The Noah Plan®- Second Grade Essentials

For this next post in my series of The Noah Plan® Essentials, I'm skipping First Grade and jumping into the Second Grade. Why? In my opinion, the Kindergarten and Second Grade curricula are more in depth than the First Grade curriculum (though I will get to the First Grade Essentials list before too long). You can read The Noah Plan® Kindergarten Essentials List by F.A.C.E. here.

**This post does contain an affiliate link.***  

If you own some of the Essentials that F.A.C.E. recommends from previous grades, you'll happily spend less money on this school year or you'll have more money to apply toward other books. :-)

This is the Essentials list by F.A.C.E. and the purpose of sharing this is to help you prepare and budget as you need to before your school year gets started (page 382 from The Noah Plan® Curriculum for Second Grade). The books in bold lettering are the ones that we own:

• Webster's 1828 Dictionary. (While you may use an on-line copy, I have found that not all words are in the on-line version. An example word would be "fulfill". So, a hard copy is best if you can swing it).

• Benjamin Franklin, Beautiful Feet Books.

• Benjamin West, Bradford Press.

• Christian History of the American Revolution: Consider and Ponder, F.A.C.E.
  (You can get by without this. It's a wonderful book to have, but if it overwhelms you in the beginning, wait until you practice the Principle Approach method using the curriculum.)

• Christian History of the Constitution of the United States of America, Vol. 1: Christian Self-Government, F.A.C.E.(You can get by without this. It's a wonderful book to have, but if it overwhelms you in the beginning, wait until you practice the Principle Approach method using the curriculum.)

• How to Teach Spelling, Educators' Publishing Company
  (We use Spell to Write and Read instead.) 

• Mes Premiers Pas de Francais, F.A.C.E.

• NIrV Kids' Study Bible
  We have it but rarely use it because I just am not a big fan of NIV...

The Curriculum Guides:

• Noah  Plan® English Guide
• Noah Plan® History and Geography Guide
• Noah Plan® Literature Guide
• Noah Plan® Mathematics Guide
• Noah Plan® Reading Guide
• Noah Plan® Self-Directed Study Seminar and Principle Approach Methodology
  (You can get by without these, but as you grow in your understanding and ability of applying the Principle Approach® method, you'll find them a huge blessing.)

• Pocahontas (d'Aulaire), Doubleday

• Right Start Mathematics, Grade 2 Lessons, Activities for Learning
  I LOVE Right Start, however, I needed to "farm out" lessons and we are now using CTC Math (affiliate link) and we absolutely love it! The lessons are short and concise, the kids can re-take lessons and tests as needed individually, it is not in line with common core, it keeps track of individual student's records which are printable, and it grades lessons and tests automatically. This has been a huge blessing for me and our kids!
  
  

• Starter Kit, Spalding Education International:
  I have it and struggled so much with the way it is formatted!!! Thankfully someone introduced me to Spell to Write and Read by Wanda Sanseri! It's based off of Spalding's book but so simplified. I absolutely love it.

• Tales From Shakespeare, (Lamb's)

• Teacher Guide: "Switzerland and Liberty," F.A.C.E.
  I don't own this...

• Teacher Guide: "William Penn and the History of Religious Toleration," F.A.C.E.
  I don't own this but I'm thinking that I should.

• Teaching and Learning America's Christian History, F.A.C.E.

Heather's List of Essentials

 

In addition to what F.A.C.E. recommends, the following blessed our experience with the second grade curriculum (you may be able to find several of them at your local public library or at used book stores):

• Children's Illustrated Bible, Penguin Group

• Heidi, Random House Value Publishing
  (I had never read the book before and I LOVE it!)

• Historic Sailing Ships Coloring Book, Dover Publications, Inc.
  (You might be able to find free coloring pages on-line though.)

• John Cabot & Son, Goodnough, Troll Association, 1979

• John Smith, Man of Adventure, Bostong: Houghton Mifflin

• McGuffey's Second Eclectic Reader, Christian School Edition
  (We found the collection inexpensively at a used book store.)

• Men of Science, Men of God: Great Scientists of the Past Who Believed the Bible, Henry Morris.

• Physical Geography, Arnold Guyot, American Christian History Institute

• Planets, Evan-Moor Corp.

