Jonathan Park: The Journey Never Taken

Vision Forum has just completed volume 6 in their excellent Jonathan Park audio drama. My children love this series and listen to it again and again. They've learned so much about creation science along the way, and the exciting storyline and suspenseful cliffhanger endings keep them coming back for more. I can't recommend this series highly enough. There are some sample tracks on the Vision Forum website if you want to check it out. Just click on one of the banners in this email or in the sidebar of the blog.

Here's a brief synopsis of the new series:

In Jonathan Park and The Journey Never Taken, the Polar Star Medallion arrives at the Brenan Museum of Creation, throwing the Creation Response Team into a scavenger hunt the world will never forget. “Live the adventure” with Jonathan and the Creation Response Team as they uncover the true history of Charles Darwin and his cronies, all the while pursuing cryptic clues around the globe in search of a promised treasure. It’s another non-stop, faith-building, God-glorifying adventure with Jonathan Park!

This year marks the 200th anniversary of Charles Darwin's birthday, so the release of this new series is perfectly timed, as the media has been giving Darwin and his theory of evolution more coverage than ever this year. If you haven't listened to the series, why not take advantage of one of Vision Forum's Jonathan Park bundle sales? The largest savings offer is $50 off if you purchase the complete Jonathan Park Creation Adventure Audio Library. This set contains all six exciting volumes, and will give you lots of inspirational and educational listening all summer long.

They are also offering the New Release Bundle: Purchase The Jonathan Park Animal Guide Set (containing Jonathan Park Goes to the Aquarium and Jonathan Park Goes to the Zoo) and receive the brand new Album VI Jonathan Park: The Journey Never Taken, absolutely free!

We enjoy listening to Jonathan Park Goes to the Zoo when we are on nature outings. If we're headed to the zoo, we listen to the tracks relating to animals we expect to see there. If we are headed out birdwatching, we choose tracks about birds. Last year we got to see a reptile demonstration at a local state park and we listened to several tracks about reptiles in preparation for that. The Animal Guide set is a little different than the Adventure series, but very interesting and informative.

If I had to choose one, I would pick the Creation Adventure series, but at this price, perhaps you'll want to get both and tuck a set away for Christmas or birthday gifts.

More free Ultimate Homeschool Expo chats

The Ultimate Homeschool Expo is in full swing!

I had the chance to listen to Maridel Willer's talk yesterday on The Three R's for mom. She really encouraged us with an excellent message about the 3 basics for the homeschool mom. We need to be confident of the reasons why we are homeschooling, to be always working on our relationships, and once those are in place, to draw on resources that will help us as we disciple our children.

If you want to buy a ticket, you can grab one here. There is a discount if you purchase with a friend! And don't forget to enter my drawing for a free ticket! The contest ends tomorrow night at 9 pm EST. Someone is going to be blessed with a free ticket, a $40 value!

You can always listen to the preview chats for free if you are available to listen in live. The first preview chat today is with another speaker I really enjoy. Cindy Carrier of Values Driven Family will be speaking on "Simplified Biblical Instruction and Character Training for Your Young Children". Cindy is easy to listen to and I've appreciated her insights when I've heard her speak in the past. You can hear her session this morning if you log in to Blog Talk Radio at 11 a.m. EST. Or you can call in and listen on your phone.
Call-in Number: (347) 205-9175

Yesterday I had a really hard time logging in to the website, but had no trouble at all listening in by phone. Cindy said Blog Talk Radio has been a bit overwhelmed with all the UHSE's traffic. If you find you can't log in, try calling in.

You can also hear Terri Johnson from Knowledge Quest Maps today at 3 pm EST, on the topic "Seven essential ingredients to homeschooling success". Terri is another speaker that I've really benefited from in the past.

I rarely am available to listen live. Yesterday was such a blessing! But I normally stream Expo sessions at night when the kids are in bed, or download them to MP3 to listen to while running errands. If you purchase a ticket, you don't have to listen today, or even this week! This ticket never expires, so you can listen to these talks a year from now if you want to. The price of the Expo will go up, however, once all the recordings are finished and edited, so if you plan to purchase a ticket, I'd recommend doing it soon.

