Meet the Blue Ribbon Winners–And the Tinkel Family Winners as Well!

 

 

When I first began reviewing for the Schoolhouse Review Crew about six and a half years ago there was no such thing as the Blue Ribbon Awards. Now they are a big thing for the crew and the vendors that produce the great products that the crew reviews. Let me explain how the Schoolhouse Review crew works.

 

The Schoolhouse Review Crew is made up of 200 bloggers that have established blogs with a dedicated following, are homeschoolers, and can write a quality review. We also have to be willing to test out new homeschool curriculum and other products for a six week period. For example, if we were given a math product to review that may mean that we have to either set aside our regular math curriculum or use the new math product alongside our regular curriculum and use them both together. After using the product for six weeks we write our reviews, post them on our blogs, link them to crew blog and then share them on social media. Since there are 200 Schoolhouse Review Crew members that have 100’s and sometimes 1000’s of followers each, then potentially 10s of thousands of people could be reached and read these product reviews. The more exposure the products get, the happier the homeschool curriculum companies are.

 

It really is a win/win situation all the way around. The vendors get exposure and the bloggers are sent some great curriculum that they otherwise would probably not purchase on their own.

 

One of the pleasures of being on the Schoolhouse Review Crew is getting to vote on our favorite products at the end of the crew year. This is a big thing for the crew members and a big honor for the vendors if they are chosen. As Schoolhouse Review Crew members, we do not take lightly our jobs of voting for these awards. Because the crew members like to have the holidays off to enjoy them with their families without having to worry about crew responsibilities, the crew year starts in January and ends in November. Therefore, we just got done voting on our favorites for the year.

 

Let me tell you, whenever I go through the process of thinking about and evaluating all of the products we have received for the year I always get emotional. God always knows what we need when we need it. I remember the times of sitting down with my children and trying out great curriculum with them. I remember the supplemental materials that we received that made our learning that much richer. I remember the breakthroughs that happened when we finally found something that worked with that child that was struggling in a particular subject. I remember the fun products, the challenging products and the products that might not have worked for our family but might be a blessing to another family with a different set of learning difficulties.

 

At the bottom of this post is the list of the products that the Schoolhouse Review Crew awarded with the 2015 Blue Ribbon Awards. First however, I wanted to list our favorites for the year and tell you why. Don’t worry, I don’t have nearly as many categories as the actual Blue Ribbon Awards. In fact, I really only have two - what I liked, and the kids top choice. So, without further adieu, here are the Tinkel Blue Ribbon choices followed by the actual Blue Ribbon Award winners.

 

Tim’s Favorites

(not in any order)

 

ASD Reading – ASD stands for Autism Spectrum Disorder so ASD Reading was developed for kids on the Autism Spectrum. The developers are the folks that created Reading Kingdom and ASD Reading is similar but not exactly the same. Jacob is developmentally delayed and we have been having a difficult time getting him to read so I decided to try this with him. He loved it and, before we knew it, he was actually reading! The other day I picked up the phonics reading book we were using with him before starting ASD Reading and he was able to read stories from the middle of the book where as just a couple of months ago it was a chore for him to sound out the words at the beginning. This, alone, makes ASD Reading deserve an award in my book! Click on the highlighted name above to get to ASD Reading’s website and click here to read my full review on this great program.

 

YWAM Publishing – YWAM stands for Youth With A Mission and they do excellent mission work all over the world, but they also have a fantastic publishing arm that publishes Christian biographies and unit studies of historical figures, missionaries and famous people from around the world. We were given a biography and unit study of Mary Slessor, a Scottish missionary that went to Africa in the 1800’s to serve in very dangerous sections of Calabar. I wasn’t sure how my children would do with a biography, but I used it as a read aloud with them and they absolutely fell in love with the book and we had so much fun with the unit study that it prompted me to develop my own history curriculum using great biographies this year. YWAM Publishing has great material. To find out more about them click on the highlighted text above. To read my full review on YWAM Publishing click here.

 

With Lee In Virginia – I really like G.A. Henty. He has become one of my favorite historical authors and John Allen loves him as well, so we were thrilled to get the audio production of one of Henty’s books, With Lee In Virginia, from Heirloom Audio Productions. However, I was wondering how the two youngest would do with listening to it. G.A. Henty can get a little deep for very young kids so I wasn’t sure if Jacob, especially, would get bored. I had nothing to fear. Heirloom Audio Productions does a first class job with their audio dramas. I mentioned in my review that I used to work at Walt Disney World and this recording reminded me of something that Disney would do. It is absolutely fantastic and my kids were enthralled. We listened to it on our way to Canada and they liked it so much that we ordered another Heirloom Audio Production drama of another Henty book to listen to on the way home. And . . . shhhhhh . . . don’t tell them, but I’m thinking about ordering yet another one for them to listen to on our holiday travels. To read my full review on With Lee In Virginia click here. To find out how to purchase With Lee In Virginia click on the name above.

