Lighting Fires for Homeschoolers

Rooted & Grounded A guide for Spiritual Growth

by Howard Lisech, Bonnie Lisech, Jan L. Harris

This book was written for 10th to 12th graders. It is a wonderful book for every homeschooler. There are 27 lessons, 4 in each unit and then a test at the end of each unit. Some of the lessons are: “Be to the Praise of His Glory”, “Doctrine of Sanctification”, “The Forgiveness of God”, and “Forgiving Others”. In the teachers addition there is a “Teacher’s Bible verse” for each lesson. There is also a “Teacher’s Notes.

Each lesson has a area about unreached people in the world. I have never seen anything like this before but I really like it. Some of the unreached that they talk about is, Brazil, Iraq, China, Philippines, Indonesia, etc. It goes into where each country is on a map, the countries flag and about the people in that country. They tell about what the people are like themselves. At the end of that part of the lesson there is an area about what to pray for specifically.

This is a wonderful book to use not only for Bible but for history too. You will find you students digging into the word of God more than ever. We are proud to suggest this to our readers!

Discovering Our Amazing God

by Howard Lisech, Bonnie Lisech, Jan L. Harris

This book is a first book in a series of 4 for 7th – 9th graders. This book has 9 lessons in it that are wonderful for students to study. The first lesson called “Discovering God’s Wisdom” you study Esther for the Old Testament part of the study and then Jesus and the Pharisees in the New Testament. The last lesson is “Discovery God’s Mercy”. In this lesson you will study David and Mephibosheth, Peter denies Christ, and Peter’s restoration and commission.

In this book you will not only find wonderful art work but also some neat cartoons. They try to make this a fun book to help our teens learn about the Lord. There are opportunities to do memory work, reviews and tests, different writing opportunities and journaling.

The students will study about the unreached people. Some of them are the Muslims, Hindu people, Chinese and the neighborhood people. The students will study about the people and what they believe and then they are told how to pray for these people.

Each lesson is written in the teacher’s edition in both the KJV and NIV. At the end of each lesson the student is given an area to reflect on what they have studied. MATCH strongly recommends this book!

Wow, Cindy went all out this year and we are really excited! Make sure and get your tickets NOW! If you have season passes they will work for this event, too.

We are really excited about this and hope to see many of you there. As you can tell a lot has been done to make this a special day.

God bless,
Orilla Crider, MATCH Director

Looking for a homeschool magazine that will help encourage you throughout the coming year? I have one that will do so. The magazine comes through the mail or by digital format for you computer now. The magazine comes by-monthly but during the off month they have a Teacher Toolbox that is chucked full of helpful items that you won’t want to miss.

I have taken the “real” magazine for years now and have loved it but when they came out with the digital form this is what I really wanted. Why? I have so many books, magazines, projects, etc. all over my house and would rather not have anymore. So I signed up for the digital magazine and fell in love with it.

No when I sit down to read my magazine I read it on my computer and can actually following the interesting links while I’m reading the articles immediately instead of stopping and starting again. I can print off only the articles that I find an interest in and that will be helpful to me now or down the road and not have to throw away a big magazine and feel terrible because what I paid for it.

I wanted to tell you all about The Old Schoolhouse Magazine’s Fall Special. You can get two years of the magazine, 6 fabulous physical gifts (no downloads!) worth over $120, plus the current issue of The Old Schoolhouse Magazine that is full of ideas for the new school year, so you start receiving your magazine in a flash!

It really is one of their best deals ever and you don’t want to miss out. In fact, they’ve got a really cute Homeschooling with Heart tote bag (valued at $13.95) for the first 1000 to subscribe. About half of them are gone, but you should still be able to get one if you hurry! (They will remove the info from the subscription page when the bags are all gone.) The total value is over $212, but you receive it all for only $39 – 50% off of cover price! Plus subscribers get their online monthly Teacher’s Toolbox which focuses on a different topic each month, giving you words of encouragement, hands-on teaching ideas, book recommendations, field trip ideas, and a bonus download item.

Orilla Crider, MATCH Director

Looking for a wonderful way to teach your young children science while teaching them their alphabet? I’ve got the books for you!! Terri Johnson and Sherry Cook have come together to bring science alive and fun to our families.  The collection of books called Quirkles is a cute set of 26 books that will be fun to read over and over to your child, but they aren’t just a book, they are much more.

Jesse Kuhn has done a wonderful job illustrating the books and making them full of exciting and colorful looking pictures.  He has pictured Bert as a BIG green B with glasses, arms, body and legs.  You will follow a very exciting adventure of Bert explaining about how plants grow.  Through the following story you will find all sorts of words that begin with “B” to help integrate the b sound and what words begin with “B”.

