Good Night Tales- The stuff that the best traditions are made of

“A children's story that can only be enjoyed by children is not a good children's story in the slightest.”

― C.S. Lewis

As is always the case, C.S. Lewis speaks the truth with this quote- it seems truer and truer the more children's books I dive into with my kids. "The best kids books" has become my area of expertise in a pretty big way in these years of young kids and homeschooling. I honestly love my kid's favorites books as much as they do, maybe more so in some cases! I have always loved well done children's picture books-bringing home a big stack of them from the library was one of my very favorite things. I was so pleased to be able to renew that tradition with my own children when they came along. Since I have started homeschooling my children, I have found that the consistently best quality books are the classics from years gone by. I have memorized book lists of titles to be on the look out from generations past. It's always a very pleasant surprise indeed when I run across a modern new release that I feel is worthy of a place on my bookshelves. 

 C.S. Fritz's Good Night Tales: A family treasury of read aloud stories has proven to be such a rare treasure. I love everything about this rich volume. From the gorgeous illustrations to the meaty and mysterious tales. This is one of my very favorite children's books to date.  

 The hand sketched "maps" in the end pages and all the deep and moody images throughout the book are just so engaging, even entrancing. It's truly like entering another realm and painting new images in your imagination that will surely stick there. 

The stories within these pages, most are parables of the parables and I find them so heart stirring and fascinating. Honestly, they are not the most straight forward stories you will ever read to your children, but I kind of love that. Like Jesus's parables, these tales make you really stop and think. a few of the stories are even wordless to up the thought provoking quality. I am trying to train myself to let my children alone with stories and their morals and themes but I do appreciate the discussion guide in the back of the book with coordinating scripture and questions for each story. I think it will prove useful for many parents!

I honestly think I would have missed this book if i hadn't have been given the opportunity to review it, so I want to make sure I make it known to other parents looking to immerse their children in best of the fantasy worlds to discover the deepest truths of our world. This book will be on my "must gift" list, right up there with The Jesus Storybook Bible. 

Truly, I say to you, unless you turn and become like children, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven.-

Matthew 18:3

Thanks to Tyndale Publishers for the opportunity to review this remarkable book.

Bible Stories in Board Books

I am loving this stage of Motherhood, as it means I have children in so many fun stages of childhood: An early school age, a preschooler, a toddler and one not even made her first appearance yet! ;) I have enjoyed the challenge of teaching exciting, new skills like reading to my oldest. My preschooler has a natural wonder for life and all that he gets to learn and explore that is just so contagious. My toddler is just adorable (I'm not biased or anything like that! ;) and brings a lot of joy to our days. I cannot wait to have a brand new baby in the house soon and re-experience all the magic of the First Year.

 As a book loving Mama, I have also really been enjoying sharing multiple forms and types of books with my boys recently. I have started some classic, first chapter book read alouds with my two biggest boys. Everyone in our house enjoys a good picture book. I am so glad to still have a toddler to read board books to and look forward to bond with the newest Little One over them too! Board books are the perfect introduction to having "your own library" for the youngest members of the family. Durable, easy to hold for little hands, and quick to read- they are a beginning to a lifetime love of books. What better way to introduce some of the most foundational bible stories at an early age than in the form of Baby's own board book! I love the newest offerings from Worthy Kids/Ideals Publishing that do just that- In the Beginning and Noah's Ark by Susana Gay and her son, Owen. 

In the Beginning is a the perfect paraphrase of the Creation Story for very young readers. My toddler loved the suspense of the blank/dark first page as the beginning of the account of God creating the world from nothing. The text is accurate and direct- perfectly for short attention spans. I love the clean and basic illustrations to portray each day of creation. The happy animals and people at the end really made the whole story come together for my little boy. 

Noah's Ark shares the well loved, children's favorite story of Noah's giant boat full of animals! I loved the sweet introduction to Noah on the first page and how the middle of the book turns into a counting primer. My toddler is 2 so he loved seeing "his number" over and over! I appreciated how the story took them all the way through to landing on the mountain top and gave all the credit of the rescue to God. How fun is the rainbow with the colors primer aspect added?! 

These two little books are an exciting addition to my board book library and I can't wait until my toddler becomes a big brother and can "read" them to Little Sister! :) I will definitely be considering these as baby shower gifts as well. The text is perfect for this age range and the artwork is modern, yet classic. 

