is a book to guide parents in finding reading material for their whole family.  The first four chapters share information about reading and literacy, the rest of the book is the meat- lists of books to savor and explore.

In the first chapter the author describes her love of books and reading and how books were constant companions in her childhood and adolescence. She then continues to detail the state of reading and literary awareness in America, sharing her conclusion that this is fast becoming a lost pasttime.  Sarah also shares several ideas about making reading a pleasant experience for children and families. She also gives suggestions for beginning or enlivening family read alouds. The fourth chapter shares information about the organization of the rest of the book, ideas as to why she choose the books she did, and sources to locate books in addition to the library and bookstore. She also explains what you will find in each books  review as well as the age rating system she employs.

Now on to the book lists.  You will find chapters devoted to:

Picture Books

The Golden Age Classics

Children's Fiction

Fairy Tales and Fantasy

History and Biography

Spiritual; Reading for Children

Poetry

Music, Art, Nature

While most of these categories are self explanatory, it might be good to note that books placed into the Golden Age Classics category tend to be written in the late 1880 and early 1900's.  Whereas those in the Children's Fiction category are mainly written from the mid 1900's and on.  These are often medal winning literature selections.

In each of these categories the books are listed alphabetically by author.  Generally one example of the authors work is discussed and any additional publications are listed by title. Occasionally several books by the author are summarized, especially if they are favorites of the author or show the authors versatility. The book summaries may also include notes about situations or events which some people may find objectionable.

In appendices you will find lists of Newberry and Caldecott Medal books, several lists of specialized Historical books, such as The Trailblazer series, Landmark History books, and many by G. A Henty.  There is also a list of many of the authors personal favorite books, as well as lists of favorites for boys and girls.  Finishing out the 384 page book are indexes of titles and authors.  I estimate over 925 books are listed in the index.

Throughout the book you will read many stories and thoughts from the author about books and their influence on her.  Quite frequently she will mention a particular reason for enjoying a book in that specific books review, but their are many other personal references throughout the text.

My Thoughts on Read for the Heart
 

I thoroughly enjoyed reading this book. While several chapters contain a lot of statistical and research evidence it is generally an easy read.  The first four chapters contain a lot of material to absorb and reflect on.


I also like the fact there are selections for a wide range of ages.  Thus one volume can serve a family for many years.  Sarah does mention that some titles are out of print or may not be readily available and makes suggestions for online purchase sources as well as used book stores.  Personally my family makes use of our library due to limited storage space and knowing how quickly they change their collection I would be surprised to see a lot of these books available after only a few years. 

One of the marks of good writing is helping the reader to develop their own mental pictures from the descriptions.  Sarah has painted many very vivid pictures for her readers in the descriptions of her family life and reading experiences.  Her book reviews or descriptions are just as vivid.  The descriptions of picture book illustrations leaves the reader longing to hold those books in their hand and revel in the beauty of their pages.

I felt the History and Biography section was somewhat weak. With the exception of books covering World War I and II there are very few books covering Non-American history after 1650.

While reading I formed the impression that the author has a very strict view of what is proper or suitable reading material.  I am careful about what my children read, but I do allow them to read some of the more "popular" type books.  I let my children choose some of their books as well as have them read others which I have chosen.  They need to have the opportunity to make choices and I believe it is better to do this now when I can offer guidance than later when it may not be as easily accepted.

You might think I am strange, but I generally enjoy books about books.  I like having a resource to peruse if I am looking for a volume on a specific topic. While it seems it is marketed to adults I wouldn't have a problem sharing it with my 10 year old  for her to find ideas for new reading material.


I feel that there is much in this book to make it a useful reference for parents and it certainly fulfills its mission of leading people to discover wholesome books. While it is written by a woman who was homeschooled, it is a valuable resource for any parent.  The books reviewed  in Reading for the Heart can certainly be enjoyed by all children and even their parents.

Read what other Crew members had to say at the crew blog.

 

Disclaimer: As part of the TOS Crew I received a copy of this book in order to write this review.  I have not been compensated in any other manner and all opinions expressed here are solely my own.

Considering God's Creation New TOS Review

Considering God's Creation

Eagle's Wings
www.EaglesWingsEd.com

Teacher's Manual with audio CD  $29.95
Reproducible Workbook   $13.95

Designed for grades 2-7

Eagle's Wings also has math, phonics, Bible History, and state capital curricula

 Considering God's Creation is a natural science curriculum from a Biblical perspective.  It covers

• Creation
• The Universe stars, sun, and planets
• The Earth
• Rocks and Minerals
• Weather
• The Plant Kingdom
• The Animal Kingdom
• Animal Anatomy & Physiology
• Man

There are a total of 36 lessons in these units.

