When I first read about The Gospel Story Bible by Marty Machowski, I got very excited. I think I even got goosebumps because the timing of it was one of those “God-timed moments.” I had been searching and browsing and trying to decide which bible story book to read with my kids in 2012.

The subheading on the book grabbed my attention immediately” “The Gospel Story Bible: DISCOVERING JESUS IN THE OLD AND NEW TESTAMENTS.” Presenting God’s plan of salvation through Christ from beginning to end? I love this already!

I kept reading, very excited that it’s based off of the ESV version of the bible, my personal preference for the past 6 years or so, and was intrigued to discover that Marty Machowski is a pastor at Covenant Fellowship church (a Sovereign Grace Ministries church.)

And if these weren’t enough to convince me to give it a try, I pulled up the product page on Christianbook.com and sure enough, it gave me a chance to peek inside at the vividly colorful pages (illustrations by A. E. Macha), read a sample, and browse the table of contents. I was sold.

Now, I tend to shy away from “Story” bibles. I remember growing up, learning the stories, and not gaining an understanding of which books of the bible they came from, or their relationship together, or their context. I was surprised to begin to discover these things as a teenager! However — I’ve come back around full circle with the opinion that, perhaps, story bibles are not ALL bad, as long as you’re reading the bible, too, learning scripture as well, and getting the bigger picture. And, of course, if the story bible is done WELL.

The Gospel Story Bible does not disappoint.

Marty Machowski does not simply tell a child’s version of each story. He includes scripture throughout it. He connects the stories together. He ties each story to the bigger picture, and he leaves each story with a few questions to ask. His tone is also easy, interesting, readable and realistic, not talking down too much or writing too loftily. It is, as he says, a story for the whole family.

Let me share a few examples.

In the story of Creation, Marty says this at the end:

Later in God’s gospel story, we learn one special thing from the apostle Paul. Paul wrote that God the Son, who became Jesus, created all that we see. “All things were created through him and for him” (Colossians 1:16). That means that God the Father, God the Holy Spirit, and God the Son were all involved in the creation of the earth…

In the story of Adam and Eve we find this supporting scripture referenced:

King David once said, “The heavens declare the glory of God, and the sky above proclaims his handiwork.” (Psalm 19:1)

One more, this demonstrates how he ties stories together and makes connections that I didn’t make as a child. In the story of The Tower of Babel, Marty begins with:

Noah’s sons and their wives left the ark and their families grew. Soon the earth began to fill with people again as their children had children of their own and their grand-children raised families, all in keeping with God’s command to fill the earth. All of Noah’s children, grandchildren, and great-grandchildren spoke the same language.

I actually wish I could continue with that quote on that last one, and tell you the whole story. I found the way he made it all make sense very interesting and refreshing!

Overall I’m very pleased with the story bible that Marty Machowski has put out, and I’m glad to have found it for our bible study time this year. I’m pleased with the way the content is presented, as I said the pictures are also very colorful and my children always like being read to so they are happy as well. I’m sure it’s possible at some point that I will come across *some* story that I feel was incomplete or inadequate, but I haven’t yet, and flipping through it, I like what I see.

I typically try to present a fair review, listing the things I liked and the things I didn’t like about a book. I like to be honest and straight forward about it, you know? Truth is, I can’t really think of anything I don’t like about it — aside from my reservations about story bibles in general, which I’ve already mentioned. But even then,.. this really does seem to be one of those “done well” story bibles, removing that reservation in regard to this story bible at least, and leaving me just… very happy. I’m enjoying this book,… and I really do think that you would, too.

**Note: I received a copy of The Gospel Story Bible in exchange for an honest review.

On the other hand, sometimes you see something that you think you *won’t* like, or you don’t fully get it, or whatever, and so you skip it–only to come across it again later and then love it! Such is the case, for us, with notebooking.

I first started seeing freebies for notebooking on Currclick. (I have way too many freebies from Currclick, will I ever use them all?) I’m not the kind of person to grab up EVERY freebie, but I did download a few of them because I wanted to know what it was. And it was just a blank page. With some lines. And a box. And I didn’t get it. “What in the world IS notebooking anyway??” Somewhere along the way I finally figured out that it was kind of like journaling what you learned from your lesson, but it wasn’t until we started using Apologia science last year that we had our first real experience with it.

Last year we started using Apologia Anatomy for our first group science class. After downloading some samples, I decided to go ahead and get the notebooking journals… “Surely I can figure THIS out!” I admit that at first we were all a little lost. The girls looked at me in confusion.

“What do we do?”

“You just write down things that you learned.”

