Friday, October 28, 2016

CrossTimber {a Homeschool Review Crew review}


Personalized Framed Plaque with Name Meaning and Bible Verse {CrossTimber} Reviews
I've always been fascinated by name meanings, or at least I have since the point where I first started reading through the Bible seriously.  I was about ten at that point, so it seems like always.  As you go through the Bible stories, there are so many times where a comment is made about what a name means.  Of course, I go looking into my name and it is b-o-r-i-n-g!  More on that later.

When the Homeschool Review Crew had the chance to review a Personalized Framed Plaque with Name Meaning and Bible Verse from CrossTimber, I was really excited.  For my kids.  Because, for the most part, I had done more than just try to come up with names that sounded good when we were naming everyone.  I tried to have names that meant something.

By something, I mean more than just what little Baby Name sites tell you.  We chose names that belonged to family members we admire.  My grandfathers.  My dad and brother.  My entire paternal line (with a maiden name of Williams, and a son named William -- well, he's named after simply everybody!)  Dale's grandfather (who died when Dale was really little) and the grandfather he actually knew (so a step-grandfather, I suppose).  My grandmother.  A couple of friends.

But we also looked at what those names meant according to the little baby books.  My boys pretty much all have names that include "defender" or "strength" in one of the meanings, for instance. 

CrossTimber creates name meaning products to help uplift and encourage you. 


Personalized Framed Plaque with Name Meaning and Bible Verse {CrossTimber} Reviews
I intended to get products for each of my kids.  It's a big year for most of them. 
  • Connor just headed off to college, and I really think he needs the grounding of a 'this is who you are' reminder. "He who seeks God's Perspective."
  • William is about to turn 18. What a perfect time for a 'this is what you are to be' gift. "One with a Desire to Protect"
  • Thomas is about to turn 16. Hello. Big year for him too. He needs a 'remember who you are' gift. "Blessed Abundantly by God."
  • Richard will turn 13 in a few months. Cannot believe I am this close to having four teen sons. I want him to be aware of the kind of man he is to become. "One with a Heart of Compassion."
  • I asked about Trina too, though 11 isn't a milestone birthday or anything. Her name echoes Connor's. "Seeker of God's Perspective." 
All of them turned out perfect for them.

I ordered the "artist's choice" frame, and John Dehnart messaged me back to find out if these would be hanging together or separately.  The idea was that he could try to coordinate frames if they were going to be all together.  I told him that the kids were probably going to be together right now, but as most of them are older teens now, it isn't for long.  I'd rather have the perfect frame for each one and not worry if they look okay as a group.  As it turns out, the boys still at home coordinate really well.  Connor's is very different.  Trina's is very different.

It is perfect.

I also told him that the ones for Dale & I will probably end up together in the long run, though I was envisioning them going up "at work" as a reminder to us in our daily lives as to who we are in God's eyes.  Bottom line was that I'd like it if ours looked good together.

I love that the frames are not identical.  Each is right for the image inside, but they do really look nice together.

These are beautiful products, and the photos I took don't do them justice.  But the best reason to support this company is the amazing customer service.

I mentioned above how I always disliked my name from the whole name meaning thing.  When I asked John about what he'd come up with for my kids, I threw in this comment as well:   "And I probably won't do anything with it, but I'd love to know what you come up with for Debra too. Everything always tells me my name means 'bee' and that is beyond boring."

His response literally made me cry.  I don't cry easily, for the record.
Oh, but Debra!  Bees aren’t boring!  Bees were designed with so many rich qualities, that there’s a host of characteristics you could apply to a name meaning!     They’re organized, industrious, hard working, precise in their communications, and they bring life to millions of plants that would otherwise die. 

Debra
Hebrew
Honey Bee, Enabler of Fruitfulness:
One of Leadership and Organization
Psalms 19:9  The fear of the LORD is pure, enduring for ever: the judgments of the LORD are true and altogether righteous. They are to be more desired than gold, than much pure gold: they are sweeter than honey, than honey from the comb.