Thank you to Worthy Kids Publishers for providing me with these fun books to share a review with my readers of. 

Picturing the Past- A wonderful Charlotte Mason inspired Artist Study Resource

As I tread on in my (very fledgling) homeschool journey, I am continuously in awe at both the great weight and the immense joy it is to be the Curator and Instructor for my boy's' education. There is truly so much that I want them to know and even more than that, so many beautiful things I want them to be able to experience and take pleasure in. I secretly have always purposed to raise little Renaissance Men- I really hope for my boys to be able to have a wide appreciation for the vast amounts of Goodness, Truth and Beauty  that are found, literally, everywhere. There are so many pursuits and pastimes that been dismissed by our generation as antiquated and particularly not "manly". This is depressing considering that most of the geniuses in the creative fields for years have been men and being "cultured" has traditionally been a sign of an accomplished man. Honestly, my boys live on a farm and are surrounded by very amazing, hard working, masculine men and I really couldn't be more grateful for that! They learn so much from these grounded and wise men, but the "cultured" part is up to their Mama! ;) And since I am on a vulnerable streak here, I'll also add that I am not always very reliable at providing them the opportunities to be exposed to the Arts and other sources of enrichment. They are a rough and tumble bunch who are always chomping at the bit to get to some "war game" or head out the door. Many days between (what feels like constantly) feeding them, cleaning up after all the "fun" they've had and trying to fit in a few quiet moments for myself, it seems that we are lucky to get the very basics of school in each day. All the amazing and beautiful "extras" I so wish to have woven thru our days usually get left in "a dream" status. 

Though I have found a very effective way to add enrichment subjects to our days is Morning Time- an hour or so each morning that we tackle little bites of various topics such as catechism, poetry, etc.-I am really striving to add Artist and Composer study to this Feast on a more regular basis. This is an area that I don't have a lot of natural resources and storehouses to access in my own accord. I have book lists galore archived in my head but paintings and pieces of classical music- not so much. I grew up doing a lot of reading, especially since I have a natural affinity for it, but I didn't have a lot of attraction or exposure to artists and composers. So this is really a whole new game for both my boys and I. I'm really okay with that though, because one of my favorite benefits of homeschooling is that I get to learn right beside my kids. There is always something new to discover in this life!

 I decided to just jump in and do something for an artist study, even if I didn't have a ton of personal knowledge to impart or the perfect approach to use. In all honesty, we have studied one artist this year. Not exactly impressive, but we have fit in a lot of fun coordinating projects and books because we weren't on a tight time frame. My boys are really young and we have many years left to fill with new artists and their paintings. We choose Van Gogh this fall, partly because we had an abundance of sunflowers blooming and Vanf Gogh's sunflower paintings seemed like a perfect fit to introduce art study. We of course looked at a couple of his renditions of his favorite flower and the style in which he painted. We made some of our own sunflower masterpieces, which the boys really enjoyed. I found a couple of picture books about Van Gogh and his life and those fit in really nicely with our study. 

I was really excited to find out that the met museum has an extensive collection of classic art pieces archived online for free personal download and use. I printed out 4x6s of a few of our favorite Van Gogh pieces and have them displayed on our "school wall." But nothing beats having art in larger format, high quality prints to study. A wonderful resource I have found for providing a wide collection of famous artists pictures in one book and also a neat format for documenting your students artist study is Sarah Brown's Picturing the Past: Charlotte Mason Homeschooling Study of Art and History. In true Funschooling fashion, this is a large format, high quality (and thick!) workbook. It is designed to be a year long study that covers 15 well known artists-as well as a fun collection of pictures by unknown artists at the end- that are dated from 1700-1930. The Artists included are Pierre Auguste Renoir, Mary Cassett, Vincent Van Gogh, Claude Monet, Charles Burton Barber, Harry Brooker, Albert Anker, George Dunlop Leslie, Gustave Caillebotte, Edgar Degas, Paul Cezanne, Camille Pissarro, John William Waterhouse, Grant Wood, and Lois Wain. Each artist has an average of five pictures featured and a dedicated work page accompanying each picture for recording impressions and notes from the student. The worksheet asks students to look at the piece of art for a few minutes and then answer two of the four questions on a given day. The questions are "What can you learn from this picture?", "What do you think the artist is trying to communicate?", "Make up a short story about this picture:", and "How does this picture make you feel?" I think these questions tie into the Charlotte Mason method of artist study pretty neatly. Mason advocated a pretty simple, straight forward approach of repeatedly showing an art print to a student over a period of time and asking them to observe the painting and remember what details they could to tell back. These repetitive, open ended questions will give the child a idea of what to be "looking" for in the painting and what will be expected of him later on in the study time.

