Stuff I Like
This pages contains links and things Bill Lovegrove likes, collected here for easy reference. As with all free advice, your mileage may vary...
- Web Links
- Music
- Kids and Parenting
- Creation/Evolution Must Reading
- Science Stuff
- Toys
- Christian Books I Like
- Secular Books I Like
- Theology
- Churches
Web Links
- For purchasing books online, I like www.amazon.com, and for religious books I like www.christianbook.com.
- For searching, Google seems to have the most comprehensive results, but I worry about how they track and collect data, so I often use StartPage.com instead. Startpage gives you anonymous Google search results and can be used securely (https).
- Some online internet diagnostic tools:
- Visual traceroute: visualroute.visualware.com
- Online connection speed test: www.speedtest.net
Music
Most of our music comes from SoundForth, The Wilds, and SMS. Below are some less-familiar other favorites.
- Rose Ensemble - Gregorian chant and Renaissance music.A wide range of old music, some very unusual, but their new CD And Glory Shone Around has some wonderful Christmas songs.
- Pittsburgh Symphone Brass - Have several Christmas albums including A Christmas Concert and The Spirit of Christmas.
- Anyone with a bit of musical interest will enjoy the YouTube The Music Theory Song (Intervals Roasting), which went viral at Christmas 2012. The music is at http://www.swensongs.com/musictheorysong.pdf.
- The Intervals in Inversion Song is more serious but equally interesting to anyone who has ever studied sight singing.
Kids Stuff
Unfortunately, kids books go out of print quickly, including many of my favorites. They are listed here anyway because they are worth looking for. What is more important, than these particular books, however, are the kinds of books that work well with kids.
- Baby's First ABC - I love a plain alphabet book like this to start exposing my child to the alphabet very early.
-
A key to getting kids interested in books early (before age 1) is to give them tiny (3 by 3 inch or so) board books. Kids this young can't handle "real" books because they don't have the motor skills, but they will do remarkably well with board books that fit their tiny hands and don't easily tear. Here's one of our favorites: Baby's First Words (A Chunky Book)
- My Little Blue Book - (ISBN 1-56458-317-1) Color books are common, but these are different. Photos of real objects are used, with many different shades of the color. There is a different book for each color - get them all! Unfortunately, these Dorling Kindersley books may be out of print and are hard to find.
- The Great Animal Search - I generally don't like search books, but this series is different and our kids love them. The illustrations are intricate, realistic, and fun to look at. The facts about the animals are educational. And there is enough to search for on each page to keep our 3-year-old occupied for a long time.
- The Little Mouse, the Red Ripe Strawberry, and the Big Hungry Bear - Cute little story with wonderful illustrations.
- The Frances books: Bread and Jam for Frances, A Baby Sister for Frances, and others - Just great stories parents will like reading as much as kids will like listening to.
- There Was an Old Lady Who Swallowed A Fly by Simms Taback, who takes this silly old song and turns it into a fun-to-read well-illustrated book. But there are two different editions by Simms Taback - get the 1997 Viking edition, which was a Caldecott winner. The above link will take you there.
- Bob Jones University Press has the best home school curriculum. I don't say that because I am associated with them - I am associated with them because it is true. Their HomeSat satellite and video curriculum in particular is outstanding.
- Fast Food? - if you have little kids and are looking for kids meals, find a Chick-Fil-A. Unlike the popular-culture junk which goes for toys in other kids meals, Chick-Fil-A has wholesome educational books, tapes, and activities. They are closed on Sundays and have great employee programs. Check out their web site too.
- Solve Your Child's Sleep Problems by Richard Ferber, M.D. Based on sound medical research and years of experience at the Center for Pediatric Sleep Disorders at the Children's Hospital in Boston, this book is a good guide to children's sleep problems.
- Shepherding a Child's Heart by Tedd Tripp is a great parenting resource.
Middle School and High School
- Gunner's Run - Christian historical fiction by Rick Barry, an exciting story of an Air Force gunner shot down over Germany. A good example of the many good books from JourneyForth, and imprint of BJU Press.
- Age of Opportunity - A Biblical Guide to Parenting Teens. This is for mom and dad obviously, not the teens. One of the best books on parenting teens that I know of.
Creation/Evolution Must Reading
- The Limitations of Scientific Truth: Why Science Can't Answer Life's Ultimate Questions is a readable and very helpful book, one I have assigned for a text in my Essential Science course.
- The two major young-earth creationist publishers are Answers in Genesis and the Institute for Creation Research. I am not in complete agreement with all they do, but for creation information they are the obvious place to start. They both publish hundreds of creation-related items, so much that I don't know where to start in making recommendations. Below are a few.
- Darwin on Trial - My favorite critique of the case for evolution.
- Darwin's Black Box - Makes a strong biochemical case that evolution is not just difficult, it's impossible. This is one of the best modern statements of intelligent design.
- Mere Creation - This book illustrates the breadth and quality of the people making the intelligent design argument.
- For a recent debunking of a classic piece of evidence for evolution, see Goodbye, Peppered Moths. And for information on another piece of classic evolution evidence that turned out to be downright fraudulent, see Haeckel and the Vertebrate Archetype.
- Thousands... not Billions by Don DeYoung is the easy-reading summary of the results of the RATE (Radioisotopes and the Age of the Earth) research published in Volume 1 and volume 2.
Science Stuff
- HomeTrainingTools.com - source for science stuff for home
- Cool It by Bjorn Lomborg, the best single book about global warming.
Toys
- Indoor radio-controlled helicopters are a lot of fun, and the Syma S107 is an expensive but high quality example. I gave one to my nephew for Christmas and we all enjoyed it.
Christian books I like
- The Pilgrim's Progress - There was a day, I am told, when every Christian home, if it had no other books, had this and the Bible. C. H. Spurgeon said he read it one hundred times. It would do you good to read it at least once. There is also a good condensed kid's version that kids really like. The BJU Press Teacher's Guide is a big help to teachers and casual readers alike in understanding the difficult language of this book.
- Little Book of Sylvanus - Thought provoking historical fiction set at the time of the crucifixion and resurrection of Christ.
- Through Gates of Splendor - This missionary Biography of Jim Elliot made such a profound impression on us that we named our son after him. In fact, all the writings of Elizabeth Elliot are recommended.
- Biography of Hudson Taylor - This missionary biography is a classic, and important reading for anyone seriously interested in missions. Be warned that the two volumes together are about 1000 pages. If that's too intimidating, you might try the condensation called Hudson Taylor's Spiritual Secret. A poster is available commemorating his life.
Secular books I like
- Longitude - (The True Story of a Lone Genius Who Solved the Greatest Scientific Problem of His Time ) Sounded boring to me, but when I started reading I couldn't put it down. If you have the tiniest interest in things scientific this book will fascinate you.
- 365 Starry Nights by Chet Ramo - The best introduction to astronomy that I know of. This book gives you a brief lesson for every night of the year, and encourages you to actually ge outside and look at the sky.
Theology
- Four-year-old Elliot comments on the sovereignty of God.
Churches
- Mount Calvary Baptist Church in Greenville, SC (My home church)
- Grace
Bible Church of Menifee, California (my brother Pastor
Tim
Lovegrove)