You know, you should put that on your TOS desk.  Those character qualities definitely show your skills for coordinating all these Review Crew details!
Seriously.   Dale heard that, accused the guy of flirting with me, told me he was absolutely right, and then told me I needed not just the print, but a mug as well.  Here's the result:

    All of that really got me thinking.  I never pressed my parents as to why they chose Debra.  Mom told me once that I wasn't named after anyone, but she just liked the name.  In reading what John wrote, it got me thinking about my parents.  Mom was working on her master's degree in entomology when I was born.  Her thesis had something to do with aphids and their impact on crops.  I attempted to read her work once when I was a student at NDSU, and I really didn't follow it.  The bottom line though, was that Mom was researching ways of decreasing crop losses from these nasty insects.

    Had they even looked at name meaning books or anything?  Did they know they were naming me after an insect that is all about increasing yield?  Probably not.  But I find the whole thing interesting.  And I chose an agricultural background for my framed print to remind me of all of that.

    I'm drinking coffee out of the mug as I type up this review.  And thinking more about how the ancient world had it right.  Names do mean something, and I want to be an enabler of fruitfulness.

    Before I close this out, CrossTimber is doing a huge giveaway.  Go.  Enter it.  And I highly recommend considering some name-meaning gifts for your loved ones.


    CrossTimber 2016 giveaway



    Go check out some of the other reviews.  The name meaning stories being shared are simply amazing.

    Personalized Framed Plaque with Name Meaning and Bible Verse {CrossTimber} Reviews


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    Facebook:  https://www.facebook.com/meaning.name/
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    Thursday, October 27, 2016

    Middlebury Interactive Languages {a Homeschool Review Crew review}

    I think that learning a foreign language is hugely important, but it is something that I struggle to work into our schooling.  I need a few things in a program:
    1. I do not have time to do much (if any) teacher prep.
    2. Teacher cannot need to know the language already.
    3. It has to really teach my kids to speak that language.
    4. They have to enjoy it enough that I don't have to fight to get them to do it.
    5. Did I mention that I don't have time to learn a language ahead of them?
    Middlebury Interactive Languages actually does a great job of meeting all of these requirements.  We chose to focus on their Spanish Courses, and Trina has really been enjoying Elementary Spanish 1 (Grades 3-5)
    Spanish, French, German or Chinese {Middlebury Interactive Languages}

    Middlebury's approach to elementary languages is to teach in a "unit study" type of an environment.  There are 14 units (plus two review units) to work through.  Each unit is centered on a theme, and it includes a story, a song, 10-12 vocabulary words, and some activities to complete.  Themes include:
    • Family (words for parents, siblings, grandparents, aunts/uncles, etc.)
    • Numbers (numbers 0-10, plus the word number)
    • Greetings (basic hello, goodbye, how are you?, good afternoon phrases)
    • Feelings (words like happy, sad, and scared)
    • Food (foods like milk, meat and corn, plus meal names)
    • Community/Professions (professions such as firefighter and doctor, plus places like the library and park)
    • Body (words such as face, ears and arms)
    • Animals (basic animal names like dog, monkey, and fish)
    • Colors (vbasic color names)
    • Clothes (words like pants, shoes and sweater)
    • Weather/Seasons (names of the seasons, plus sentences like "It is windy.")
    • School/Classroom (words like teacher, desk, and notebook)
    • Calendar (names of the days, plus day, week, and month)
    • Months (all the month names)

    How we are using it:


    Below is a photo of all the printouts I did for their current unit, (Greetings, Unit 3).  It isn't necessary to print it out, and you certainly can print in grey scale.  But learning Spanish is important, and I decided the color made it a bit more fun.  This is taken before Trina puts the pages in her fancy notebook. 
    As you can see, the vocabulary list is pretty short, which makes it easy to actually learn it all over the two weeks you spend in the unit (six lessons per unit, intended to be done three days per week).

