Charlie Brown Christmas

Never forget.

Bible Reading Plan for Children

You may want to check this out for your family. Just passing it along for your information.

Great Truths Learned by Little Children

1. No matter how hard you try, you can't baptize cats..  

2. When your Mom is mad at your Dad, don't let her brush your hair. 

3. If your sister hits you, don't hit her back. They always catch the second person. 

4. Never ask your 3-year old brother to hold a tomato. 

5. You can't trust dogs to watch your food.. 

6. Don't sneeze when someone is cutting your hair.. 

7. Never hold a Dust-Buster and a cat at the same time.  

8. You can't hide a piece of broccoli in a glass of milk.

A Heritage from God

Lo, children are an heritage of the LORD; and the fruit of the womb is his reward. Psalm 127:3

My precious grandchildren, shortly after the birth of Sariah Grace.

Enjoy your children and grandchildren;  remember to teach them Jesus.

For His glory,

Maxine

Prayer Reminder

"When children are young you talk to them about Jesus, and when they get older you talk to Jesus about them." ~ From 15 Minutes with God for Grandma by Emilie Barnes.

Just a reminder of the need to pray for our children and grandchildren.

VBS Idea

This is another article I thought interesting. Just an idea for the future. Why not focus on the persecuted church? Read the article here.

A Refuge for Displaced Children

You may not be inclined to read the entire article word for word, but please at least skim it so that you might be aware of this great work being done in Nigeria on behalf of children who are orphaned by violence in that country. Read it here.

Susannah's House Rules

[Quote from Raising Godly Children Facebook page] "Susannah Wesley was the mother of 19 children, including John and Charles Wesley. Through much adversity, she dedicated her life to instilling a sense of Christian Destiny into each of her children. Her children went on to change the world." These sixteen house rules by Mrs. Wesley are well worth your reading. Go here to the "Raising Godly Children" site to read them.

Being Humble

We've posted the bi-monthly excerpt from our Bright Gems book; so sorry to be late with it. It's all about being humble this time, an important lesson for young and old enough! Just click on the "Gems" tab to go to the short devotional and to learn more about our book if you don't have it.

Anna Cares

I want you and your children to read this article about nine year old Anna F. I can assure you it will be good reading for all of you. It doesn't hurt for our families, even the youngest ones, to be concerned about those who are persecuted.

Jesus Loves Me

You may want to teach this to your children in sign language.

KOC Magazine

You might like to check out this post at the Persecution Blog. Apparently you can now download Kids of Courage magazine free to use with your children. This looks like a good resource for you to use to help your children learn more about those who are suffering for Christ. They can also learn about other religions and how they can pray for the people who are lost in these religions. The information is here.

Bright Gems

Don't forget that every other month we post an excerpt from our Bright Gems for His Crown book. We just posted a new one for May and June if you'd like to go read it. It will give you an idea of what we're trying to accomplish in this book.

Click on the tab labeled "Gems" to read what we cover in the 19th set of devotionals on the topic
"Doing Your Best."

Writing Contest Winner

We have a winner! I think you'll enjoy reading the winning entry, so I invite you to click on the "Contests" tab above and scroll down to read Anna's story. Thanks to all who participated!

Witnessing Third Grader

This is an interesting story about a third grader who was trying to witness on at a playground and ran into trouble for it. Was it in Pakistan? Perhaps China? No, maybe in Indonesia. Wrong. It was in America. Read about it here and pray for this little girl and her family. May the Lord bless them.

Gardening With Kids

In one of our 2008 newsletters, we had a delightful article on gardening with children, and somehow, to our dismay, the article was deleted. However, we still have the links which we had shared in that article and thought we'd give you a link to the page, as many folks are thinking about this topic now that we're coming out of the throes of quite a difficult winter.

Someone wrote us last week to say they had benefited from the article and also to send us a great link on herb gardening. So go now to our "Gardening With Kids" page and take advantage of the various links offered there.

By the way, above is a picture of my granddaughter who made a pretty good attempt at gardening that same year at the ripe old age of two!

Blessings,
Maxine

A Reminder

A quick reminder about our writing contest. Details are at the "Contests" tab.

Japan

We often write about children in persecuted situations, as well as those who have needs for hunger and clothing. Now we can think about children whose needs are fear and anguish over the losses suffered in a natural disaster. Lead your young ones in prayer for the people of Japan who are suffering.

On the Ball

It's been reported that this fella has just signed with the Harlem Globetrotters. Just kidding! You must admit, he's awfully cute.

Heroes for Young Readers

I don't know much about these books, but you may want to check them out. I ran across this lady's Facebook page and thought it was interesting. So I'm passing the link along. The title of this series of books is "Heroes for Young Readers." You know how we are about teaching children about Christian heroes, so I'm hoping these are a good resource. I can't say I can recommend them, because I've never actually seen them or talked to anyone who has, but it may be worth checking into yourself.


Facebook page here.

Maxine

UPDATE:
I just found this video on their Facebook page. It's the writer talking about using pictures with children, and she's holding up one of the books so that you can get a better look than the image I posted.

