Thursday, February 24, 2011

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.


Friday, February 18, 2011

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.

Monday, February 14, 2011

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.

Wednesday, February 9, 2011

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

Friday, February 4, 2011

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

Tuesday, February 1, 2011

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.