We The People movie review #godsnotdeadMIN #GodsNotDeadWeThePeople #MomentumInfluencerNetwork

I got the opportunity to see God's Not Dead - The Next Chapter, We The People ahead of it's release date.  I liked it!  I will say, up front, this was a 2 Kleenex movie for me.  I cry at everything, though.  

Quick synopsis:  social worker persecutes homeschool families, judge rules they must send kids to school or be found in contempt of court, which means hefty fines and jail time.  A trip to Washington DC happens, for the purpose of testifying at a congressional hearing.  

This picture is the 4th installment in the God's Not Dead movie series, which I did not know prior to viewing.  It does fine as a stand alone film, though.  It doesn't feel like you're jumping into the middle of the story.  I came away from it wanting to see the first 3 movies, though.  

There are several other fun threads that run through this production, of course.  There's kind of an underdog character who has their moment to shine, when a single mom stands before a senate subcommittee and makes a passionate speech.   There's a small whiff of romance between a homeschooled teen and a public schooled teen.  

One thing I realized while watching We The People, is that I've become really dependent on the closed captioning on all the streaming services.  The screening I watched was not closed captioned, and I know there were things I missed.  Oh, the joys of getting old.  

You can get more information about the film and showtimes on Facebook, or at the God's Not Dead website.  Buy your tickets for this inspiring, family friendly movie, in theaters October 4-6.  

Many thanks to Pinnacle Peak for providing this product/product information for review.  Opinions are 100% my own and not influenced by monetary compensation.  I did receive the product in exchange for this review and post.  

Global Kids

Are we enjoying Multicultural Children's Book Day week?  I know I am!  Today's share isn't exactly a book, but it's fun, nonetheless.  We received the Global Kids activity card deck free for review purposes.

Global Kids 50+ Games, Crafts, Recipes & More from Around the World was compiled by Homa Sabet Tavangar & Sophie Fatus.  The suggested grade level is 2nd & 3rd, but I think the appeal is broader than that.

This is not a card game, but a collection of cards with different activities, some of which are games.  The cards are grouped:  Celebrate, Help Out, Eat, Play, and Create.  There are many fun ideas from many different countries.

This card Eat card features both a recipe from Turkey, and a custom from the United Kingdom.

We used ground cinnamon and ground cloves, because that's what we had on hand. 

And our Turkish apple tea turned out yummy! 

Multicultural Children’s Book Day 2020 (1/31/20) is in its 7^th year! This non-profit children’s literacy initiative was founded by Valarie Budayr and Mia Wenjen; two diverse book-loving moms who saw a need to shine the spotlight on all of the multicultural books and authors on the market while also working to get those book into the hands of young readers and educators. Seven years in, MCBD’s mission is to raise awareness of the ongoing need to include kids’ books that celebrate diversity in homes and school bookshelves continues.

