Tag: faith

Review: What I Wish I Knew at 18

As tired as the adage is, people who have “been there, done that” have lots of helpful advice to offer if you are willing to hear it.

Dennis Trittin is writing to a tough crowd, older teens who often feel like they already have all the knowledge they need. However, he writes in a way that they would stop and take notice of though. His book isn’t preachy or demeaning, just packed with friendly words about the road ahead.

He makes sure to cover the major issues weighing on young adults including chapters on character, relationships and communication, spiritual life, college, careers, marriage, finances, and other miscellaneous areas. His book definitely accomplishes his goal in setting out, to “serve as a life coach for you, giving you practical before-the-fact ideas that will help you along your journey.” While he does offer lots of answers, he doesn’t guarantee an easy road. He has a realistic perspective in preparing kids to launch into adults. Life will not come easily. But, having these tools in advance will make it easier, and help them not fall into common, and often avoidable, snares.

I especially appreciated that the book is made to interact with. It is a comfortable read, but also makes you stop and think. Peppered throughout the book readers find “Take five” sections that have questions to reflect on and offer time for self-examination. Likely, students will find encouragement as they identify areas of strength, and also plenty to think about in areas they had not yet considered.

Trittin also approaches this bridge to “real” life grounded in faith. He accurately points out how important a firm grounding in faith and a religious community is at this transitional time in life. Many teens get off on their own and quickly distracted from the faith they grew up in. What I Wish I Knew at 18 warns against the danger of this and encourages them to make it a priority to stay connected to God and other believers. It is one of the shorter chapters in the book, so he doesn’t belabor the point, but does make a solid case for this important area.

He didn’t just write a book and leave it at that. He also created study guides to go along with the reading of the book which would be helpful in either a group or one-on-one setting. He also has made it available in a number of formats for those that would prefer it in a more mobile package. Be sure to check out his website for all of the different resources and information that he shares there as well.

This would make a fantastic graduation gift! I was thinking I would like to use this as a one semester course on life skills for my high school students. It covers a little bit of everything and opens wide the doors for dialogue about all those life lessons that we need to make sure we cover before they head out on their own. I’m sure you can think of someone in your circle that would benefit from this book.

Check out all these resources for more information, especially the website where you can read a sample chapter as well:

Website: http://www.dennistrittin.com

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/dennistrittinfan

Twitter: https://twitter.com/dennistrittin

Blog: http://www.dennistrittin.com/blogs.aspx

Newsletter: http://www.dennistrittin.com/newsletter.aspx

About Dennis Trittin
Dennis Trittin is a successful investment manager, educator and mentor committed to helping young adults reach their full potential. Now retired from managing over $30 billion in assets, he devotes his life to promoting leadership and life management on a global basis. Trittin serves as an advisor to several charitable groups and as a speaker with national and local educational and community organizations. Dennis and his wife Jeanne are parents of two young adults and reside in the Seattle area.

Disclosure of Material Connection: I received one or more of the products or services mentioned above for free in hope that I would mention it on my blog. Regardless, I only recommend products or services I use personally and believe will be good for my readers. I am disclosing this in accordance with the Federal Trade Commission’s 16 CFR, Part 255: “Guides Concerning the Use of Endorsements and Testimonials in Advertising.

Review — I’m All In

Don’t know where I’ve been, but when I was given an opportunity to review a brand new CD from Robert Pierre, I thought, “Who?”

No, he’s not homeschooled, but I am always looking for great music to listen to while I read my great books, so . . .

Then I started looking at his bio. Oh, he’s only 18. That’s why I haven’t heard of him. Just some brand new, trying-to-make-it kid, right? Heh. Well, I looked a little further.

His first album was released almost 5 years ago. No newcomer here. He leads worship at the church his parents helped start in Florida. He knows how to lead a crowd, knows how to perform, but most importantly he knows how to worship on a grand scale.

When most young people are just trying focusing on narrowing down college choices he is penning lyrics that show the depth of his faith, that he’s all in.

While I think the songs will appeal to young people, I personally enjoyed just about every single one of them. I would love to hear these added to our Sunday morning line up.

These are great songs to have in the background as you surf the net, in the car while you are running errands, or crank them up when you or your kids need a dance break (what? you don’t take those now and then?) All of my kids enjoyed these tunes. So, I guess they are suitable from 1 year old on up.

Take a little look for yourself (9 minute video about the album and Robert Pierre himself):

The CD is just now coming out. July 26th. You can pick it up online or at your local Christian book store.

