REVIEW: Apologia iWitness

I am always looking for good Bible study resources–books that explain questions I have had about the Bible, such as how history as we know it lines up with the history in the Bible. I was intrigued, therefore, by these three books I recently received to review from Apologia Educational Ministries' iWitness series:

• iWitness Bible Archaeology ($14.00)
• Old Testament iWitness ($14.00)
• New Testament iWitness ($14.00) 

What are they?

The iWitness books are intended to engage children in learning about the Bible, in a visually appealing and non-intimidating way. They have a reading level appropriate for around ages 11 and up. These books are presented as a series of hand-written documents with lots of pictures, which really do pique interest and invite further exploration. Doug Powell, Apologia's art director and author of the iWitness books, mentions in this interview that these are intended to be interactive books - the information is presented, and the reader is asked to think through it. He said these are the books he wishes he could have read for the answers to questions he had.

iWitness Bible Archaeology talks about the archaeological discoveries that correlate with or illuminate biblical history. There is some great stuff in here! We learned about the different accounts of the flood, Egyptian chronology, and where different manuscripts of both the Old and New Testaments have been found, just to name a few topics. I was particularly interested in the part about all the places Hadrian had filled in, such as the cave where Christians believed Jesus was born, and then Constantine dug them all back out and had them protected.

Old Testament iWitness presented how the Old Testament books were chosen, the process for copying them. It was interesting to see how the Hebrew Bible is different from what I know as the Old Testament. We learned some new words, too. I had heard of the Septuagint, and the Torah, but we learned together about the Tanakh, or the Hebrew Bible, as well as the Nevi'im, and the Ketuvi'im, which are divisions of the Hebrew Bible along with the Torah. We also learned about the Apocrypha, what exactly it is, and why the Roman Catholic and Orthodox churches include it in their Bibles.

In New Testament iWitness, we read about how the books in the New Testament were chosen, which books were not included, and why. We learned about early theologians, the church fathers, and the Apostolic Fathers. We saw a timeline for when the New Testament books were probably written. I knew some things we read, and we'd studied some of the people, but there was also a ton of new information presented in here.

How did we use them?

My teenagers were able to go through the books on their own, but in general, we chose to go through them together, along with my 7 year old, during our daily morning time together. We would sit together and look at the pictures, read the information and discuss, and the kids were free to take the books and look at them after. There is so much detail, and so many beautiful pictures, they're fun to go back to again and again.

What did we like?

These books were great family devotional material for us, and I could see them being fun for use with a youth group or Sunday school class.

I really like that the information is presented in such a way that the reader has to think through the material for themselves and draw their own conclusions. There is no "obviously, this is the truth" or "clearly you will believe this way after reading this book" here. That's why they make for such great discussions. Just looking at Egyptian chronology in the archaeology book kept us busy for quite some time.

I find that having this kind of historical information adds a new and helpful dimension to reading and learning what the Bible says. My children enjoyed reading through them with me, and I love that they (and I) have this information under their belts now.

What didn't we like?

There was very little about these books that we didn't like. The only issue we had was that my very visual daughter found them a bit overwhelming. Each page spread is presented as if it has several hand-written documents on it, which is interesting and cool, but can be difficult to read. These books were, for us, better taken in smaller chunks rather than reading straight through. It wasn't a problem, it's just that my visual child was not interested in looking through them on her own, so we went through them together.

Overall, I thought these were excellent books. Although they are relatively thin paperback books, there is more information presented in them than I could possibly share with you, and it's fascinating reading. They stand alone, or make a great jumping-off place for more research if you find you want to know more. Each book has a good bibliography in the back. You can follow lots of rabbit trails with internet searching, too.

In addition to the three books we received to review, there are two other iWitness books currently available: Jesus iWitness and Resurrection iWitness. There are also two new books planned for 2015 - iWitness World Religions and iWitness Heretics and Cults. Exciting stuff!

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REVIEW: Star Chronicles: A Bible Based Study of the Stars

Make sure you scroll all the way down for the giveaway!

I was recently given the opportunity to review a new book by Dawnita Fogleman entitled Star Chronicles: A Bible Based Study of the Stars. I love astronomy, and have wanted to get started with some family studies, but wasn't quite sure how to go about it. We have a pretty cool iPad app that helps us identify what we're seeing, and I have quite a pile of books about stars and planets and such, but wasn't sure how to approach it all. I was given a PDF copy of the book to use with my family. It includes coloring pages for the youngest astronomers, as well as lapbooking elements and notebooking pages.

