Book Review: The Holy Bible Mosaic by Tyndale House Publishers

I have been using my Mosaic Bible for about a month now for my Bible reading and devotions. I am grateful that I have received this beautiful, hard-bound Bible for free so that I can review it.

 

The cover itself is already a work of art featuring a cross mosaic in front. The Apostle’s Creed is featured on its back cover. The first part of the book is the Mosaic Weekly Devotions, the second part is the Bible itself in New Living Translation. Here is a more detailed description of the Bible.

The way I see it, The Holy Bible Mosaic is actually two books in one cover. In fact, the publishers have clearly separated it by using a different paper for the Weekly Devotions and the Bible. The paper for weekly devotions are the kind that you can easily write on. The paper used for the Bible is the tissue type paper – its the usual kind of paper that I see Bibles printed on.

It’s the first time I have read an NLT Bible. It’s a surprise for me because it is so easy to read. I can compare it to reading a fiction book where the words are simple and the writing is easy to understand. I appreciate it. I appreciate the fact that I have my Bible and my guide for weekly reading in one book. It’s also good to have a theme for each week fusing my Bible reading together for the week.

The Holy Bible Mosaic team of editors wanted to show that all of our lives is part of a mosaic. A mosaic that will all come together to show the beauty of the work of God in each of our lives. No matter that all of us come from different parts of the world and diverse circumstances, each one of us is a tesserae in God’s mosaic.

Today I will have Mr. Keith Williams visit my blog. Keith Williams is the General Editor of this Bible and he will be answering our questions about the Holy Bible Mosaic. Welcome to Beyond The Silver and The Gold Blog, Mr. Williams.

In my preview review of this Bible, a reader asked this question:

Is the Holy Bible: Mosaic done incorporating the Jewish traditions/culture of Bible times?

I have some questions of my own:

Mr. Williams, I’m always curious about the process by which a product comes about. The Holy Bible:Mosaic is a very unique Bible featuring many writings from different writers worldwide.

Can you talk about the process that you and your team went through in producing this beautiful Bible?

Why did you choose to use the New Living Translation?

How did you see the Holy Bible: Mosaic touching the lives of Christians all over the world?

Now for the winner of this giveaway…

The winner of a certificate for a brand new Holy Bible Mosaic is:

LOUELLA!

I used Random.org to draw the winner for this giveaway. I assigned these numbers to those who joined:

1001 Cess

1002 Cess

1003 Louella

1004 Gemma

This is Random.org’s result:

Math Curriculum Review: The Verbal Math Lesson – Step-by-Step Math without Pencil or Paper

My father has an amazing ability to solve math problems in his head. He can add multiply numbers, do division problems, multiply large numbers and give the answers in under a minute. He did not really make an effort to develop this skill in his life, but he just does it naturally. As for me, I find that I can also do a lot of mental math and solve real life problems in my head quickly. My siblings also have the same ability. We’ve all acknowledged that the reason we can do it was due to all the math training we received from studying in a Chinese school. Where we all graduated from, we memorized almost everything from Chinese class.

Now that I’m a mom with four kids, I also desire to see the same skill developed in each of my children. That’s why I’m really privileged to have the opportunity to review The Verbal Math Lesson – Step-by-Step Math without Pencil or Pencil Level 1 and Level 2. Level 1 are for students ages 4 – 6 and Level 2 are for students ages 7-8.

As I have shared before, Guitar Babe went through a period of math burnout after we used a certain curriculum. She got tired of working on worksheets, solving the same problems over and over again. Despite the continuous work on worksheets in the past, I feel that she still needs to improve a lot in terms of doing math in her head.

Verbal Math is a breath of fresh air for Guitar Babe. She was happy that we’re working on math problems without pencil and paper. Guitar Babe was also more auditory so this is perfect for her. By taking out the writing part, the whole process of solving math problems became easier for her. I can actually observe her thinking process as she solves the problems in her head. To add more challenge, we turn the lessons into games where she and I will have a contest on who can finish a group of lessons faster. Now, after just a few lessons, her friends marvel at how fast she can now solve math problems in her head.

As for Artsy Princess, who is more visual than auditory, we practice saying the problems twice to give her time to process the questions.

With The Verbal Math Lesson, you don’t give the book to the student. You hold on to it and read every problem to your student. Since the parents are the ones reading the book, answers are already given after every question. Every lesson consist of two sets of exercises and a set of 50 – 60 word problems. For every lesson, there is a short teaching time wherein the child is taught how to process the problems.

All in all, Verbal Math has developed their listening skills as they have to listen very well to the problems. Their visualization skills are also developed because they visualize the problems in their minds. The word problems are excellent in developing their comprehension skills. Another interesting point is that they are learning the important skill of being able to flesh out the important parts of what is being said to them and focus on the math problem that they have to solve.

I guess I don’t have to say that we are loving Verbal Math in our household!

The Verbal Math Lesson are written by Michael Levin M.D. and Charan Langton M.S. of Mountcastle Company. It is available as ebooks or physical books and sold at their website.

You can go to their website for a free trial lesson and loads of free worksheets.