My boys are all technically under the recommended age range for this workbook, but they caught on to the concept pretty quickly. I plan to stretch this study book well over the year long period it is designed for and use it as an awesome art study supplement to record the artists we've studied over our school career. 

We finished out our study of Van Gogh by "celebrating" his birthday on March 30th! The boys had fun filling out a interactive, little booklet about Van Gogh's approach to painting and some of his most famous pieces. My oldest received a high quality, paint by number of "The Starry Night" and enjoyed working on that. My Preschooler is super creative and did a great job on making his own rendition of "The Starry Night" with paints and construction paper!

Artist study has been a grand, new adventure for our little schoolroom and I am so thankful to have the Picturing the Past: picture study journal to provide me with some direction and actual prints to use. I think we'll dive into Monet next!

I am very grateful to The Thinking Tree LLC. for providing me with this great resource for my family and to be able to share a thorough review with you all.

The Story Travelers Bible: A timely children's bible with a unique twist

I think it's safe to say there is a literally a bible translation, version and edition for everyone. Of course, the bible-the gospel- is already enough for absolutely every single person on earth already stand alone. On top of that, there has definitely proven to be a market for "customized"  bibles for different groups ( children, teen, woman, mom, firefighter, etc, etc.) with add-on devotional readings and other details to interest the chosen reader type. I will admit to owning several different versions and translations of bibles in my home and am always up for adding another, if the addition proves unique from what we already own. My husband and I both have our own preferred study bibles and we have quite the stack of children's bibles around! I just recently bought my oldest a full text "kid's" bible for 6th birthday to start following along in during bible reading time, church and awana. I seem to be slowing down in "need" for bibles for our household for this season. But then recently I ran across an intriguing, new illustrated bible "story book".

 The Story Travelers Bible is a packed full of 85 fully illustrated bible stories and lots of neat extras! It is marketed towards 4-8 year olds- an extremely ideal age range for my house and an "transitional" age I feel like falls between toddler/young child story condensed bibles and the full text older kids' bibles. I am excited to use the Story Travelers Bible with my boys during our daily Morning Time bible reading time for school. We have been going through a "Bible Road Trip" reading plan from start to finish and think this will be the perfect edition read our bible stories out of. I think it is a great fit for a "school time" bible because of the extras added through out. There are some really neat "pop up" sections that give kid's further details regarding the geography, time period's culture and other educational topics; as well as prompts to think about how to apply the text to building their own faith. 

This bible has an introduction story that invites us to meet the our Story Traveler partners- Lana, Munch and Griffin-who are starting off a week of vacation bible school. This year's theme is "Getting to know God" and the children start to timidly confess to each other that they all try to read their bible but none of them really feel like they know God well or can relate to the stories of the bible as actual real events. Next thing you know, the children are exploring an intriguing, yet abandoned minibus outside of the church. They climb in to check it out when suddenly, the bus comes to life and they are all whisked away in a whirlwind..

I think that should do a proper job of getting my boys excited for the "adventures" to come! The lively and engaging, yet not overly cheesy illustrations really help each story to jump off of the pages as well. Our friends in the story get to blast to the past and visit each bible story and find out how real the bible characters and God's love and involvement in their lives truly was. The ongoing narrative of the kids' adventures woven around the actual bible stories doesn't "get in the way" or add any unnecessary perspectives or opinions, but actually does an impressive job of helping kids understand more of the timeline and geography of what's taking place as the Story Travelers make sense of maps and their surroundings. I also really appreciate that while obviously this book is a bible paraphrase of sorts (as most kids bibles are) after each story there is a note about where to find the corresponding full bible passage in a full text bible. 

With Easter coming up soon, I plan to read thru the events of Jesus's life leading up to the crucifixion and resurrection with my boys over a couple weeks. I am looking forward to using The Story Travelers Bible to take that journey with us. 