Dawnita is a wife, mother, editor and author of most of her website: Fogleman Forerunner. She is also a 5th generation Oklahoma Panhandle pioneer - how cool is that? She lives in a century-old farmhouse on 50 acres in, as she describes it, "Nowhere, Oklahoma." Sounds like heaven to me! She also loves old books. (That has nothing to do with the review, but it tells me she's a woman after my own heart, so I had to point it out.) You can read an interview with her here. She's nifty.

The first thing I did upon receiving Star Chronicles was to pull out all the books I could find relating to astronomy, fiction and non-fiction, and put them on top of the piano, where they would be visible and available to everyone. Then, I put Dawnita's book on our iPads. My girls and I each read through the book, and then the girls started researching constellations. They are 13 and 14, so they're able to do research on their own, and they went to town. Dawnita recommends studying one constellation per week or even per month, giving time for all the information to soak in. She said it's not necessary to work on the constellations that are currently visible, although that would make the most sense to me.

That's not what the girls did, naturally. For their first ones, Emma chose Aries, because that's her "sign," and Abbie chose Virgo, probably because it was the first one, and she's singing a song in Latin that uses the word "virgo" in her choir. All right then! (I suppose Aries is the right one, come to think of it.)

Our printer isn't working, so I couldn't print any of the notebooking pages, but we like to do our own thing anyway. Emma chose to do hers with Picmonkey:

Abbie made her own version Dawnita's drawing of Virgo, colored it, and attached it to her narration page:

This book is a great jumping-off point for a study of constellations. There is just enough information here to satisfy younger children, and plenty to pique the interest of older students to make them to learn more. I had only ever heard about the constellations with their Greek names, but there is so much more history there! You can see a sample lesson (Scorpio) here. Dawnita's focus was to share Biblically and historically accurate information, and you will not find anything about horoscopes or astrology. She shares information about the 12 major constellations, along with any associated constellations. I had no idea there were so many!

We learned a lot from this study, and enjoyed it. Dawnita's goal was to make the book friendly and engaging, and she succeeded in that. The full-color star maps are amazing. She shared many of her own connections with the material, and those were fun to read. I can think of a few things I'd like to see:

• Consistent information regarding when each constellation appears in the sky.

• Sources to verify information found on Wikipedia.

• A little more direction with regard to the Bible prophecies. For example, when we read about Aries, the Lamb, she had us read Luke Chapter 1 and discuss the prophecy. I could not for the life of me figure out what that chapter had to do with Aries; there is no mention of the word lamb anywhere in the chapter. I know this isn't a prophecy study, but if we're directed to read one, it would be helpful to know why. (Note: I had another friend explain to me that it was talking about Christ coming to redeem us, our Sacrificial Lamb (even though it didn't actually refer to him as the Lamb). I felt a little silly, once I heard the explanation, but I am new to studying Biblical prophecy, and just didn't make the connection.)

I confess that I found myself a little frustrated after reading the book, and couldn't quite put my finger on why, until I realized that I wanted to know MORE! I'm in the process of reading Adam and His Kin by Ruth Beechik, one of Dawnita's recommended books for older students to read along with this study, and will be seeking more information for myself. I'd say that's a unit study well done, when it inspires a learner to keep learning!

To celebrate the release of her new book, Dawnita is offering a 25% discount on the PDF version, available through her website, using the code STARMOMS. This code expires on April 20, 2014.

The PDF version is regularly $12, and is available through Dawnita's shop. A printed version is available through Amazon (affiliate link).

One more thing! I'm authorized to give away a PDF copy of the book. Be sure you enter to win!

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Connect with Dawnita via Fogleman Foreunner on Facebook, Twitter, and Google+. Don't forget to check out her blog!

REVIEW: Homeschool Mom's Bible

Along with other books, I love Bibles. I love reading different versions and having lots of them around so I can compare them. I don't always make time for quiet time in the mornings, so having a devotional is nice; it gives me something specific to read so I will sit down and do it. This Bible, the Homeschool Mom's Bible from Zondervan, provides both of those things in one lovely package! At my house, this is one less thing for me to misplace (if I had a Bible and separate devotional book, for instance), and that is a GOOD THING.

I chose the King James Version, because my children and I are working on reading it together. I might as well keep it up on my own time, too. It's also available in the NIV, if you'd prefer that. They are both hardcover Bibles, nice and sturdy. I have several leather-ish bound Bibles, and while they are lovely, they don't always sit well on the shelf. The paper is not as thin as in some Bibles, which is nice, and the font is large enough for comfortable reading. My over-40 eyes appreciate that.