    The story is an authentic tale from one of the dozens of Spanish-speaking countries.  During the course of the unit, you listen/watch the story a few times.  Through the images and the words you have learned, you are able to grasp the main plot, but the printout summarizes that as well.  It also walks through what is being said in the story, with the words the students should know being in green. 

    In this unit, it is a tale of how the rabbit got his long ears, and it involves the rabbit going around to multiple creatures to try to collect various items.  That involves a lot of greetings in the conversation.  So the rabbit has many opportunities to say things like hello, good morning, how are you, please, thank you and good-bye.

    The first time through, you are usually just listening to the story.  Subsequent trips have you listening for specific things, like all the greetings:


    There are a lot of other words in the story too, with translations on the printout, so Trina can easily go in and add some additional vocabulary learning when she wants to.

    What we think:


    This Spanish program does so much for us.  It is fun and interactive.  At this level, there is NO writing or typing required.  I truly love that part.  I think learning to read and speak another language at elementary ages is fantastic, but I just don't care if they can spell correctly.  Instead of writing, they do activities like this:


    My daughter enjoys Spanish and doesn't argue when I tell her to do it.  That's really a huge deal to me.  And she's using it in normal daily life, which tells me she truly is learning it.

    Having some experience with the upper levels of Middlebury's language programs, my big fear was sending kids into the Middle School or High School levels and having them feel completely overwhelmed.  I think a year of the elementary Spanish is going to put her in good shape to take on Middle School Spanish 1.  The Greetings lesson in Middle School, intended to be covered over two weeks, includes all of the vocabulary above, plus another 23 words/phrases, and she'll need to be able to type them out, including accents and all.  Already being familiar with saying at least a third of the vocabulary will put her in good shape to take on the rigors of middle school Spanish.

    I am pleased with this course.

    Go see what others had to say about Spanish, and also about German, French and Chinese.  Crew Members used various levels with kids from K-12!

    Spanish, French, German or Chinese {Middlebury Interactive Languages}

    Social Media Links:
    Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/Middlebury-Interactive-Languages-141015515949753/
    Twitter: https://twitter.com/MiddInteractive   @middinteractive
    Pinterest: https://www.pinterest.com/middinteractive/

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    Tuesday, October 25, 2016

    Cold-Case Christianity for Kids {a Litfuse Blog Tour review}

    Some reviews are really easy to write because I love the product so much that the review practically writes itself.

    Some reviews are really hard to write because I love the product so much and I know I will never convey how strongly I feel about it.

    This review, of Cold-Case Christianity for Kids, is both of those.

    We first learned of J. Warner Wallace when watching a series of lectures from Summit Ministries.  Connor and I really liked what we saw, and Connor got the chance to see him in person at the Summit Student Conference last May.

    In fact, he came home from that conference with a copy of God's Crime Scene (another J. Warner Wallace title), and received Cold-Case Christianity as a graduation gift from one of our pastors that weekend.  After he read it, I borrowed it from him.  And then with us talking about it (and seeing Wallace in God's Not Dead 2), everyone else (my husband and the other two teens) were interested too.  So I bought the Kindle and Audible versions.

    And then... I learned about Cold-Case Christianity for Kids.  I begged to be on this review, and I even ended up buying a second copy of the book.

    It truly is that good.

    Before I describe the book, let me just say this.  If you are a Christian parent, and you have children between the ages of 8 and maybe 15, you really do need this book.  If you have teens, you need to get Cold-Case Christianity.  If you have kids in both ranges, get them both.

    From the publisher:
    Between the ages of 8 and 12, kids often start to wonder if Christianity is true.