Thanks to Tyndale Publishing for providing me with this bible to share with my boys and my readers!

An Amazingly Thorough, yet Whimsical Theology Course wrapped up in a Children's Book

Consistency is not my strongest suit but I have more than learned the value of good habits and routines. One practice that has started to "stick" fairly well in my boys and my daily rhythm is "Morning Time"-this happens after breakfast and chores and before I do any individual school subjects with the boys separately. We all gather at the dining room table and enjoy a "broad feast"-not of food, but ideas. We start with a quick prayer, go over our AWANA verses and read a section of the bible for our Bible Road Trip. We focus on learning a new song from Songs for Saplings each week, they offer some great catechisms set to catchy tunes. We also cover some fun, out of the ordinary ways to learn math, church history, and the boys love our time for nursery rhymes and a silly poem. The point of Morning Time is not academic but to connect as a family and focus on things that are good, true and beautiful. 

A book that I had on my wishlist for some time and was so excited to incorporate into our Feast was The Ology: Ancient Truths Ever New by Marty Machowski. This book is incredible, really. When I think of the good, true and beautiful, I picture this book. Machowski offers a dense and rich spread of theological truth written towards kids, but just as nourishing for adults and wraps it up in a gorgeous, heirloom quality format of a book. One of the tag lines from the publishers is "A beginner s book of systematic theology in the form of a beautifully illustrated storybook." I think this is really the perfect way to sum up what this book is. It truly is a very comprehensively laid out theology course in the form of an engaging children's story. 

It begins by introducing us to our main characters- Carla and Timothy who are exploring their church building when they discover not only a secret underground stairway but also a mysterious package that beckons them to "Open and Read". Within is a letter explaining that they have in their hands a last of it's kind historic children's book that teaches the Theology, the study of God. And so begins our journey with Carla and Timothy thru The Ology. 

The book is very systematic about it's teaching approach and I think that's perfect to make sure even the youngest child can begin but also make sure the more advanced student has a through and solid foundation. It starts with The Ology of God, which covers the attributes of who God is. Then, we move to The Ology of People where we're reminded of our creation and first parents. Next, we have to face the hard facts in The Ology of Sin which does a great job of clearly explaining to children what sin and it's consequences are, both at the first instance in the Garden and in their lives now. The Ology of the Promise and the Law explains God's "rescue plan" and how the law was first introduced and what it's purpose is.

 The hope comes with The Ology of Christ when children are told of Jesus' divine and human aspects and what all he did for us. Things go a little deeper still when we get to The Ology of the Holy Spirit and learn of the introduction of the Holy Spirit to the first believers and how it is with us now. The Ology of Adoption into God's Family gives us many reminders of our truest identity. The Ology of Change I think is where things start transitioning to being a great challenge and lesson to older children, past the basics of what God has done for us and focused in on how we can live for him. This section deals with how we can grow and have victory in Christ and I'm thinking my oldest who just turned 6 would really get a lot out of these lessons at his stage in understanding the faith. The Ology of the Church does a wonderful job of explaining what the purpose of the Church is and why we need to be a part of it. A much helpful to teaching parents section on The Ology of the End Times gives some great insight into the tricky subject of "things to come". And the whole book is tied up nicely with the last chapter The Ology of God's Word where we are reminded of the importance and power of this book we're studying so in depth. 

Each "lesson" is short and concise with coordinating scripture and a whimsical illustration to engage kids. There is so much packed into this volume that I don't foresee us getting through it any time too soon and I am totally ok with that. Like any delightful thing you want to draw it out, soak it up and savor it. That's most importantly, how we should feel about God's word and I think Marty Machowski has doing a wonderful job of invoking a similar feeling about the complementary study of Theology with this outstanding title. As only the best kid's books can do, I feel like this is a gift not only for them, but for me as the lucky parent who gets to read it to them. This book will be treasured by my family for many years of growth and spiritual formation to come and recommended to all my  dearest Mama friends. 

Thanks so much to New Growth Press for providing me with this title to enjoy with my children and wholeheartedly recommend to my readers.

