Review and #Giveaway: Jesus Today Devotions for Kids #JesusTodayKids #FlyBy

Jesus Today Devotions For Kids is a great book!  If you are looking for a morning devotional to use with your kids, this is it!  Each page is filled with spiritual thoughts and scriptures, for 100 days of devotionals!  There are lots of ways this could be incorporated into homeschooling, copywork, journal writing, and more!  Filled with beautiful writing and all at a child’s level, it is very thought provoking and makes for great conversation starters!  It’s not just for homeschoolers though (of course).  I would recommend this book for any family that is trying to bring devotional and scripture reading into their daily life!  It could be used by an older child for personal study as well. 

About Jesus Today: Devotions for Kids

Jesus is the Friend who is always with you.  Jesus Today: Devotions for Kids will pour this powerful truth into your children's hearts as they learn that He knows everything about them and loves them more than they can imagine.  Each devotion is based on Scripture and is written as though Jesus is speaking directly to you, assuring that He is in control, that He is good, and that an amazing future awaits all who put their hope in Him.  Adapted from the ECPA 2013 Christian Book of the Year-winner Jesus Today, this devotional has the same themes as the adult version, as well as written-out scriptures.  It is a great choice for families to read and discuss during devotional time together. 

Hardcover: 368 pages

Age Range: 6-10 years

About Sarah Young:

Sarah Young's devotional writings are personal reflections from her daily quiet time of Bible reading, praying and writing in prayer journals.  With sales of more than 14 million books worldwide, Jesus Calling has appeared on all major bestseller lists.  Sarah's writings include Jesus Calling, Jesus Today, Jesus Lives, Dear Jesus, Jesus Calling for Little Ones, Jesus Calling Bible Storybook, Jesus Calling: 365 Devotions for Kids, and Peace in His Presence -- each encouraging readers in their journey toward intimacy with Christ.  Sarah and her husband were missionaries in Japan and Australia for many years.  They currently live in the United States. 

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Disclosure (in accordance with the FTC’s 16 CFR, Part 255: “Guides Concerning the Use of Endorsements and Testimonials in Advertising”): Many thanks to Propeller Consulting, LLC for providing this prize for the giveaway. Choice of winners and opinions are 100% my own and NOT influenced by monetary compensation. I did receive a sample of the product in exchange for this review and post.

Only one entrant per mailing address, per giveaway.  If you have won a prize from our sponsor Propeller / FlyBy Promotions in the last 30 days, you are not eligible to win.  Or if you have won the same prize on another blog, you are not eligible to win it again. Winner is subject to eligibility verification.

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Weeks in Review (1/18 & 1/25)

The week started with MLK day, of course.  Hubby is off, so we take off too.  I went to lunch with a friend and the hubs took the kids to MMA.

Tuesday K (baby girl) was not sounding well, a bit croupy) and it was so cold out, that I asked a friend to pick up C to go to Art History (her daughter is also in the class) and we stayed home.  We were suppose to go to a Preschool Science at the library that day too, but we cancelled it).  I woke up not feeling well also.  So it was just a yuck day.  That evening was the Cub Scout Rain Gutter Regala, I had to miss it because I was home with K.  He didn’t win, but he had fun!

Wednesday was MMA

Thursday was our field trip to The Science Center and The Walter’s Art Museum (see field trip Friday).  Luckily we were all back to health! 

Friday swimming and piano, a snow storm also hit us!  We ended up with 30 historical inches when all was said and done on Sunday!  Crazy!

Because of the snow, hubby had off on Monday, so we had a really short school day.  No MMA either.

Tuesday was a normal day, but the kids took lots of sledding breaks!  That’s how all week went,  and first thing when hubby got home from work each day, they all headed back out.  (I don’t do snow).

Wednesday was mostly back to normal with MMA

Thursday was suppose to be our first day back to co-op, BUT the parking lot has still not been plowed and schools here have been closed all week.  Therefore co-op was cancelled.  So, we took a pretty easy day.  C spent most of the morning listening to the audiobook of Half a World Away for his Battle of the Books competition.  The afternoon was spent reading for History together, and then watching Hunting the Elements for Science.  It was a really nice, relaxing day for the most part, and it reminded me that this is how I want homeschooling to be.  Something to work on!

and then Swimming and Piano on Friday.

Hope you guys had a great week!

Linking up at:

My Week in Review at Our 4 Kiddos, and Weekly Wrap up with Weird Unsocialized Homeschoolers

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Field Trip Friday Blog Hop–LOTS OF SNOW!!