    In Cold-Case Christianity for Kids, detective J. Warner Wallace draws readers into the thrill of high-stakes investigation by showing them how to think rather than telling them what to think. In this children's companion to the bestselling Cold-Case Christianity, detective Wallace gets kids excited about testing witnesses, examining the evidence, and investigating the case for Christianity. Includes author illustrations and links to a website where kids can download activities, fill in case notes, and earn a certificate of merit.

    Detective Wallace gets kids excited about testing witnesses, examining the evidence, and investigating the case for Christianity.
    Doesn't that sound great?

    The best thing about this book might be that it goes along with the adult book so well.  I have my teens reading the adult book, and we are working through the "for Kids" book as a group.  The Adult Leader Guide helps me to know exactly what meshes between the two books and gives me help in making this work for all of us.

    And that might be the best thing about this book -- the website.  There is so much more than just a book.  Here's a screenshot of Chapter 3:


    Each chapter consists of a few different parts.  We are using all of them.
    • There is the chapter itself, which includes plenty of visual appeal.
    • A notebook sheet (the red link above) that you can use for taking notes on the chapter.
    • An activity sheet (the blue link above) that includes something like a crossword puzzle, to review the concepts.
    • CSI activities in the book that get you into the Bible to investigate.
    • A 4-5 minute video that addresses some of the main points of that chapter.
    • The guide I mentioned above, which includes information on the corresponding adult chapters, a general overview of the main points, and discussion questions.
    Doing this as a family is simply wonderful.  The teens and I are getting far more information, but the "for Kids" book is fantastic at getting the main points put into fairly simple language.  And the book includes two mysteries to solve... one involves Jesus, and whether or not the stories in the Bible about Him can possibly be true.  The other involves a skateboard.

    We are working through the evidence for both cases in a similar way.

    Even my teens are interested in the skateboard mystery.

    I think for kids who have heard a lot of apologetics types of things, the skateboard mystery helps to keep them interested and aware.  And for kids who haven't done much in the 'how do we know this isn't a fairy tale?' aspect of Christianity, the skateboard mystery helps to bring a today's-world example to help explain the processes.

    Go buy a copy.  And enter this giveaway.


    ~~~~

    At the crucial age between 8 and 12, many kids begin to wonder if Christianity and the Bible are true. Help your kids become truth-seeking detectives with the help of J. Warner and Susie Wallace's Cold-Case Christianity for Kids. Detective Wallace gets kids excited about testing witnesses, examining the evidence, and investigating the case for Christianity. The book includes author illustrations and links to a website where kids can download activities, fill in case notes, and earn a certificate of merit.

    Encourage your kids to investigate the case for Christianity by entering to win a faith examination kit and a copy of J. Warner and Susie's new book.


    cold-case-christianity-400 


    One grand prize winner will receive:
    Enter today by clicking the icon below, but hurry! The giveaway ends on November 4. The winner will be announced November 7 on the Litfuse blog.


    cold-case-christianity-enterbanner


    Disclaimer:  I received this book through LitFuse Blog Tour.  No other compensation was received.  All opinions expressed in this review are my own.  

    Sunday, October 16, 2016

    MyFreezEasy {a Schoolhouse Review Crew review}

    My life is crazy.  Between schooling four kids, working for the Schoolhouse Review Crew, church, activities, (and did I mention work???) I just always seem to come to the end of the day realizing that I never once thought about dinner.

    MyFreezEasy.com Freezer Meal Plan Membership {MyFreezEasy}

    I was absolutely thrilled when I found out that one of the reviews this year was going to be for MyFreezEasy.  Thrilled.  At other points in life, I have used freezer meal prep to make it so that we do actually get dinner at night, but that always required a long day in the kitchen and a whole lot of planning.  With the MyFreezEasy.com Freezer Meal Plan Membership, though, it really, truly is EASY.

    I need easy.

    We came home from church today and everyone was STARVING.  You know those days, right?  Well, I had pulled out the Frito Pie bag a couple of days ago.  That meant I dumped the bag into a skillet to warm up, split up the Fritos, and started topping them with the meat mixture, cheese and sour cream.