 

Progeny Press – Progeny Press was another literature unit study company that we had the opportunity of reviewing this year but it wasn’t a study of a biography, it was a study of the novel Sarah, Plain and Tall. This was another one of those books that I wasn’t sure that Jacob and Joshua would like and, since the unit study was different than the unit study listed above, I wasn’t sure how they would do with it either. Again, I had nothing to worry about. They absolutely loved the book and the study. It was exciting to see their eyes light up when reading an excellent piece of literature and doing a study on it. The absorption of the book and the Progeny Press unit study was another reason I decided to scrap the boring history text book and use good novels and biographies to teach history this year. Again, to find out more about Progeny Press, click on the highlighted name above, and to read my full review click here.

 

Institute for Excellence in Writing – The Institute for Excellence in Writing is last on my personal favorites but it certainly isn’t least. We actually got to review several different products from IEW this year during two different review periods and we were blessed by them all. The first was one of IEW’s great writing curriculums. John Allen had used one a few years ago and it really helped him, but now it was Joshua’s turn. I selected an easier one for Joshua because he’s not quite at the stage John Allen was when he used it. Still, I wasn’t sure if Joshua could handle this fun but challenging course. He did great with it. We have put it aside while we review other things, but are definitely going to pick it back up and continue to use. Click here

for that full review.

 

The second time we reviewed IEW we were given three products to review. One, was a book and DVD on using games in your homeschool, another was a very unique thesaurus that really isn’t a thesaurus at all, and the third is a fantastic timeline of great historical books to be used for history. Wasn’t that last one timely since, as I’ve mentioned a time or two before, I am developing our own history curriculum this year? All three have been great additions to our homeschool. Click here to read my full review on these resources and click on the Institute for Excellence in Writing name above to find out more about all of IEW’s great products.

 

All Around Tinkel Favorite

 

Finally we come to the family's all around favorite this year. When I sat the boys down to talk this over with them I expected them to say one of the unit studies or one of the audio books that we have reviewed. I was somewhat surprised as to what their top choice was. All of them unanimously said the same math program – CTC Math!

 

CTC Math – is a program that is actually out of Australia and my boys absolutely love it and have advanced leaps and bounds in math already this year. All three of them are enrolled in it as it covers kindergarten through high school. The boys watch a short video that explains a math concept and then they do an online worksheet that covers that concept. They love the gentleman who humorously but excellently explains the concept, and they love doing the worksheets and earning certificates when they do well. This is an all time keeper for us. We have pretty much scrapped our other math curriculums and are solely using this. Click on the name above to find out more about it and, of course, click here to get to my full review of CTC Math.

 

Well, those were the Tinkel Family favorites for this year. There were some other crew members that blogged about their personal favorites as well. You can find what they had to say by clicking on the banner below.

 

 

 

So, you’ve read the Tinkel Family favorites for 2015 but who were the actual winners. Here they are - the all around Schoolhouse Review Crew 2015 Blue Ribbon Award Winners. Click on the highlighted links to find out more about each product.

 

 

Favorite Reading Curriculum: Reading Kingdom

Favorite Writing Curriculum: Institute for Excellence in Writing

Favorite Vocabulary Program: Dynamic Literacy

Favorite Spelling Program: Institute for Excellence in Writing: Phonetic Zoo

Favorite Grammar Program: Institute for Excellence in Writing: Fix-It! Grammar

Favorite Penmanship Program: CursiveLogic

Favorite Literature Curriculum: Progeny Press

Favorite History Curriculum: Home School in the Woods

Favorite History Supplement: Heirloom Audio Productions: In Freedom's Cause

Favorite Science Curriculum: Visual Learning Systems

Favorite Science Supplement: Ann McCallum Books: Eat Your Science Homework

Favorite Math Curriculum: CTC Math

Favorite Math Supplement: SimplyFun

Favorite Christian Education Curriculum: Grapevine Studies

Favorite Christian Education Supplement: Brinkman Adventures

Favorite Foreign Language Curriculum: Middlebury Interactive Language

Favorite Fine Arts Product: Maestro Classics

Favorite Elective Curriculum: Apologia Educational Ministries: Field Trip Journal

Favorite Audio Drama: Brinkman Adventures

Favorite Video: FishFlix.com

Favorite Preschool Product: La La Logic

Favorite Elementary Product: Star Toaster

Favorite Middle School Product: The Critical Thinking Co

Favorite High School Product: Writing with Sharon Watson

Favorite College or College-Prep Product: Freedom Project Education

Favorite Parent Product: Koru Naturals

Favorite Planning Product: Apologia Educational Ministries: The Ultimate Homeschool Planner

