Mapelle Films - Trust Fund Movie and Love Was Near Book Review

I recently got a chance to review the newly released film Trust Fund from Mapelle Films.  Along with this, I also got an opportunity to read the movie novel, Love Was Near written by Sandra Martin.

Trust Fund is the story of young Reese.  She lost her mother when she was a teenager and has grown up and is working on her novel.  Her father sees her heading down a dangerous path.  He sees her life as a spiral of overspending and no responsibility.  He keeps trying to get her to grow into a responsible and mature adult.

Reese feels that her father and sister though just do not understand her.  She is a free-thinker and wants to do want she wants to do.  She just wants to keep overspending.  Then she discovers that she actually is set to inherit $5,000,000 from her mother in a Trust Fund.  She is so broke, and she just wants to run away from what she feels as a jail.

While in Italy, she falls into bad association and quickly must run for her life.  She fortunately has a caring father at home, and he was able to help her escape.  Reese comes back a changed person.  Her father welcomes her back with open arms.  But her sister and her fiance are very upset and have a hard time accepting Reese back into the family.

Trust Fund is a beautiful family movie.  It's a modern day story of the Prodigal Son.  It's a reminder of how no matter how much family upsets us or even does something that we do not agree with, we forgive and move on together.  That family always will be there for each other.  Trust Fund is a great story for all ages.  Our youngest is 9 and I had no problem with her watching this film.  In fact, it's a sweet love story thrown in also that is not inappropriate for the pre-teen crowd.  It's really hard to find a movie that is a love story that does not promote premarital relations.

Trust Fund is set to release July 18th nationwide for DVD purchase of $14.99.

We also had the opportunity to preview a copy of Love was Near by Sandra Martin ($12.99).  This is the story that Reese is writing during the movie.  Written for Ages 12 and up, this young adult novel takes you into a deeper look of the movie Trust Fund.

Love was Near takes you to a in-depth look of what Reese was thinking.  What her regrets were and how she moved forward.  But it's more than just reading her story.  Love was Near turns into a journal that you and your daughter can work on together as you read what was going on in Reese's mind.  It follows right along with the book.

Love was Near was written as a way to open up dialog with your child about so many topics that you may be afraid to approach or even might not even think about.  There are so many times that we think our children just know, because we do.  Well that's not the case.  We have been given such a weighty responsibility in raising our children and preparing them for life.

We definitely want to make sure we prepare them as much as possible for the world.  Reese's father probably thought he had prepared his daughters, but Reese still fell into a trap.  One of the chapters is on looking at a person and deciding if they are right for you.  (Which is why the book Love was Near is meant for the older teenage girls in your life, and not the whole family).

Mapelle Films has also provided a wonderful extra resource to use along with your viewing of Trust Fund.  There is a downloadable study guide from the Mapelle Films website.  This can be used along with your viewing or a small group viewing of the movie.  The study guide matches up areas of the movie with the Biblical story of the Prodigal Son.  It includes the bible verses that you can read along with your child.

I actually really enjoyed the Trust Fund movie.   It is an excellent family night movie for those of us with older children (at least 9 and older).  Trust Fund was a great film, that didn't come off as preachy to children.  You all know films that basically wag their finger at wrong doing.  We all know that we are imperfect and make many mistakes.  If a child feels (or even adults) that they are being preached at constantly they will turn a deaf ear to you.  This films just helps to reinforce a parents love for their children, as well as the love that our heavenly father has for us also.

The book Love was Here is an excellent companion to go along with your movie viewing.  I would definitely recommend it for girls over the age of 15.  It was a bit above Lydia at only an early 12 years old.  But as our daughters grow older, these are definite topics that we want them to be aware of, dealing with the responsibility of selecting a good mate and the dangers of what lurks out there.

Several members of the Schoolhouse Review Crew were given the opportunity to try out both Love was Near and the Trust Fund Movie.  Take some time to see how they used these Mapelle Films products in their homes.

Progeny Press - Mr. Poppers Penguins E-Guide Review

I love looking up projects that go along with books that we are reading.  But sometimes I just do not have the time.  We recently had the opportunity to review the Mr. Popper's Penguins E-Guide from Progeny Press.

We actually read this story a few years ago as a family, and Caty didn't remember it well.  She also needed a distraction from some of her typical schoolwork.  So we were excited to get started.
The Mr. Popper's Penguins E-Guide ($17.99) was extremely easy PDF to download.  You will receive two files.  One file is a Student File and the other is the Teacher's Answer Key.  You can use the Student Guide in a few different ways.  You can print the pages for your student to answer, have your student fill the answers directly into the file and save it and you can also fill in the answers and then print a copy for your academic files.
Throughout the Mr. Popper's Penguins E-Guide, which was created for grades 4 - 6, you will find not only questions about the story but also your student will be drawn to examine the various elements of creating a story.  They will look at elements like foreshadowing, hyperbole, character development, and also the use of idioms.   Using the setting of this story also encourages the study of history, math, science and geography.  Suggestions are made throughout the E-Guide to help parents really get the most out of this hilarious tale that was written so many years ago.
Throughout the E-Guide questions are also given for students to study deeper into their Bibles about various topics that were being faced by the Popper family.  Allowing students to see how the scriptures are applied in the family's life, but then can also be applied in their own lives.
Since the grade level is a little higher in the Mr. Popper's Penguins E-Guide, it was a little advanced in some sections for her.  I definitely agree that the guide is written for early middle school or advanced elementary students.  But we did enjoy going through the questions with her.  After we were done listening to the story (for this story I used the audio book and we followed along with our own copy of the book), I would ask her the majority of the suggested questions and fill in the E-Guide PDF.  I then printed the pages for her portfolio.  
Even though some of the story elements were a bit advanced, I was easily able to adjust the Mr. Popper's Penguins E-Guide to use with Caty.  So it can be used with a wide age level if you are using it multiple students.  We definitely dug into the Geography, History and Science topics that were suggested.
We dug into a penguin's life.  We studied the geography of Antarctica.  We looked at explorers of this region.  We visited the library and checked out books on these subjects, and we also watched several documentaries about penguins and this region.
One of the experiments that Caty done was learning to walk like an Emperor penguin with her egg.  It was harder than she thought.

We also explored why penguins can stay dry in the arctic.

Caty and I had a lot of fun with this book.  I will be adding this again to Lydia's literature studies next year.  The Mr. Popper's Penguins E-Guide was an easy to use literature study that required very little work for me.  I only had to reserve a few books from the library.  We have used the Progeny Press E-Guides before and I am always impressed with the amount of information that they include and how thorough they are for the students.  My only problem.....trying to decide which E-Guide we want to do next.
The actual book is not provided when ordering any of the Progeny Press E-Guides, and they offer many different guides at all age levels.  So you will need to either buy the book or order it from the library.
Several members of the Schoolhouse Review Crew were given the opportunity to try out various E-Guides by Progeny Press.  Take some time to see how they used them in their homes, and how they felt about them by visiting their sites using the link below.