    By the time everyone (but me) changed clothes, lunch was served.  And everyone loved it.

    That is something I can get used to.

    How does this work?


    Each month, you get access to eight meal plans.  There are lots of options there, including:
    • General ones containing a variety of meals (traditional, gluten-free, clean eats, 20 Meals)
    • One by style of cooking (slow-cooker)
    • Some by type of meat (all chicken, all ground beef, all pork chops)
    MyFreezEasy.com Freezer Meal Plan Membership {MyFreezEasy}

    For most meals, you don't cook the meat (most of the ground beef meals do involve browning the meat first) and most meals are put into zipper bags.  Everything is all together, so when you want to serve a meal, you thaw it and cook it.  Most of the prep work is complete, though you may need to add an ingredient or two.

    Right now, we have a lot of chicken in our freezer.  We butchered a couple dozen, plus I already had a fair amount frozen.  Thawing chicken in order to add ingredients and refreeze it doesn't sound like a great plan, so I chose to do the All Ground Beef Menu Plan.  I looked at the August Menu and the September Menu, and ended up doing both.  That's 20 meals, allegedly for my freezer.  Didn't turn out that way, as we ate one meal the first day we prepared meals, and we ate another meal on our second day of preparing meals.  Eighteen meals in the freezer isn't bad either, though.


    Here are some of the pages that come with the September All Ground Beef Meals Plan.  I printed the entire thing this time, but in the future, I wouldn't necessarily need all of the types of pages.  The pages include:
    • Contents, which lists out the recipe titles.
    • The actual recipes (most plans include five recipes, and you make two meals of each).
    • Various shopping lists, including options for purchasing everything or purchasing just what you need on the meal prep day, and including options for by recipe or by store section.
    • Assembly instructions, with options for it to be by-recipe or for the entire plan
    As a family of six, including two adults, two teen boys, an almost-teen boy, and a tween girl, a meal meant for four people isn't going to cut it.  So I actually ended up taking each individual recipe multiplied by three, and then splitting it between two bags for the freezer.  That gives us six servings per bag, and so far, that has been pretty much spot on.  We even have leftovers occasionally.

    With the Premium Annual Membership, you can create your own meal plan, and that gives you the option to adjust the serving size.  I wanted to try this with just the plans as outlined by the program, and that did work quite well. 

    To prepare the meals, I had William cook the ground beef for each recipe, while I assembled the other ingredients for the bag.  We had a really good system going there, as I would usually finish getting everything else together just in time for him to split the browned meat between the two bags.  We chose to make five meals one day, and five the next, and we did a mix-and-match from the two month's plans each day. 


    At this point, we have tried most of the meals and everything we've tried has been a hit.  We've had:
    1. Slow Cooker Beef Stroganoff
    2. Sloppy Dogs
    3. Lazy Lasagna Bake
    4. Baked Swedish Meatballs
    5. Frito Pie
    6. 5-Ingredient Chili
    We still need to try:
    • Spanish Rice Skillet
    • Swirly Taco Pasta Skillet
    • Bacon Cheeseburger Chili
    • Chickpea Beef Chili
    My plan right now is to watch for pork chops to go on sale, and then to do up a month or two (or three!) of meals there too.  October's Pork plan sounds wonderful, with meals like Cornbread Pork Chop Casserole, Asian Orange Pineapple Pork Chops, Cashew Parmesan Pork Chops, Apple Juice Brined Pork Chops, and Slow Cooker Pork Roast with Sauerkraut.

    Yum.

    The Crew loved MyFreezEasy, so you should go check out their reviews!  Lots of great photos to make you hungry.