• Pocketful of Goobers: A Story of George Washington Carver, Lerner Publishing Group

• Strong's New Exhaustive Concordance of the Bible (but usually I use Blue Letter Bible)

• Sun, Moon, Stars, Evan-Moor Corp.

Would I like to add more to our personal collection for second grade? Yes! However, I'll likely continue to teach with what we have considering that we have a budget for purchasing items for our High School kids. :-)

I sure hope this post gives you the ability to plan ahead and get you ready for the upcoming school year.

Blessings!

 

 

The Noah Plan- Kindergarten Essentials: Heather's List

Welcome back to my series of The Noah Plan Essentials. You may read my first post for The Noah Plan Kindergarten curriculum here.

In addition to the essentials for Kindergarten found at my previous post, here is a list of other items which I found benefited our family in our first year using the Kindergarten curriculum:

• Free printable coloring pages for the period of history or maps that we were studying. A quick on-line search helped me do this and was more affordable at the time than buying coloring books.

• Beginning Geography, K-2, The Evan-Moor Corp.: Vol. 1,Continents and Oceans; Vol. 2,  How to Use a Map; Vol. 3. (While I started out looking for free graphics on-line to make my own, I found having the books a time saver.)

These books have sheets that work with the K Geography lesson plans. They have proven to be a time saver for me (one less thing to prep). 

The double-sided poster is helpful. It's large for little people to see well and it also folds up and can sit loose-leaf in the Evan-Moor book.

The world map from the Evan-Moor Beginning Geography book is a duplicate of the one from their Land Form and Bodies of Water map on one side. The other side is a little Fairy Tale Land map. This also is large and fold-able which allows for sitting in the book loose-leaf.

• The Children's Illustrated Bible. Why? Because unlike the "beginner Bibles", the illustrations are more realistic. I believe the benefit of this is that it doesn't place doubt in our children's minds. 

• Learning About My Body by Evan-Moor Corp. The Noah Plan curriculum calls for, Me and My Body, Penguin Group, USA although we were unable to find a copy of it when we were initially ordering our books. It also calls for, Skeleton Inside You. I don't know what that book is like, however, there are coloring pages in the Learning About My Body book and that was satisfactory for me. In any case, it's helpful timewise to have these pages available.

• A Child's Garden of Songs: The Poetry of Robert Louis Stevenson in Song by Ted Jacobs. We enjoy poetry and music. So, to help instill a love for both, it's especially nice to have some of Robert Lewis Stevenson's poetry put to music.This helped with our lessons about Robert Louis Stevenson when we had to be on the road.

   

Other than that, the usual supply of paper, paper reinforcement labels, pencils,crayons, or any other art supplies and creativity are needed.

Please feel free to ask ideas for substitutions if you find you need help with ideas for any specific lessons. I'll do my best to respond in a timely fashion.

Blessings!

 

The Noah Plan- Kindergarten Essentials

When considering what to purchase for our Kindergarten school year using The Noah Plan Curriculum, I wished that I had known in advance what essential books I needed. It wasn't, however, until our curriculum arrived and I glanced through the lessons that I realized more books were needed than what I ordered from The Foundation for American Christian Education!

**This post does contain an affiliate link.***

In the back of The Noah Plan Curriculum (p. 295), a list of books and publishers is given. I am sharing the books in bold that I found were enough for me in my first year. I'll write comments about the others on this list by F.A.C.E.

And so, without further ado, here is the list to help you budget and plan for the upcoming school year with your Kindergartner (you may even be able to find of them at your local public library):

Essential Books for The Noah Plan Kindergarten Lessons: 

• Abraham Lincoln (d'Aulaire), Doubleday

• Aesop's Fables, Henry Holt & Co.

• *American Dictionary of the English Language, Facsimile 1828 Edition, Foundation for American Christian Education (while there is an on-line edition, I have discovered that it is missing some words. So, I believe it's essential to have a hard copy in your home.)

• Bambi, by Felix Salten (this is not the Disney version)

• Child's Garden of Verses

• Christian History of the American Revolution: Consider and Ponder-
  I was overwhelmed with this my first year as I learned to navigate the curriculum. This is mostly for the parent's re-education vs. the lessons for your Kindergartner.

