Fun Friday- Final Read-aloud Edition

January is almost over!  Can you even believe it?  Where has time gone?

To wrap up our Read-aloud edition I want to give you a list of a few more books we have read or are planning on reading as a family.  Honestly, there never seems to be enough time in the day to read all we want to, and so I am going to start adding an afternoon reading time in for my boys.  While they snack after our quiet time, I will read.  Kill two birds with one stone and hopefully fill their tanks with momma time so they will go away, I mean PLAY, while I get dinner done.  ;)



Seed Sowers:Gospel-Planting Adventures  This one is a new one to us written by a fellow TOS CREW member Gwen Toliver.  The Toliver family works with Wycliff Bible Translators and Gwen has pulled together a wonderful collection of missionary stories told to her by some amazing people she has had the privilege to meet.  For those of you that read our Growing Up Wild review and liked the idea, this book is for you. 






What Would The Founding Father's Think? by David Bowman- Another new one that I have the privilege to review.  My 11 year old and I are reading it now together and are loving laughing while learning through every page.  Look for my review on this one soon!

Wild Stories- Written by Colin Thompson, this book cracks us up!  ALL ages will enjoy the silliness, while a middle schooler would probably be best targeted for independant reading.  Each chapter is about a different animal, written by them and vary in length from several pages to the short two page story of Bob, the slug, who promptly gets eaten.  If talking animals and a whole lot of silliness bother you, this one you may want to skip.  Quite frankly, we read a lot of serious stuff, so this one is just a humorous break for us!

Also think about Little Women, Little Men, Little House on the Prairie, the Narnia series, even Star Wars.  The possibilities and choices out there are endless!

And of course- The Bible!  Nothing, in my opinion, is more important than reading the Bible together as a family.  As I have stated before, we have followed several different plans, but regardless of how we have done so, our nightly devotions bring us together as a family and remind us of the Lord's love for us.  Not a bad thing to teach our kids nightly, I think!

See ya back on Monday for my thoughts and results of our No-Spend January!

Blessings,

Fun Fridays- Read Aloud edition and SNOW!

Good morning friends!  Typing today from a snowy spot so I just had to share a picture of our snow!  Remember, this family has spent most of our military time in the mid west and we love snow...and miss it! 

OK, a quick chat for our read alouds today.  Years ago we were introduced to the Maxwell family of Titus 2.  Many of you may know them from their books and conferences on Managers of Their Home, Managers of Their Chores and Managers of Their School and other Godly books.  We have had the pleasure of meeting them in person and attending two conferences they hosted and would encourage you to check out this amazing family.

The oldest daughter Sarah has written a series of books that are great read alouds for elementary and middle school children called The Moody Family Series.   We have all but the last two and read them when the girls were younger.  At only $7.00 a piece they are a steal!  They are now in our queue to begin again with the boys.  A delightful telling of a sweet Christian family and their everyday life will leave you with a smile on your face and joy in your heart.  These books are unashamedly Christian and weave salvation and the Lord's love throughout, showing how the love of Jesus can bring a simple joy to a family living for Him!

Sweet, simple and lovely! 

Enjoy!

Fun Friday- Read Aloud Edition and a Giveaway!

Happy Fun Friday!  Don't you just love the start of a weekend?  For me, the excitement starts on Thursday after lunch.  We are done with co-op then and I come home and breathe a sigh of relief.  No more things we have to do, just one more day of school (which is often a lighter schedule), and then time centered around family.  LOVE IT!

Anyway...

I am excited to share with you this week our newest read-aloud.  This one came to us by surprise, as I was asked to review it by an outside source.  So exciting!


The Reunion, written by Rachael McIntire, and published by Elisha Press, is a lovely little book written in response to the author's need to find good, quality books to read to her own children.  It's subtitled- "A story of redemption for the whole family to enjoy together."

Indeed it is.  The book begins with a four year old little girl desperately praying for a little sister and unfolds with how God hears and answers her prayers.  Throughout the book we see the faith of a little child grow steadily into the faith of a pre-teen in such a natural way, guided by the deep love of her family.  Dotted with good manners, moral situations and a sweet old-fashioned simpleness, we were delighted to be able to read this together.  Some of the chapters are quite short, making reading several at one time completely do-able.  That and the fact that the boys often wanted to know what would happen next!