Field Trip Friday!

Blog Hop designed to share 'FIELD TRIP' related Blog Posts(does not have to be a 'home school field trip', can be any trip to any place with your children!)

**NOTE:  Before linking up please review guidelines HERE!

So we were basically snowed in for most of the week!  No Field Trips here.  But we did have 30inches of historical snowfall to play in.  Well, the kids did… I don’t do snow!

Around the World with Poppins Book Nook and Children Just Like Me

This month the theme for Poppins Book Nook is Countries Around the World.

I am teaching a first grade geography class for co-op this semester, Around the World in 8 days, and Children Just Like Me is the base book I’m using for the course.  This is a great book to teach children about other countries, on their level.  What it’s like to be a kid in another country!

We will be doing lots of other activities, talking about animals, climates, flags, landmarks and more for each country.  We will also read story books that take place in the highlighted country each week.

Our first class is this Thursday and we are headed to CHINA!

We will be talking about Chinese New Year, looking at chinese money, learning to write chinese numbers, coloring the flag and getting stamps in our passports! We will also be reading The Story of Ping.

Visit some of our other Geography related posts:

Using Folk Tales in your Geography Studies

5 Books That Will Put the Whole World in Your Child’s Hands

Continent Box – Europe

Continent Box – Australia

Little Passports – Egypt

Little Passports – France

Little Passports – Japan

Little Passports – Brazil

FREE on Amazon Prime MUSIC!

More GREAT Geography books for kids:

Around the World: A Colorful Atlas for Kids

Around the World Coloring Book (Dover History Coloring Book)

Child's Introduction to the World: Geography, Cultures, and People - From the Grand Canyon to the Great Wall of China

GREAT APPS!

Geo Challenge FREE - Flags, Maps and Geography Learning Game for Kids (iTunes)

Stack the Countries (iTunes)

Unit Studies!

Amanda Bennet has some great unit studies of other countries, here is one we did on the United Kindgom.

Confessions of a Homeschooler – Expedition Earth

Visit other Poppins Book Nook Blogs:

Enchanted Homeschooling Mom - 3 Dinosaurs - ABC Creative Learning - As We Walk Along the Road - Brain Power Boy - Chestnut Grove Academy - Embracing Destiny - Every Bed of Roses - Farm Fresh Adventures - Growing in God's Grace - Kathys Cluttered Mind - My Bright Firefly - Peakle Pie - Preschool Powol Packets - Pray Species - SAHM I am - Stir The Wonder - Sunny Day Family - Sweet Silly Sara - Teach Beside Me - To the Moon and Back - Tots and Me - Tree Valley Academy - Witty Hoots

Have a related post? Link up Below:

Whole 30–Round 2! Week 3 Meals

Week 1

Week 2

R2D15

Meal 1 – Leftover potato and carrots with chicken sausage, guac and fried eggs

Meal 2 – Today was almost a disaster!  I went out with a friend for lunch, she picked the place and I went online to look at the menu, but then when I got there the menu was different!  It really threw me off, and I was all flustered!  I ordered the first salad on the menu without the salami and asked for just balsamic vinegar/ olive oil for dressing.  They brought out my salad but with the house dressing that is balsamic vinegar, but has parm cheese.  I told him I couldn’t have cheese, so he said, but there is cheese in the salad…so I asked him to take the cheese out and then he brings me a salad covered in ham and shrimp :/  Ham most definetely has sugar, but he did bring the dressing on the side.  I picked most of the ham off and ate around the rest.  He came over and asked if there was something in the ham, so I explained to him my predicament, and how I obviously did not look closely at the menu.  Ugh!  I looked online again when I got home and yep, it was different!  I should have just pulled ou t my phone to order and not allowed my self to get flustered, but I did stay compliant.  I had him box up the ham and I gave it to my kids. 

Meal 3 – Citrus Chicken (omit the sugar) with roasted broccolli and carrots

R2D16

Meal 1 – I threw these cups together Monday morning and good thing, because Tuesday I did not feel well.  Proscuitto eggs upcs with spinach and tomato, with appple slices and almond butter.

Meal 2 – Turkey patty wraps with bacon, carrots, guac and lettuce buns

Meal 3 – lots of lefover veggies, with some asparagus and flank steak

R2D17

Meal 1 – leftover veggies with chicken sausage and fried eggs

Meal 2 – chicken salad with shredded carrots, sunflower seeds, almonds, dried cranberries with a side of kiwi

Meal 3 – Taco salad

R2D18

Meal 1 – pulled this spaghetti pie out of the freezer for a quick breakfast, with apples and almond butter

Meal 2 – chicken salad with veggies and applesauce

Meal 3 – Speghetti squash with zucchini, carrots and ground beef with some marinara.

