The Winner is . . .

Thank you to everyone who visited my blog and entered the Manipulatives Monday giveaway!

The winner is . . . Meghan R.  I sent you an email, so check your inbox.

Manipulatives from Mother Goose Time - Giveaway!!!

Hello friends.  One of my no doubt, favorite things to open each month from Mother Goose Time, are their manipulatives.  Each month we get two bags of manipulatives, typically, one that has to do with the shape of the month and one that has to do with the theme.  Many of these manipulatives have been custom made for Mother Goose Time and cannot be purchased anywhere else.  I have been receiving two bags of manipulatives every month for years so I have tons of them, but I just can't give them away.  Here is the good news, Mother Goose Time is going to give some away!!!!

My collection from a few months ago.  You can quickly and easily stock a classroom or your homsechool room, with just a few months of Mother Goose Time manipulatives.

In fact, each of the Blog Ambassadors from Mother Goose Time get to give away two bags.  At the bottom of this post you will find links to their giveaways too.  Your chances will get better and better the more you enter.

Why do you need manipulatives you may ask?  I have to show you in pictures because that's just what I do.

The most basic thing you can do with them is to count them.  My older child actually counted these cubes using his 100 chart.

The Winner Is . . .

The winner is . . . Charlene!!!!  Check your inbox for an email from me.

Thank you everyone for playing along with The Beginner Bible and Zondervan for National Bible Week.

Day 5 National Bible Week Trivia Games & Giveaway

This week is National Bible Week and to celebrate Zondervan along with The Beginner's Bible are holding Bible Trivia giveaways.

Here are the rules:

Three trivia questions will be posted each day for five days. Without looking up the answers, post your guesses in the comments section below. The first person to respond with all three correct answers will be entered into a drawing to win a copy of The Beginner’s Bible: Timeless Children’s Stories for their family. A winner will be selected and contacted at the end of the week.

We hope you’re enjoying playing The Beginner’s Bible Trivia Game! Are you ready to test your knowledge with more questions? Some might be easy and some might be tricky! Get your kids or grandkids involved and see if they know the answers to some of these questions, too!


13.  How did Rahab let the invading Israelites identify her house?

14.  This woman was turned into a pillar of salt because she looked back as Sodom and Gomorrah were being destroyed. 

15.  Who recognized Jesus as the Messiah when he was presented at the Temple as a baby?

Day 4 of National Bible Week Trivia Game & Giveaway

      This week is National Bible Week and to celebrate Zondervan along with The Beginner's Bible are holding Bible Trivia giveaways.  

Here are the rules:

Three trivia questions will be posted each day for five days. Without looking up the answers, post your guesses in the comments section below. The first person to respond with all three correct answers will be entered into a drawing to win a copy of The Beginner’s Bible: Timeless Children’s Stories for their family. A winner will be selected and contacted at the end of the week.

We hope you’re enjoying playing The Beginner’s Bible Trivia Game! Are you ready to test your knowledge with more questions? Some might be easy and some might be tricky! Get your kids or grandkids involved and see if they know the answers to some of these questions, too!

10.  On which day of the year could the High Priest enter the Holiest Place, the inner most part of the temple where the covenant box was kept?

11. In which Prophecy do we read about the valley of dry bones?

12.  What “weapons” did Gideon use to defeat the Midianites?

Day 3 National Bible Week Trivia & Giveaway

This week is National Bible Week and to celebrate Zondervan along with The Beginner's Bible are holding Bible Trivia giveaways.  

Here are the rules:

Three trivia questions will be posted each day for five days. Without looking up the answers, post your guesses in the comments section below. The first person to respond with all three correct answers will be entered into a drawing to win a copy of The Beginner’s Bible: Timeless Children’s Stories for their family. A winner will be selected and contacted at the end of the week.

We hope you’re enjoying playing The Beginner’s Bible Trivia Game! Are you ready to test your knowledge with more questions? Some might be easy and some might be tricky! Get your kids or grandkids involved and see if they know the answers to some of these questions, too!

Day three:

7.  How did Paul escape from Damascus?

8.  What was the name of the blind man healed by Jesus?

9.What was the name of Adam & Eve’s third son?

Day 2 of National Bible Week Trivia & Giveaway!

This week is National Bible Week and to celebrate Zondervan along with The Beginner's Bible are holding Bible Trivia giveaways.  

Here are the rules:

Three trivia questions will be posted each day for five days. Without looking up the answers, post your guesses in the comments section below. The first person to respond with all three correct answers will be entered into a drawing to win a copy of The Beginner’s Bible: Timeless Children’s Stories for their family. A winner will be selected and contacted at the end of the week.

