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Wednesday’s Around the World ~ Shadrach, Meshach and Abed-Nego

By Joy on May 22, 2013 in 2013, homeschooling, Wednesdays Around The World

Our next lesson for Wednesday’s Around the World is about Shadrach, Meshach and Abed-Nego. Shadrach, Meshach and Abed-Nego was taken captive, along with Daniel, when Nebuchadnezzar II was king. Nebuchadnezzar wanted to train these young men to serve in his palace. The king tried to change these young men in several different ways. He first changed their names. They all had Hebrew names and the king changed them. Then, he invited them to live in the palace, eat his food and learn the language of the king. The king wanted to reshape their minds and way of thinking so they would become loyal followers of him.

While their names did change, they refused to eat the king’s food. They didn’t want to defile themselves of all the food that the king was served. While they didn’t change the way they believed, they did grow strong and were placed in service under Nebuchadnezzar. While serving under the king, Shadrach, Meshach and Abed-Nego, the king told them they had to bow down to a huge gold image that he had built. But by being faithful servants of God, they refused. This upset the king so much that he had Shadrach, Meshach and Abed-Nego thrown in a furnace and heated up so hot that it killed anyone who went near it. However, despite it being so hot that not one hair was singed on any of their bodies! Nebuchadnezzar looked into the furnace and couldn’t believe what he saw! The guys were not burned or harmed in any way! He also noticed that there was another person in the furnace with them! It was God! God protected his faithful followers! Nebuchadnezzar couldn’t believe it and said this:

Daniel 3:28

²⁸Nebuchadnezzar answered and said, “Blessed be the God of Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, who has sent his angel and delivered his servants, who trusted in him, and set aside the king’s command, and yielded up their bodies rather than serve and worship any god except their own God.

After seeing this amazing miracle, Nebuchadnezzar declared that anyone who spoke against God, would die.

The activity for this lesson is a really neat one. You are to attempt to burn different types of material. This is definitely an activity that needs adult supervision. My kids were really excited that they were going to get to burn things!

Items we used to burn.

The material you need for this activity is a candle, metal tongs and several small items to burn. We used a piece of chalk, polyester, plastic, strawberry top, piece of cloth, a paper clip, pine needles, plastic clip and a little of Samuel’s hair. We also had a bowl of water to put out the items that caught fire.

Claire burning a strawberry top.

We lit the candle and each child took turns choosing an item to see what would burn and what didn’t catch fire.

Samuel burning his hair.

Once the kids saw how easy it was for the cloth and hair to burn, we talked about the miracle that happened with Shadrach, Meshach and Abed-Nego. How not even one hair on their body or even their clothes did not have any burn marks on them at all. God had saved them from the fiery furnace! It was a great lesson to show that if you are faithful to God, He will take care of you during those trying times.

What have you been studying in history and geography? Have you done any fun activities or projects? I would love for you to share with us any history or geography lesson, project or activity that you have done in the last couple of weeks. Just link up below!

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Chronicles of Dinosauria review

By Joy on May 22, 2013 in 2013, review

The Chronicles of Dinosauria is written by Dave Woetzel, illustrated by Richard Dobbs and published by New Leaf Publishing.

Chronicles of Dinosauria is this amazing book by Dave Woetzel that talks about the history of Dinosaurs and Man. In this beautifully illustrated book, Dave Woetzel covers the Creation and the Dinosaurs, the Flood and the Dinosaurs, Fossil Evidence , the Historical Evidence, Artistic Evidence, Cryptozoology Evidence and Biblical Evidence of Dinosaurs and Man.

In this book, the author addresses one of the big questions that a lot of people have. Did man and Dinosaur live at the same time? Mr. Woetzel does a wonderful job of explaining and giving scientific evidence how man and dinosaur lived together. (Yes, I believe that man and dinosaur lived together.)

How did Dave Woetzel come to this conclusion? He traveled around the world finding artifacts and talking to people. In this books, he shares his own personal pictures and other papers, drawings and information that he came across during the search.

Between all of the information that Mr. Woetzel used to write this book and the amazing drawings that Mr. Richard Dobbs created to go along with the work, this book is put together wonderfully and answers many questions that one might have regarding how man and dinosaur lived together and what happened to the dinosaurs.

