Wordless Wednesday - It's Official, She's a Second Grader!

Book Review: If I Could Ask God Anything

If I could Ask God Anything: Awesome Bible answers for curious kids by Kathryn Slattery could be a good resource to have on your child’s book shelf. It is filled with questions on topics ranging from God, Jesus and the Holy Spirit to Christian holidays, prayer, and being a Christian. All of the questions are centered on the Christian faith. The answers are simple, bible-based with very few going longer than one page. The questions cover a wide range from things like “If God loves people why do bad things happen?” or “What is communion?” to “Help! What should I do when I feel like a church service is boring?” and “Why do we celebrate Saint Patrick’s Day with Shamrocks?”

I don’t know if this is a book your child would read cover-to-cover. I doubt it. But if your child has questions about Christianity, this could be a handy resource to own.

As I said before, the answers are simple and short, but they could be a great way to start a conversation with your child. Or if your child has a question that you are not sure how to answer (or word), you could use this book as a starting place for both of you. I believe this resource would be best used by the parent and child together.

Older kids (at least older than mine who are ages 2-7) will benefit from this more than younger ones. At this stage in life I don't see us using this book that much, BUT I have a feeling as our kids get older this book may come in handy someday.


***DISCLOSURE NOTICE: A free copy of this book was supplied to me for the purpose of review by Thomas Nelson Publishing. No monetary exchange was given. All comments and wording in this review are purely my own.

Wordless Wednesday - Do you ever get the feeling that someone is watching you...

An End and a Beginning

A few weeks ago we received a letter in the mail. It informed us that one of our Compassion kids is leaving the program and no longer needs a sponsor. They told us this is common for older kids. She is 16 and we have been exchanging letters for close to ten years. We had met face to face in the heat of El Salvador two years ago.

Now she is moving on. We will probably never have contact with her again, but our prayers will follow her wherever she goes. There is a little sadness, and a lot of thankfulness that we were given the chance to partner with God and play a small role in the life of a girl in El Salvador. I am trusting He used our sponsorship in Yesenia's life. I know He used it in ours.

And now we get to do it again. Only this time, we want to share the experience with our daughter.

The pictures of the children we sponsor are on our refrigerator. Our kids see their faces on a daily basis. Sometimes they read the letters we get, but it is really more our project than theirs. Mya is old enough for that to change.

The next child we sponsor will give Mya the opportunity to get involved. I hope the process will help broaden her world, so she can see a little more tangibly what life looks like in another part of the world, and that it will continue to grow in her a heart of compassion.

So, we are saying hello to Lebene. Lebene lives in Ethiopia. She is five years old and we are her sponsors. Mya chose her and will be the one writing her letters. I hope they will be friends.

Dear Lebene,
Hi. I'm Mya, my parents and I are your sponsors. I have one sister and three brothers. My sister's name is Suhn. My brothers names are Simon, Jonah and Sean. Simon and Jonah are twins. My parents are Megan and Kory. I am getting ready for school next week. I love to swim. We will pray for you and your family. We are so excited to be your sponsors. We love you.
Love, Mya

And so it begins. We get to partner once again with God's work, playing a small role in the life of a very special little girl living in Ethiopia.

If you are interested in sponsoring a child or learning more about Compassion please click here.


*On another note, THANK YOU for your comments and ideas on my last post. One of the things I love about blogging is the sharing of ideas and you all had great ones! Thanks for sharing!!!

The List

How do you motivate your kids to work? To complete and learn basic house-hold tasks?

I've tried chore charts before. The problem (for me). They take thought, planning and follow-through to be effective.

Last summer we used one. I printed charts off at the beginning of every week. We were pretty consistent through most of the summer. They worked, but this summer they sounded like too much work.

So I did nothing, and my kids did very little extra work around the house (with our trip to China this summer I didn't push in this training department anyway).

But now we are home and its time to get busy!

Earlier this week a friend commented that she makes a list of jobs for her kids to complete every morning. As a listy-type of person this appealed to me. Compared to chore charts, lists are low maintenance and non-committal. If a day is extra busy, we drop the list. No problemo.

So far, so good. I make a list each morning. They complete it by lunch time. If they need extra motivation, there are no fun extracurriculars until the list is complete (or no snack/dessert item at lunch).

In an effort to keep "the list" fun, I'm trying to come up with a variety of jobs. The same-old-same-old will get old fast. Some jobs that have appeared so far are washing the door window, sweeping the front porch, emptying wastebaskets, working on math flashcards, writing and coloring activities, reading.

As sad as this sounds.. I am running out of jobs.

The list won't work without jobs.

So, what are so jobs your kids are responsible for completing? I need ideas.

Our list will thank you.

Our kids may not.

Wordless Wednesday - Mess? Who? Me?

Listening In

A little background: A couple of weeks ago I saw the beginnings of a wasp nest in our garage. I saw a wasp at that time, but haven't seen one since. I must have mentioned it to the kids. This morning, this is what I heard...

M: Simon and Jonah do you want to go out in the garage with me to get my book?

(apparently they know about the wasps nest too)

S: No

M: It will be so fun. We will run out really quick and run back.

J: I don't really want to.

M: God and Jesus will be with you and me and if you get stung it won't be a big deal we can just put some baking soda on it.

S: Is a wasp in the car?

M: Come on, this is your last chance.

And with that she convinced S to go with her, while J watched from the door with encouragement when they returned, "at least you didn't get stung!"