We hope you’re enjoying playing The Beginner’s Bible Trivia Game! Are you ready to test your knowledge with more questions? Some might be easy and some might be tricky! Get your kids or grandkids involved and see if they know the answers to some of these questions, too!

Day two:

4.  Where did young Jesus grow up after returning from Egypt?

5. What kind of wood was used by Noah to build the Ark?

6.  What was the name of the group of religious leaders who often tried to “trap” Jesus with their questions?

Did You Know That It's National Bible Week? - Bible Trivia & Giveaway

I was given a fun opportunity by Zondervan to post Bible Trivia questions all week and end the week with a giveaway of the Beginner's Bible!

So let’s have a little Bible trivia fun just for Grown-ups, from The Beginner’s Bible, a trusted brand of storybook Bibles and Bible resources for little ones. The Beginner’s Bible is celebrating National Bible Week (November 13-19, 2016) and International Day of the Bible (November 14, 2016). The Beginner’s Bible Team would like to give you the chance to win a copy of The Beginner’s Bible: Timeless Children’s Stories for your child. Are you up for a trivia challenge? Do you think you know your Bible?  Let’s play! Here are the rules:

Three trivia questions will be posted each day for five days. Without looking up the answers, post your guesses in the comments section below. The first person to respond with all three correct answers will be entered into a drawing to win a copy of The Beginner’s Bible: Timeless Children’s Stories for their family. A winner will be selected and contacted at the end of the week.

Day one:

1. After Jesus fed over 5,000 people with two fish and five loaves of bread, how many baskets were left over? 

2. Which Gospel is written by a doctor?

3.  Who wrote the most books of the New Testament?

National Tell a Fairy Tale Day! {Free Printable and Giveaway}

I love these random holidays and so does Mother Goose Time.  In honor of National Tell a Fairy Tale Day they are giving away one of their Aesop's Fables books and storytelling pieces.

You can enter to win here.  Winner is drawn on March 10th. 

If you don't win, Mother Goose Time has been kind enough to give us access to some free printables.

4 [Free!] Activities & Storytime Props to Accompany the Aesop's Fables Storybook
Included in this Free package:

• 4 Free Aesop's Fables Activities

• all downloadable storytelling pieces and props

• free online Amazon version of Aesop's Fables

You can get Aesop's Fables Storybook on Amazon if you would like the hard copy!! 

Here is some of the fun we had with Fables & Folktales back in August.  It was one of my favorite themes.  Poor jellyfish got all tied up, just like the lion. 

Angels in the Bible Storybook {Review & Giveaway}

This is the second book I received from Zonderkidz to review and Giveaway.  It's called the Angels in the Bible Storybook by Allia Zobel Nolan.  Illustrated by Alida Massari.

My youngest, Adam (almost 2) was really drawn to this one.   The illustrations are really captivating, which is important for little eyes who study every square inch of the images as you read the story. 

It was fun to see his little fingers flipping through the pages. The book is made well, nice thick pages, so I wasn't too worried about him hurting the book. 

Faith Builders Bible {Review & Giveaway}

A while back I was able to do a review and giveaway of the Jesus Storybook Bible.  I LOVE that Children's Bible.  This somehow got me on the mailing list of bloggers at Zonderkidz, how cool is that!  I recently received an email about The Great Big Super-Duper Easter Basket Guide.  They had some great recommendations for books, divided by age groups, to fill your Easter baskets this year.

I really never would have thought of books for an Easter basket, but it is a brilliant idea!  They will get plenty of candy I am sure.

Zonderkidz was gracious enough to send me out two of the books that caught my eye.  The first is the Faith Builders Bible.  In this post I will give you my first impressions and then introduce you to the giveaway.  Yep, I get to giveaway the whole PreK to 4th grade set of recommended books (more info on that below).

The box arrived with our new books while we were sitting down at the table for lunch.  They were in the box upside down and backwards as the boys peered in.  I first lifted the blue book which I knew was the Faith Builders Bible.

Lachlan immediately saw the Lego figures on the cover and exclaimed "that's my Bible, that one is for me!"  Obviously I had him in mind when I first saw this Bible, but I didn't necessarily think about giving it to him and having it be his and his only.  Whether I planned it or not, it seems this Bible has a new owner.

He continued to admire the book which I am sure you can tell by the look on his face, peanut butter and jelly streaks and all!  Why do kids have to eat right out of the middle of the sandwich?  None the less, you can see we live a real life around here.  Cluttered table, messy faces and all. 

I wasn't quite sure what to expect from this book.  It was recommended for PreK to 4th grade children.  It also said it was a full text Bible with features.  With out some guidance it would be hard to know where to start.  