R2D19

Meal 1  Roast beef with potatos and carrots and fried eggs

Meal 2 – Last of the chicken salad on a bed of greens with diced apples.

Meal 3 – Spicy chicken and dates with butternut squash, served with cauli rice.  I cooked the squash in the crockpot with the rest.

R2D20

Meal 1 -  creamed cauli rice with proscuitto and fried eggs (this was so good, but it didn’t carry my long…so I beefed it up for D21)

Meal 2 – Leftover spaghetti squash from day 18

Meal 3 – Egg roll in a bowl with cashews.  I used coconut aminos, ground pork (1 lb), 2 bags of coleslaw mix, and a tad of chicken stock to cook down the cabbage.  Was super yummy!

R2D21

Meal 1 – creamed cauliflower rice with kale, proscuitto, chicken sausage, fried eggs and half a bananna with almond butter, raisins, sunflower seeds and coconut.

Meal 2 – leftover egg roll in a bowl

Meal 3 – Chocolate Sweet Potato Chili with stew meat (instead of ground beef).  Picture to follow… check out my Instagram! 

I feel like this week was a lot more balanced!  Last week I was feeling run down and bored with it, but this week has been good!  I have tried some new recipes, and I have only one more week to go, technically.  I have decided to go ahead and extend to 40 days.  Especially since I had a mess up the first week and didn’t even know!  (FYI:  Mushrooms at Five Guys are NOT compliant, they have HFCS!!!, see week 1) 

So you’ll be seeing a few more of these posts this round!  Let me know if you try something and like it, or how Whole30 is going for you!

Field Trip #189 Friday Blog Hop

Field Trip Friday!

Blog Hop designed to share 'FIELD TRIP' related Blog Posts(does not have to be a 'home school field trip', can be any trip to any place with your children!)

**NOTE:  Before linking up please review guidelines HERE!

Today was a LONG day!  We went to Baltimore for a 2 part class with Walter’s Art Museum. 

Ancient Engineers to Modern Designs Homeschool Workshop

I had the 3 oldest in the classes.  We started at Maryland Science Center and then after lunch headed to the Art Museum.  It was in total from 10-330p.  The kids were exhausted!  This was our first time to the Art Museum, we are definetely going back to check out the exhibits (It’s FREE!).

The class was $15 per kid.  Parking at the Science Center was $15, it was also $4 for me and K to enjoy the center while they were in class.  Parking at the Art Museum was $12.  So it was a bit of a pricey day, but the kids had a blast!

K and I had a fun time hanging out at both places while the kids were in classes.  Though I think she was a tad bored, I’m not nearly as fun as her brothers!

Our Favorite Apps for Kindle and iOS

My kids primarily use the Kindle for app play, however, we also have a family iPad that is used for schooling.  The iPad is mostly used for school work, such as Reading Eggs and Math Seeds as well as ABC Mouse (all need subscriptions), and then other things like CTC Math and Reading Kingdom (used in browser). Most apps I have listed below are available both at the Amazon Appstore and for iOS, I have not looked on Google Play, but you might be able to find them there as well.  These are just a small sample of the apps we have and use, I need to come up with a better organization method for them, we have so many that we forget about!  These are the FAVORITES, the ones they come back to time and time again and are enjoyed by more than just one child.

Favorite Apps for Preschool

Monkey Preschool Lunchbox

This app has counting, colors, shapes, beginning sounds, puzzles.  It has it all, and after so many rounds completed they get a sticker for their sticker wall.  My kids have loved this app (even the older ones find it amusing).  All my kids have loved this app and now it’s a favorite of my 2 year old! 

Endless  Alphabet

This app is great for preschool and app.  It introduces the sounds of the letters, new words and helps with spelling those words.  Not played as much these days, this was a favorite of my 5 yo (now almost 7) for sometime, he still plays it quite a bit.

Monkey Math School

A fun math game for the younger guys.  Great for PreK-K age group.  This app works on counting objects, patterns and other problems solving.  Monkey Preschool Lunchbox is a favorite of ours for the little guys, and this app is just as great!

Write My Name

This app is great and has really helped my newly turned 5 year old pick up on writing his name!  My 2 year old loves it as well!  You can take pictures to put with the names you program, as well as say the names.  The kids love writing each others names, and the dogs names too!  Lots of fun!  It also offers letter writing, and it says the name of each letter as you write it (when writing names).

