One Dominion

One Dominion – Celebrating Canada – Prepared for a Purpose
Published at Bible League Canada

About the book

One Dominion: Celebrating Canada, Prepared for a Purpose invites readers into an exploratory journey through Canada’s history, highlighting key moments of faith and Christian influence, from the founding of educational institutions and hospitals, to the creation of countless charitable organizations and architectural masterpieces. With inspiring accounts of individuals who founded our country upon the Living Word of God, One Dominion helps readers uncover a deeper understanding of Canada’s foundations and futures, through Scripture and the tests of faith passed by those who have gone before.

In this carefully crafted book, Paul Richardson, President of Bible League Canada, and Bob Beasley, Vice President of International Ministry at Bible League Canada, identify Canada’s purpose and mandate as a nation, as inscribed on the Peace Tower of Parliament Hill: “He shall have dominion also from sea to sea, and from the river unto the ends of the earth.” (Psalm 72:8 KJV) Through stunning photography and enthralling historical accounts, this book is designed to instill confidence and hope in the Christians of Canada and encourage them to steward well the resources, opportunities, and peace with which this country has been blessed. Richardson encourages, “Canadians have much to be thankful for, past, present, and future, and much to steward well, both at home and for the benefit of other countries. This is a great reminder of just that.”

My thoughts

I am pleased to promote the book One Dominion that was published by Bible League Canada this year in honor of Canada’s 150^th birthday.    The book is essentially a coffee table book that reflects on the Christian heritage of Canada of the past, present, and future.   The book covers the purpose and mandate of our nation based on the scripture that was chosen for Canada’s motto – PSALM 72:8 (KJV).

As I mentioned above, I consider it as a coffee table book.   The book is larger than normal (10” x 12”) and could be difficult to handle when reading it.   It is feasible though.  But apart from the size issue that I have noticed, the book is an absolute gem of history for Canadian Christian because it will highlight the Christian heritage we have as a nation.   I have learned quite a bit while flipping through the pages and reading it.   Not only does this book displays stunning photographs but it contains a timeline highlighting some of the main events in this history of Canada.

The chapter that I have found the most interesting was Chapter 4 where I learned quite a lot about the Peace Tower.  From the information I have gleaned in that chapter I have learned that the Peace Tower was built in 1917 following a fire on Parliament Hill and that it contains Scripture verses at the top.   And yes, this make me want to plan a visit to go at the top of the Peace Tower sometime this year because apparently they will close the Centre Block in 2018 for a decade for much needed construction repairs.   I am in awe of the fact that numerous scripture verses are found over the windows and in the stained glass windows.    All three windows – east, south and west – boldly proclaim the Word of God.  Not only these windows are a testimony of our Christian heritage.   At the top of the Peace Tower, a carillon ring 15 minutes each day at noon.  This carillon is composed of 53 bells and the largest of them also has a scripture verse  inscribed in it which was requested by Prime Minister William Lyon Mackenzie King.   The scripture of this bell is Luke 2:14 (KJV) “Glory to God in the highest and on earth peace, good will to men.”     These are some of the things I didn’t know when I opened the book One Dominion and I will never forget the Christian Heritage that is found in the Peace Tower.   I was telling my oldest son, age 16, about it this morning and even he thought that it was cool that these scriptures are found at the top of the tower in the Centre Block on the Canadian Parliament.

I think this book would be a fabulous addition to your personal library for various reasons: it does highlight the Christian Heritage of Canada and it is a great souvenir to possess for the celebration of our country’s 150^th birthday.

One Dominion is available for purchase directly from Bible League Canada for the price of 29.99$.  

Disclaimer: The book has been provided courtesy of Bible League Canada and Graf-Martin Communications, Inc. for review purposes. I was not monetarily compensated for this review. Please note that the review was not influenced by the Sponsor in any way. All opinions expressed here are only my own.

Free admission at Parks Canada for 2017

As some of my readers might know – https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Canadais celebrating its 150th anniversary in 2017.  We know that many activities throughout Canada will be happening for sure.   Ottawa will probably have an amazing Canada Day celebrating on July 1st, 2017.  And the celebrations in town will start on Parliement Hill on December 31st at 7pm until midnight with musical performances on pyromusical show and fireworks at midnight.  