• Christian History of the Constitution of the United States of America, Vol 1: Christian Self-Government- I was overwhelmed with this my first year as I learned to navigate the curriculum. This is mostly for the parent's re-education vs. the lessons for your Kindergartner.

• Early Reader's Bible, Gold 'n' Honey Books-
  Some people prefer to have their children read right out of the Bible... it's up to you.

• Fairy Tale Books (I struggled with this idea in the beginning... perhaps I'll share my conclusion with you in a future post...)

• French Primer, Mes Premiers Pas de Français by F.A.C.E.-
  This is fun to do. It comes with an audio CD for pronunciation. The CD is frustrating in that each vocabulary word is not on its own track. So you have to listen to everything all over to re-hear the word you want (unless this has been changed since we purchased it several years ago).

• Little House in the Big Woods

• Lullaby books-
  If you can't swing these or find them at your library, you can always look some songs up on youtube.

• Mother Goose and other nursery rhyme books-If you can't swing these or find them at your library, you can always look some songs up on youtube.

I find the following guides useful for upper-level grades:

• Noah Plan English Language Curriculum Guide
• Noah Plan History and Geography Guide
• Noah Plan Lessons for Kindergarten
• Noah Plan Literature Curriculum Guide
• Noah Plan Mathematics Guide
• Noah Plan Reading Curriculum Guide
• Noah Plan Self-Directed Seminar and Principle Approach Methodology

• Phonemic Awareness in Young Children: A Classroom Curriculum-
  I didn't bother with this one (probably because of our budget at the time). And the curriculum we use works well for us so I haven't felt the need to buy it...

• Right Start Mathematics-

We started out with this and love it. However, I needed help time-wise teaching a subject with so many various levels among our 6 school-aged children and we are now using CTC Math (affiliate link) and love it! The lessons are short and concise, the kids can re-take lessons and tests as needed individually, it is not in line with common core, it keeps track of individual student's records which are printable, and it grades lessons and tests automatically. This has been a huge blessing for me and our kids!

• Starter Kit, Spalding Education International-
  I have it and struggled so much with the way it is formatted!!! Thankfully someone introduced me to Spell to Write and Read by Wanda Sanseri! It's based off of Spalding's book but so simplified. I absolutely love it.

• Stone Bridge Art Guide

• Tale of Peter Rabbit

• Tales from Shakespeare (Lamb's)

• Teaching and Learning America's Providential History: The Principle Approach-
  This can wait until later if you need to, but do get it when you are able to.

• Teacher Guide: "Pilgrim-Pioneer Character Moving Westward" by F.A.C.E.-
  We do not own this.

• Uncle Remus Stories, Random House-We couldn't find this so we enjoyed Disney's film called, Song of the South.

• Winnie-the-Pooh, Penguin Putnam, Inc.-
  An absolute must. 

In my next post, I'll share books that I thought were helpful even though they were not on F.A.C.E.'s Essential Book List.

Blessings!

 

The Feast of Dedication- 2013 Reflections

In my last post about the Feast of Dedication, I mentioned that we didn't yet have our own menorah. Cool Daddy learned of where we could purchase one, and so he did... right in the middle of this celebration. We were all delighted to have one to light before the 8 days ended!!

As I share about our family's journey with Biblical Feasts, please do not be offended by what we learn, ponder and share. I know it doesn't seem like the "norm" for Christians to celebrate only the Lord's Feasts and other Biblical Feasts the Bible mentions... we didn't use to celebrate these ourselves... but we have {and still are} learning the significance of these and so choose to keep them. Please read my Word Study on Unity post before reading this.

And now, to continue about our family's journey...

I really didn't know what to think about menorahs when I saw them. But once we began studying how Christ is typified in each piece in the Tabernacle (Temple), I saw their beauty. Once we learned why they are used in the celebration for The Feast of Dedication, I saw their significance.

Since The Feast of Dedication is about the historical account of the Maccabees, God's people, rededicating the Temple to God, our family studies about the menorah which typified Christ in the Tabernacle. {In fact, all of the pieces typified Christ, but we focused on the Menorah as it is a part of the Hanukkah celebration.} What a fascinating study!

The Menorah in the Tabernacle:

Firstly, the menorah in the Tabernacle was The Golden Lampstand and not a candlestick (as is described in the King James). We read about it in Exodus 25:31-39; 37:17-24; and John 8:12.