If you don't have time to log in to hear these speakers, but still want to check out the Expo, there are some on demand sessions on the Expo's Blog Talk radio site. At the moment, you can download or play the following episodes any time you want:

The Language of Leadership with JoJo Tabares
UHSE 2009 Kickoff
When Mom Hurts with Cindy Rushton
Disciple Like Jesus for Dads with Alan Melton
Saving Money with Coupons with Sharon Yarbrough
What About Socialization with Israel Wayne
Homeschooling on a Shoestring with Cindy Rushton

I don't know how long these episodes will be posted, so listen soon if one of these topics grabs you. One of my UHSE talks, The Homeschooler's Library, is available for free in the sidebar of this blog. I've taken this 2 hour session and broken it down into 7 episodes, each about 15 minutes long. If you have a few minutes, click on the purple widget, scroll through the past episodes and choose a topic you'd like to hear and click play. Or, to download to MP3, you can click "visit my call", and that link will take you to this page where you can download whichever episodes you want. Don't forget to look at the blog posts, too, which are posted below the widget. Each post has lists of books with enabled links so you can check out some specific titles to go along with my general recommendations in the broadcast. You can find more of my podcasts on my Countercultural Mom blog, and they are all free, all the time.

I wish so much that I could hear both Cindy Carrier and Terri Johnson when they speak live today, but we've got a busy day of swimming and geocaching planned. It's lots of fun to listen live and be part of the chat room. If you want to be able to text chat with other moms, log in a few minutes early so you can get a log in ID from Blog Talk Radio. If you log in and then refresh the page, you'll be enabled to chat with the other moms...it's a fun way to have some mommy fellowship in the middle of the day, and you can also ask questions. At the end of each session, there is a Q and A time with the speaker...you can either type your questions in to the text chat box, or call in and press #1 to ask your question on the air. Enjoy!!

Free ticket for the Ultimate Homeschool Expo

The Ultimate Homeschool Expo opened today! This is one homeschool convention you won't want to miss! And one of you is going to get a free ticket! Click here to read my post about how one session from last year's UHSE changed our homeschool forever. Also, in honor of UHSE starting this week, I'm doing two give aways this week! I'll be giving away a free Nathan Clark George CD on Countercultural Mom blog.

There are lots of great speakers at this year's Expo. I always enjoy Cindy Carrier, who is speaking this year about balancing home management and home ministry, as well as biblical and character training for your young children. Terri Johnson of Knowledge Quest maps has two sessions, as well, about teaching the multi-grade homeschool, and 7 steps to homeschooling success. There are even several sessions for kids this year, covering topics like notebooking, writing, geology, and the Civil War.

I have two sessions on the UHSE this year, as well. The Homeschooler's Library is also available here, but part 2 (questions and answers about choosing books) is only available at UHSE. I'm also writing a new series, Temptation and the Married Woman. The first talk in this series is only available at UHSE at the moment. I hope to get it recorded soon and posted on Countercultural Mom, so if you don't make it to the Expo, check there for it in the coming weeks.

This is just the tip of the iceberg of what is available at the Ultimate Homeschool Expo! To see a partial list of the speakers and their topics, click here.

That's not all the Expo offers, though. There are also free gifts in the mommy grab bag, and a virtual vendor hall where you can peruse books and resources, all from the comfort of home. This homeschool convention doesn't have an ending date, either. Your ticket gives you access to everything it offers, and there is no expiration date. I am still going back and listening to some of last year's workshops now! And this year's content is all fresh, so even if you attended last year, it's a new convention.

To enter the give-away for a free ticket, leave me a comment on this post. Tell me about one thing that is going great in your homeschool, or one thing you plan to change! Extra entries in this contest if you tweet about it, post the URL on your blog, or post the URL on Facebook. Please write a separate comment for each, though, so I can keep it all straight! The contest will close at 9 pm EST on Thursday night.