Best Resource I Didn't Know I Needed: Homeschool Planet

Best Online Resource: Super Teacher Worksheets

Best e-Product: Home School in the Woods

Just for Fun: USAopoly

Kids' Choice: La La Logic

Teens' Choice: YWAM Publishing

All Around Crew Favorite: Institute for Excellence in Writing

What in the World Do The Tinkels Do? Part 2–History of our Ministry

 

There are 100’s of missionaries that serve with our mission organization BCM International. Several of their ministries have their own name, but most do not. So, how is it that our ministry has a name? Well, it wasn’t named by us because the ministry that we are directors of was not started by us.

Good News Ministries was actually started by two couples that had a burden for the people that live in the low income housing areas (projects) of Livingston. They saw that an old “mom and pop” grocery store with a house attached was going up for auction right across the street from the projects and they went to a local doctor friend of theirs to see if he would bid on it so that the could start a ministry their. He did, and he, praise be to God, won the bid and the ministry was started. For a few years they held the ministry in the house. Every Sunday they served them breakfast and then held Bible studies with them. We began helping them about six months after they started. The goal was to remodel the storefront and eventually move the ministry into the store.

Finally, the storefront was done and the ministry was moved from the house. We were working full time with another ministry at the time but it was time for a change so, by mutual agreement, we became the full time directors of the ministry and moved into the house.

Over the years the ministry took on many different forms but there were some elements that always stayed the same. We continued serving meals for a long time but by that time the meals and the Bible study were Sunday afternoon so the meal was more like a dinner than a breakfast. We also continued to do a Bible Club for the kids during the week. Some things we added, though, were day camps during the summer for the kid; cooking classes for the ladies; a food and clothes closet; individual mentoring and help for those who were in need; and more.

Sometimes the needs were very different. For example, there was a drug raid where several residents of the projects were arrested for selling prescription drugs, etc. Sarah then took on the ministry of visiting them in jail for a while. Another time a family that were regular attendees of the mission had the children removed from the home. We worked with the family over several months to try to teach them to better their lives, get jobs, and get the children back.

We also did seasonal ministries such as the day camps in the summer, a holiday meal between Thanksgiving and Christmas, a special Christmas meal for the attendees of the mission and various special activities during other holidays. Often, during the year, we would get food donated to us that we would bag up and pass out to the residents.

People don’t realize how busy one can be and get when running a ministry such as that. We would often get calls at all hours of the day and night from people that needed help or just wanted to talk. I remember one day waking up and walking over to the mission only to find that one of our regulars had let themselves in through the back door, made coffee and was using the internet to job hunt. Soon another lady came looking for food. Then one of our volunteers (that came up through our ministry) called in tears saying that her best friend had been taken to the hospital and wasn’t expected to live. Right after that, a homeless man came in looking for food. Finally, we got a call from the daughter of one of our ladies asking if we had seen “Mom”. She had been trying to get a hold of her but couldn’t. So I went to check on her. We then took another lady out for supper that needed some support and a shoulder to cry on.

Those days weren’t unusual, they were the norm. We stayed quite busy.

However, what happens when, after 15 years, the landlord calls to say that he is getting old, got an offer on the property and has decided to sell so that his wife and kids wouldn’t have to bother with it when he was gone? What were we going to do now? Many people thought that was the end of Good News Mission, but we didn’t feel at all that God was ending the ministry. We had just begun!

Tune in to the Part Three when you will find out the new direction that Good News Ministries (what our ministry is now called) is going in. God has really blessed and we are excited!

If you missed Part One just click here to find out what our umbrella mission organization BCM International is all about.

Six Great Homeschool Science Resources–That the Schoolhouse Review Crew Introduced Us To!

 

 

Many of you know that I have the great privilege of being on the Schoolhouse Review Crew and have the great opportunity to review homeschool curriculum and resources from some fantastic companies. Science has never been my thing, but this year I found three great Science curriculums and three great Science resources all through being on “The Crew”.

Science Curriculum

1. Surfing the Net: Science published by The Critical Thinking Co. – This is fantastic! It teaches you how to safely surf the internet for great information and it teaches you Science at the same time! It’s also very flexible. Jacob developmentally delayed in many areas and we are listing him as second grade. However, he is advanced in Science. Joshua has a lot of comprehension problems because of difficulties brought on by his autism. So, they kind of meet in the middle and I am using and adapting it for both of them. Click on the title of the book for more information from the company and click here to read my full review.