To celebrate this milestone for our country Parks Canada is inviting Canadians and visitors from everywhere to come and celebrate while visiting our national treasures from coast to coast.  How?  Well Parks Canada is offering its Discovery Pass for free admission for 2017!  Click on the badge below to access the page to order your free Parks Canada Discovery Pass for 2017.

What does this pass includes?  Well it allows you to get free admission to all national parks, national historic sites, and national marine conservation areas operated by Parks Canada.  It also allow you to use lockage for free at Parks Canada’s historic canals and waterways.  Check the full list of Parks Canada places on their website.

However, regular fees will be charged for other experiences and services like camping, backcountry, any other accomodations, Canadian Rockies Hot Springs, mooring, reservation fees, guided tours and hikes, programs not usually included with admission, firewood, backcountry overnight use.  Note that this is not an exhaustive list.  You will have to verify with the location you will be visiting for more details.

To learn more what is going on in 2017 throughout Canada to celebrate the 150th anniversary, check out the Canada 150 website for details.

We haven’t decided what we will do in 2017 – but we know that we want to celebrate Canada Day in Ottawa.   Canada’s 150th anniversary is definitively something we do not want to miss!

And to make celebrations even more interesting – did you know that 2017 is also the 375th anniversary of Montreal?   If you visit Ottawa in 2017, Montreal is only two and a half hours away in the province of Quebec.

All About Canada

All About Canada
From Excellent Resources – the Canadian distributor of IEW

About the product

Suitable for Grades 2-4, All Things Canada will teach progressively through all nine units of the Blended Structure and Style (Excellence in Writing) program using fun facts and quirks about Canada.    The lessons are done via online videos which guide your child for each lessons.   This product will begin with the key-word outlining and writing from notes and slowly incorporate other notions from the program as the child progress with the lessons. The product contains 21 lessons with video chapter teaching done online. 

Our Thoughts

My second son, Dominic, was seeing his oldest brother using the Excellence in Writing product in his homeschool and asked me if he could do it as well.   Knowing that he was working on his spelling and not wanting to overwhelm it with the IEW curriculum, I decided to approach Excellent Resources to see if we could review a product more at his level.  They graciously offered the product All About Canada for us to use and review as part of our homeschool.

Keep in mind that I was already familiar with the IEW writing curriculum when Dominic started using the All Things Canada.   So far, he has worked on six of the lessons and he perseveres in writing.    As we advanced in the lessons, I had taken notes on the pros and cons I could see;

PROS:

• This Vid-E product allows the younger kids to be expose to the IEW structure and way of doing things which will give them advantages when they arrive at the time to use the main product of IEW.
• The kids will learn interesting facts about our country, Canada, while using this product.
• Each video lessons have a fun video to watch before hand on the subject covered in the lesson.
• The lessons are shorts and flexible.   For example: we usually split the lesson and the writing portion on two separate days.
• The program is easy to use and depending of the age of your child, he/she could easily watch the lesson without your help and follow the guidelines of the online teacher.
• The end of the book is introducing the research reports and creative writing which will come in handy in upper levels.

CONS:

• Contrary to what the title is assuming, not all the texts on which the kids will work on are about Canada.   One text guide the child through the Golden Goose story and a few are based on Winnie the Pooh stories.   However, though the story of Winnie the Pooh has Canadian origins, none of the exercises included in this book mention it.
• Sometimes during the video portion of the lesson, the teacher is hiding part of the presentation behind. 
• All the lessons are made on PowerPoint with the teacher speaking.
• The videos are a bit pixelated when we watch them on our big screen television (which is hooked on a computer and has internet access).
• One specific extra video from Heritage Canada was having issues.  More specifically the video and the speech were out of sync.
• One specific lesson had echo in it and the video skipped at the 2nd point in the Key-Word Outline.   As well, elsewhere in the video, the teacher missing covering an aspect of the fifth KWO.

