Vision Forum - Baker Family Adventures - Book 1, Summer of Suspense

• Vision Forum is fast becoming one of my go to companies for materials for education and discipleship of my family. Vision Forum is one of those companies you can truly trust for strong Biblical products, whether it be books, movies, toys, or curriculum. I love this statement that comes from their website, "While the family is under attack from every side today, God's sufficient Word provides clear direction and hope to rebuild the family, and it is our goal at Vision Forum to promote courageous fatherhood, noble motherhood, virtuous boyhood and girlhood through vision-casting discipleship tools that teach, equip, and inspire." Who doesn't want this for their own family? A month ago I contacted Vision Forum about reviewing some of their products. I wanted to be able to share this wonderful company with my readers. They graciously offered me three products to review, with the first review going up today. I could go on and on about this company - but let's get to the book I reviewed.

  
  

  

  Summer of Suspense is the first volume from The Baker Family Adventures series written by C.R. Hedgcock. The Baker Family Adventures follows a Christian family that homeschools. It is pretty awesome to read a book about families that homeschool. The Bakers have four children: Phil, Abby, Andy, and Tom. In this first volume their cousin Millie comes to visit. Initially the children are very excited about a new playmate, but that changes fast because of certain attitudes coming from Millie. The Bakers live on a farm and all the children have a love of horses. Without giving too much away, an adventure full of kidnapping, jewel thieves, and other dangers confront the Baker Family. Throughout the book there are scripture references the family uses in different situations that can also be found in the back of the book. This book contains important lessons that all readers can benefit from learning. I have already finished the first volume and have started the second, Peril On Providence Island, which will have its own review in about a month. I would recommend this books as a read aloud for the whole family or independent readers for ages 10 and up. Currently each volume can be purchased for $11.20 or together for $21.00. I also noticed that Vision Forum is offering $5.00 shipping with the coupon found on their website. A downloadable sample chapter can be found by clicking the blue sample chapter link. This would make a wonderful stocking stuffer for Christmas. 

  
  

  So, what are you waiting for? Visit Vision Forum and see all the wonderful products they have to offer including Summer of Suspense.

  
  

  Disclaimer: Vision Forum graciously offered me this product to review at no expense to me for my honest review. All opinions are mine.

  
  

Every Night I Have a Zoo on My Bed

Sorry for the grainy photo. I took this with my blackberry last night. Every animal we own except the ferret was on my bed last night curled up asleep. This is not uncommon. Once I come upstairs each night to watch a little TV they show up to take over the bed. This is probably the only time you will see all three cats calm and peaceful alongside each other.

What To Do??

I realize with this post I might be opening myself up to some negative thoughts and remarks, but here goes. What do you do if you are on fire for serving others and love God with all your heart but have no real desire to attend church at this moment? Thoughts? Here is some background:

I grew up in the church and have attended just about my whole life. Denominations have never really meant much to us, more doctrine and relationships with fellow brothers and sisters in Christ. Our current church has been our home for the past 6-7 years. We love the members, but the church is struggling in all aspects of the word. They recently had a mass exodus of members not hip to the current vision of the church, etc. Financially struggling also as are many churches in the current economy. I don't mind attending once or twice a month but at this point just don't feel the need to attend every single Sunday or all the other functions that go along with being a member of a church. The Sundays that we stay at home either Scott prepares a devotion time for us or we watch an online sermon from Andy Stanley at Northpoint Church in Atlanta. He is really awesome, even Grace thinks so. Me and Grace also do daily devotions with our school day.

At this point in life I am concentrating more on serving and spreading God's love to others. I don't feel like I need to be inside the walls of the church to do this or sitting in a pew listening to sermons we have all heard before. It is time to go out and do, not sit and listen. Still some people will come back with the "what about being around other Christians with fellowship and accountability". Well I am around Christians every day of my life in all kinds of situations. Here are just a few examples:

1. Prison Ministry Team Small Group that I attend most Monday nights. Going to a residential home to fellowship with woman with substance abuse problems.
2. Acts of Faith Ministry - Traveling drama youth ministry group. 
3. Angel Tree Ministry
4. 4:12 Ministries - Youth Service Group. Going to a children's home to fellowship with young girls and share God's love.
5. Soup Kitchen Thanksgiving Dinner - Serving meals with the youth in our group.
6. Creative Christian Cooperative - Teaching children what their God given talents are and how to spread God's love in the community with those talents.

I don't mention these things to pat myself on the back or to make us look important. I just want others to know that we are going out and trying our best to make a difference in this world on God's behalf. So does this mean that I am wrong about not feeling the need to attend church? I don't know. This is something I struggle with all the time. What would God think about this path I am forging? Would he be happy with it, or disappointed because I am missing the point about attending church. What are your thoughts? Please be nice in your comments.

Art Gallery Showing

Tonight we went to a gallery showing for my cousin, Stephanie. Most of that side of the family showed up. Grace also brought a binder of her drawings to show Stephanie and get her opinion. Not only is Stephanie an accomplished artist but she has a masters degree and teaches at a college in Atlanta. She has offered to Grace to come in January and attend a couple of her classes to learn and experience. Grace is over the top excited. It was also so great to see my family. 

Weekly Wrap

What a Week!!! Well I won't get in to the one big disappointment, just everything else.

