Book Review

Never Let You Go by Erin Healy
Lexi Solomon is a struggling single mom. Her life gets even more complicated when her deserting husband show up out of nowhere. To make matters worse, two other individuals from her past appear and cause her life to change.

She finds she has to face her past and realize there are consequences for her actions. Through this self-examining, she learns a lesson in forgiveness. This is a Christian book which has a good versus evil theme throughout. It's full of suspense and drama and is sure to be a book you won't want to put down!

I received this book free from Thomas Nelson Publishers as part of their BookSneeze.com 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.

Chapter 3 of Notebooking for Glenn Beck's Arguing With Idiots is available

Chapter 3 for Notebooking for Glenn Beck's Arguing With Idiots is now available for $1.50. This is a great history resource you may want to use with your high school student. If you haven't downloaded chapter 1 for free, do that first to get a sampling of what the other chapters are like.

Heart of the Matter Online Conference

I am very excited about the online conference at Heart of the Matter this year. Not only do I love all that HOTM offers with their very inexpensive 5 day sessions, I am particularly intrigued with this speaker: Dr. Stephen Guffanti

His topics will be ADHD vs. Kinesthetic Learner: Which is it? and ADHD and Kinesthetic Learners: Living Happily Together.

Here is an article about him and his thoughts that will prep you for the conference:

Heart of the Matter- Stephen Guffanti

Please consider joing the conference. It is only $19.99 for 5 days of sessions online. With that little bit of money that is invested in you as the learner, you receive admission to the live conference, MP3 downloads to listen to all the sessions at your own convenience, door prize entries and a swag bag!

Conference dates are August 9-13. Sign up now and listen to this man!

Heart of the Matter Conference

The Portable Patriot

I am in love with this book! If anyone in your family is impassioned with the values and beliefs of our nation and their beginnings, you will want to take a look at this book.

It is very portable, just the right size to carry in your purse or bag. It is filled with documents, speeches, and sermons from not only founding fathers, but from many people who wrote accounts of their own ordeals and troubles while enduring in a troubled time.

The book is broken into 5 main categories:

1. Beginnings- Mayflower Compact, Mary Rowlandson's Recount of Her Captivity (heart wrenching!), Benjamin Franklin's own Epitaph (curiously written by him), and five other interesting reads.

2. Pre Revolution- A Pastor who defends Civil Resistance (Jonathan Mayhew), Samuel Adams on the Rights of the Americans, George Washington on the Question of Rebellion, and 10 other writings.

3. Revolution- A Letter from George Washington to His Generals, The Times That try Men's Souls, The Conditions at Valley Forge (tragic and heart breaking details), General Hull and the Killing of His Friend Nathan Hale, and many other selections.

4. Founding- Ben Franklin's Advice for Those Coming to America, George Washington on the Subject of Slavery, Joel Barlow on the Separation of Church and State, a total of 18 selections.

5. Republic- First Inaugural Adresss of George Washington, Education in the New Republic, and three other writings.

All writings have had very slight abridging done to them, not taking away anything from their original works. I am a stickler for wanting the purity of the works kept in tact, and I must say that Joel Miller and Kristen Parrish have done an amazing job. Misspelling, grammatical errors, and old phrasings still remain. Before each selection is a wonderful introduction by the authors that give accurate and clear information about the events and times leading to this writing.

I really loved the selections that were chosen. I would never on my own have stopped to read some of these lesser known writings, many of which are written by common people. You can hear the heart cry for freedom, the details of suffering are given, the honor to God given and reference to His mighty works are expressed all lead to heart warming literature. Humility and dependence on God is obvious to the reader.

This book is a worthy find and would do well on your school shelf. Those who use the Charlotte Mason approach to learning (using real and living books rather than text books-to sum it up simply) will want this historical book this coming school year.

Many of these writings have stirred my heart with the same fervency of the Freedom Speech given in the movie Braveheart, if I may make a modern contrast. This book does a superb job of covering more than the founding fathers views and writings. I am impressed with this book and would in a heartbeat make curriculum to go along with this. I am including this in my Jesse's (9th grade) reading list this year. Good job Joel and Kristen on your selections and editings. Your book will certainly help America as we wake up our interest in our country and as we learn to value our freedoms like we haven't done in a very long time.

The Portable Patriot on Amazon.com

~Shannon

New Fortunately For You Books Family Member

I have added a new member to our Fortunately For You Books family this week. Elise Evelinn was born on Thursday morning. I love to review new products and if you follow along with our blog or some of the statuses on here, I often post my reviews. My reviews usually pertain to homeschooling materials or sites but I thought it might be nice to post of some reviews for baby products or mothering (since that's what my sole focus is right now). Perhaps there are some other homeschooling moms with new babies out there as well that might want to hear about some of the neat products I've come across or how I will be homeschooling with a newborn, toddler, and 10 year old. Stay tuned because I have two products I will be mentioning that I don't think I could have lived without.

Heidi

New Notebooking Pages for High School History

If you have a high school student, we would love for you to give our new product a try. Notebooking for Glenn Beck's Arguing with Idiots: How to Stop Small Minds and Big Government is now ready. Chapter 1 is available for free on our Freebie page and Chapter 2 is also available for purchase at just $1.50. We hope you will find this a great resource to go along with the book (not included) for your student. We are living in a time when our children need to be aware of current events and have a good understanding of politics and government. This book is about Glenn Beck's popular and conservative look at America.

With list making, note taking, diagram drawing, and highlighting different aspects from this text, FFYB created an unconventional curriculum for students who are not text book oriented. Having learned from experience, the goal of high school material is to translate into adulthood smoothly. Learning to read and take notes from a book such as this is the perfect way to help your high school student learn about our great country, our freedoms, and our rights. You will need to purchase the book Arguing With Idiots to go along with this notebooking file.

All ten chapters will be released individually because the book is long and you may not want to cover every chapter with your student. This way you don't end up buying an entire book you don't need. Keep checking our site so you can purchase the others chapters as they release.

State Mini Lapbooks are a great summer activity!

For many us, the school year is winding down or has even ended. I know for me, I am constantly trying to think of fun activities my son can do so he doesn't lose at lot during the summer. All of our products are so fun to use that students really don't think of them as "school work". Using our State Mini Lapbooks are a quick easy way to learn some interesting facts about the states and maintain some skills at the same time. Minnesota and Rhode Island are now available. We will continue to add to this line until all 50 states are done. So if you don't see your state, don't fret, it will be coming soon!