William Carey, a Christian Hero

According to Wikipedia, a superhero is a fictional chacter noted for feats of courage and nobility. These heroes come in all kinds of elaborate costumes and have for long years captured the imaginations of myriads of children and adults. Which one did you like as a child? Was it Batman, Superman, Spiderman, Wonder Woman, or some lesser known one?
Well I have a hero for your children. He never jumped off any buildings or flew through the air. All this hero did was go to a foreign land to share the gospel with the people. He went to this land, India, and performed no great feats. In fact, he labored there for years with no results. But I’m wrong. He did accomplish great feats. By the time his life ended, this man, William Carey, had translated the full Bible into six languages as well as translating other parts of the Word of God into 29 other languages. Hundreds of Indians came to Christ through his work. He inspired many missionaries who were to follow to go into all the world and preach the gospel, becoming known as the “Father of Modern Missions.”
I think it’s safe to say that this is a hero for you to present to your children. Read the story at Glimpses for Kids during family time one night. It’s a better story than that of any comic book or movie character anywhere.

A Bubble!

That was the answer to our riddle! Mara Ann, age 10, guessed it right, and we'll be sending her a Puzzlemania activity book in the next couple of days! Good work, Mara Ann.

Keep coming over to check. You don't know what we'll be doing next around here.

WriteShop

Have you noticed, as we have, that there is an important virtue children of the past learned, which is not seen as often in today's society? That virtue, or should we say Christian grace, is thankfulness. But to see this grace in our kids we need to practice it ourselves, don't you agree?

As we embark on our fourth writing contest, we have a perfect opportunity to be an example to the children to whom we're trying to minister, by expressing our thankfulness to WriteShop for graciously donating one of the prizes to the first place winner. Though the primary purpose of our Speakables is character development, we also recognize the importance of children learning proper writing skills. The StoryBuilders e-books are certainly a great tool you can use to develop your child's ability to do that. If your son or daughter were to submit the winning story in our contest, they would have the opportunity to choose one of these e-books which would help them to learn to write even better stories in the future! What fun!

I would encourage you to visit WriteShop and see all of the many resources they have for teaching fundamental composition and editing skills to teens and younger students, at home or in the classroom. I'm sure you won't be disappointed.

Blessings,
Maxine

National Puzzle Day

Guess what I just found out? January 29th, last Saturday, was National Puzzle Day! First of all, I never knew such a day existed, and second of all, I had no idea when it was. And I missed it! If you're wondering why that's important to me, let me tell you. I am a GREAT lover of puzzles and always have been. One of the suggestions for celebrating the day was to gather all your different puzzles and spend the day doing all the kinds you enjoy. Me? I would have gathered all of my sudoku, word search, cryptogram, jigsaw, and logic puzzles, because they're my favorites. No I wouldn't. I would never have had time to spend a day doing that, but I can still dream. As it is, I "steal" time to do puzzles when I just want to relax and get away from all the various pressures.

Since I wasn't able to celebrate the day, and in its honor, I'm going to post one of the riddles I made up (or adapted) some time ago. I think it was posted before when we had our puzzlers at the main website, so if you saw it there, please don't cheat. You shouldn't participate.

And because it's such a special occasion, we'll give away a Highlights Puzzlemania activity book to the first person who guesses the right answer. We'd prefer it if you'd let your older kids try this one, but really there's no age limit. Whoever gets it first, gets the book. Please, no anonymous users, and please let us have a way to contact you. Here it is:

I am very light, but you cannot pick me up;
If I am given to you, you cannot take me home;
I may come with many companions like me, but we will never stay long.
Catch me if you can, but don't expect to capture me!

Don't be afraid to guess!! There's no penalty for being wrong, you know, and we will give each person two tries!! :) Enjoy.

Blessings, Maxine

Okay! Contest Ready!

Our fourth writing contest is officially open and we welcome any and all third, fourth, and fifth grade students to participate. Children usually enjoy writing their entries for our contests and we like to think they are enriched by doing them. We also like to think they are brought a few steps closer to embracing precious virtues as their own without our preaching to them!

If you know any children in these grades, and of course if there are any in your household, please encourage them to participate.

Click on the Contests tab above for all the details. The Speakable we are using for this contest is at the Poem tab.

Any questions, just write us at the email address we've provided.

Get the Pencils Ready!

New Speakables are up and a details on a new contest will be up by Monday!! For a sneak preview, click on the Poem tab.

Only One

Orange Pomanders

I had my daughter make this for my mom years ago when she (my daughter) was a little girl who liked doing projects. It really did have a pleasant smell and Mom loved it, mainly because her beloved granddaughter had made it. I don't know how long you can access the instructions from the link, but check over at The Old Farmer's Almanac for this and other activities for your kids.

Verses and Hymns for the Very Young

Our Children's cassette is now at a very low price while we seek the Lord's guidance as to how to get it in CD form in an affordable way. Pray for us, please. Meanwhile, if you have a cassette player or know someone else who does whose children would benefit, I encourage you to take advantage of the offer.

Most of the very young (little guys and gals) who hear it, love singing the songs and reciting the verses. I doubt if yours will be an exception. My older daughter was 17 and my younger was 5 when we recorded this, and the children of our dear friends who helped out were 10, 8, 6, and 4. They are all now young adults and all living for the Lord by His grace and mercy. (Well, Daniel the youngest is now 17 so almost a young adult.) You have GOT to hear four year old Daniel recite "All we like sheep have gone astray.") Kids love hearing other kids, so that's a bonus and the 17 year old voice helps hold everything together.

I will always love this recording, especially the memories it brings. Now my grandchildren are enjoying it and we want to have these voices around for the children of ages to come. So again, I ask that you pray for us that we can soon find a way to have it in CD form so more families can enjoy it.

More information is at our website and you can order it there.

God's blessings,

Maxine