This curriculum is a good introduction to the IEW program if you want to see what it will teach as a general idea without spending a fortune right away.   I am very pleased with the efforts of my son while working on his assignments with All Things Canada and I know that he will only continue to ameliorate his writing techniques as we complete the lessons.  I particularly love the flexibility in taking the lessons.  I usually do at least one lesson per week and some weeks I was able to put it aside because of our busy schedule.    When at first, the thought of writing would discourage my son, he is not complaining anymore and even asks me if he could do an extra lesson during a specific week sometimes.   The video quality could be better but in the end, I realize that my son is also learning through it. 

We also have a white board in our dining room and when comes the time to write his sentences, I offered him to write them on the board so he can have the proper spelling for his words.   Knowing that he is advancing in his spelling curriculum but he is not quite ready to be independent, he agreed and I dutifully write his own sentences while he recompose the writing assignment.   We also have tools to help him embellish the text by using –ly adverbs and strong verbs.   He is slowly learning to use the tools we have while doing his writing assignment.   Seeing that he is only at the 6th lesson and that I see how well he is improving in his writing skills, I know that this product would help many homeschoolers in incorporating more writing in their lessons.    I have realized through the years that my 2nd born is not learning the same way as his older brother.  As a matter of fact, each of my kids are learning differently.  My learning to read was a struggle for him and I realized that he had issues with his spelling – which is why we are working diligently on it.   Consequently, writing was not a subject that he liked very much when we started grade 4 back in the Fall.   But since we got the All Things Canada (which I received in the late Fall 2013), he is more interested and even used what he learned during his writing lessons when he converse with people.    Finally, I appreciate that this product is using the same Blended Structure and Style program from IEW as it give a springboard for my kids when they will be in age of using the IEW products.

The price of this product is much more reasonable than the IEW’s one and will give you a better idea of what you can expect in the IEW program.   The coil-bound book is priced at 69.95$ while the downloadable version is available for 49.95$.  Both versions are available directly from the Excellent Resources website.  

Excellent Resources also have two other products with online lessons.   History of Canada is suitable for grades 4-6 and the student will write based on texts with Canadian Historical content.  Canada; Neighbours with a Difference is geared for students in grades 5-8 (and higher) and will provide writing lessons more Canadian content exercises.  I have not used these two products yet but would love to explore History of Canada in the future.

Disclaimer: Thanks to Excellent Resources for sending me the above mentioned title for review purposes. I was not monetarily compensated for this review. Please note that the review was not influenced by the Sponsor in any way. All opinions expressed here are only my own.

Learning more about Canada at the Museum of Civilization

As part of our recent visit to the Museum of Civilization, we have also explored part of the historical and cultural exhibition on the First Peoples Hall.   The museum highlights various parts of the history of Canada and it’s always nice to go see artifacts up close and personal while visiting.

The First Peoples Hall contains over 2000 artifacts that come from Canada’s Aboriginal peoples from sea to sea.    You can see gigantic totems in the Grand Hall and explore the diversity of the First People in Canada.   There are numerous crafts made by Aboriginals as well.   I am in awe of the creativity of the First Peoples even to this day.

It wasn’t the first time we explore this specific section of the museum.  In the past, the kids were able to discover various games that Aboriginal kids would play in order to develop the skills they would need as adults.

Elsewhere in the museum, you will also discover the Canada Hall which will take you through a journey of 1000 years of social history within our country.   The first section focuses on the Atlantic region, Quebec and Ontario through the years 1000 to 1885.  The second section will present the Western and Northern Canada from 1885 to the present.

To complete your visit and learn more about Canada, you should definitively check out The Canadian Personalities Hall which will allow you to meet face to face with twenty-seven Canadians whose decisions, actions and accomplishments shaped our country.

The museum also has an IMAX theater where you can enjoy fabulous presentations on various subjects.

Bottom line is that there is a lot to do when you go to the Museum of Civilization.  It’s a great place to learn more about Canada, to let the kids loose in the Children’s Museum and to enjoy family time.

- See more at: http://blog.goodsamcamping.com/2013/07/learning-more-about-canada-at-the-museum-of-civilization/#sthash.sptYofpJ.dpuf