In the book, Seeing Christ in the Tabernacle, we learn that the Lampstand depicts the full and perfect deity of Christ. Do you notice in your reading of the above listed passages, that there aren't any dimensions given? This reminds us that deity knows no boundary. Infinity is without limits!

I was amazed to learn that the talent of gold reminds us of the enormous price which Yeshua paid to redeem us. It so happens that one talent of gold {at the time Seeing Christ in the Tabernacle was written} is valued as exceeding one-half million dollars! And even still, a price cannot be put on His love for us and what He did for us!

As we learn about the Tabernacle, we learn that there were no windows for light to enter! The only light offered was that of the Golden Lamptsand. This typifies Yeshua:

Jesus is "the true light, which lighteth every man that cometh into the world. {John 1:9}

"He was a burning and a shining light: and ye were willing for a season to rejoice in his light." {John 5:35}

He said, "As long as I am in the world, I am the light of the world." {John 9:5}

We remember, though, that He expects His Church to be "the light of the world" as Matthew 5:14 teaches us.

The Hanukkah Menorah:

Can you imagine being blessed to keep light of The Golden Lampstand going in the Temple? The menorah was God's lamp; He's the One Who designed it and had it made. And amazingly, it typifies Yeshua!

Well, you may notice that the Hanukkah menorah {Hanukkiah} is different. Aside from not being an oil lamp, it has one shaft and eight branches. The eight branches are for each day of the celebration. It reminds us of this historical Mighty Work of God. It reminds us that Yeshua is the Light of the world and that He expects His Church to be the light of the world.


Why Celebrate for Eight Days?

We understand it to last eight days because the Jews, under suppression of the Greco-Syrian pagan rule, had missed The Feast of Tabernacles {one of the Lord's Feasts}. The two celebrations were combined. 

There is also information about the Maccabees only having oil to light the Golden Lampstand for one night and that Yahweh extended the oil for eight nights.  While we believe Yahweh could have done this, we aren't sure if this happened.

Reflections:

Our older children grasp what is being learned. We are creating memories and growing spiritually together. We are continuing to learn what Romans 12:2 means and to be challenged by it. What are ways that we have maybe assimilated into the pagan culture? Where do we need to individually rededicate ourselves to the Lord? We are continuing to learn together how the Old and New Testaments fit together... making a complete book. "All scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness:" {2 Timothy 3:16}

Then, this year, one of our youngest children asked something I shall not soon forget...

A few days ago our daughter, Dreamer, asked me, "Mama? Is Yeshua still a baby?" I looked at her and could see the innocent bewilderment in her eyes. At this time of year, she is aware of many people preparing for what is known as advent... preparing for the arrival of the baby Jesus.

Dreamer's question gave me a glimpse into a new perspective through a child's eyes. I can see why she would be puzzled. It sounds, to her, that our Savior is born again each year.

Dear sweet Dreamer... it's like her to be the one to ponder something like this. A simple question... but a question with much depth.

And So I Pause and Ponder...

Why has man given focus to the celebration of the birth of our Savior? He is not "re-birthed." The work which He completed was on the cross... not as a babe. Without His obedience to the Father, without His completion on the cross and resurrection we would not have our salvation. 

A question I'm still pondering...

The Cause of Celebration for Believers in Yeshua the Messiah:

Yeshua is the Light of the world! Being saved by grace through Him, we talk about how we are temples and about the importance of cleansing our temples of unrighteousness and rededicating ourselves to Him.

Our gaze is fixed forward on the return of our Messiah... an adult 

You can order Seeing Christ in the Tabernacle in paperback on Amazon for $7.19.

Or, you can order it for Kindle at the low cost of $4.99.

I hope you see the joy and significance in celebrating the Biblical Feast of Dedication. I hope you find my above affiliate links helpful for you to purchase Seeing Christ in the Tabernacle for your own studies.

Blessings!

Treasures of the Snow - Literature Guide!

{Get your free literature guide at the end of this post!}

Have you read, Treasures of the Snow by Patricia St. John? We learned about it from the My Father's World: Creation to the Greeks curriculum we are using this year. This book is full of meaningful lessons and illustrates bearing the Fruits of the Spirit as the main characters choose to walk in Jesus' ways toward the end of the story.