Monday - Mostly regular school stuff. We started my most favorite thing from this week which is a Shakespeare Unit Study that I picked up at a used book sale for .99. We are using art journaling to record all of our information and reading the play as we go along. Really loving this unit.

Tuesday - We only have three more practices until we perform The Lion The Witch and The Wardrobe and we are no where near ready. In art history at co-op Grace is learning about stained glass and making some of her own. I went to Zumba after co-op and absolutely love it. Very intense and a lot of booty shaking but a great workout.

Wednesday - School in the morning and youth service group in the afternoon. I am so excited about this youth service group. Currently we have scheduled to work the local soup kitchen Thanksgiving dinner on November 17. In December we will go to a teen girl's home to have a Christmas fellowship and also a time set aside for the local animal shelter to volunteer. All the services were picked and voted on by the youth in the group. What is so great is how excited they are also.

Thursday - Grace had a lot of writing homework this week for her writing class. She was so good about getting it down and did a really good job. I picked her up two new copic markers to show my appreciation for a job well done. After writing class we zoomed off to choir and tone chimes for Grace and me teaching puppetry arts at the cooperative. Zumba again after cooperative.

Friday - School this morning then out to lunch with hubby and my mom. Forgot to mention that hubby was on vacation the past three days. Visited Hobby Lobby for supplies for my art journaling class and the journaling we are doing her for our school work, also needed materials to make a unicorn horn for Grace's costume. Hobby Lobby was have a great sale so we spent a lot of time looking around and spending money. Grace has recently started a fascination with sock monkeys and found a great one at the store as well as paper and stickers. Also stopped at a really great antique store which we will have to visit again. I will leave you with a picture of Grace and the monkey.

Be sure to visit Weird Unsocialized HomeSchoolers to see what other families did this week.

Math Essentials Giveaway Winner

The winner of the two Math Essentials Books is -


Karen from Homeschool Girls

TOS Review - Vocal Coach

Vocal Coach is a vocalist training company created by Chris and Carole Beatty. Chris and Carole have dedicated the last 40 years to training, coaching, and encouraging singers of all ages. They have taught privately, in workshops, and now can be found online. Chris and Carol have trained beginners all the way up to touring artists. We were offered the opportunity to review Vocal Coach Singer through the TOS Review Crew. Let's talk a bit about what Vocal Coach Singer is and what you will get. Included with your purchase would be:  7 training cds, 4 workout cds, instructional guidebook, and printable lead sheets for all the vocal exercises. It doesn't matter if the student is a beginner or experienced vocalist, the program will benefit them all. Vocal Coach Singer is worth over $2000.00 of one one one personal training time. Here are the topics that are covered in the cds:

7 Training CDs

• Getting Started
• Complete Breathing
• Complete Warm Up
• Complete Tone
• Complete Expanding Your Range
• Complete Diction
• Complete Performance

4 Workout Cds

• Daily Workout High Voice 1 and 2
• Daily Workout Medium/Low Voice 1 and 2

Educational Tools

• Instructional Guidebook
• Printable Lead Sheets
• Singer's Journal
• Song Evaluation Forms

The program is set up to teach you all the basics from posture to performance. Vocal Coach Singer will not only teach a vocalist how to sing their best but also how to maintain their voice over the years. Here is a quote from the website,"Good voice technique based on the knowledge that the voice is a physical, mechanical and accoustial instrument and that good foundations will equip you to sing any style you can honestly relate to."

Why We Wanted to Review This Product and What We Thought:

I have sang in choirs my whole life. Starting in high school all the way up to church cantatas. Grace has followed in my footsteps doing the same, even singing in our adult choir's Christmas cantata last year. She also performs in at least one musical a year with our drama cooperative. When I saw the vendor interest form go up for Vocal Coach Singer I thought to myself, this is the perfect product for us. We received this product as mp3 downloads. First off I need to say that this is an abundance of downloads. Lots of material for your money. We have worked our way through most of the training cds. Some of this information is very familiar to us through our own choral director. Makes me wonder if she took a workshop from Chris and Carole at some point because she uses some of the same voice exercises. I do need to admit that Grace found the first training sessions a bit tedious. Some of the information she already knew and just wanted to get to the singing. Of course I am sure a lot of singers feel the same way in the beginning. Once they learn how much their voice will benefit from learning the basics, it will become clearer how much it is needed. Grace did not really enjoy the voice exercises and being a teenager felt some of them made her look and sound silly. With that said, she still understands that the points Chris and Carole were trying to get across with the exercises was important and needed to be learned to be a better vocalist. This is going to sound a bit vague, but we are still not sure if this product is a good fit for our family. Quite a bit of the information we already knew, but for a true beginner starting out this would be great. The program will teach them everything they need to know to produce a better sound with their voice. I do plan on us continuing the product in the future, especially to brush up on vocal exercises before musical performances.

The mp3 downloads of Vocal Coach Singer retail for $99.99.
The cds retail for $119.99.

Vocal Coach Singer is recommended for all ages, youth up through adults. Take a moment to go to Vocal Coach and look at all the products they have available.

To view what other reviewers thing about Vocal Coach products visit TOS Review Crew.

Disclaimer: As a member of the TOS Review Crew, I received this product at no cost to me for my honest review. All opinions are mine.