MCBD 2020 is honored to have the following Medallion Sponsors on board

Super Platinum Make A Way Media/ Deirdre “DeeDee” Cummings, Platinum Language Lizard, Pack-N-Go Girls, Gold Audrey Press, Lerner Publishing Group, KidLit TV, ABDO BOOKS: A Family of Educational Publishers, PragmaticMom & Sumo Jo, Candlewick Press, Silver Author Charlotte Riggle, Capstone Publishing, Guba Publishing, Melissa Munro Boyd & B is for Breathe, Bronze Author Carole P. Roman, Snowflake Stories/Jill Barletti, Vivian Kirkfield & Making Their Voices Heard. Barnes Brothers Books, TimTimTom, Wisdom Tales Press, Lee & Low Books, Charlesbridge Publishing, Barefoot Books Talegari Tales   Author Sponsor Link Cloud  https://www.barefootbooks.com/l Jerry Craft, A.R. Bey and Adventures in Boogieland, Eugina Chu & Brandon goes to Beijing, Kenneth Braswell & Fathers Incorporated, Maritza M. Mejia & Luz del mes_Mejia, Kathleen Burkinshaw & The Last Cherry Blossom, SISSY GOES TINY by Rebecca Flansburg and B.A. Norrgard, Josh Funk and HOW TO CODE A ROLLERCOASTER, Maya/Neel Adventures with Culture Groove, Lauren Ranalli, The Little Green Monster: Cancer Magic! By Dr. Sharon Chappell, Phe Lang and Me On The Page, Afsaneh Moradian and Jamie is Jamie, Valerie Williams-Sanchez and Valorena Publishing, TUMBLE CREEK PRESS, Nancy Tupper Ling, Author Gwen Jackson, Angeliki Pedersen & The Secrets Hidden Beneath the Palm Tree, Author Kimberly Gordon Biddle, BEST #OWNVOICES CHILDREN’S BOOKS: My Favorite Diversity Books for Kids Ages 1-12 by Mia Wenjen, Susan Schaefer Bernardo & Illustrator Courtenay Fletcher (Founders of Inner Flower Child Books), Ann Morris & Do It Again!/¡Otra Vez!, Janet Balletta and Mermaids on a Mission to Save the Ocean, Evelyn Sanchez-Toledo & Bruna Bailando por el Mundo\ Dancing Around the World, Shoumi Sen & From The Toddler Diaries, Sarah Jamila Stevenson, Tonya Duncan and the Sophie Washington Book Series, Teresa Robeson & The Queen of Physics, Nadishka Aloysius and Roo The Little Red TukTuk, Girlfriends Book Club Baltimore & Stories by the Girlfriends Book Club, Finding My Way Books, Diana Huang & Intrepids, Five Enchanted Mermaids, Elizabeth Godley and Ribbon’s Traveling Castle, Anna Olswanger and Greenhorn, Danielle Wallace & My Big Brother Troy, Jocelyn Francisco and Little Yellow Jeepney, Mariana Llanos & Kutu, the Tiny Inca Princess/La Ñusta Diminuta, Sara Arnold & The Big Buna Bash, Roddie Simmons & Race 2 Rio, DuEwa Frazier & Alice’s Musical Debut, Veronica Appleton & the Journey to Appleville book series Green Kids Club, Inc.

We’d like to also give a shout-out to MCBD’s impressive CoHost Team who not only hosts the book review link-up on celebration day, but who also works tirelessly to spread the word of this event. View our CoHosts HERE. Co-Hosts and Global Co-Hosts A Crafty Arab, Afsaneh Moradian, Agatha Rodi Books, All Done Monkey, Barefoot Mommy, Bethany Edward & Biracial Bookworms, Michelle Goetzl & Books My Kids Read, Crafty Moms Share, Colours of Us, Discovering the World Through My Son’s Eyes, Educators Spin on it, Shauna Hibbitts-creator of eNannylink, Growing Book by Book, Here Wee Read, Joel Leonidas & Descendant of Poseidon Reads {Philippines}, Imagination Soup, Kid World Citizen, Kristi’s Book Nook, The Logonauts, Mama Smiles, Miss Panda Chinese, Multicultural Kid Blogs, Serge Smagarinsky {Australia}, Shoumi Sen, Jennifer Brunk & Spanish Playground, Katie Meadows and Youth Lit Reviews

  FREE RESOURCES from Multicultural Children’s Book Day

• Free Multicultural Books for Teachers
• Our New FREE Teacher Classroom Physical and Developmental Challenges Kit http://ow.ly/kcbZ30p3QWz
• Free Empathy Classroom Kit for Homeschoolers, Organizations, Librarians, and Educators
• Free Understanding Developmental & Physical Challenges Classroom Kit

TWITTER PARTY! Register here!

Hashtag: Don’t forget to connect with us on social media and be sure and look for/use our official hashtag #ReadYourWorld.

Be sure to come back tomorrow for our last book post for MCBD 2020!

Ellie Claire Art Journals

I received a real treat in the mail recently.  Worthy Publishing sent me 3 lovely art journals to review. 

Two of them, Illuminate Your Story, and Faith & Lettering, have handy dandy pen holder elastics built into the spine!  All 3 have a fabulous "lay flat" design, which means no cracking the spine, and no pages flopping shut when you let go. 

First, let's talk about the Faith & Lettering Journal (affiliate link).  This book contains some really beautiful pages that inspired me, both spiritually and artistically. 

Using the techniques one can learn in the Faith & Lettering Journal, this is the sort of artwork you can create. 

Honestly, I kinda want to frame some of them. 

This journal has a variety of page types.  Above is an example of how you can trace and practice as much as needed.  There are also pages for learning different letter fonts. 

