Recently in our house, the box everyone looks forward to -- when the UPS guy drops off the BJU Press box at the beginning of the school year -- arrived.

On this particular day, my dear husband was home, and he immediately opened the box to look at what we got.

"What? Was there a sale?" He asked me.

I wasn't following at all. "What do you mean, honey?"

He held up the Grade Twelve Writing and Grammar book, and pointing to the 12, he said, "Because, you bought ahead. Or is this a mistake?"

Have you ever seen Father of the Bride, with Steve Martin? The scene where he has his little girl sitting there at the end of the table and she looks like she's 5, and she's telling daddy she is getting married? Sure, that was funny when I watched it when the movie first came out. It's even more funny now that I know that daddies tend to filter out the fact that their little girls are growing up.

"Um, dear," I said, biting my lip, and thinking about Steve Martin, "She's going into 12th grade this year."

Gulp. Even I have a hard time beliving it!

Review: Simply Draw by Bob Parsons

I need to start off this review by letting you in on two things which may influence my review, and make it seem a bit fussy.

1. I am an experienced art teacher. I've taught art at a private school, in home school co-ops, and one on one. I've made Art DVDs, and I have artistic kids. So, I've seen quite a few art programs in my day.

2. My children have taken art classes most of their lives, not just through their artist mom, but also through Brother Don West of Christian Art For Kids. Your actual results may vary, as my kids could draw fairly well to start.

Every art teacher has his or her own way of teaching, and Mr. Parsons is no exception to this rule, and so we were able to learn things from him that we hadn't learn from someone else. Each art teacher and each artist, if they are worth their salt, tends to learn quite a bit by simply drawing. I've learned techniques from different art teachers I've had, and I've learned techniques just from experimenting myself.

Mr. Parsons jumps right on in with some fairly complex concepts, such that the experienced art teacher in me recoiled in horror.

"This guy is starting off with foreshortening? Is he nuts? Many college art students don't 'get' foreshortening!"

I was quickly breathing a sigh of relief, and was duly impressed when I saw how simply and clearly he taught a concept that has driven art students mad since the Renaissance. His main focus in Simply Draw is to explain and exercise those traditionally complex concepts, which help a picture to look as good as possible, using very simple examples (such as cubes, cylinders, and pyramids) build into the stuff that grabs a childs imagination (for example, stacking the cubes unendingly in the drawing, or creating a pencil spaceship).

Pros:

• Bob Parsons explains hard concepts in a clear and easy way in Simply Draw
• Simply Draw is very attractive to look at. The drawings throughout the book hold the attention of my children, ages 11 and up.
• This book actually comes as a shrink wrapped, 3 hole punched loose leaf book, which you put into a binder. For some of you, this may be a con. For me, I find it a pro, because it is easier to use this way. There is also a nice full color cardstock cover and a strip for the binding of the binder.
• The DVD contains printable sheets for further exercises.
• For most of the shading exercises, he provides a lightly-sketched drawing to help the student focus more on shading, without having to worry about first getting the contour drawing exact. This provides great practice for a student who is not as familiar with drawing, and is a technique I plan to use this fall in the art class I'm teaching.

Anastasia (age 13) used Mr. Parsons' SPL Weave shading technique to shade the sides of these stacked cubes, based on a lesson in the book, on the sheet provided.

Cons:

• The DVD only plays on our computer DVD player, which means everyone piles into my office, and occupies my computer, making it impossible for me to do some work whilst they are busily occupied drawing. The techical reason is that on the DVD are also some printable files. I'd prefer a DVD that works in a standard DVD player.
• I believe the shading technique taught by Mr. Parsons is very frustrating and not so easy for young (or older) children. This is perhaps a fussy art teacher "con", but just as I was typing this, instructing my youngins to make me some art based on his lessons, one of my children was reduced to tears because of how frustrating she found the shading technique. She had originally drawn the lesson he did, though she used a differnent shading technique (blending pencil), but I asked her to try to redraw it just as he was teaching for the purposes of display in this review. We had big, droppy, sad tears within a half and hour. (I relate. I cried during that class in art college.) Using lines and cross hatching to shade looks super cool in the finished product but is not so easy to acheive impressive results without much practice and patience.
• My son (age 15) pointed out to me that the way this program starts off right with shading, instead of building basic shapes, is also a "con", making it frustrating for new artists. I agree, though it does help a student get the big picture from the start. For a student who is new to drawing (having never had a drawing class before) this may bring added frustration.

Judah (age 15) used Mr. Parsons' Short Parallel Lines Shading technique for this stack of cubes, from a lesson in the book Simply Draw, which he drew freehand.