Pause. “ALL OF IT??”

“Well, no, the main stuff. Or maybe pick something really cool you didn’t know and write about that — I dunno!”

It didn’t take long for me to figure out that (then) 7 soon to be 8 year old Drama Queen wasn’t going to take to this whole “writing lots of words” thing. And at that point, Apologia hadn’t come out with the junior journal for astronomy, so most of the time she actually dictated and I wrote. And I figured that was okay, because she was retelling what she had learned and that was going to help her remember the lesson just as well as writing it.

It also didn’t take long for me to figure out that I had this whole idea in my head that everything was going to be filled in and it was going to be pretty and we were going to have this neat little keepsake for the end of the year — or that the idea in my head wasn’t actually going to happen in reality and I needed to loosen up and let it go. Yes, I did encourage the girls to be neat, but I did not need to enforce my vision of perfection on them, either. Overall, I would say that our first year of notebooking went very well, and I decided to continue and expand that even more this year.

This school year, we’re still doing Apologia science, and they *do* have a junior notebooking journal which makes it easier for Drama Queen, I have plans to add notebooking to our Mystery of History lessons as well when we switch over to the next book, and Princess has a notebook/journal for her “Who is God” worldview curriculum. We’ve gotten more comfortable with notebooking but it’s still pretty new and we still have a lot to learn! Just last week I found a tip on Notebooking Fairy to have the kids create word banks while listening to the lesson and then use the word bank while doing the notebooking. We tried it this week (as we were reading I told them when to write down a word and later they used the list to remember what to write about) and it helped so much!

Other things I’ve learned that have helped us are:

1) To adjust my expectations for each child. They have different strengths and weaknesses let alone ages and personalities. My middle daughter wears out faster while sitting and writing and needs to get up for breaks.

2.) To require the little ones to do less, only as much as they are able, and the older ones to do more, challenging and pushing them just a little.

3.) To factor in learning style and interests/abilities. I ask my artsy older daughter to put in more effort on her illustrations when she slaps a stick figure in the box. I ask my less-attention-to-detail middle daughter to pick a few things to write and use this as an opportunity to practice neat writing and neat presentation (no scribbling on the page) and to do the best she can with the illustrations but not worry about it to much. And I let the little drawing boy only draw illustrations if he’d like, preferably dictating a sentence to me to write, and maybe copying the sentence as well if he’s willing to.

4.) Let them use the book! It’s not a test, it’s a journal. If they remember “the guy who did the thing” but can’t remember his name, let them look it up! There’s a good chance they’ll remember his name the next time.

Things I like about notebooking are that it:

1.) Causes the child to immediately recall what they just read/heard/learned. Thereby strengthening their memory and recall of it.

2.) Utilizes LISTENING, READING, and WRITING (and sometimes TELLING!) and I think that things are best learned when more of the senses are involved.

3.) It’s more relaxed and fun that worksheets and quizzes! Though the Apologia science notebooks DO have some questions to answer, sometimes crossword puzzles or diagrams to label.. my kids LOVE those extra pages.

4.) Keeps a visual record of what they are learning — AND they’re growth as a student as their writing, handwriting, inclusion of detail, illustrations and overall presentation improves.

Notebooking may not be for everybody but I think most everybody can utilize it to some extent if they want to, no matter which homeschool method, curriculum or style they use. You don’t even have to have a fancy journal, just pick up a composition book (or one with a ruled lower half and a blank upper half for a drawing) and let your kids write about what they learned. You can throw in some questions on your own, or ask them, for example, include a labeled drawing of a cell, or a labeled picture of the parts of a flower, etc.

Either way, this is how we’ve been using notebooking at our house. We like it. And I think we’re going to like it even more as we get better and pick up more tips to make it easier and more useful than it already is.

For more “N” posts, head over to Dawns’ @ The Momma Knows. You can find all of my ABC posts here.

Kicking Off the New Year

One of the things that every homeschooling parent will tell you (if they’ve been doing this for more than, oh, six months) is that it’s hard to get back into the groove after a break! That’s one reason we try to keep breaks short and take more of them, and school more year round.

KNOWING THIS,.. I let us take a really long break around Christmas anyway.

It wasn’t smart…………….but it was fun. =)

If you find yourself in this boat you have to keep paddling anyway, you can’t just throw your hands up in the air and hope for the best. (Believe me! I know!)

The first thing we do is we start off slow. I don’t expect to do a full day’s work on the first day back and so I don’t even try. Shoot, I don’t even try to do a full WEEK’S worth of work the first week! My main goal is retraining ourselves to get up and get started on school instead of lazing in pjs and watching cartoons or whatever.