We also really enjoy several of the Reading Eggs Apps, and Dr. Panda and other Toca Boca apps.

My 2 and 5 year olds LOVE animals.  These are 3 of his most favorite animal related educational apps.

Curious George Zoo

Help Curious George take care of the animals in the zoo.  Children learn about which animals live in which habitats and what they eat.  They can watch short video clips about each animal as well.  They can play games and collect stickers. They learn animal facts and how to follow directions.

(each section of the Kindle app is purchased separately, iOS app has in app purchases for further exploration, be sure to turn off in app purchases or passcode it!)

ABC Zooborns

A is for aardvark.  C is for cheetah.  Look at pictures, solve simple puzzles, learn animal facts and watch videos of cute baby animals several for each letter of the alphabet.

Wifi connection is needed for this app

Tizzy Zoo Veterinarian

Find the animals in the zoo that are in need of medical attention.  Help them by setting and casting broken bones, doctoring wounds, eliminating stomach viruses, etc.  It sounds complicated, but it’s not.  Perfect for ages 3-4 years old.

Lite version also available for FREE

Favorite apps for Science

Toca Lab

This is a fun app for all ages.  Exploring the elements, mix them and see reactions, etc.  My kids have had a ball, so much so that they don’t even realize it’s educational!!

Simple Physics

My dad use to own his own construction business when I was a kid, and he thought this was a cool app.  You have to build things to withstand the circumstances and try to do so for the least cost.  My 6yo and 9yo both enjoy this one, we are also fans of Simple Rockets and Simple Planes (newly added to our collection)

Bridge Constructor Medieval

Much like Simple Physics, this game has a bit of a historical twist.  The main point, however, is to build bridges.

Favorite Apps for Math

Madagascar Math Ops

Do you have an Angry Birds fan?  My 9yo is Angry Birds crazed, and could spend hours of mindless play of the game, which I refuse to allow.  Then I found this game!  Similar in concept to Angry Birds you have to launch penguins to free the animals, but FIRST you must solve some math problems!  They have problems geared towards 1st – 4th graders.  Parents can also go in and get report cards of their child’s progress in the math department.  Loads of fun!

*lite version also available

Math Slicer

Fruit Ninja fan?  Math slicer is a fun way to to practice those math facts!  It has addition, subtraction, multiplication and division.  Slice through the correct answer, slice any eggs that pop up, get points and ‘buy’ prizes.

*lite version also available

Math Run

Another fun math game!

Favorite Apps for History and Geography

President’s vs Aliens

This game asks multiple choice trivia questions about the President’s of the United States throughout history, you earn rewards and use them to defeat the aliens that are attacking Washington.  Okay, it’s silly…but they are learning!  I have to admit I have learned as well, my son asks me the questions he doesn’t know, and we learn together!  It’s amazing how many president’s I had never even heard of!!

*Lite version also available

Stack the States

Another great quiz game!  Learn to identify shapes by states, location, what their capital is, etc.  Then try to stack the shapes on top of each other to reach past the indicated line!  My 7yo has a blast with this game!

*lite version also available

Brain Pop and Brain Pop Jr

You can access one free video a day (or week for JR version) without a subscription, as well as a handful of other free videos.  My kids really like these videos, and we have had subscriptions before (I think it’s well worth the cost and you can get them at discount through the Homeschool Buyer’s Co-op).  They have sort of tired of them, so have taken a break for now.
 

News O Matic

Current events for kids, there are 3 options choose by grade (1-2, 3-4, & 5+).  This is a great way for kids to learn about the things going on TODAY!  it’s on their level and in their language!

LDS Church Related Apps

LDS Hangman – Costs 99cents

There are 3 levels to choose from (Easy, Medium, Hard) which determines how many chance you get to guess the letters.  Another favorite of my 7yo, and the 9yo that sits in front of us also asked her mom to get this one!

LDS Articles of Faith Bubble Brains FREE  (there is also a 99cents version, not sure what the difference is)

Fun way to memorize the Articles of Faith, if you read the reviews you will see that there is one glitch, repeat words sometimes cause errors (so like more than one the, if you don’t hit the RIGHT the, it says it’s wrong), which can be too annoying for some, but we don’t mind too much.

LDS Scripture Mastery - FREE

You can add your own memory verses in to help you memorize them! 

This post is part of a TOS Round Up, see what others from the crew have to share by clicking below.  It goes live on the morning of Friday 1/22/16.