Aren't they pretty? There are 365 devotionals in this Bible, spaced every few pages, with a border around each one so they are easily distinguishable from the rest of the text. They were written by Janice Tatman, a homeschool mom with 25 years experience. She wrote them for a daily devotional email sent out when she worked for a major curriculum supplier, and those pieces have been assembled into this Bible for homeschool moms. You could use the way the devotionals are spaced to read through the Bible in a year. It seems very do-able that way (and would not require me to keep track of a piece of paper with scheduled readings - another bonus). Additionally, there is a topical index in the back, so you can look up a particular issue and flip to a devotional written on it. I checked - "loneliness" is in there. I will need those often.

As I read through some of the devotionals, I found that some of them really spoke to me, and others don't fit where I am right now, and I disagreed with the perspective every now and then. That's the beauty of something like this - I might read through it every year, these same devotionals, and different ones will touch my heart. Even if I never resonate with some of them, every one is food for thought. The one in the picture was a really good one to read, about the response when a child is bored. Like the author, I have a host of chores that I could suggest to a child who tells me they are bored, but I loved her response to this child, at this time: that life isn't always lived on the mountaintop. She said to her son, "Most of your life will involve being faithful in the normal, everyday routine, but when God chooses, he gives you something that changes your life forever."

I don't know about you, but sometimes I struggle to be faithful in the daily routine. I find it difficult to stay focused on the things that I know are important every day, even though they involve taking care of my family. Sometimes I am distracted from homeschooling my children by feeling that I should be cleaning or cooking something, when in reality, they need my focused attention during school time. Sometimes I would prefer to read a book for fun than vacuum, or start laundry, or clean a bathroom. I need regular reminders to stay faithful to these things that are my job, and I appreciated the perspective in this reading.

There is something special about reading devotionals written just for a homeschool mom. This is a different life I live, with unique challenges and blessings, and it's a special thing to have devotionals written by someone who has been there before me, you know? If you're in the market for a Bible, or know someone who might like it, I hope you'll check it out. Both versions, KJV and NIV, are available from Zondervan for $34.99 each.

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REVIEW: "Beauty in the Heart" Bible Study Book from Doorposts

I am always looking for interesting Bible studies to use with my children. We read in our Bibles daily (well, most days) together, and discuss what we've read. I have a small commentary that we use to help us summarize points from the section we're reading, or to bring up questions about important things I don't want us to miss. I like this method and it keeps me accountable for reading with my children.

However, I like to use additional materials as well, and when the opportunity came up to review Beauty in the Heart by Pam Forster, from Doorposts, I was thrilled to take a look at it and work through a portion of it with my girls. We received a comb-bound copy of the book to use. It's intended for ages 12 and up, and I have to say that my 12 and 13 year old girls were plenty challenged by this study. I learned a lot myself.

What I liked very much about this book is that not only did we learn about what comprises true beauty, we also learned the basics of different methods of studying the Bible. They recommend a Strong's Concordance, which I have, and a Nave's Topical Bible, which I didn't have, so I ordered one.

There are 10 chapters, each taking up to a week to complete, for a total of 86 days of study, or about 17 weeks if you work on the study for 5 days per week. The chapters are:

• Beauty in Submission
• Beauty in the Heart
• Beauty in Trusting God
• Beauty in Humility
• Beauty in Modesty
• Beauty in Serving
• Beauty Without Discretion
• Beauty in Crisis
• Beauty at the Gates
• Beauty in Review

The Bible study methods include inductive study, verse study, character study, verse study, and word/topical study. Although the study is written for girls, there are alternate questions for boys included. The book states that boys can encourage girls to grow in Godly beauty, and that it's important for them to learn to discern between true and false beauty in relationships as they consider marrying.

We spent the review period on the first chapter, a couple days per week. The chapter is titled "Beauty in Submission," and is an inductive study of a portion of I Peter. I printed copies for us of I Peter in the KJV. We read the entire book aloud together, stopping after every few verses to narrate and discuss. Then, we used the method described to mark up our passages (we used highlighters instead of pens). We weren't quite ready to mark up our Bibles, and I have done inductive study with printouts before. For the next part of the study, I made up tables for us like the one in the book, so we could organize what we'd highlighted. We spent a few days organizing our findings and discussing them. We took our time, because we're still getting used to the KJV, and we looked up verses in other versions of the Bible if we had questions.

I'm glad I decided we would work through this study together, because it is not easy going! There is a *lot* to be learned from this book. It's laid out so nicely - we read in I Peter about "the way holy women of the past who put their trust in God used to adorn themselves," and then go on to study those holy women and their stories. I love the way inductive study draws you into Scripture and helps you see the details of a passage.

This is a brand-new study, available for $14.00 from Doorposts. Click to see a PDF sample here. They currently have a special offer: if you purchase the printed workbook, you can use the coupon code "beautystudy" and receive a free PDF copy of the book! This offer expires on August 31, 2013.

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