Soon Lachlan asked to read something from the Bible.  I had to think quick because I wanted to keep the excitement going.  So I pulled out Lachlan's Awana book and looked up the current scripture he is learning.  "Let's look up your Awana verse!  Won't that be fun to look it up in the Bible?"

I read Colossians 1:3 from the Faith Builders Bible and he repeated after me.  Awana always encourages getting out a Bible and reading the scriptures from there but we often fail at this.  I need to get better about it though.  I want my children to know where these words come from, not the Awana book but the Bible. 

While he finished eating I grabbed the book to take some pictures of the "features" included.  Here are the books of the Bible all laid out.  Seriously, I learned a few things from these pages.  I have never seen them categorized like this.  I have been a Christian for a while but obviously I am no Biblical scholar. 

Of course these feature pages are filled with wonderful information, but the best part is the fact that the images are Legos.  This quickly catches the eye of my oldest, Lachlan, who is 7 years old.  He loves Legos, building and designing.  If it catches his eye it catches his interest.  

This next page is also at the beginning and asks Can You Build . . . Encouraging them to build these items out of building blocks to represent the meaning in the corresponding scripture. 

The page about Building the Tower of Babal is a typical layout of one of the feature pages scattered through out the pages of this Bible.  It has a large image of the Biblical scene made out of building blocks, a short abbreviated story and at the bottom a Building Block Verse.  It turns out that these feature pages are a perfect answer to the question of where to start.  For younger children like my own, I can sit down, let them flip through the pages and read which ever feature page they choose.  We could even spend some time memorizing the Building Block Verse. Next they could try to recreate this scene out of their own Legos.

 Another couple examples of a feature page.

I love this picture because of it's craziness.  But also because of it's simple imagery.  Faith building at the center of it all. 

Lachlan hopped on over to the couch when we were done eating.  I had to clean up the table a bit or that lurking chihuahua would jump up there and eat all the left overs.  As I cleaned up Lachlan chanted "Bi.ble, Bi.ble, Bi.ble".  I couldn't help but smile. 

By the time I had sat down he found the story of Zacchaeus the tax collector.  I knew this before even seeing the page because he said "look Mom, there is Jesus and there is a man in a tree!"  On this page at the end of the brief reading it says

"Just meeting Jesus made Zacchaeus want to be a better person.  Read the story in Luke 19:1 - 10 to see how Jesus responded."

It told enough of the story to teach a lesson to my small children but then sent us to the scriptures to dive in more.  This would be great for an older child to be able to do on their own.  

When we flipped the page we found the story of Jesus walking on water.  I read the words on the feature page and again it sent us to scripture.  It said we could find out what happened to Peter after he asked to come out on the water if we turned to Matthew 14 or Mark 6 or John 6!  We ran into a little bit of an issue when we chose to flip to Mark 6 and in Mark's telling of the story they don't even talk about Peter coming out on the water so we had to quickly turn to Matthew 14.  I would have to put that as my first critique of this Bible.  No, it didn't turn out to be a huge deal, because my Peter was so curious about what happened to Bible Peter that he was willing to stick around and read another passage of scripture to find out.  

However, I do have boys and I do know that their attention can be fleeting.  So had it been another moment in time I could have lost him there and our time in the word would be done.

Thankfully that was not the case this time and Peter lingered on the couch studying this page. 

I think he was studying it in various ways, one was recalling the story and what happened and the other was trying to figure out how to build the scene with his own mini-figures.  We both thought it was pretty neat that they made Bible Peter look like he was sinking by taking off his mini-figure legs. 

What ever the reason may be, it is never a bad thing to see your child cuddled up on the couch reading the Bible.

Something else you might want to know is that the Faith Builders Bible is NIV but it is the newest translation of NIV and it's not just NIV it's actually NIrV which stands for the New International Readers Version. This readers version simplifies the words and makes them more modern.  It also simplifies sentences to make them shorter and easier to understand. The goal of this version was to make a Bible for people, young or old, just beginning to read and for those who may speak or read English as a second language.  Who wrote this translation?  The CBT or Committee on Bible Translation did not produce the NIrV, but a few of those who worked on the NIrV are members of the CBT.  I am sure you could find more information about this translation if this is something that may worry you.  I did a quick search and found a little more information on Wikipedia.

I can really only give you my first impressions since this Bible has been literally in my house for only hours as I sit down to write this.  It is a well made hard cover Bible.  I am excited to graduate my 7 year old son to his first full length Bible with translation that is perfect for beginning readers.  I know we will be using this for our Awana Bible.  I am hopeful that this Bible will continue to grab my sons attention because the illustrations are so meaningful to him and his love of Legos.  I am pleased with the layout of the feature pages and feel like I can use the content to individualize our time in the word to each of my sons.  I also believe based on digging through this Bible that it will easily grow with him.  I can't help but think of his older cousin Colton who is 3 years older.  He often starts his day reading chapter books in bed because he is such an early riser.  He is also a HUGE Lego lover.  I could totally see him flipping through the feature pages, reading the story and then finding the scripture to read a little more.  