Some pages offer a dot grid, which makes it easier to copy a complex design.  It's also nice to keep your writing from "falling off," or looking like it's sloping down a hillside. 

Some pages offer lines for journaling, and nice, wide, side margins for drawing. 

Next, let's discuss the Illuminate Your Story Journal (affiliate link).  When we were homeschooling, we learned about the illuminated manuscripts of the Middle Ages.  Gold paint was used to decorate images that seemed to glow within the pages of Bibles and other very important texts. 

Elaborate lettering styles are taught in this journal.  There are also step by step instructions for drawing animals, foliage, and other flourishes to accent your lettering. 

There are also pages for simply writing one's thoughts.

Illuminate Your Story comes with an attached ribbon bookmark, an elastic loop to hold the book closed, and a pleated pouch to hold keepsakes. 

Finally, I'd like to share about The Illustrated Word (affiliate link).  If you're familiar with the "adult coloring books" trend (which I prefer to think of as "grown up coloring books"), imagine that, combined with a traditional journal.  Pages for recording your thoughts, feelings, experiences, prayers, hopes, goals, etc. are interspersed with detailed coloring pages. 

I've got my mug of hot cider, and classical music playing in the background, as I sit down with The Illustrated Word and my Tombow brush pens (affiliate link). 

As I colored, I kept thinking, "This is probably bleeding through the page."  I was really surprised that the brush pens didn't bleed through at all! 

I tried using bronze Sharpie to give the flourishes a metallic effect, and the Sharpie did bleed through.  I have a set of metallic brush pens on my Christmas wish list that I'm hoping will be a better option. 

The Ellie Claire art journals can be used with just about any writing implements.  I really like my brush pens, but gel pens are great, too, as are colored pencils. 

As we head into winter doldrums, and the darker days, I look forward to brushing up on a new artistic skill.  Journaling is known to combat depression, and being creative helps me in the struggle against seasonal affective disorder. 

These are high quality books, that are a pleasure to look at, and absolutely invite you to dive in and make your mark.  A journal and a set of pens would make a nice Christmas gift for all the teen and adult ladies in your life.  In addition to the Amazon links above, they are also available at Barnes & Noble:  Faith & Lettering Journal, The Illustrated Word, Illuminate Your Story Journal.  You can connect with Worthy Publishing Group on Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter. 

Movie Review: Bennett's Song

This was a really cute movie.  Without giving too much away, it's the story of a widowed dad with 7 kids, meeting a divorced mom with 7 kids.  It's a tale of adoption, and the huge capacity to love that adoptive families have. 

Watch the trailer and see for yourself:

Bennett's Song made me laugh and cry (I cry at everything!).  I recognized some of the struggles of large family life and some of the biases against adoptive families from my own experiences. 

This sweet rom-com movie is available on DVD and VOD (affiliate links).  I hope you enjoy it as much as I did! 

This post may be linked up at these linky parties.

Thanks for clicking for us!

Mandisa Out of the Dark CD

One day, in the car, I heard this song on the radio, and I really liked it.  Two days later, the opportunity came up for me to review the brand new CD Out of the Dark, by Mandisa.  With the song Unfinished on it.  Well that made my day!

I was very excited to receive Out of the Dark, and popped it in to listen to right away.  It's peppy!  You may be familiar with Mandisa's song, Overcomer from a few years ago, or the super happy Good Morning song.  This CD features 16 songs, most of them with a similar happy, peppy vibe.

Overall, I really like this CD.  Unfinished is still my favorite, but I'm Still Here is probably my second favorite.  The only thing I'm not crazy about are the spoken tracks.  The song I'm Still Here is about Mandisa's struggle with depression, and the first track is simulated voice mails from her concerned friends trying to check in on her.  While I'm sure that's very powerful in a music video, I wish they'd left it off the CD.  My kids kept asking me, "What's that talking?" when I would play the CD.  I usually skip past it now.

I like the wholesome, encouraging music on Out of the Dark, and I hope you will check it out.

This post may be linked up at these linky parties.

Thanks for clicking for us!

My Painting Party #giveaway

I really like the resurgence of artistic pastimes in recent years.  The paint your own pottery studios, the wine and painting shops; they meet our need to create beauty.  Choose Friendship has found a way to bring home the experience of painting with an instructor!