My kids and I have really enjoyed reading this book. We definitely recommend it to others who want to learn more about man and dinosaurs living together.

Kids reading Chronicles of Dinosaura.

**Disclaimer: I was given this book by Master Books, a division of New Leaf publishing, in exchange for a review. All opinions in the review are my own. No other compensation was given.

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Wednesday’s Around the World~ Ezekiel and the edible scroll

By Joy on May 8, 2013 in 2013, homeschooling, Wednesdays Around The World

As you may have noticed, I haven’t posted a Wednesday’s Around the World in a couple of weeks. It wasn’t because I didn’t want to post, I just couldn’t seem to get the post written. The last couple of weeks, I have been struggling with migraines, allergy/sinus headaches and even a Fibromyalgia flare-up that lasted longer than what I liked. When I have a Fibromyalgia flare-up, I basically hurt from head to toe and have no energy whatsoever, which makes it very hard to think and concentrate. I am praying that I don’t have one of those for a while. It is now finally feeling like spring and the kids and I want to get out and enjoy the beautiful weather we have been having. Now on to Wednesday’s Around the World where we are talking about Ezekiel, the prophet and the edible scroll.

We studied about Ezekiel a couple of weeks ago. He was taken as a young man to Babylonia, just like Daniel. It wasn’t until after he had been held captive of about 5 years before he became a prophet. Ezekiel was a preist and a prophet to the Judeans that lived along the River Chebar. This group was able to worship and live somewhat of a normal life.

The way Ezekiel prophesied was a little unusual compared to other prophets. God gave Ezekiel visions that are hard for us to understand. For example, Ezekiel wrote that he had seen creatures with 4 faces and 4 wings in a fiery cloud. One of the strangest though was God gave Ezekiel a scroll to eat. The scripture says,

Ezekiel 3:3-4

³And he said to me, “Son of man, feed your belly with this scroll that I give you and fill your stomach with it.”Then I ate it, and it was in my mouth as sweet as honey.

⁴And he said to me, “Son of man, go to the house of Israel and speak with my words to them.

After everything that Ezekiel had seen in his life as a prophet, Ezekiel has no problem following God’s instructions. He ate the scroll and then went to the house of Israel and told them about God. Ezekiel was an amazing man and lived his life out as a prophet. A lot of the Hebrews that Ezekiel lived with turned away from their idolatry and started serving God. He died, obeying God while still living in captivity.

The activity for the lesson on Ezekiel, we were to make an edible scroll. The kids liked this idea! All you need for this activity is one slice of bread per kid, a knife and honey to drizzle.

The first thing the kids did was cut the crust off the bread and then made the bread as square as they could.

cutting the crust off and squaring the bread up.

Once they finished squaring off their bread, they were to write “Oh Israel” on their “scroll”. This proved challenging to them, because it was hard to write with the honey. I didn’t have a small bottle with a nozzle, so I improvised and used ziploc bags and cut off a very tiny part of the corner.

Writing on their “scroll” with honey.

The last things the kids had to do was then roll the bread up just like a scroll and eat! I think this was their favorite part!

eating their “scroll”.

So what all have you been learning in the last couple of weeks? Did you do any neat projects or activities? I would love if you would link up and share it with us!

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making a compass for Apologia Astronomy lesson

By Joy on April 18, 2013 in 2013, homeschooling

The next project for our Apologia Astronomy lesson, was making a compass. It is the last project on our lesson about planet Earth and tied in with the last section that we read about, “Perfect Magnetosphere”. What is a “Magnetosphere”? A magnetosphere is a huge area of magnetic power that is around Earth.

The Earth has a huge magnetic field that is made in the outer core of the earth. This magnetic field pulls harmful particles away from the earth. The harmful particles is called a solar wind. Without this magnetic field, we wouldn’t be able to survive on Earth. Isn’t that amazing?

The magnetosphere that is around the earth actually blocks some of the solar winds that come from the sun. The solar winds that are able to get through are mostly around the North and South Poles. As they are traveling past the North and South Poles, they start running into gases in the earth’s atmosphere. This is where those beautiful lights that are called “auroras” come from!

