Heart Reflections Live
Tuesday, July 27, 2010
Christian Products For Children- What's worked for us!!!
As a Christian mother, one of my greatest desires is that our children grow up with a passion for God, and a deep, ever growing knowledge of His Word.
There is a saying that faith is caught and not taught, and while there is an element of truth in this- AND WE MUST LEAD BY EXAMPLE- it won't happen by accident either, and you can't rely on your church's Sunday School, or even on a Christian school to do the groundwork for you.Training in Godliness and learning the Bible must be done by the parents in the home, whether they choose to Christian School, Homeschool or Public School their children.
That said, only God the Father can draw a sinner through His Love to the foot of the cross, by the conviction of the Holy Spirit, still God's Word commands us to train our children in the way that they should go.
Here are some of the Christian products we have used and loved so far:
- Our absolute favourites have been "The Bible Story" series by Arthur Maxwell, "Uncle Arthur's Bedtime Stories" (We have 8 volumes from the 1964 edition) and "My Bible Friends"set by Etta Degering for toddlers. I think we also have an old copy of Bible ABCs from the same publishers.
These books are all printed by The 7th Day Adventists- We are NOT SDA, but I can tell you they have little to no SDA doctrine in their children's material, and what little there may be can be easily tweaked.
I am a stickler for reverent, realistic artwork in children's Biblestory books and these books have some of the best Bible art I've ever seen- our children love them, and we've incorparated some into our homeschool. Arthur Maxwell has a wonderful devotional style aimed at children.
2. King James Bible. Our children like The Seaside Edition for Children.
3.Because I Love You- by Max Lucado. Is one of my personal favourites, but he has written other good books for children as well as creating the Hermie the caterpillar DVD series for little ones.
4. Little Jewel Books from Rod and Staff
5. The Princess and the Kiss- A Story of God's Gift of Purity- by Jennie Bishop
6.What Happens When Children Pray by Evelyn Christenson
7.The Candle in the Window- A Christmas Legend by Grace Johnson- a powerful message about seeing Christ in others.
8. Just Like Mama by Beverly Lewis- An Amish story- Great for girls.
9. The Donut Man DVD
10. DVD The Story of Jesus for Children- personally recommended by Zara!
11. DVD The Torchlighters Series- half hour animations on reknowned Christians for children with a free documentary for grownups plus software- BONUS- personally recommended by Talitha
12. Ben HUR- Children's Animation with Charlton Heston
13. Hymns for a Kid's Heart books and CD's
14. We have just discovered the original Elsie Dinsmore series- The girls and I are eagerly devouring the first book of the series: a wonderful taste of Southern Life. Many scriptures are not only quoted, but lived out by the characters. I'll have to post more on this series another time!!
Do you have any children's Christian products to recommend?
Saturday, March 31, 2007
Easter Family Favourites
These are some of the products we use, or have used to help convey the real meaning of Easter to our children. I'd love to hear your comments & recommendations of what you've used or liked- or not liked for whatever reason, that's important too!DVD The Donut Man- "The Resurrection Celebration"
From cover: "...The Biblical story finds a firsthand parallel when the plays director Mrs Johnson, needs to be comforted because her husband has just gone home to heaven. This is a great way to communicate to your children the importance of Jesus' death & resurrection in a way they can understand & remember."
I really appreciate the Donut Man- we have quite a few of them& I really like them, despite a lot of people considering them to be old hat. The songs really get into our childrens' hearts & minds & they've been known to break into Donut Man songs, even in the supermarket! I often wonder what has become of the members of the Donut Repair Club- I expect they're all grown up now...
"The Story of Jesus for Children"DVD: We received this as a Christmas present from our childrens' playgroup & it's very effective. The footage is adapted from the 1979 "Jesus"movie,with extra additions from child actors, telling the story from a child's point of view.
"Ben Hur"-cartoon DVD-good times entertainment-I particularly like the scene of Masala's repentance at the end & Charlton Heston's explanation of the story at the start.
"An Easter Carol"- Veggietales DVD. We don't own this, but we hired it last year & I was pleasantly surprised. The story is adapted for Easter from "A Christmas Carol", but instead of ghosts, they have an angel called "Hope"(Rebecca St James). Ebenezer moves from a materialistic view of Easter to discovering the same Christian faith his Grandmother had, & of course becomes a new man- or veggie?!
Book-"The Legend of the Easter Egg"-by Lori Walburg. We have the shorter board book & have had it since Talitha was little. Both the girls love the old-fashioned illustrations.
Book-"The Easter Story"- a Ladybird Bible Book-Text by Scripture Union- a great op-shop find!
Question for YOU! What are your thoughts on the Disney Narnia movie, with regards to explaining Easter?
We believe our children are too young to watch it at this point- maybe 9 or 10 would be more appropriate. We have the DVD, I've seen it twice myself, but my husband is yet to watch it & give his opinion.Although I believe the scene with the death & resurrection of Aslan is very moving & powerful-the bit where the demon pulled his mane out brought tears to my eyes, I'm still very disturbed about the mythological imagery in other parts of the movie, especially the similarity between Mr Tumnus & Pan & the references to Bacchas. I posted once before on concerns I had about some CS Lewis stuff(even though he was quite brilliant) & some of the imagery in Narnia.
Maybe we'll only use parts of the movie, when our children are older-What do you think???
