Grandpa's Box

My two daughters and I each thoroughly enjoyed our daily devotions using Grandpa’s Box.  The language was easy enough for even my 8-9-year-old but not too simple even for an adult.  In fact, I can’t wait until enough time has passed until we can read this book again!  I gained a perspective on the Lord’s work and the events of the world that I was missing, an understanding of the whole picture from God’s eye-view.  And although spiritual warfare is the premise of the book, it contains nothing scary even for younger children.  I can’t recommend this book more highly than I do, and may I add that the price is ridiculously affordable for the content and size you are getting?  Even if you are only interested in Christianity or the Bible from a literary perspective, this book will enlighten you as to what it means as a whole.

Betty Lukens Small Felt Set is FANTASTIC!  I have currently loaned my set to my daughter’s Awana teachers to use in Cubbies – and they love it too.  I think they’re going to ask the church to purchase a set of their own (possibly the large set).  Perhaps I read the “official” review wrong, but I had no idea just how HUGE and HELPFUL the teacher’s manual is – not only does it tell you how to use the felts, it gives a narrative to read for each story (which is so very helpful if you’re like me and have a hard time putting some of the “Bible words” and phrases into easier-to-understand language for little listeners), AND it even tells how to coordinate the “Bible in Living Sound” stories to go along with it!  I highly recommend this set; and there’s no way I would recommend it without the file box to hold the pieces in – there are just too many pieces to NOT have it.

Balancing the Sword

My two older daughters (9 and 12)and I have been using Balancing the Sword now for approx. 6 months, and have found it to be a wonderfully thorough tool for working through the Bible verse by verse.  It has good overview questions at the end of each chapter of the Bible that you read outloud.  I really feel that I am giving my older girls a wonderful foundation in God’s word.  In light of this rapidly changing world that we live in, is there anything more important?

The Big Picture Story Bible

The Big Picture Story Bible is our family’s favorite story bible (and we have quite a few!). It’s different from typical story bibles, in that it doesn’t retell all the major Bible stories. Instead, it gives an overview of the Bible from Genesis to Revelation and traces the “big picture” of God’s work in redeeming a people for Himself. The illustrations are amazing as well. Their details work with the text to help children grasp the story of redemption and the unity of scripture. Our family loves it!

I bought The Young Peacemaker to use with a group of children ages 5 to 14, figuring we could adapt some of the content when necessary.  But when I first showed some of the older kids (8-13) the pamphlets we would be using, they immediately made disparaging comments about the art, the appearance of the characters.  “They’re trying to make the kids look cool but they look dumb” was the consensus.  I persuaded them to stick with it but we abandoned the booklets and stuck with the main text, reading aloud, discussing, and making up our own scenarios to practice right responses.  The The Young Peacemaker book gets a 3, the pamphlets get a 1.

TT

Wilmore, KY

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