Now on to the fun part of this lesson, the project of making a compass! The supplies for this project that you will need is a cork, permanent marker, a lid from a yogurt or sour cream container, a sewing needle and a magnet (needs to be a strong magnet).

Claire running the needle over the magnet.

What you do first is label the lid with (N)orth, (S)outh, (E)ast, (W)est. Then you run the needle over the top of the magnet several times, making sure that you move the needle in the same direction. Then you will cut off a little piece of cork and put it in the middle of the needle.

pouring water in the lid.

Then you will fill the lid to the very top with water. You will then put the cork and needle in the lid so that the needle is floating roughly parallel to the surface of the water. Then watch what happens! Turn the compass and you will notice that the needle continues pointing in the same direction.

Needle is pointing North.

Regardless of how you turn the compass, one end of the needle will always point to the north and the other end to the south. Yes, this really works!

Checking the direction the needle is pointing.

How does this work? Since you turned the needle into a magnet by running it over the magnet, it is affected by the Earth’s magnetic field!

My kids had a really fun time with this project. Well I have to admit, I did too! We can’t wait to begin the next lesson on the Moon!

I am linking up with The Homeschool Scientist and Apologia. Be sure to stop by Apologia and check out the other projects that have been linked up!

Have you done any neat science projects or activities? I would love for you to share them with us!

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The Ultimate Homeschool Planner from Apologia

By Joy on April 9, 2013 in 2013, homeschooling, review

When it comes to homeschooling, I think to help make it a success and something I need to be more diligent about is organizing your homeschooling. This is an area that I have struggled in a lot. I was thrilled when I found out I had the chance to review The Ultimate Homeschool Planner and The Ultimate Weekly Planner for Teens, that Debra Bell created.

The Ultimate Homeschool Planner.

Just how “ultimate” is this planner? It is a huge book, with 263 pages. What do you ask that takes up so many pages in this huge planner? Let me give you a littl run down of everything that Debra Bell covers in this amazing planner.

A User’s Guide (which is extremely helpful!)
A One Year Planning Grid
Student Goal Setter
Pre-Planning Guides
Monthly Planner
Weekly Planner
Records
Teaching Tips
High School Planning Guide and a High School Planning Guide Example
Year in Review
and a Notes section

As you can tell, Mrs. Bell did not forget anything in this planner. She has been homeschooling for many many years and used her experience to put together this planner to help others. One of the things I enjoy as I am filling out the different sections is the little sayings and scriptures that she puts on the pages. The really brighten my day and give e the encouragement and hope to continue on what I am doing. Not only for my family, but to glorify God as well.

Inside the Ultimate Homeschool Planner.

Another thing I really love about this planner, is I can not only use it for my homeschooling plans, but I find the spaces big enough to allow me to put other information there as well. I can make notes of appointments for all of us in our family, I can make notes about any reviews or posts that I have due. There is even room for me to write down ideas that I have pop into my head.

I had chosen The Ultimate Weekly Planner for Teens for my oldest daughter. She is in 9th grade this year and while she has been doing all of her work on her own, I knew it was past time for her to be keeping track of everything for herself. I think helping and teaching kids to be more organized will help them in the future. Mrs. Bell did an excellent job creating this weekly planner for teens. Like with the Ultimate Homeschool Planner, she really did think of everything, even fun things that are important for teens. What all does Mrs. Bell include in this amazing 168 page planner?

All About Me section (their favorites)
1st and 2nd semester schedules
Monthly planner
Weekly planner
Grade pages
Reading List pages
Activities Log
Credit and High School Records page

Mrs. Bell also includes wonderful sayings, quotes and scriptures throughout the pages of the planner. She als has several pages dedicated to a list of books that she recommends to the teens to read. There is a Guide to Punctuation, Italics and Capitalization, Cite Right, Fractions, Decimals, Percent Equivalency Chart, Periodic Table, Measurement Equivalency Chart, Algebra and Physics Review, a Map of the World and the USA, as well as a Timeline. She also gives a lot of high school and college admissions help, with several pages to just write down any notes that you may need to keep track of.

My daughter and I are really enjoying our planners. I think it will help both of us become more organized as the year continues on. We both need to be more diligent about keeping track of all sorts of information as we make plans for the rest of our homeschooling years. Both of these planners have given us the tools we need to do this.