Lately, I have been working on refining the literature guide format for our book club discussions. One goal was to streamline the material. Another goal was to have the kids put into practice applying the Principle Approach® method. This allows the kids to be more independently involved with the research, reason and relating aspects.

©Principled Academy 2013

We went through some of the guide in our group but we didn't make it through to the end of the book due to time constraints. However, the discussions we did have were rich. We mothers 

Mother Goose Mystery- Book Review

We have already studied about Mother Goose this school year in our lessons, however, I have to share about my recent find...

© Principled Academy

Do you know this book exists? I had not a clue until I came across it during my great book hunt for our family library.

First of all, I have to say that one tiny reason (outside of innumerable other tiny reasons) I am thankful to still have younger children in my life is because of the treasure trove of children's literature! I enjoy reading so many delightful, imaginative stories that I'd really miss out on if I didn't have littler ones to read to. Can you relate?

The illustrations are visually engaging and my kids enjoy the story line. It begins with the dish and spoon missing! They didn't come back after they ran away, like they usually do! Something had to have happened to them, but what? If the characters in the nursery rhyme don't find them before the next nightly reading, the rhyme is ruined! The dog and cow suggest they simply alter the rhyme so they don't have to go looking. However, it is finally decided that they go on an expedition all together to inquire of other nursery rhyme characters about their friends. Mystery, danger (hey, a wolf and a giant can make any story have danger), and suspense are all rolled up in this book. 

Second of all, this book illustrates Bible Principles wonderfully! It's the Bible Principles that popped out at me which I love best...

©Principled Academy

©Principled Academy

©Principled Academy

... and which are timeless for all ages as Bible Principles are for all people of all ages. So, even if nursery rhymes are beyond your kids' ages, they can read the book to their younger siblings or younger children you watch for a friend and sit in on the Bible Principles which you teach regarding the story. It helps the older kids practice reasoning from Scripture and how to see Bible Principles in even the "simplest" of stories (which in turn helps them to see Bible Principles in other ares of learning and life).

Don't have a copy of this story book? You can purchase it at my amazon affiliate link below:

You can download your Bible Principle Literature Guide for this storybook for just $5 here at my store.

 Blessings!

Copyright 2013 of Principled Academy

 The duplication of articles, photos, or blog entries without the express permission of the owner are strictly prohibited.

Literature- Beatrix Potter

As a child, I always enjoyed looking at the little books in the Peter Rabbit series by Beatrix Potter. They were the first books which I looked forward to reading once we made it to the children's section of the library. To this day I enjoy them and I am thankful to have a small collection of them for my children. I really enjoyed learning about Beatrix Potter when we did our literature study on her.

If you have The Noah Plan Curriculum (aka NP) for Kindergarten, this post will be especially helpful to you with links for notebooking! You are welcome to use the free Bible Principle lesson I created for The Tale of Mr. Jeremy Fisher whether or not you have the NP Curriculum! Please consider purchasing the Bible Principle Literature Guides for the other listed stories by Beatrix Potter.

My Tutorial for assembling a Bible Principle Study!

The Tale of Mr. Jeremy Fisher by Beatrix Potter

Buy the Following Pack of Literature Guide e-books for only $5.00!

The Story of a Fierce Bad Rabbit by Beatrix Potter

The Tailor of Gloucester by Beatrix Potter

The Tale of Squirrel Nutkin by Beatrix Potter

The Tale of Benjamin Bunny by Beatrix Potter

 A Fun Idea!

I do like to scrapbook and I just had to compile scrapbook pages for some of the authors we studied in our  lessons. I compiled these in what I call a "Family Author Study Scrapbook." If scrapbooking isn't your thing, just scrap this idea! :o)

I printed off coloring pages from this website (you just have to scroll down a bit to find the links to download the coloring pages). Our children took down some notes on a sheet about the author as well. All of these were filed in their notebooks.

You can read some of her biography here. Researching this on your own will make your study unique as you will pull information from it that appeals to you or impresses upon you.

The World of Peter Rabbit and Friends animated films are enjoyable (if you can get around brief scenes of a rat using a snuff box in one of the cartoons, some rats getting drunk at Christmas time, and smoking.)