 

2. Science Unit Studies for Homeschool and Teachers published by Funtastic Unit Studies – Are you looking for something that is easy to use and easy to teach? Something that has experiments that basically involve things around the house and that don’t require you to mortgage the house to buy science equipment? If you answered “yes” to either one of those questions then this is for you. We love it because many of the units go right along with other things we are using so we can use them together! Click on the name of the book to visit their website and click here to read my full review!

3. SchoolhouseTeachers.com – We absolutely love this site! It has opened the doors to us in so many ways that it is unbelievable! This wasn’t actually a review item, although I written facebook posts about how we use it, this was a perk given to us since I am a review for the Schoolhouse Review Crew, however, we are so glad that we have it. It has dozens (if not hundreds. I didn’t count.) of courses on every subject matter available developed by top name teachers from the homeschool and academic world. So, this isn’t just a science course resource, this is an entire homeschool resource. You could literally teach your entire homeschool with materials found here. Check it out by clicking on the name above. If you have any questions about how we use it, leave me a comment and I’ll get back to you.

Science Resources

 

1. Smartkidz Media – This is a resource that has become invaluable to our homeschool. Again, it is not just for Science, but can be used as a resource for many other subjects. It has 100’s of videos, musical recordings, online books and other resources for you to use in your homeschool. And they are adding things all of the time. Just now I went to check them out and found a really neat video that goes along with something we are studying at the moment. I can’t wait to watch it with the kids! Just click on the name above to check this out for yourself and click here to read my review.

 

2. Rightnow Media – is another resource that has become invaluable to us. This is another site that has 1000’s of Christian videos and Bible Studies on it. They have partnered with Homeschoolteachers.com to develop homeschool curriculum around some of their videos. Jacob loves their science videos that are produced by Phil Vischer from VeggieTales. We have used some of their other videos for history this year as well. This is one of those that I didn’t review so I don’t have a full post about it, but, take my word for it, it is great! Click on the name above to get to their website.

 

3. Super Teacher Worksheets – is something that I know you will turn to time and time again as we do. It has more than just science worksheets, but I’ll just focus on the science for right now. Have your kids ever watched a video on something or read about something and wanted to know more about it? Well, Super Teacher Worksheets is just the thing that you need. It is much more than worksheets as well. You could almost build an entire curriculum around their 1000’s of worksheets! Check it out by clicking on the name above and click here to get to my full review.

I hope you find something useful! Let me know if you do. I’d love to hear from you! I want to add a bit of a disclaimer. I am an affiliate with some of the companies above and some of the links above contain my affiliate link. I only affiliate with companies that I really think are awesome and are family friendly. If you see something with any of these companies that is not family friendly or is questionable, please let me know.

 

Surfing the Net: Science–A Schoolhouse Review Crew Review

   

 I really think God has a sense of humor!

 

If you were at my house and listened in on our homeschool for any length of time you would know that Science is not at the top of my list for favorite subjects to teach. There have been a few good years of Science instruction but there have been several bad years of science instruction. What seemed to work with my oldest doesn’t work at all with my two youngest. I have been floundering to find a good science program to use with them. Then . . . POOF . . . God sent us several Science curriculums to us through The Schoolhouse Review Crew this year. The latest one is Surfing the Net: Science from The Critical Thinking Co.

 

We have used several things from The Critical Thinking Co. over the years and have always been pleased. They tread that fine line of making kids think (critically think) while making the learning fun and they do a good job of treading that line. Surfing the Net: Science is designed for 3-6 grade students but I have found that my kids are actually learning things that I never learned until at least seventh or eighth grade and they are having fun doing it! So far they have dissected a frog and a fish, helped a species of hawk migrate, and learned about poison dart frogs just to name a few things and they have done it all on the computer. And this was all in just the first unit of this book.

 

So, what in the world am I talking about? Let me go into more detail about Surfing the Net Science.

 

Have you ever wanted to harness all of the knowledge, good knowledge of course, that is on the internet but didn’t know how? I mean there is a ton of good things to be learned on the world wide web. Kids could really benefit from the information, but how do you start teaching them? There are so many ways to go? Can there be a rhyme to the reason? YES! There can! At least in the area of science.

 

You see, Surfing the Net: Science is not an ordinary textbook. It is actually a book that teaches you how to surf the internet to learn all about science. In fact, the subtitle of the book is “Inquiry-based worksheets for free Internet videos, articles, and games”. It actually contains worksheets for you to fill out along with links to online games and experiments that help your students learn about a specific topic.