Because this book is centered around the world of adoption, it is now dear to our hearts.   It is hard for us to finds books about adoption that are done well.  Often incorrect terms are used, families seem to be "saving" a child, or they are just downright hurtful. The one time I did have a concern was with the use of the term "real" parents in reference to biological parents.  This may just be a case of us being sensitive to politically correct wording because we are an adoptive family, but we encourage the use of "birth" parents as opposed to "real".  Real implies to me that I am fake.  Otherwise, the loving way that Rachael approached adoption as a gift warmed my heart and I think really pulled in our 5 year old adopted son.  More than once he said "just like me" with such excitement.

After each reading time we spent a few minutes talking about the characters and what they said or did that really stood out in our minds.  Some of my favorites were the kids noticing how naturally the family prayed together, that the parents were kind to their children and the children were well mannered, without seeming fake.  Because two families are highlighted, one Christian one not, it was an opportunity for us to discuss how each handled situations that arose and what our family would have done in a similar situation.  Our favorite line was, "Julie, you need Jesus in your heart!" (page 19)  We giggled at that response and had fun imagining how someone would react if that was our response to one who offended us. 

The other discussions we had were about the meaning of words.  Some were from public school references, so the usage was lost on my youngest especially.  Other times, we had to discuss meanings of some of the vocabulary used, therefore I would say that this book is written for slightly older elementary children and up if it is going to be read solely by the child.  For us, it provided a good opportunity to discuss some new words and ideas.

Good read alouds equal good conversations!  And The Reunion was  a book that sparked many conversations among our family.  I pray it will do the same for you!

As a bonus for Family, Faith and Friday readers, the publisher has offered a special code for $2.00 off your purchase of The Reunion through the end of February.  After that the code will be good for $1.00 off.  Please type in REVIEW-FRIDAYS when ordering to take advantage of this gift.

We were also given an extra copy of The Reunion to giveaway to one lucky reader.  Use the rafflecopter below for your chance to win.  This will close next Thursday!

 

a Rafflecopter giveaway

THANK YOU McINTIRE FAMILY for the privilege of reviewing your book!

Fun Friday- Read Aloud Edition

Do you read your children books?

At what age do you stop?

Why?

I would dare say that many of us read to our children without hesitation when they are young, but somewhere along the way of them growing up, the habit wanes.  It happened with us the past few years, but recently I have been convicted that I must once again pick back up the habit.
Our family loves books- so this month's Fun Friday are all about read-alouds.  Before you tune out and log off, hear me out.  At a young age, reading out loud to our children is so natural- it helps develope speech, vocabulary, listening skills, imagination and so much more as well as facilitates bonding.  But there are many benefits for read-alouds for older children too- my favorites being family interaction  and memories created.  Instead of sitting down in front of a TV and just co- existing that requires little to no interaction, joining together for a time of reading can be a time to reconnect, laugh together and even share a journey.

I want to share with you a few books, series and publishers we have found enjoyable but don't let this list limit you.  Keep in mind we are still reading to a five year old, but there are plenty of good books out there to read with older kids.  Think of books like The Hobbit, Star Wars, books by GH Henty, biographies, mysteries and so on.  If you are enjoying it and it is age appropriate, read it as a family.

My first series up- The Farm Mystery Series, a set of 10 wonderful books published by Castleberry Farms Press. Owners of this small family owned publishing company, Steve and Susie Castleberry have written this particular set of mysteries and several of  their children have other books on their site as well.  Each of the books stand alone and can be read in any order.  We ordered our first one a few years ago and my oldest son and husband read them together.  Now that CJ is a little older I plan on reading them again.  They are fun  mysteries about a homeschooling family, following two brothers and their adventures.  "Just happy and wholesome Christian family life, with lots of everyday adventure woven in." - from the website

In the age of electronics and fast paced madness I love being able to read of a simpler lifestyle, kids with good manners and morals and with no fear of questionable content.  I highly recommend them and hope you enjoy them as well!

Tell me, what read-aloud are you using this month?

See 'ya next week for the next book and a giveaway to help add to your library!

This post is our personal opinion.  We are  not affiliates with Castleberry Farm Press and were not asked to endorse their product.