 Each lesson includes vocabulary, introduction, song/poem, activity, Bible Reading, Notebook activity, evolution stumper, review and digging deeper.  Many of these are very hands on and allow the student to explore and discover what they are studying.  The activities are fresh, exciting, and very engaging.  While there is a lot of coloring, cutting, and gluing the variety of projects is diverse.
 
The beginning of the teacher's book includes several pages describing the multi-level teaching process they have envisioned for the series as well as several helpful questions and answers and a general layout for a lesson. Each lesson is pretty much scripted for the teacher and contains just about all the information needed to present the lesson.  All the items needed for the lesson are listed at the beginning of the lesson, but are easy to find around the house.


The student notebook features all the notebook activities.  Each child needs their own book or you are given permission to make copies of the book for your own family. There are mini charts to assist with gathering facts about scientists, planets, clouds, and flowers.There are even charts to record information about animals seen at the zoo.  The zoo chart features thunbnail pictures of habitats, classifications, food, shelter, and special needs and a small world map to mark where the animal is from.  All the child needs to do is check the box by the appropriate picture. This would be great for beginning readers.

You may view several examples of several pages from the student book at Eagles Wing's web site.

How we used Considering God's Creation

My children had been asking to read about our bodies and had been talking about the life size versions we'd made when daughter was in 1st grade so when I received this book and saw it contained several sessions discussing the body I decided that was what we would focus on for our review. We also used some of the material from another review project along with this course.

There are 9 sessions covering the human body. We found we were able to complete each lesson, with the exception of the notebook activity in about 30 - 45 minutes. This included a few review questions from the body system we had studied the previous session.




One of the hands on activities is creating a paper model of the body showing the skeleton and major organs.  The children had a lot of fun putting this together.

Some of the organs are attached by a tab so that they can be lifted up to  look at organs underneath.

It is hard to tell in this pic, but son also added the veins and arteries to his body by drawing them in with red and blue pencils.

 

I did find that this project (as do several others in the book) had a fair amount of cutting. In the interest of time I cut out the pieces so the construction wouldn't be slowed down. Also my 7 year old doesn't cut as well as some of the small pieces required.

They also enjoyed putting together a cross section diagram of the digestive system and looking at Fingerprints.  We also tried the Fingerprint detective game, but I had to read the directions several times as I just wasn't understanding them.

The Science Detective or biography exercises are really appealing, but I had a difficult time finding information about the people who are recommended in the lessons.  My library had one of the resources that is recommended for this use, but it is a reference copy and not at a branch near us.  Maybe we can take a look at the book when we are in the area of the branch that has it.

There are other mini charts to fill in, which I found great as both of my children are reluctant writers; the less they have to do the better.

The vocabulary lists in the teachers book  also contains a note about the language of the origin and root word as well as the definition.  I really liked this feature as we are studying Latin and so many scientific/medical terms come from Latin and Greek.  My husband knows both of the languages so the children like to show off to him what they know about these word origins.

I would seriously contemplate purchasing some of the additional suggested resources.  From reading through the additional activities I can see where they would certainly add to the learning experience. I will be looking at the recommended list and see what may be useful as we continue using Considering God's Creation next year.

We did not use some of the Bible activities as they conflicted with our Lutheran faith.  However, we did use several during our studies and found them to be useful.

Read what other Crew Members had to say at the Crew Blog.







Disclaimer:  I received a free copy of the teacher's manual and student notebook for the purpose of this review.  I have not been compensated in any other manner.  All opinions expressed here are solely my own.

G is for Games we play

A couple weeks ago I stumbled across this new link up.   Homeschooling A B C's is hosted by  5 Kids and a Dog.  I thought that was such a neat topic and it would be fun to participate.  I meant to participate that week, I think they were doing C.  Well, guess what?  This week's letter is G and it is my first time!  Well, here goes.

G is for Games

I think I would have been perfectly happy doing just bookwork in my homeschool.  Reading books, filling out workbooks, etc. I have found some exciting looking workbooks and activities. But guess what ?  My children aren't and they have let me know quite well. 

So all of a sudden it seems I had the idea to try games.  We had some letter and number games so I pulled them out.  Well it turns out they were a big hit.  My daughter thoroughly enjoyed the break in the routine and she even learned something! At this point my son was too young to play most of them so we had to do it while he was sleeping or I played with her and did something else with him at the same time.  As both of them have grown older our taste in games has expanded.  We now play history games and  trivia games as well as letter and math games.  We also have several varieties of bingo.

Some of the games we play are Made for Trade; a colonial American game, Money Bags; coin counting, Scrabble, Professor Noggin card games; trivia, but based on one topic, and a variety of flashcard deck like games.

Games have provided a nice break from traditional educational methods but still allow the brain to stay active and exercised.

I have written several other post about games we like.  You can find them under the games tag in my labels on the right.