 

 

Each chapter begins with a keyword search where the student is to use keywords in the questions to do an internet search and look up the answers. For example, in the Amphibians chapter of the Animals Section, we found out what ectothermic meant and how habitats affect ectothermic animals; we learned about metamorphosis; we learned about the three main groups of amphibians; we learned about a couple of specific amphibians and what makes them so unique; and we learned about animal adaptations. And that was all in just the two page, seven question, keyword section. If you aren’t sure how to do key word searches, you are not to worry. The book even teaches you as a parent how to teach your kids how to do keyword searches.

 

The keyword searches were fun, but the next couple of sections were even more fun! In the last half of the amphibian chapter we learned about the life cycle of a frog and were encouraged to draw and label the lifecycle; then we watched a video on the “Water Holding Frog”; and, finally, we actually dissected a frog . . . virtually on the internet of course! For the videos, games and experiments, Surfing The Net: Science gives actual website addresses to type in and find them.

 

My boys have loved it! Although Jacob is younger than the third-sixth grade suggested age group, science is one of his big interests, the only problem is he is not at that reading level. Joshua on the other hand could read it and may be able to do the key word search, but he has a very literal mind and many of the things I knew would have to be explained to him. So, I decided to do it with both boys at once. I would read the questions, ask them what key words they thought we would need to use to find the answers, then I would type everything in and read the articles to them. Then, we would answer all of the questions together. For the online games and experiments, like the dissection, I would let them each have turns. We have learned so much!

 

There are seven science sections in Surfing the Net: Science:

 

• Animals
• Atmosphere
• Ecosystems and Habitats
• Energy
• Geology
• Plants
• Space

Each section has six-eight chapters in each. For example, the Animals section included:

• Amphibians
• Animal Cells
• Birds
• Fish
• Insects
• Invertebrates
• Mammals
• Reptiles

As I have said, we have really enjoyed this book. There have been times when it was difficult to find the right websites after typing in the keywords, but as we have worked through it it has gotten easier since we have learned what to look for. It also helps that all of the answers are found in the back of the book, so if you aren’t sure if you have found quite the right information, just peak at the answers. I also appreciate how the author is doing her best to keep everything up to date for us which can be difficult when the internet is constantly changing and new things are added. At the beginning of Surfing the Net: Science there is a website listed where you can go and check on updated information for each chapter. Surfing the Net: Science is a keeper for us!

To find out more about Surfing the Net: Science or about The Critical Thinking Co. click on any one of the highlighted links above. To see what other members of the Schoolhouse Review Crew have to say about this book and other books by The Critical Thinking Company click on the banner below. Happy homeschooling!

 

       

I Haven’t Forgotten!

 

Recently I began a series titled “What In the World Do the Tinkels Do?” about what my family’s ministry is all about. I began by telling you all about our umbrella organization BCM International (you can find part one by clicking here) and mentioned that I would continue the series and tell you all about our local ministry called “Good News Ministries”. I haven’t forgotten to continue the series, I just got a little waylaid. I am planning on continuing the series within the next couple of days. Part two will be about how Good News Ministries began.

In the meantime, for my homeschooling friends, I am excited to say, that I am going to be writing a series about how we have developed our own history curriculum with inexpensive and often free things that my boys love. We have had so much fun choosing our own books and other materials and not being limited by a traditional curriculum. Please keep an eye out for the beginning of that series coming in the next week or so as well.

Until then, please accept my apologies for being late on part two of my “What In the World Do the Tinkels Do” series.

We Are All Human

 

I have not seen this entire movie. I have no idea if it has an agenda or not. All I know of it is this small clip. I saw it the other day on Facebook and it touched me greatly. I have read about the atrocities that took place during World War One and, of course, learned about it in history, but I had never heard this story. It reminded me once again that we are all human. We are God’s creation. Each of us is an individual loved by God. We need to love one another as Christ loved us. This video describes a small act of kindness done during a horrible time in history and how the giver was touchingly repaid years later for his kindness. We all need to remember that small acts of kindness may be only small to us. They may be huge to the recipient.

Psalm 139:14 

I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made; your works are wonderful, I know that full well.

