Book Review: God’s Promises for Boys by Jack Countryman and Amy Parker

 

This week I was given a copy of God's Promises for Boys by Jack Countryman and Amy Parker. The book is set up with 7 parts, such as "God's Promises When…," "God's Promises About…," and "God Wants You To…" Each part has headings under it, and verses under each heading. For example, under "God's Promises When…," one heading is "You Need Forgiveness," and the verses listed are each about how God will forgive us, when we repent. The verses are in the International Children's Bible version, from Thomas Nelson. (I really like this version for my kids, we use it regularly.)

 

I really enjoy this book, and my 7 year old son has already started devouring it. He tends to have slight anxiety issues, and is very spiritual minded, and enjoys studying the Scripture for himself. This book helps him when he's looking for a specific concern he has. He's going to get a lot of use out of this one. This would be an excellent gift for a boy at his baptism, confirmation, or other spiritual coming-of-age ceremony. I would highly recommend it.

 

Disclosure of Material Connection: I received this book free from Thomas Nelson Publishers as part of their BookSneeze.com <http://BookSneeze.com> book review bloggers program. I was not required to write a positive review. The opinions I have expressed are my own. I am disclosing this in accordance with the Federal Trade Commission's 16 CFR, Part 255 <http://www.access.gpo.gov/nara/cfr/waisidx_03/16cfr255_03.html> : "Guides Concerning the Use of Endorsements and Testimonials in Advertising."

Book Review for Captivating: Unveiling the Mysteries of a Woman’s Soul by John and Stasi Eldredge

A couple of weeks ago, I received a copy of Captivating: Unveiling the Mysteries of a Woman's Soul by John and Stasi Eldredge to review from Booksneeze.com. I dove into it right away; I had read Wild At Heart by John Eldredge, and learned so very much about my husband while reading it! I was extremely excited for a woman's counterpart to the book.

And I must say, I was not at all disappointed. Captivating touches on the very essence of being a woman, of being a daughter of Eve. It shows not only the when we were created, but the why, and in a way that shows God's incredible, intense love for us as women. It attempts to unveil the secrets to the feminine heart (if you can… it does a pretty good job, though!), and shows us how to start healing our wounds, by first and foremost, making God the hero in our fairy tale. It's a book about being uniquely feminine, to truly be an ezer kenegdo (commonly translated helpmeet, but being, oh, so much more than that!). It also shows something I've been missing in other books on godly femininity. It shows me how to put into perspective longings that my heart has had, and how those longings directly come from God, and are there to bring me always back to Him.

Overall… a book I highly recommend!!


 
One of my favorite quotes from the book says, "This book is not about what you ought to do, or who you ought to be. It's about discovering who you already are, as a woman. A woman who at her core was made for romance, made to play an irreplaceable role in a shared adventure, and who really does possess a beauty all her own to unveil. The woman God hand in mind when He made Eve… and when he made you. Glorious, powerful, and captivating."


Disclosure of Material Connection: I received this book free from Thomas Nelson Publishers as part of their BookSneeze.com book review bloggers program. I was not required to write a positive review. The opinions I have expressed are my own. 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.”

Worship Guitar Class V1 Giveaway!

Found a great new giveaway for y'all!  TOS Homeschool Crew is giving away a copy of Jean Welles Worship Guitar Class Volume 1!  Definitely go check it out, enter, and enjoy!!  Make sure you check out all of their terrific reviews!

Christian Homekeeper Blog

So, scrolling through the new posts at A Virtuous Woman, I found a link to a giveaway.  Since I am quickly becoming a giveaway junkie (I'll just HAVE to have a really good one here, soon!), I of course headed over...

And found the SWEETEST blog for Christian Homekeepers!!  I just love blogs like this.  I am SO very much not domestically inclined, so I  really need this sort of encouragement.

They're having a 5 Weeks to a Clean and Organized Home event going on, and stuff like that is another thing I just LOVE.  They've already pretty much finished Week 1, but I'm jumping in now, and you'll be able to see as the kids and I scramble to catch up.  I'll make sure to post all of our pics and things here!

I just found this blog today, but I can't WAIT to grab a cup of coffee and dive in.  I hope you enjoy it, too!

Obedience Lapbooks

I'm not sure how it happened, but I forgot to post our Obedience Lapbook!!  We got ours for free at Homeschool Share, and we used the resources at The Character Journal to fill it out.  This one was pretty intensive, it took quite a while.  

Big thing we learned:  We obey Immediately, Completely, and Cheerfully, otherwise it's not obedience.  (In other words, you can do what you're told, but if it's not cheerfully, it's not obedience.  Or you can do something cheerfully, and quickly, but if it's not completely done, it's not obedience.)

There was tons of writing-- copywork for different verses, we learned the Keys to Obedience, lots of definitions, things like that, even finding hymns about obedience.  If I do this one again, I won't use every resource, I'll pick and choose.  It was a lot for our kids.

These are our Ten Tests of Obedience.  There wasn't enough room here for the kids to write, but older kids would do just fine on them.  

More copywork.  Told you there was a lot!  LOL  

This was a great lapbook, and it did teach the kids a lot.  But I would definitely pick and choose what you need for your family, rather than trying to do it all like we did. ;)

Butterfly Award

This is our Butterfly Award Lapbook!  I didn't make this one up on my own, I found it at Homeschool Share. 

This is the cover, isn't it pretty???  Used a ton of ink, though...

The kids have studied Butterflies before, but they still learned a few things!  Here are some of the books we filled out.

More things we learned...

And this is our Butterfly Craft, a colorful butterfly made of torn origami paper.  (I couldn't find tissue paper at the store I was shopping at...)

The kids are going to be using these lapbooks next week.  They'll be giving a presentation for the students at Big Horn Christian School for their Spring Week of Prayer.  They'll be showing the students how butterflies can show us about God's love, and being reborn in Christ.  

These Adventurer Awards are a wonderful way to incorporate Nature Studies into your homeschool, if you're like me, and don't have a natural bone in your body.  I seriously won't even sit outside at restaurants, because of the bugs and lack of AC.  But this way, I know the kids are learning something about God's wonderful world!

Another awesome free lapbook!  You can find it here!

Glue Right Award

OK, this next award isn't technically a Busy Bee, it's a Sunbeam award (which is Grade 2).  But, it was so insanely easy, I let the kids go ahead and do it anyway.  Here's our Glue Right Award lapbooks!

I wrote Glue Right in marker, and the kids traced over it in glue, then put the glitter on.  We might've not let them dry all the way... sorry about that.

OK, this award is a bit on the easy side.  You can see the requirements here.  Each of the lines (1-6) they had to demonstrate control of the glue, for a thin line, thick line, and dashed lines.  The line with the starts is the line Katie thought she did best.  Then, they had to fill a circle with glue, without going outside of the lines, glue a magazine picture, make a design with sequins, and put glue on lines (the star), and use glitter on those.  So, that's what this page shows.  

The final page is showing the craft they did (gluing buttons on a box, to make a button holder), and the Bible Verse that went with this Award (Proverbs 18:24).