My Painting Party pairs the desire to create with today's technology, making it easy for anyone, ages 8 and up, to paint recognizable works of art.

The My Painting Party app is very user friendly.  It walks you through your options, one screen at a time.

Brianna, who is 17, selected an advanced painting, because she has quite a bit of artistic experience.  Hannah, who is 9, will start with the beginner level.  As a homeschooler, I love the fact that I can use this app with all my children, or even for hosting a party or playdate with my kids' friends.

Of the advanced options, Brianna selected the Anchor piece.  There are video instructions for a total of 18 different paintings in the 3 skill levels:  8 beginner works, 7 intermediate options, and 3 advanced choices.  (There's even a unicorn painting for my LLR friends!)

The My Painting Party kit comes with everything you need to make 3 masterpieces.  It has brushes in 3 sizes, with nice squishy grips on the handles.  There are 5 colors of paint, which can be mixed to create endless colors and shades.  And there are 3 canvases with nifty stand up easels on the back.

Brianna chose to do some blending on her background, so it's not exactly like the example, but it's her own, unique interpretation of it.

Once she had the background painted, she paused the step-by-step video instructions to allow the paint time to dry.

Soon it was time for the anchor.  You can also see the pencil marks she's drawn to plan for the next part of the painting.

Brianna has reviewed a couple of other Choose Friendship products over the years, too.

Choose Friendship has generously offered one of my readers a free My Painting Party kit!  Enter using the Rafflecopter below.

Brianna's finished masterpiece.  Having seen Bri work on this painting, Hannah is excited to have her turn.  I will be buying additional canvases so that we can work our way through the whole series.  I have found video art lessons to be a great addition to our homeschool, and I'm looking forward to sharing more beautiful works of art from my students with you.

a Rafflecopter giveaway

You can connect with Choose Friendship, makers of My Painting Party on Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, YouTube, and Instagram.

This post may be linked up at these linky parties.

Thanks for clicking for us!

The Critical Thinking Co.

Wow!  That was my first response when I opened my review package from The Critical Thinking Co.  When I agreed to try out Language Smarts Level E, I was expecting a workbook.  This 392 page book is a little over an inch thick and packed with good stuff!

Language Smarts can be used as a complete curriculum or a supplemental resource.  I really wanted to get a feel for what the book has to offer, so I photocopied small packets from several different sections for my students.  This book is a teacher's book, with license to photocopy pages for one classroom or home.  The answers are in the back of the book.

We worked on quotation marks, syllables, prefixes and suffixes first.  Language Smarts E uses a variety of activities to keep kids engaged in learning, including crossword puzzles and word searches.  I like books that go beyond "fill in the blank" style learning.

I'm very excited about this book, because it's easy to find activities that will strengthen specific areas that my kids need to work on.  If I notice a problem with homophones in their creative writing, I can go to pages 215-249 and select the worksheets that I feel would benefit them most.  We've really only scratched the surface of all the topics available (which you can read a better list of here).  I'm looking forward to using the reading comprehension passages next, and then going through the entire writing section, start to finish.  I'm pretty sure that by the time we work through those 30 pages, my students will be better writers than they are now.  We haven't done much editing of their work before, and no "pre-writing" activities at all, so I know they'll be learning new things.

If my pick and choose approach is making you a little twitchy, you could start at the beginning of the book and work your way through it, from cover to cover, for a full service English program for a child working at a 4th grade level.  Your child will learn a wide variety of things; from punctuation, to spelling, to creative writing, and much more.  They teach kids how to use reference materials.  Not just old school dictionaries and encyclopedias, but also online encyclopedias and how to use the internet to search for a topic.

Language Smarts starts with Level A, for kindergartners, and has a stand alone book for each grade level through 4th grade at this time.


The Critical Thinking Co. offers a wide variety of educational materials.  They have resources for every subject and every grade level.  They even offer a call in consult with an education specialist who can help you select the right materials for your students.  You can connect with The Critical Thinking Co. on Facebook, G+, and Pinterest.

In addition to Language Smarts E, other Crew families have been checking out Sentence Diagraming:  Beginning, and several early learning software programs, including Alphabet Song Game, Letter Sounds Song and Game, Vowel Sounds Song and Game, and Fun Time Phonics.  Read what they have to say by clicking the box below!




This post may be linked up at these linky parties.

Thanks for clicking for us!