The Fun Way to School: Thinking Tree's Fun-Schooling Journals

The Holidays have came and gone and it's now time to find a new rhythm and inspiration for the cold and sometimes dreary Winter months ahead. A couple motivating factors are lingering from the Christmas celebrating- A new electric pressure cooker (Christmas gift from the husband!) to inspire flavorful, yet much quicker dishes in the kitchen and a much deal of a boost, the news that our sweet baby #4 is on the way in early August! What a precious gift this revelation was to receive this Christmas; all of my boys are very excited for a new member of the family and the countdown to baby will definitely help pass the Winter months with anticipation. Though it also means that Mama's energy levels have plummeted pretty impressively during the tricky first trimester and things around our house have had to be slightly adjusted for the time being. The chores mostly get done, though not quite so efficiently. Meals are getting on the table one way or another, a big thanks to my generous husband who has been known to be bringing home a lot more take out after work. School is an important and fun part of our day that I really don't want to completely drop the ball on this front. I wanted lie to you, our full line up of school doesn't happen every day- I will add though that my "ideal" school schedule I set up in the fall is pretty ambitious so it takes a really good day to get to all of it! I am very ok with currently cutting back to the necessities and a few fun extras to keep school a joy and not a burden. We still fit in Morning time on the days that I'm feeling energetic and on the not quite days we aim for reading, handwriting, math and some supplemental fun activity. One of our favorite Fun Schooling resources has been the Thinking Tree Fun-Schooling Journals. There is such an impressive range of options offered- for all different ages, boys or girls, season specific and more. We own the Ages 3 to 7 Fun-Schooling Journal - Do-It-Yourself Homeschooling for Beginners: Homeschool Prep-Book For New Readers and Non-Readers!  and the Ages 6-9 Fun-Schooling Journal - Do-It-Yourself Homeschooling 1st - 3rd Grade: Learning Activities For New & Struggling Readers. 

My boys love having their own special books and I really like how open ended they are. Unlike usual school work books that are looking for specific answers, these books really are more like a personal learning journal that kids can really make their own. There are prompts and activities on each page such as a page for nature study documenting, plenty of coloring opportunities, pages for recording books read and copy work, and much more!

 Since my little boy using the Ages 3-7 book is on the younger side of the age range there is a decent amount of writing space that he will dictate for me or he'll grow into later, but there is still plenty of coloring and drawing activities to keep him busy!

We have slowly been working our way thru the Beautiful Feet books Early American History Primary Study and came up to an activity where we were to write out The Principle of Individuality and stamp the boys finger prints around the copy work. I felt this would be the perfect type of activity to archive in our school journals. My littler boy went crazy with finger print art all over the poem I wrote out for him. The artwork on the page we chose includes numerous cats hidden through out and he just loves cats, so I had him search for and circle all the cats he could find. 

My oldest kept things a bit tidier with a neat circle of finger prints surrounding the poem and then he played "look and find" with the music notes in the surrounding picture. 

He also had fun filling out one of the Thinking Time pages that asked him to complete lines of patterns- a great exercise in logic skills.

These books have been a life saver for this currently low energy Mama, providing me with a pretty much self directed learning resource that I can easily get away offering to my boys as "pure fun". I think it will also be a neat way to store,"notebooking" style, different school activities that don't naturally fit into another school book. I am excited for the many other options of Fun Schooling journals we will have to look forward to in the years to come!

Thank you to Thinking Tree Publishing LLC for providing these books for me review and share with my readers.

  

Our First Big Boy Bible

My oldest boy just turned 6-he's growing up in a hurry and taking us to all new stages in life as a family. He's enjoying venturing out of home and doing his own individual activities more and more, the biggest right now is Awana. He just loves getting picked up by his best buddy and his dad each Sunday night and going for a fun night of bible stories, verses and games. Now that he's old enough to really understand and memorize bible verses they encourage him to bring his own bible to look verses up in. Well, so far his bible collection has been made up of The Jesus Storybook Bible and a couple, colorful Gideon's New Testaments. I knew his birthday coming up meant I needed to get him his own unabridged "big boy" bible. But boy, what a wide market it is for kid's bibles- so many options! 

The winner for us was the NKJV: Airship Genesis Kids Study Bible edited by Dr. David Jeremiah. My husband grew up on the KJV of the bible and I used the NIV, I felt the NKJV was a good starting place for a young child just learning how to read. David Jeremiah is the founder and leader of Turning Point ministry and I respect and enjoy his work and teaching there.