I loved the book about Timothy! Living in Missouri we experience many Timothy’s through the year, especially during this past year. Timothy rescues his friends in Quirksville from a tornado that is heading their way and explains how the tornado is created.  Again, you will find all sorts of words that begin with the letter “T” throughout the story.

Another fun thing with this book is that it isn’t just a story to learn the different subjects, but they have included 2 different, easy and cheap experiments to do with your children so that they understand better what they have heard.

What other books are there? There are a total of 26, one for every letter in the alphabet! A-Andy Acid; B-Botanist Bert; C-Colorful Caroline; D-Density Dan; E-Ellie Electricity; F-Friction Fred; G-Gilbert Gas; H-Hallie Heat; I-Inquisitive Inman; J-Jazzy Jet; K-Kitchen Chemistry Kal; L-Lindy Light; M-Mary Motion; N-Nosey Nina; O-Ollie Oxygen; P-Pressure Pete; Q-Quincy Quake; R-Ronnie Rock; S-Susie Sound; T-Timothy Tornado; U-Underwater Utley; V-Vinnie Volcano; W-Watery William; X-X.E. Ecology; Y-Yawning Yoland; Z-Zany Science Zeke.

You can buy these books and things to go along with them at http://www.quirkles.com.  The books are $10.99 a piece.  If you are interested in meeting one of the authors, Sherry Cook will be at Silver Dollar City during Homeschool Day at Uncle Hank’s Books and would love to meet you.  She will be signing books that day for those that buy them and they will also be giving away lots of freebies.  So make sure and pay Sherry a visit!

MATCH is proud to recommend these wonderful books!

We have an exciting announcement to make! A brand new opportunity for homeschoolers has just been announced.  A group called Home Ed.  What makes them so exciting? They are offering all sorts of free Telecourses that we can attend!  The first one will take place on October 1st at 11:00 am CST with Chris Klicka talking about the Legal Aspects of Homeschooling.

I’m sure many of you are saying, “I can’t be there at that time”, they have taken care of that, too! They are going to have an area where you can go listen to them later after they have been recorded.

Some of the telecourses will have a charge but they are going to try to keep them as low as they can (around $10).  Take time to look at the ones that they have set up now, these are ALL FREE.  We will be posted them on our calendar so that you can keep up.

Home Ed is also doing contest for the kids to take part in.  Take a few minutes to check out this months contest.

We hope that you will find this as exciting as we have.  I am always look for ways that will benefit me in my teaching of my children and ways to help our family.

Orilla Crider, MATCH Director

Wow, I would never have believed that a hurricane could reach us like it did yesterday morning, all the way in Missouri! But it did! I think my husband is living at work right now, with the phone glued to his ear. ;=)  As a computer specialist at the local electric co-op he has been on duty basically the whole time except for a very few hours for a quick cat nap early this morning and then back to work. We pray that all our sister homeschoolers are okay and safe.

We have been doing a lot of reviewing for some different companies lately and we will be putting reviews here, on the members only website and in our newsletters as we can. We hope that you will find them useful.

May each of you have a wonderful day!
Orilla

The Star-Spangled State Book
by Joel F. King

This is a wonderful book to use with your kids. If you are doing a study on the different US states you will want to buy this book to use with them. This book was written by a homeschool father of 3 boys and they live in Kentucky. He believes in making learning fun which helps kids to learn and remember it all better.

Each state has its own page. It tells when the state entered the Union, the capital of each state, the state’s population and ranking.. It has different facts about the state and even something that is special for that state. It also has the names of the state’s three most populous cities and two stories about the state. At the bottom of each state page you will a Geoquiz. This is really a neat idea and helps the kids remember what they have been studying. The book is beautiful color that will catch the kids eyes. It also has some neat pictures it make it more attractive. Throughout the book you will also find some other fun pages dealing with the different states that make it fun to learn by.

This 69 page book cost $18.95 or you can buy the workbook plus a reproducible CD that is $34.95. Have more than one child? These CD’s make it where you don’t have the buy the book for all of them and if they make a mistake, just pop it into your computer and print out that page for them. Where can you buy this wonderful book? From Knowledge Quest, Inc. at http://www.KnowledgeQuestMaps.com.

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Wonders of Old A Blank Timeline Book of World History
by Terri Johnson

This is a wonderful hardback book that also includes the CD so you can either do the work in the book or use the CD and print out pages for the students to work on. Each page consist of beautiful drawn time line with the years written on it. There is a time line for each period of time and then at the end of the time there is a list of significant dates to consider during that time period. It list the dates and what took place during that time. At the end of the book you can put special notes that you want to remember so it will be handy for a later time.