I Am Ashamed to Admit This

I am ashamed of this post.
Not really of the post itself, but what I am going to reveal in this post.
Over the years God has placed several special needs people into my life. I think the first special needs individual that I knew was Glen. Glen was a man that lived in the “County Home” where my parents were the superintendents. Glen only had one hand and was mentally handicapped. Because there were no other kids that lived nearby and because Glen was mentally on the level of a six or seven year old which was my age at the time, we became best friends. I never thought of Glen as special needs. We were best friends.
Later, when we lived in Pennsylvania, God placed other special needs kids in my path. I remember one girl, Valerie, who for some reason took a fondness to me and would call me at home to talk. Another special needs girl lived next door. I would always try to treat them kindly.
Of course, now, God has blessed me with two special needs boys and has put other special needs individuals in my life as well. Although my two boys are high functioning special needs and will prayerfully live quite successful lives on their own, many of the special needs people that I know will never be able to live on their own. I enjoy working with them all.
Here’s where the shame part comes in. Although I tried to always be kind to folks that were different than I was to their face, there were times that I was unkind behind their back. I don’t know when it began or why. Maybe it was peer pressure. Maybe I looked at other kids around me and saw the way they made fun of special needs kids and just went along with them. Maybe it was because I had the tendency (and still do at times) to blurt out things without thinking. I don’t know what it was, but I am embarrassed now about it.
I remember one time when I was in high school I was involved in a Christian Fellowship club that was led by one of the teachers. For a time I stopped going. When the sponsoring teacher asked me why, I kind of hedged around and said that it was because of all of the special needs kids that were attended. He immediately chastised me and deservingly made me feel like two cents for even thinking of such a thing.
There were other times that I was insensitive. As I mentioned, just the thought of me saying or feeling those things make me feel shame. I pray that I have learned lessons from those mistakes and I pray that people remember me for my soft heart rather than those few insensitive incidents.
One of the things that I do, and encourage others to do, is get involved in the special needs community. Today I was privileged to be able attend the Miss Fabulous pageant for our area of middle Tennessee. The volunteers and people that organize it make all of the participants feel like kings and queens. Our friend Patricia was a participant. She, as usual, hammed it up and was fantastic. Below are some pictures from this wonderful event. I would encourage all of you to volunteer at or just attend one of these events to cheer on the very special participants. I know you will be blessed.

The Brinkman Adventures–Missions Made Exciting!

Since we travel a lot, we are always looking for things to entertain our kids in the car. We recently listened to a couple of fantastic audio productions during our summer travels, so, I must admit, when the opportunity came to review The Brinkman Adventures: Season 3 part of the Brinkman Adventures series, I thought it would be a fun set of compact discs to have to possibly listen to on our next auto trip. However, when we received the four CDs and began listening to them, we found that they were much more than some ordinary dramatic recordings.
As I’m sure you can figure out by the name, The Brinkman Adventures: Season 3 is the third series of the Brinkman Adventures. I have never heard the other two series but I can tell you that they are going to be on our wish list. This season has 12 recordings that, together, last more than five hours. I haven’t personally listened to all 12 recordings but my kids love them and ask for me to put them on during our homeschool time and even other times when I’m not around. Although we really try to monitor what they listen to and watch on there own, I have no qualms in allowing them to listen to these audio recordings.
The Brinkman family from the CDs is actually a real family. Although the names have been changed, the real family members play the same members in the Brinkman Adventures CDs. The stories that they tell are real stories as well. Although they might alter things a bit to simplify them for the listeners or for dramatic effect, the core of the story is never altered. For example, in one story there is an African family that only has one son when in real life they have three children but the basic story was not changed at all.

Because Brinkman Adventures talks about missions and we are full time missionaries these recordings have really provided some interesting discussions. What really got us hooked were the first couple of episodes that told the true story of Tomas a Hispanic boy from a rich family who found the Lord while going to college in the United States and then felt God calling him to missions. When he called his father to tell him that he was going on the mission field his father disowned him on the spot. The story goes on to tell how Tomas (whose name has been changed because he is still an active missionary), ended up meeting an amazing missionary, learned under this missionary and  smuggling Bibles into the country of Bishmar (country name has been changed as well) - a country where Bibles were illegal. I won’t tell you about the part where Tomas had to unload all of the suitcases containing the Bibles onto a table in customs and about the guard’s hand flying off of the Bible’s when he touched them and how he told Tomas to hurriedly  pack all of the Bibles and get out as quickly as possible. I won’t tell you any of those things because it would spoil you listening to the first episode. Oops! I just told you! Well, anyway, this episode speared a great discussion with my two youngest on how God work’s miraculously today if we trust Him and how He can protect us in any tough situation.
We also had a great discussion after hearing the story of a girl who was one of the Brinkman’s neighbors. The Brinkman’s had been talking to the girl about the Lord for a long time but she never was interested until the Brinkman’s invited her over for a backyard Bible study where a missionary was going to speak. I won’t spoil the story this time by telling you what happened, but I loved the discussion that I had, again with Joshua and Jacob, about how being missionaries at home is just as important as being missionaries in a foreign country.
As you can tell, we have become new fans of the Brinkman Adventures and are so glad that we got to review The Brinkman Adventures: Season 3. The recordings are professionally done with fantastic sound effects but it is the great true stories that make them so awesome. They are stories that talk about living out missions to your friends and other family members every day and trusting the Lord to help you and get you through any circumstance. I’m thinking of other ways to use these great CD’s as well, like in children’s church or in one of our Bible clubs.
To find out more about Brinkman Adventures, especially about The Brinkman Adventures: Season 3, just click on any one of the highlighted links above. I know that you will have a lot of great discussions with your kids and come up with a lot of ways that you can use these recordings or ideas sparked from these recordings to reach others for the Lord. When God does work “mission miracles” with you and your family please stop back by and leave me a comment and tell me your story. I’d love to hear it and praise God with you. Happy Listening!