In Summary

Simply Draw is a very well written art program for older elementary children. I love the simple examples he uses and the clear and fun ways in which he explains otherwise complicated drawing concepts, such as foreshortening. As with most art programs, this one offers a different perspective on how to create realistic looking drawings, and improve the quality of your drawings through techniques that have been in use by the masters for centuries. I feel this program would be especially good for a family whose children have some art experience under their belts already. Simply Draw can be purchased from the Timberdoodle Company for $37.50, and comes with an unbound, 3-hole punched book, cover and spine, and a DVD with videos and printable sheets.

Disclosure: The FCC requies that I let all of you know that I was provided with a free copy of this product by one of my favorite companies, Timberdoodle, in exchange for a FAIR and HONEST review. Receiving a product for free does not in any way influence my review, as I feel the only way to write a review that is beneficial to you, my readers, is to be completely honest in it.

If you have a product you'd love for me to review, please drop me an email. I'm always happy to do so.

1. Know where your kids are
2. Know what your kids are doing online
3. Have an Internet Filter installed on your computer
4. Help your children understand basic common-sense safety measures for online activities.

When I was younger, I knew oh-so-much-more.

When I was younger, you'd be amazed at how much more I knew. I knew quite a bit...and I was always telling everyone what they should and should not be doing, and how it should be.

But as you get older, you hopefully get wiser...you learn that you don't always have to be right. You learn to back down from a poinless argument. You realize you actually will live another day even if you don't get in the last word about some discussion gone wrong. I have two responses when confronted: cry like a baby or go rabid pit bull on my opponent. I don't like either response, really.

This could have been me 15 years ago...who cares who I hurt as long as I preach the "truth". (cringe)
by Troy Holden, on Flickr

I have regrets over some things I've said and done in that regard. What can you do but apologize if the opportunity arise?

I received an email from a reader recently, and it's been something that is on my mind quite a bit. She wrote in part,

" What I think I like most about your writing, is how Christ defines you: not homeschooling, not homemaking, not frugal living, not where you live, or your work as a writer/web designer etc. Granted, all those things are a part of your personality and what you tell others about through your writing, but what I love is how you continually emphasize that Christ has preeminence and because he has saved you, brought you to himself, and now you are HIS servant, you do those things. It's all because of Christ, and it's all for Christ."

I felt a bit convicted about that...and blessed....because that's what I'm shooting for --Christ to be preeminent in my life and my writing and...because had she knew me 10 years earlier, she would not have seen that. I was queen of the soapbox of the week: feminism, having babies, breastfeeding, home birth, homeschooling, staying home, submitting to hubby, modesty, the doctrine of our former, extremely psychotic legalistic church, sheltering, separation, rock music, using the KJV...and whatever else got me riled up...I had a lot of soap boxes I used to like to get up on and beat a dead horse until everyone else shut up.

But as I've grown older, and hopefully wiser, because of the grace of Christ, I realized something....

What's the point?

I ask only because the primary command of the Bible isn't "have twenty kids via homebirth, breastfeed them, and homeschool them while wearing cute prairie dresses"...there are two primary commandments:

1. Love God with all you have and all you do

2. Love your neighbor as yourself (I think we may forget this one when we do remember the first).

And there's the last command Jesus gave us....to go into all of the world and to preach the gospel, and make disciples.

Our primary focus should be souls who are lost...not by making them into our personal evangelism project, but by accurately showing them what our Father in heaven is like, and what serving Christ is all about.

I may homeschool my children, and love every second of it...but Christianity is not about homeschooling. It's about loving God, loving your neighbor, and telling others.

I may seek to dress modestly, respect my husband in a God-honoring way, and keep my priorities as I feel God has directed me...yet none of those things is what Christianity is all about; they are fruit of things God has done in my life, I believe, but they don't define my walk with God.

I may go to a Fundamental Baptist church, but even that doesn't define me. I was recently asked to partake in a survey someone was doing, and they asked how I'd define my Christianity, and that is a hard one. I don't like labels, and being Baptist doesn't necessarily identify what I am...Christian does. For every awesome Baptist church like ours, there's probably a hundred psycho abusive and hurtful assemblies that have drive people away from the Savior (and I've been in a few of them)...and the same is true of every denomination and kind of church out there, sadly (Satan loves his fifth columns). We've been in horrible AofG churches, abusively legnalistic UPC churches, non-denominational churches with pastors that embezzle, Seeker Sensitive churches run by modern day Hophni and Phineas (Eli's corrupt sons-- 1 Samuel 2:12-23) . We've been in each of these churches

Soapboxes are made out of fairly flimsy wood, and break easily with enough pressure and weight brought to bear.

However, I've learned to stand on something much sturdier...a Rock, named Christ, and His Word.