This wonderful book would be wonderful to use with the Blackline Maps of World History book. You can buy this book through Knowledge Quest, Inc. at http://www.KnowledgeQuestMaps.com. The book/cd is $24.95 or you may purchase the cd for only $19.95.

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Blackline Maps of World History The Complete Set 5,000 BC – The Present
by Terri Johnson

This is a hardback book filled with teaching maps and maps for the students to complete during the time you study World History. This book makes it where you have the maps you want for the certain period of time right at your fingers and then one for the student to do. This book have over 200 maps in all.

What does this book cover? It covers the Ancient Time Period: First cities and early civilizations (4,000 BC), Israel’s divided kingdom (800 BC), Barbarians invading the Roman Empire (375-450) and lots in between. The Medieval Time Period: Barbarian Europe (500 – 800) through the Portuguese and Spanish Empires (1580). The New World Time Period: covers the Expansion of Russia (1462-1855), the 36 years’ war (1618-1648), The French Revolution (1789-1794), to the Goldrush in California (1849). The Modern Time Period covers: The Crimean War (1853-1856), World War II (1939-1945), to the present time of the conflict in Iraq (2003-present). Each section has a lesson plan, glossary of terms used and geographical regions that will be covered listed.

All maps are done in black and white but are big and very easy to read. The book comes with a CD so you can print of maps for the students to use during the time you study each section.

You can buy this wonderful book through From Knowledge Quest, Inc. at http://www.KnowledgeQuestMaps.com. This hardback book and CD combo can be bought for $45 or you can buy just the CD for $29.95.

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The Shaping of a Nation 1,000 AD to the Present
by Terri Johnson

This is a wonderful book for all ages. You can use it for the younger crew and keep the facts simple or you can use it with the older ages and have them put more depth into it. This is the Blackline Maps of American History. There is 4 books in the set.

This book is filled with maps with all kinds of information on it and then in the back you have maps that the kids can color and put the historical events on. The book starts with the Vikings discovering North America, continues on through the Seven Years War, Revolutionary War, the Goldrush in California, the Korean and Vietnam war to even our latest in Iraq. While going through this book I have learned a lot about the different wars, etc that I don’t believe I learned when I was in school.

You can buy this wonderful book through From Knowledge Quest, Inc. at http://www.KnowledgeQuestMaps.com. This book contains 31 historical maps plus 31 unlabeled maps that go with each lesson. The book and reproducible CD is only $24.95. If you need the maps immediately you can download all 113 maps for only $19.95. This is a wonderful book to add to your American History study.

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What Really Happened During the Middle Ages
Compiled by Terri Johnson
Illustrated by Darla Dixon

They say this book is for ages 8-14 but after reading it I think it is even for adults. This is a very easy book to read about some famous people during their time. If you are studying the Middle Ages make sure that you include this wonderful book.

This book contains the biographies of: St. Patrick, Empress Theodora, Alcuin, Good Kin Wenceslas, Eleanor of Aquitaine, Joan of Arc, Johann Gutenberg and Martin Luther. The stories tell the wonderful story of these different ones in a very interesting way that will keep you and your students interested until the very end. The illustrations are throughout the book and are very impressive.

Terri did a wonderful job putting this book together. Each story is written by a different author but all of them have done a wonderful job to keep the attention of all. Some of the things that might scare children if they read it, has been left out of the story so that it will be enjoyed and still learn all about each individual.

You can buy this wonderful book from Knowledge Quest, Inc. at http://www.KnowledgeQuestMaps.com. This is a BRAND NEW book and only cost $15.95.

This has been a very busy week at our home and MATCH.  School is now in full swing at our home and I’m sure it is for most everyone else.

Let’s not forget our fellow homeschoolers in the huricane areas that have been hit hard.  We have already been told that at least one homeschool family has had a terrible loss in the family.  Please keep those that have to stay behind while others flee to do their jobs.  May God give comfort and strength that is needed to those people.

If you have been watching our website you have noticed some new changes taking place with the backgrounds and some things that have been added.  Please take a look around and see the different changes.  We have also done a bunch of updating our online convention.  Are you ready for to hear some new workshop speakers? They are up and running!

We hope and pray that everyone is doing fine and enjoying the first part of the year.

Blessings,

Orilla

The Saint Louis Science Center is hosting our second annual Engineering
Career Day on September 27, 2008. The event will take will take place from
10:00am to 3:00pm and is free to the public. During this event, the Saint
Louis Science Center will shine a spotlight on engineering through exciting
engineering activities, cool engineering related exhibitors and
demonstrations. Local engineering companies, schools and professional
engineering societies will have displays and activities about engineering
and their unique specialties within that broad field. So please be sure to
join us on September 27th for this great event.