    MyFreezEasy.com Freezer Meal Plan Membership {MyFreezEasy}


    Social Media Links:
    Facebook:  http://www.facebook.com/freezeasy
    Instagram:  http://www.instagram.com/freezeasy
    Pinterest:  http://www.pinterest.com/5dollardinners/freezeasy


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    Tuesday, October 11, 2016

    I'm no domestic goddess

    My son has been off at college for nearly two months now. I had the opportunity to send him a care package a couple weeks back, and I just couldn't get things together enough to do that. 

    But a neighbor is heading that way today, so I did get a box together.  Gave it to her Sunday.  Filled with little things like, oh, his new glasses. Those might come in handy. And I should have just mailed them three weeks ago when I picked them up. Or sent them last time she was headed that way. 

    But I can't get anything right. 

    So this time, I decided, I'm going to do it right. I even baked cookies. 



    As you can see, that was a roaring success. 

    I can't even bake cookies. 

    My kids have made it clear (well, not quite all of them) in various ways this week that I'm doing a pretty lousy job of this whole mom thing. The cookies were just the visible warning to me of what this week would be like.  I should have headed to bed and not gotten up until next weekend, as it went downhill from there.  And it is only Tuesday.

    I told one child yesterday, after he said a whole lot of not too nice things about my failings, that I think one of the absolute worst parts of homeschooling is that we spend so much time together. If the kids were off in school all day, I could better hide my faults from them. I mean, obviously, they'd still figure out I'm not perfect, but they wouldn't be able to -- at a moment's notice -- put together a brilliant Roman numeral style outline, complete with supporting details for each flaw/point, of the top ten ways I suck as a mom. 

    That hurts. 

    I have never wanted my kids to think I'm perfect. So I guess I succeeded in something.

    This parenting gig, and this homeschooling gig -- it isn't all sunshine and roses. 

    Friday, October 7, 2016

    Everyday Education {a Homeschool Review Crew review}

    Beautiful Handwriting, Literature and Poetry {Everyday Education, LLC}
    This has been an interesting year for me.  My oldest son headed off to college, and that has made me rethink a whole lot of things about how I did -- or didn't -- do a good job of preparing him for the real world.  Or for the college world, which isn't the same thing at all.

    Five years ago, I reviewed a program from Everyday Education, LLC.  Excellence in Literature's first program, English I: Introduction to Literature, was fabulous, and a great introduction to writing for high school.  I really loved the focus on classic literature, and such wonderful selections are included in the series.  Janice Campbell never made me feel guilty for things like using audiobooks for my struggling readers, and that is huge from someone pushing rigorous, honors-level English.

    The Homeschool Review Crew is currently checking out the most recent product in this series, Excellence in Literature Handbook for Writers.  Janice combines forces with Ian Johnston on this title, and oh, my!  The first thing I did was to make sure my college kid had a copy of this to start looking over before he left for school.  I didn't think I'd really be able to use it with my others, but this handbook is truly for high school and college.  There is a fantastically detailed table of contents that makes this easy to use as a reference tool as he is writing those college papers.

    Beautiful Handwriting, Literature and Poetry {Everyday Education, LLC}

    This isn't a book that is filled with lesson plans or anything like that.  But in reading through it, I am able to apply the things to other assignments that my teens have.  For instance, one of the very first sections in the handbook is titled Trivial Arguments over Matters of Established Fact.  We're in the middle of a program that is teaching the kids to write essays in their history work, and I was able to expand on the commentary in that program about picking a thesis statement with my kids.  I didn't pull out the handbook and read it to them, nor did I assign them to read it (my statement above about struggling readers applies!) but I could informally cover the concept with them in a way I simply could not have done before reading this Handbook.

    I was never truly taught this stuff, at least not explicitly.  Most of the "good writing" that I did in high school and college was just that I happened to more-or-less figure out a few good principles on my own, and I just kept re-writing until it sounded good to me.  Nobody told me to narrow down my thesis statement, or that it should be an opinion.  I cannot remember ever getting any advice at all about how to create a thesis statement, actually.  Just skimming through this handbook would have made my college life so much easier.