 

Standard Deviants Accelerate–A Great Deviation from Regular Teaching

  I have to admit, that the Homeschool Courses by Standard Deviants Accelerate was not a review that I was looking forward to doing. I wasn’t overly excited about reviewing this at all. As a member of the Schoolhouse Review Crew, we fill out interest forms for each review. We can put in our “two cents” worth as to if we would like to do this review or not with the knowledge that you may be chosen if needed. Well, I put in my two cents worth about not wanting to do this review but, as you probably can tell, I was chosen anyway. I really am glad that I was.
First of all let me tell you that the time period for this review was during a tough time for us. Sarah’s mom was sick for a few weeks and then passed away so we weren’t able to use this as much as we should have. However, we did use it and I am excited about it. Why am I so excited? Well, I am excited because my kids are excited.
Yes, I said kids! Over half of the Homeschool Courses offered by Standard Deviants Accelerate are suggested for high school kids including some AP classes. I assigned John Allen to work on the English Composition course. He has really enjoyed it but I haven’t necessarily been standing over his shoulder and watching the video’s or watching what work he had to do. So, I decided to sign myself up for the Nutrition class. It is suggested for sixth grade and above. Well, after watching just the first lesson and seeing how it was entertaining but very informative and really easy to understand, I thought I would try it with Joshua and even Jacob. Joshua is in 8th grade but is on the autism spectrum and is very literal. He doesn’t always understand idioms, nuances, and things like that. Jacob is in 2nd grade and is developmentally delayed. I was amazed at how much they understood! I did have to stop the video a few times to explain things to them, but I was very pleased that even Jacob understood the basics and was able to answer the questions and do the work at the end. But, I’m getting ahead of myself. Let me tell you the great things that we like about this program and describe the different parts of the course.
1. The video – Each lesson begins with a video. Now, let me tell you, these are like no educational videos you have ever seen before. They are actually very funny and entertaining but they very much get the information across. Take a look at the cast of characters below and you will see that in no way are these usual, boring, educational movies. Different characters will pop on to explain something or expand on something. Usually they are not dressed like they are below, but occasionally they are, and they are almost always funny. It almost reminds you of Sesame Street, but on Sesame Street the different clips don’t always have anything to do with each other. With Standard Deviants Accelerate, the different clips are continuous and build upon one another. Each video is less than ten minutes long so it easily kept my boys interest and didn’t get boring.
Two more things I really liked about the video area. The dialogue is listed right beside the video and you can even print it out if you want. That would be very handy for someone who wants to look back at what was said. There is also a space below each video to take notes that you can save to your “locker”. Look at the first frame (top left) of the four screenshots below for the Algebra course. You can see the dialogue box on the left, the video on the right and the note taking section on the bottom. I am really impressed with the way they do this.
 

 2. The vocabulary, diagram, quiz and written answer sections – I know that it is hard to see, but if you look there are different tabs toward the top of each frame below. The first tab is the video tab, then the next four tabs are the vocab, diagram, quiz and written answer section tabs. The vocabulary tab doesn’t require any work by the student. It just has different vocab words from the video. The definition is given in written form, or you can click on the word and a voice will pronounce the word and tell you the definition.

 

The diagram section does require a little work. For the nutrition study, there is a diagram that a student has to “fill” out with the words used in the diagram at the bottom of the page in a “word bank” the student clicks on a word and drags it to where he thinks it should go. If it goes there it “sticks” if it doesn’t, it won’t stick and will fall back to the word bank section for the student to try again. Joshua and Jacob loved this section and were able to do it with a little help from me. A typical sixth grade student shouldn’t have any problem at all.

 

The next tab is the quiz section. A multiple choice question is given and the student is to click on the correct answer. When all answers are clicked, the student is invited to “throw it against the wall and see if it will stick” by clicking on the “throw it against the wall and see if it will stick” bar. If they got the right answer it will tell you, but if you didn’t, the correct answer will be pointed to with an arrow that says “see video”. When you click on the arrow, the section of the video where the answer to that question can be found pops up for the student to watch again and reinforce the information. Of course, my kids didn’t get any of the questions wrong, but I sure did when I was previewing it! Ugh . . . kids today!

