Friday, April 1, 2016

Critical Conversations by Tom Gilson (Book Review!)

Critical Conversations: A Christian Parents’ Guide to Disussing Homesexuality with TEENS

by Tom Gilson

(received in exchange for an honest review)

Critical Conversations

Genre- Religion / Christian Life / Family

Published by- Kregel Publications

Copyrighted- 2016

Number of pages- 200

Age Group- Adult

Description of book- paperback, listed price- $15.99, ISBN 978-0-8254-4396-1

There are many hard subjects that you need talk about with your teens.  Homosexuality is one of them.

Tom Gilson has written this book to empower parents.  He has included:

  • practical help.
  • what marriage is from both a biblical worlview and a secular worldview.
  • how to relate to others.

About the Author-

Tom Gilson blogs at Thinking Christian and The Point.  He is senior editor for apologetics with The Stream.

My thoughts-

I thought this was a well written book.  Gilson included everything I needed to know and how I should approach the subject when my children are teens.

I liked how he included how important marriage is between a man and a woman based on laws and customs.  He included many things in Part Three about challenges, truths your teen needs to know, more information, and tips on talking with your children. 

The most important thing he stressed though was loving others.  I highly recommend this book to parents.

Disclosure of Material Connection- I received Critical Conversations, by Tom Gilson, for free from Kregel Publications’ Blog Tour.  All links were current when posted.  I was not required to write a positive review.  The opinions I have expressed are my own or those of my family.  I am disclosing this in accordance with the Federal Trade Commission’s 16 CFR, Part 255.

Memoria Press’s Fifth Grade Literature Guide Set (Schoolhouse Review Crew Review!)

We received this for review purposes!

Memoria Press Logo

 Product Links: Fifth Grade Literature Guide Set

Vendor Information Link: Memoria Press

Age Appeal: 5th Grade

Format: Physical softcover Student Study Guide and Teacher’s Guide

Price: Please visit the website for current prices and options.

Are you looking for a solid literature curriculum for your children?  Memoria Press has developed a wonderful curriculum for second grade through seventh grade.

Each student literature guide contains questions for each chapter.  Each chapter contains Reading Notes, Vocabulary, Comprehension Questions, Quotations, Discussions Questions, and Enrichment.  Each Enrichment section has diferent activities like questions, drawing pictures, marking of maps, and recipes.

The teacher’s guide contains all of the answers along with the quizzes and final test.

Memoria Press-001

Our Experience: 

My children love to read.  I was excited to learn about Memoria Press’s literature guides, because I wanted B and C to become more active readers.

B chose to read Lassie Come-Home, and C chose The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe.  I had them look over the work for each chapter, read the chapter, and then work on questions.

They both enjoyed reading the books and answering the questions.

Mama’s Thoughts:

  • I’m glad that my children enjoy classical books and that they enjoyed these literature guides. 
  • I really enjoyed these guides.  I liked how they included Comprehension Questions, Discussion Questions, Vocabulary, and an Enrichment section.  I also liked how the guides were consistent between each other.  Consistent products always make it easier for children to work on them throughout the year.
  • The teacher’s guides were awesome.  I liked having the answers at my finger tips if I didn’t know the answer. 
  • C’s handwriting is currently rather large, so she had a hard time writing the answers.  B didn’t have a hard time, but I would still like to see the lines wide ruled instead of college ruled.
  • The Enrichment section was my favorite, because the children were able to do more activities.  I feel that these activities helped B and C learn more about the book they were reading.
  • These literature guides will help them learn to actively read other books.  They will also help them appreciate good classical books. 

Literature-Grade5

B’s Thoughts (boy, age 12, officially in sixth grade):

I thought the Lassie Come-Home Student Study Guide was interesting.  The book was sad, because Lassie can’t live with them anymore. She was sold in the second chapter, which was sad.

I liked how involved the study guide was, with all the questions you had to fill in. I liked how you had to look up words in a dictionary.

I liked the maps in the back of my book.

I would recommend this product to kids my age. 

C’s Thoughts (girl, age 10, officially in fourth grade):

  • I liked the fact that there were maps and recipes.
  • I think this product would be good for kids my age and older and younger.
  • I did The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe.
  • I think that the lines could be farther apart, because my handwriting didn’t fit.
  • We got The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe, Lassie Come-Home, and Heidi.
  • I got to draw pictures of Tumnus’s cave and the professor’s house.

Dad’s Thoughts:

Dad was not available.

Mama recommends to your homeschooling family!

Social Media Links!

Facebook - https://www.facebook.com/memoriapress/
Twitter (@MemoriaPress) - https://twitter.com/MemoriaPress
Instagram (@memoriapress) - https://www.instagram.com/memoriapress/
LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/company/memoria-press?trk=nav_account_sub_nav_company_admin
Pinterest - https://www.pinterest.com/memoriapress/
Google+ - https://plus.google.com/u/0/b/102017568472649365859/104379865092561103366/about?_ga=1.103684480.147808133.1453409903

 
Crew Disclaimer
 

Picture of the Week! (Week of March 27, 2016)- Nature

Mound at W

We were at our local nature preserve, and I saw this.  I thought it could be the inspiration for an interesting story.  Is it a place to hide?  Or is it a scary monster?