I really appreciated the intro letter Dr. Jeremiah included welcoming kids on this "bible adventure" and encouraging them to take ownership of their very own bible- circle verses, write notes, it's yours! Then we are introduced to the crew of the Airship Genesis and given an overview of our mission- explore the bible from start to finish! There is a "mission overview" for each book of the bible and tons of extra fun facts and notes. As well as a concordance and nicely done illustrations of major bible characters.

I was excited to see there's even a whole complementary website for this bible with audio lessons and bible adventures. That will be a fun bonus for my son to work his way through.

I think this will be a great first bible for my curious and growing little boy!

Thanks to Book Look Bloggers for providing this copy to review.

Baby Wren and the Great Gift- A whimsical picture book for spring days

There's something special about discovering a favorite author; finding a kindred spirit in a writer that translates into knowing that each book that they have authored will be a treasure in your personal library. Sally Lloyd-Jones is one such children's book author, in my opinion. I bought her Jesus Storybook Bible as an Easter gift for my oldest son when he was just a baby and now that said bible is barely holding on by a thread (and a lots of tape!) after countless readings and a lot of use by three little boys. The Jesus Storybook Bible is so well loved in my house, I have given it as gifts to everyone I possibly can! After falling in love with Sally's writing thru her wonderful children's bible, I have kept a keen eye out for any more of her books to add to my bookshelves. We love the Song of the Stars at Christmas time and Poor Doreen is a humorous read for my boys, as well as their Mama!

I was so excited to hear that Sally had a new book coming out this Spring and snatched it up as soon as it was possibly available! Baby Wren and the Great Gift is an adorable and uplifting picture book to share with your kids during this beautiful spring days-maybe sitting on a quilt under a nice shady tree? ;) Whether you read this book with your children in the most picturesque of settings or on a couch surrounded by ever growing piles of clean laundry, (this is a much clearer picture of the reality of story time at our house) this book with capture your children's attention with it's whimsical illustrations and get into their hearts with it's inspiring message. 

Sweet and fragile Baby Wren lives in a tiny nest in a canyon. She has hunger to explore the world beyond her tiny home and proceeds to meet many impressive and talented animals on her adventure. They all invite her to take part in their world and ways and she finds she can't. Disheartened by this, Baby wren wonders, "What can I do?" She realizes she can be a witness to the wonderfulness of the world around her and she can express her thankfulness for it- through song! 

I have always loved children's books, long after that was the genre for my age range. A beautifully illustrated picture book with an engaging story that is able to pull in the attention and still my ever moving little boys is very hard for me to put back on the store shelf. Sally Lloyd-Jones is a masterful storyteller and I will supply my children with as

 many of her titles as I can find!

  I received this book in exchange for my honest review thanks to Book Look Bloggers.

Making drool look cool: Snappy Swagger

3 babies in and I know without a doubt teething is never fun. With teething usually comes large amounts of drool which is never really all that fun (or cute) either. The cutest baby clothes look a little worse for the wear soaked in baby drool. Not to mention having to change outfits multiple times a day to keep up! Small bibs work alright to soak up moisture but then some genius mom (I'm sure of it!) invented the baby bandana. Now, baby gets to sport a stylish, hipster accessory while not having to worry about that pesky teething side effect-multitasking at it's finest!

          

 With my middle boy, I had a little extra time to craft more; so I pulled out the sewing machine and some old plaid, flannel shirts of my husbands and upcycled them into baby bandanas. They turned out pretty darn cute and got a lot of use, but like most heavily used baby items they were pretty much worn out by the time baby boy #3 needed them. So, I jumped when I ran across the adorable Baby Bandana Drool Bibs-5 Pack Unisex Stylish Bibs for Baby  by Snappy Swagger!

              

These drool bibs are very well made with plastic rather then metal snaps and even are adjustable in size with two different snap options. They are super soft, made from fleece and cotton and the patterns are just adorable for baby! The selection is truly unisex as I would put all of them on my boys but would think nothing of having girls wear them as well. My favorite ones are the + and the feathers.

 I am loving dressing my baby boy and am definitely keeping these in mind for the perfect baby shower gift in the future

I received this product at a discount in exchange for my honest opinion.