I like very few movies and I was thankful that Miss Potter was decent (modestly attired women, proper manners, no swearing, no innuendos, no promiscuous behavior, etc.)! The cast is wonderful, the acting superb, the setting is gorgeous... and oh to see the Lake District in person!

I hope you enjoy the free Bible Principle lessons and that they help you understand how to go about creating your own! :o)

Literature- The Hedge of Thorns

Have you ever had things you thought were just in the way of what you wanted... only to learn later on that the Lord had placed a hedge of "thorns" in the way to keep you safe? John Carrol learned this lesson and eloquently penned about it in his book, The Hedge of Thorns, published in 1611. This book is recommended for ages 12-99 years! :)

Buy the book now and save 15% off your entire regular priced purchase!

To purchase the Bible Principles Literature Guide e-book, see the end of this post.

Have you read any of the books published by Lamplighter? They offer such a rich collection of Literature that challenges, inspires, encourages, and impacts people for God's glory. To me, that's the mark of great literature! We have a collection we read together as a family and I now have a small selection of books that our children will be reading for their Literature studies this coming school year.  

You may also enjoy listening to the audio drama of The Hedge of Thorns (published by Lamplighter as well.) The audio drama and the book can be purchased as a set here and you'll still receive 15% off the regular price!

Brief Summary:

John Carrol had a tendency to ignore the wisdom that his parents and teacher, Mrs.Waring, tried to teach him. John and his beloved sister, Bell, walked past a hedge on their way to and from school. John's first temptation was to see what was behind the hedge of thorns, despite the admonition of those who loved him.When he chose to give his heart over to the sin of disobedience, he ended up hurting his dear sister. His father instructed him with scripture and once John realized why the hedge of thorns was placed there, his heart was moved. Throughout his life, he chose to give in to temptation after temptation until he finally realized that thorns weren't the only hedge given to protect him. You'll learn and be moved by his journal entries as he reflects on his life and how God saved him.

Lamplighter has a free quiz for The Hedge of Thorns and a free answer key!

For just $5.00, you may purchase an e-book of the comprehensive Literature Guide I created to correspond with The Hedge of Thorns by John Carrol (it corresponds with the audio drama as well!). This Literature Guide contains:


A study schedule for your student,
A vocabulary list,
Notebooking pages for studying the five literary elements of a classic,
Bible Principle chapter studies,
***A comparison and contrast chart of the book and audio drama,***
And an answer key for the busy Bible Principle parent!

You can have your child work independently (depending on their age and/or ability) or go through the literature guide as a family!

You can save 15% off the regular price on your entire Lamplighter order.

Literature- Helen's Temper and its Consequences by Mrs. George Gladstone

***Welcome! Please visit the Welcome Tab to learn more!***

What a temper our children can have at times! Isn't it true for many of us? A wonderful book addressing this matter from a Biblical perspective is Helen's Temper and Its Consequences by Mrs.George Gladstone. It's geared toward children ages 6-11 years. However, we read it to our younger ones as well and the lessons in it are a good reminder for older children and adults too.

Buy the book now and save 15% off your entire regular priced purchase!

We treasure books that Lamplighter publishes. We have a collection we read together as a family and I now have a small selection of books that our children will be reading for their Literature studies this coming school year.

Brief Summary:

Helen Smith and Betty smith are sisters. Helen is the oldest and is rewarded for her classroom achievements. Betty, the younger sister, doesn't take time to think before she answers. Out of the two, which one truly learns the lessons being taught? Find out when you read Helen's Temper and its Consequences by Mrs. George Gladstone.

There is also a quiz and an answer key which Lamplighter has created for this story.

For just $5.00, you may purchase an e-book of the comprehensive Literature Guide I created to correspond with Helen's Temper and Its Consequences. This Literature Guide contains:

A study schedule for your student,

A vocabulary list,

Notebooking pages for studying the five literary elements of a classic,

Bible Principle chapter studies (click here for a sample),

And an answer key for the busy Bible Principle parent!

You can have your child work independently (depending on their age and/or ability) or go through the literature guide as a family!

Character Traits (Biblical Principles) Helen's Temper and Its Consequences covers:

Temper
Peer Pressure

Respecter of Persons

Kindness
Friendship
Mentoring

Serving Others

Humility

Forgiveness

To save 15% off of your Lamplighter purchase, click below! :)
 

Buy Now

Blessings!

Heather