The second thing I do is remember to be patient and consistent. I remind my children what their expected and acceptable behavior is, what our goals are. Be patient as they try to push those boundaries but hold those boundaries. “We WILL do school, we will do ‘this’ much today, let’s do this, okay?”

Another thing that’s helpful is taking short breaks. Even if it’s just a break to play a racing clean up game or a snack break. Take a minute to swap out the washer and dryer and fold a load of laundry together – SOMETHING. And then get back to the books.

And if the extra long break was unplanned and you’re now “behind” on your schedule, don’t try to double up on everything all at once! The extra stress is likely to cause the kids to bog down and run on slow mode. We usually double up on one or two things at at time until we’re caught up, then double up on something else, and so on. So take a minute, count the lessons, map out a plan and write it down. YOU will feel much better and less stressed out – and you’ll pass that on to your kids.

So now that I’ve said all that, I’ll say that’s how our first week back to school after Christmas STARTED. And then I got sick. =( For a week I felt awful and we didn’t do school. So we had to start our slow process all over again. And that week my daughter was sick, so we stayed slow, and this week was my son’s turn, so we’re still taking it easy. But as long as you keep chugging along, you’ll get there!

Oh, and look! For the new year, a new look for the bulletin board! I don’t know if it’s going to help us get school done but it makes me feel more ready to try. =)

Live Animals

So if being sick and detoxing from holiday laziness overdose wasn’t enough… we should add a baby bird into the mix, right?

Seriously, he was the “ugliest duckling” (and yet oddly cute) when we brought him home and now he’s grown on us and he’s just all sorts of cute.

Last Wednesday we all took a trip to a local pet shop and brought home a two week old baby Cockatiel. We’ve only had him 9 days and already he’s grown so much! Meet “Captain Jack.”

I’m amazed how quickly he’s growing! The kids are daily ooh-ing and ahh-ing over the changes.

Much of our time in between our slow schooling has been taken up with holding, cuddling and feeding this little guy, while reading and learning about pet birds in general and Cockatiels specifically.

We’ve learned what pin feathers are, why they’re also called “blood feathers,” that the real feather is actually INSIDE the pin feather, that birds grow quickly!, and fledge at a much younger age than we thought. Our little Captain Jack could be taking his first flight in only 2 or 3 weeks! Next week we start introducing solid foods!

Having a pet and learning to take care of it may only help us learn more about THAT particular animal, but it’s great fun researching and reading and then observing our pet for what we’ve learned. It’s a great research/scientific/observation process in action. Especially cool is that I learned Princess can volunteer at the pet store a couple of hours a week after she turns 12. Not only will she learn how to help take care of all the other animals as well, but she will learn about helping customers and working and doing a good job. *I.love.that.idea.*  At any rate, Faith Family Home School now has a class pet. =)

Here’s a few of the sites I’ve found helpful and bookmarked for future reference.

• Australian National Cockatiel Society
• The American Cockatiel Society
• Cockatiel.com
• Fledgling Cockatiels
• Weaning Baby Cockatiels
• How to Wean a Baby Cockatiel

I’m sure you’ll be seeing more of our little Captain Jack in future weeks. ; )

Music and More

We’ve got a couple of exciting things coming up for the second semester of this school year. The first one is that Big Daddy, Drama Queen and I have signed up to take some informal guitar lessons at church starting this Sunday. Big Daddy and I already play a little… Drama Queen is BeSiDe HeRsElF! She has an interest in music and has been wanting to learn to play guitar. You should see her tiny hands! But we’re going to see if she can get the hang of learning to play on a full size guitar. 8 year olds have learned to play before..we’ll see how this goes. =) She has quite the singing voice, too, and I’m excited to take the first step in encouraging an interest of hers.

This is especially exciting because I just did the same thing with her older sister, coming up with a really good idea for her in her area of interest. Princess has an interest in fashion design. And after she drew a design the other day I got a really good idea. A really.. reallly.. good idea. *waggles eyebrows*

Princess has now been given the task of designing 6-12 more outfits and then picking one to make. She’ll have to make or combine patterns, go shopping for materials on a budget, and sew the outfit for herself to wear. She loves this idea. And so do I! Also, we’re going to be subscribing to a couple of magazines we’ve carefully selected for girls 8-12 so she can observe the fashion trends in the magazines. And we’ve (well mostly she’s) been finding tutorials on youtube for drawing figures so she can practice drawing clothes on people standing in different positions. She’s already drawn a few more and she’s really taking off on this project with gusto!!

