I am the baby asleep in the hay and I am the reason for Christmas Day. This is the last line of one of my new favorite Christmas books [Christmas in the Manger by Felicia Bond] and as I read it to my twins this afternoon I was reminded once again of just how much I love sharing Christmas with my family. We spend the whole month focusing on Jesus in extra special ways and I love every moment of Continue Reading >>
Product Review: Awesome Science: Explore Meteor Crater and Petrified Forest
The third dvd in the Awesome Science series, Explore Meteor Crater and Petrified Forest by Kyle Justice and his family shows clear improvement from the first. I am so pleased to see the increasing maturity in the young host (Noah Justice), the improvements in filming, and the quality of the world-view material. Even though my oldest daughter and I have enjoyed the first two dvds, this is the Continue Reading >>
Product Review: Growing Up Wild by Wild Brothers Productions
It seems like only yesterday that I was the Sunday School Director for our small church in Western New York. I wanted to give our regular teachers the summer off, and we had lined up relief staff for eight weeks of the summer. God had laid it on my heart to make the summer focus missions. I spent hours combing the internet looking for resources, but in the end I had to come up with my own Continue Reading >>
Product Review: Primary Arts of Language from Institute for Excellence in Writing #IEW
As I sit down to write this review, I feel like the Spaniard on The Princess Bride who says... "Let me explain. No, there is too much. Let me sum up." I could write four or five posts about Primary Arts of Language from Institute for Excellence in Writing, but I have to try and fit all of the information into one post. Yikes! Primary Arts of Language (PAL) is a comprehensive curriculum for the Continue Reading >>
Book Review: Baktar by Laurie J. White
It is not often that I pick up a book intended for children and find myself drawn into the tale and unwilling to put it down. Thank goodness Baktar by Laurie J. White is a children's book and only took me a little over an hour to read, because I read it straight through from cover to cover. I don't usually have time to do that with books... The book opens with a scene between Laurie and her new Continue Reading >>
Book Review: Nature Studies Through the Holidays by Shining Dawn Books
The very first thing I noticed about Nature Studies Through the Holidays is that it coordinates with Advent. Now I can include Science on the list of things we study from a Christmas perspective during the month on December! Am I the only one who gets excited about things like that? The Nature Study books from Cindy West and Melissa Leach are beautiful and fun at the same time. I am always Continue Reading >>
Preparing Ahead for Holiday Cooking
Baking is probably our most consistent holiday tradition. It doesn’t matter what holiday we are celebrating – baking plays is the starting point of all holiday cooking. On birthdays and Easter we bake cakes. We bake rolls and pies for Thanksgiving. But for Christmas we bake cookies and fudge all month long. The children take turns helping me make Lemon Burst Cookies or Red Velvet Delights and we Continue Reading >>
Decorating for the Holidays
My daughter has been after me for a few days now to get the Thanksgiving decorations out. I have a little pilgrim woman and a little pilgrim Indian, a turkey or two, and a few harvest type things like scarecrows and gourds. I don't really have that much. I found myself wondering why it means so much to her. We move every few years, and I think the consistency of our decorations for the holidays Continue Reading >>
Product Review: Preschool Activities in a Bag 1 and 2 and Reading Games in a Bag
"Can you make us a new game Mommy?", "Mommy, can we play a game?", "Mommy can we play the bunny game?", and my personal favorite "Mommy, can we look at the big book and pick out a new game for you to make us?" have all been the daily requests of my three-year-old twins for the last two months. We have been having so much fun with our Activity Bags! The first thing I did when I got the Continue Reading >>
Product Review: Samson’s Classroom For Young Readers
When we started this school year, my husband and I agreed that if both of our middle children could learn to read -- and that is all they were able to accomplish -- we could call this year a success. My nine-year-old has had an especially difficult time with reading. Since our traditional method was not working, we have been pulling out all of the stops with her and trying a variety of methods. Continue Reading >>