So for what it's worth, this peanut butter and jelly faced kid gives it two thumbs up!!

If you think you or someone you know would enjoy the Faith Builders Bible please enter this giveaway.  One lucky person will win all 4 of the recommended books for children PreK to 4th grade (images below).

To see my review of the Angels in the Bible Storybook click here.

Raffle opens February 18th and ends March 12th.  I have one more book to review during that time.  Angels in the Bible Storybook is up next.

As I stated at the beginning Zonderkidz sent me this book for free in exchange for my honest review.  These words are my own. 

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Book Giveaway and Blog Hop

We are doing it again!  Giving away children's books.  The Blog Ambassadors and I are teaming up and giving away 3 to 4 books each.  So follow the links at the end of this post to enter to win all of the giveaways!

I am giving away four books: Chimidyue, There's a Cow in My House, My Dad the Tuk Tuk Driver and Beatriz, Banana and the Very Big Hat.  These books are all published by Experience Early Learning, here in the USA.

Chimidyue came in our Mother Goose Time theme Rainforest Adventure.

You can see my boys telling the folktale of Chimidyue using the Storytelling Set if you click here.

"Chimidyue's story is from the Takuna trive in South America.  The Takuna live in the upper Amazon River area.  They have a rich tradition of storytelling.  The tale of Chimidyue is unique because it features a female as the main character."  (As described in the back of the book)

 Chimidyue is a little girl, who one day, followed a big beautiful blue morpho butterfly into the rainforest.

While she was there she heard and saw things that seemed scary at first.  One of the sounds she heard ended up being a woodpecker and she asked the woodpecker for help.  The woodpecker said "No! Why should I make time for you? Your people cut down the trees and stole my home.  I'm much too busy building a new place to live."

Chimidyue continues to hear this complaint from the other animals she meets in the rainforest until eventually she finds her way back home with the help of the blue morpho butterfly once again.  Now back to her village she has learned an important lesson, to care for the rainforest. 

Beatriz, Bananas, and the Very Big Hat came in the My Amazing Body theme.  In this theme we learned all about our bodies as well as the things we wear, like hats on our heads.  So this book could most definitely be incorporated into a similar theme you might be covering at home or even a jungle theme.  But Beatriz, Bananas, and the Very Big Hat is also a counting book.  It focuses on the number 11.  10 + 1 = 11.  You can see how Mother Goose Time had us incorporate a fun song, with the number 11 and this book by clicking here.



Beatriz is a little girl who weaves a hat so she doesn't get lost in the jungle.  Everyone loves her hat, so she decides to weave 10 more.  She is so tired she falls asleep and the monkeys take her hats.

She has a hard time figuring out how to get the hats back.  But soon figures out a way to trick the monkeys to get them back, all 11 of them.

The next book is a classic, There's a Cow in My House.  It's pretty clear by the title what the book is about.

There is a cow in the house doing silly things.

 Even climbing in the poor kids bed. 

This book is also a song and the words and music are printed in the back of the book.

This book went along with our Down on the Farm theme.  You can see it in action with the curriculum here.

The last book that you could win is called My dad the Tuk Tuk Driver.  This is a book from the perspective of a little boy from Cambodia.  He tells the reader about his Dad, who drives a Tuk Tuk.

 You get to learn and see just what a Tuk Tuk is and what a Tuk Tuk driver in Cambodia does everyday.

 You even get to search for the Tuk Tuk amongst the busy streets. 

This book came along with the theme of Me and My Family.  It is such a great book to teach about family but also to open your children's eyes and broaden their view of the world. 

The great thing about this book is that it was written by a non profit organization called Asian Hope. Their mission statement is at the back of the book.

"Asian Hope exists to protect, educate and empower children in Cambodia through its many holistic programs.  Asian hope believes that education is the key to rising above extreme poverty, lack of resources and child trafficking.  Through three formal schools, Village Development Programs and Higher Education and Leadership Preparation Program, Asian Hope gives thousands of children and families the power to influence Cambodia for generations to come."

When you read this book to your children you don't only get a great story but you get to tell them about the wonderful work Asian Hope is doing.  It's a win win.

Speaking of winning.  Make sure to enter your name in the raffle below.

Entry-Form

Here are the links to the other Blog Ambassador Blogs.

An InLinkz Link-up

If you want to get your hands on any of these books you can head on over to Amazon where these books are now sold.