Check out more at these links:

But that’s not all. One reader will get a free copy of the CD to enjoy in their home, car, backyard, etc. Yep, giveaway time! Here’s what you have to do:
– Leave a comment to enter yourself in the drawing.
More entries? I’d be happy to . . . You can get additional entries for each of the following:
– Share about this giveaway somewhere else (email, twitter, facebook, etc.) and leave another comment here saying you did so.
– Follow this site on our facebook fan page or google friend connect (both in the right sidebar) or RSS/email and leave another comment.
The contest is only open to US residents and will close on Thursday at 5:00 central time and I will choose a random winner at that time from the comments on this post. Can’t wait to get this CD into your hands!

Disclosure of Material Connection: I received one or more of the products or services mentioned above for free in the hope that I would mention it on my blog. Regardless, I only recommend products or services I use personally and believe will be good for my readers. I am disclosing this in accordance with the Federal Trade Commission’s 16 CFR, Part 255: Guides Concerning the Use of Endorsements and Testimonials in Advertising.

TOS Crew Review — See the Light

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I am not an artist by any stretch of the imagination. I can sometimes appreciate fine art when walking through a gallery, but I cannot begin to draw much more than a stick figure. So, our art instruction for our kids must come from elsewhere. I can handle the macaroni frames of early elementary years, but after that they lose me.

Fortunately, I don’t have to do this on my own.

Product: See the Light Art instruction DVDs

Details: A 9 volume DVD set with a total of 36 lessons taught by Master Artist Pat Knepley. Each lesson takes about 15 minutes and are designed to be watched once a week with follow up activities engaging the student until the following lesson.

Price: $99.99

What we loved . . .

  • Great for beginners of all ages. As I mentioned, I am not an artist, but I enjoy doodling and attempting to make nicer looking stick figures. Well, this DVD series brought us well beyond that. Even just in the first four lessons, which include a lot of introductory material, we all learned some new techniques and perspectives that improved our sketches. We watched this as a group from my kindergartner through my eighth grader and myself as well. Her teaching style seemed  a little “young” for my eighth grader, but the content of the teaching itself was suitable for his level. It seemed perfect for my fourth and sixth graders especially.
  • Biblical integration. Pat Knepley did a beautiful job of bringing Scripture and scriptural concepts naturally into the lessons. Her passion for art meshes easily with her faith and she shares both in this video series.
  • Perfect for once a week use. The 15 minutes of instruction in each lesson teaches a new concept and then gives the students ways that they can practice mastering the technique until the next week’s lesson. My kids really developed a greater enthusiasm for drawing while watching these videos and  have spent quite a bit of time outside of what I required of them practicing what she has taught.
  • Not a lot of supplies needed. She sticks to the essentials early on. All we needed was pencil and paper. We did also pull out a couple apples and a shoe, and there were other supplies that she discussed, but most lessons all you need is a pencil and paper. I can do that. 🙂

Some considerations . . .

  • Full year is costly. For all 36 lessons it would set you back around a hundred dollars. That is a lot of money. However, I did really like this resource and it is probably worth that to actually have an artist in your home teaching for 15 minutes each week. You can’t ask her questions, but you can see her work and watch and re-watch the episodes as often as necessary.  And, when you compare the price to a local art class or co-op class you really can’t beat the price.
  • Sometimes I felt like she went a little too fast. While most of the time I felt her pace was right on, or even a little slow, when she was adding the finishing touches to her pictures I felt like I looked down to compare it to mine and hers went from a rough contour line drawing to gallery worthy material and I’m not quite sure how she did it with so little effort. I watched it again of course, but realized that good art requires an eye for it as well.  We need a lot more practice to get close to her level, and we need to realize that she has spent a lot of time and has a natural ability that allows her to see what she needs to create a great finished product. Some of that is learned, but I don’t know that all of it can be. So, maybe it was a matter of a skill gap not necessarily the speed of her teaching.
  • Short lessons. With only 15 minutes to cover the daily lesson, she doesn’t cover much in any one lesson. This is good because you can really take your time practicing one technique or habit at a time, but some kids might get bored having such a small task to work on for a whole week. I would almost like her to show each technique a couple times in each lesson using a different subject each time, but there is enough there to build from for the most part.
  • Uses mostly her own art samples. It was encouraging to see her great work as examples and know that we were learning from someone that knew what they were talking about, but we also like to incorporate art appreciation into our art lessons. If we continue with this I would need to continue to seek that out on my own.

See the Light has put together a great program that is really well suited for the beginning artist. If you have struggled to find an easy way to bring a great art program into your home, I would encourage you to check out these DVDs and maybe even take time to give their free samples a try.

For more TOS Crew reviews on this product, check out the TOS Crew blog.

Disclaimer: This product was provided to me free of charge through See the Light as part of my participation in The Old Schoolhouse Homeschool Crew. I received no additional compensation and the opinions expressed here come from my personal experiences and sincere thoughts.



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