 

Finally, the written answer question gives a couple of questions and the student is asked to pick one and answer it. The student types the answer out in a box and, when completed, the answer is sent to the teacher. The teacher then uses a provided rubric to grade the answer.

 

3. Chapter Review – After every three or four lessons, there is a Chapter Review. In the first part of the chapter review the homeschool student is invited to use one of the creative suggestions to review the chapter. A suggestion might be to create a sculpture using things around you or create a game to explain what you have learned. The suggestions are very creative and there is enough variety to appeal to any type of student. Then there is the post chapter test made up of questions from the quizzes that the student took, and critical thinking questions that are similar to but a little bit more complex than the written answers at the end of each section.

   

I also like the grading. Of course, I have to access the website differently as the teacher, but it is all very easy. I just click on the course then click on the student to check his grades, or to grade the written question using the rubric described above. It is all very easy to do.

 

In fact, all of Standard Deviants Accelerate is very easy but very effective. I am so glad, now, that we were chosen for it. Since they were so gracious to give us a one year subscription to choose and work with any courses, we are going to be using this a lot! To find out more about the Homeschool Courses from Standard Deviants Accelerate and what it has to offer just click on any of the highlighted links above. To see what other Schoolhouse Review Crew members had to say about this company click on the banner below. Happy Homeschooling!

   

What in the World do the Tinkels do? Part One.

 

Well, as full time missionaries, we do a lot of things. If you have been reading my posts for any amount of time, you have probably gotten at least a little bit of an idea of what we do. I will go into a little bit of detail in Part Two of this post, but I thought that you might like to know a little bit of the background to why we do what we do. It really all starts with our umbrella mission organization BCM International. BCM was started over 75 years ago by a missionary that was returning to the United States from the Philippines. I would try to tell you the story of our mission, but I couldn’t do it any better than a couple of my fellow missionaries who recently were interviewed on the radio about the history of BCM and what it is doing around the world today. Here’s the interview!

Patricia–Not a Special Needs Voice– Just A Special Voice!

 

I was standing and singing in church today when I heard a noise. It was a joyful noise. It was Patricia – usually singing only the last one or two words of a line, and slightly off key, but singing at the top of her lungs with her arms raised to the Lord. Patricia and her mom started coming about seven years ago to our Bible Studies and other events that Good News Ministries held. They have hung on with us through thick and thin and have become a great help in our ministry. They also come to the church we attend – The Bridge Community Church.

As I was listening I began to smile and tears came to my eyes. “Trish” sings with unencumbered joy. She is not weighed down with thoughts of this world or with problems in her life. You see, Trish is special needs. She probably functions on a kindergarten level at best. She can’t read but she does know some letters and can write her name. She isn’t very verbal but over the years I have begun to understand her through her sign language and through the words that she knows. Instead of worrying about everyday things, her only concerns today were what she was going to wear at the special needs “beauty” pageant that she is going to be in next weekend. After that it will be Christmas that she talks about continuously. Then the special needs prom in the spring. Then her birthday in the fall. It’s a continuous cycle but we have grown to love her very much.

As I was listening this morning my thoughts went back to a few years ago. A few years ago I might have thought her loud singing and long drawn out words were a nuisance. After all, that was my worship time with the Lord and that noise was invading my thoughts and interrupting my time with God. I have since gotten over that, but I sometimes wonder if other members of the church still harbor those thoughts. Oh, they smile, but do they secretly think that she should be quiet or perhaps hope that her mom might take her out. It matters not to me anymore what people might think. I love hearing her sing.

I used to think that someday, when the Lord comes back or when he takes Trish home to live with Him, she will have a perfect voice. One that will be beautiful. A voice that she will praise God with continually. Lately, however, I have wondered if God really will give her a new voice. Who are we to know God’s thoughts and ways. Compared to God we don’t know anything. Our world is so mixed up that our thoughts are, as my mom would say, discombobulated! Maybe it is us that will be getting the new voices! Voices that will be just like Patricia’s voice! You see, it is Trish that sings freely. It is Trish that sings with joy that is untainted to the world around her. It is Trish that sings with a pure heart to God. Isn’t that how God wants us to be – pure, unencumbered, and free with our hands raised to Him in worship? Maybe Trish is God’s perfect model that we need to take lessons from. Maybe Trish has the perfect voice for God’s heavenly choir. Maybe we can all learn something from Trish. Forget CAN, maybe we all SHOULD learn some lessons from Trish.

Sing on Patricia! Sing on! I’ll be singing right beside you!

Shout for joy to the LORD, all the earth, burst into jubilant song with music;

Psalm 98:4 NIV