What I love most about both of these, the music and the fashion designs both, is the ability to help our children pursue their interests so fully. It’s A PART OF school. Maybe their interests will change. Maybe not. Either way they’ve gained a new skill. ; )

So that’s the wrap up on what we’ve been doing in school in the Oliver house the past few weeks. Phew! Wasn’t that a lot?? I wonder if this is any indication of how 2012 is going to go?? ; )

Don’t forget to hop over to Dawn @ The Momma Knows to catch up on everybody else’s M posts. You can find all of my ABC posts here. Also, please forgive the camera phone pics — I know they’re not the best!

What I’m saying is.. I intended to write this post at the first of the year and get right down to business working on my goals.

And then I got sick. Actually I got sick even before the new year began. New Year’s Eve eve found me holding my head in the fetal position while dosing up on allergy meds and decongestants. Apparently cedar pollen is going crazy here and my sinuses were screaming in opposition. I didn’t need weather.com to ME there was something in the air…

But despite the assault on my senses, I managed to pick out three goals for January and actually start working on them a little.

The first one is a “gimme.” Kind of a cheater, I think. But it’s a legitimate goal.

1.) Bring back all the habits that have gone before…

There were several habits we worked on and added into our routine during the year last year that for one reason or another fell by the wayside. I like to blame the holidays. Okay sure, some of them may have disappeared before then, but can I pretend it was just the holidays? Blaming aside, they need to come back. WE need them to come back. So this month I’m gathering the good, harnessing the helpful, rallying the routine. My first goal/habit this month is getting up by 7:30, getting in some quiet morning time and bible study, and starting our bedtime routine at 7:30 to get the kids in bed by 8:30 for a story.

2.)  A new format for an old habit…

Morning family devotions is something we’ve been working on for a while. Last year we tried devotionals individually at the same time. This year we’re using The Jesus Calling Devotional for Kids and the Gospel Story Bible (along with some journals) and doing it together. Right now our morning routine is shot, ruined by too much holiday time and too much tv. My goal for this month is to cut off our morning tv time, and develop a daily morning family devotional time.

3.) A little self maintenance PLEASE?

Okay, I’ve NEVER really been very good at washing my face every night before I go to bed or using moisturizer each day (let alone anything with sunblock in it.) I’ll do great at keeping my nails trimmed for a while and then realize they’re terrible. One of my goals for 2012 is to take better care of myself and that starts with the small stuff, right? This month I’m starting small. Yes, I’m also trying to drink more water and make some diet changes but that’s outside of this goal. This goal is all about self-maintenance. One thing I decided to do to make that easier was put everything in one place. DUH, RIGHT? So this week I reorganized the medicine cabinet in the bathroom, removed some less used items to under the sink and made sure all of my regular items are together.  Hopefully keeping these things all together in one place will help a little bit — when I’m in the cabinet for my deodorant, which I DON’T forget, I’ll see the moisturizer and remember it. Sounds good in theory right? So the first part of this goal was to set up the medicine cabinet – Done. The 2nd part is to USE it and develop a better daily (or weekly for nails, etc.) habit of taking care of myself, starting with the small things. Little things matter, too.

So those are my 3 goals for this month. And even though I’m only just now getting the post up I have been trying to work on them already. Can you believe we’re already a 3rd of the way through January?! Yep! So I’ll check back in at the end of the month and let you know how it went! What about you — working on any goals this month? Or new year’s resolutions or something?

Check out the 3 in 30 Challenge here.

I can’t believe a whole year has passed already since I made the last big list. I ran out of time for some of them but overall I did pretty well, I think. I’m going to leave the 2011 List page up for another week or so and then I’m going to take it down and replace it with the 2012 List. If you’re curious, hop on over there real quick and check out the kinds of things I did (and didn’t do) in 2011. Some of my favorites were:

• Establishing a morning routine. I learned that the secret to getting up early is to JUST DO IT. Just make yourself get out of bed. Even if you end up falling asleep in your chair 15 minutes later that’s the way to start. I also learned that the way to become a morning person and enjoy the morning is to get up A REALLY LONG TIME before the kids do so that you’re all the way awake, coffeed up, and prayed up when they start getting up and needing things from you. ; )
• Developing a bed time/story time routine. OH MY GOODNESS, Y’ALL. It’s amazing how beneficial a good bedtime routine can be. For a long while this year we had the Best. Bedtime Routine. Ever. We got out of the habit for reasons not worth mentioning but we’re getting back into it now, because through doing that we learned how helpful and good it is for our family.
• Finding a good church for us and going to church with James.
• Painting.
• Canning.
• Reading more books. (On my Kindle, too! Woohoo!)