    Because my writing abilities are mostly intuitive, it-sounds-good, I-think-that-works types of things, having this handbook helps me to understand the logic behind some of my feelings.  For my teen boys, I cannot be teaching them to write by telling them to make it "feel right."  They stare at me like I am completely insane.  In just a couple of months, I've had multiple opportunities to go beyond feelings with them and to explain WHY.

    A conversation about an essay on the fall of Rome, for instance, gave me the opportunity to talk about how you want to choose reasons for the fall of Rome that will be interesting to write about.  It isn't interesting to write about something where everyone agrees, and it is even less interesting to read.  Think about the writing assignment, narrow down your focus, and take a stand. 

    In the foreseeable future, this isn't going to be a resource I can just hand to my kids.  This is a resource I will continue to read over myself, and I can use the principles in teaching all of my kids, from the 10-year-old on up to the high school students.  By the time they are off to college, my hope will be that they can use it as a reference tool themselves.

    You can head over to the Crew Blog to see what other members had to say about this handbook, or to see what they had to say about two other products we reviewed.  Perfect Reading, Beautiful Handwriting and Working it Out: Poetry Analysis with George Herbert were also reviewed by the Crew.

    Beautiful Handwriting, Literature and Poetry {Everyday Education, LLC}

    Check out their Social Media Links:

    Pinterest: https://www.pinterest.com/janicecampbell/
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    FB page: https://www.facebook.com/excellenceinlit/
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    Monday, October 3, 2016

    NKJV Word Study Bible {a Booklook Blogger review}

    My baby boy is growing up.  He decided that he needed a NKJV Bible, and it couldn't be one of these "for kids" or even "for teens" types of thing.  He needed a serious Bible that treated him like an adult.

    NKJV Word Study Bible cover
    I can't say no to that.  So I showed him the NKJV Word Study Bible, from Thomas Nelson.  He determined that would be perfect, and he was really interested in the idea of studying the Greek and Hebrew words.

    His summary of this Bible boiled down to three main points:
    1. The words of Christ are in red.
    2. There are all these great translations of Greek and Hebrew words.
    3. There is an English word index in back, so I can find the words I want.
    He thinks this Bible is really great, and he really loves going through and reading the entries about the original words.  He discovered today that there are also Aramaic words included, so he immediately went hunting to find those.

    Richard getting into the van with the NKJV Word Study Bible, ready to head to youth group


    The publisher's description included a couple more points than Richard's.
    The NKJV Word Study Bible includes in-text subheadings and 1,700 easy-to-use word studies with select Hebrew, Aramaic and Greek words explained in every chapter from Genesis to Revelation, helping you dig deeper into your Bible study. By looking into these ancient texts we are able to read scripture as it was originally written and passed on from generation to generation, bringing these words to life and allowing you to almost hear Jesus teaching on the hillside or crying out to God on the cross. As you study you will discover the richness and significance of the original languages of the Word of God and experience scripture in a whole new way
    Features Include:
    • NKJV paragraph-style text with in-text subheadings and translators' notes
    • Book introductions
    • Words of Christ in red
    • Word studies
    • Indexes
    • Concordance
    My thoughts?  If he gets tired of this particular Bible, I'd love to use it.  I've always been a bit of an etymology enthusiast, and one thing I'm constantly doing in sermons or even just when reading the Bible is to be looking up the Greek or Hebrew and trying to figure out if things mean what the English words make me think they mean.  Having the ability to do that easily within an actual physical Bible would be pretty amazing.

    I'm more excited about the fact that Richard is doing that though.



    Disclosure of Material Connection: I received this book free from the publisher through the BookLook Bloggers book review bloggers program. I was not required to write a positive review. The opinions I have expressed are my own. I am disclosing this in accordance with the Federal Trade Commission’s 16 CFR, Part 255: “Guides Concerning the Use of Endorsements and Testimonials in Advertising.”