Discipleship - Kids Archives - LeeAnn G Taylor

Sequin Sparkle and Change Bible Review

December 26, 2018 By LeeAnn G. Taylor

Affiliate links are used in this post. Thank you to FrontGate Media for providing the book for review.

There’s a new Bible on the market for all the girls in your life who get giggly over mermaid sequins. Sequins are all the rage right now! My oldest daughter received a large mermaid sequin pillow for Christmas from her grandparents and my middle daughter received this new Sparkle and Change Bible.

I really adore this Bible, as the outside caught my 4 year old’s attention immediately, making her want to open it up and explore the inside. The sequins are like magic! When you brush your hand across them, a silver heart appears. While this copy is blue, there’s a pink version as well.

The inside has colorful eye-catching insert pages with places for writing family history and details, as well as a place to keep a list of favorite verses.

The inside has clear text with bold headings. The font is very easy to read, which is great since unfortunately, that’s not always the case with some Bibles and this is super-important for little early readers.

It’s also the International Children’s Bible version, the first version translated specifically for children. For perspective, it’s written at a third-grade reading level. This is the translation my own first Bible was written in, so I’m personally familiar with how simple it is for kids to understand.

I love these inserts that help kids find familiar passages and consolidate important information into one-page summaries for ease of memorization.

And these maps! These bring me back to my childhood in a heartbeat since I remember sitting in Bible class looking at these same maps and trying to imagine what it must have been like to live in Jesus’ time. They’re colorful and easy to read.

I also love the fact that the Bible has an easy to read dictionary of common Bible words and phrases so kids can easily look up words or concepts they’re unfamiliar with. This makes independent Bible study more accessible.

Want to win a copy of the Sequin Sparkle and Change Bible for a special girl in your own life? Click the banner below to enter to win!

Love Does for Kids: Book Review & Giveaway

November 25, 2018 By LeeAnn G. Taylor

Affiliate links are used in this post. Thank you to FrontGate Media for providing the book for review.

Recently I was captivated by Bob Goff’s book, Love Does: Discover a Secretly Incredible Life in an Ordinary World. There were so many gems and I truly loved his perspective. I quickly read his wife Maria’s book, Love Lives Here: Finding What You Need in a World Telling You What You Want, as well, to get her perspective on their life. Both were fascinating and encouraging.

Some of my favorite stories in both books revolve around their relationship with their kids and the adventures they had together as a family.

So when the opportunity to review Bob Goff’s newest book, Love Does for Kids, I jumped at the chance.

Bob writes the book with his daughter, Lindsey Goff Viducich, and I love that! She is an elementary school teacher, so her input certainly helped shape the book to appeal to a younger audience.

The thick hardcover book is sturdy and seems to have been crafted to withstand the sometimes rough treatment books for kids often receive. The size of the book it not much larger than an adult’s hand, making it easier for children to handle.

The book is divided into 46 short stories, each about 5-6 pages long, including a page or two of illustrations to highlight the story.

This first story is entitled Mistakes. The story talks about how we all make mistakes but that the TRUTH is that God can and does use our mistakes to shape us into the wonderful person he’s crafting us into.

Each story starts out with a personal anecdote from Bob, leads into a Biblical story, often highlighting how Jesus sees us and our identity in Him, and then encourages the young person to live in a way that walks out Jesus’ love for us and others.

The illustrations are rich and fun and will keep kids’ attention.

The stories aren’t too long and quickly move from Bob’s story to Jesus’ story and then application.

Each story only takes a few minutes to read. I think this would make a great nightly devotional book for parents to read to and with their kids. It would also function well as a book for older elementary kids or middle school kids to read on their own.

Bob addresses kids directly in the book and there are often questions for kids to think through their answers in the middle of the text. Since the questions are interspersed, it doesn’t feel like “homework” and instead challenges kids to think through important concepts.

Would you like to win a copy for yourself or someone you love?

Enter your email address and first and last name to be entered to win a copy of the Love Does for Kids book from FrontGate Media.

Family Honor Plate & Table Thyme Discussion Cards Review

February 18, 2018 By LeeAnn G. Taylor

I’m always on the lookout for fun and engaging ways to bring Biblical truth into our everyday experiences in our home.

With 5 small kids, the reality is that most days are composed of daily household essentials — get dressed, change diapers, eat breakfast, brush teeth, grab backpacks, drive to school, drive to work, get home, review homework, sign papers, make dinner, pack lunches, clean kitchen, work some more, get ready for bed — and repeat.

While I desperately want to plant truth into the hearts of the little people in my care, during this season it’s often woven into the everyday experiences instead of looking like some big elaborate family study.

It’s always an exciting day when I find a tool or resource that I can easily incorporate into the everyday rhythms and the Family Honor Plate and Table Thyme Discussion Cards are both fabulous ones!

The Family Honor Plate is both a one-time family painting activity and a long-term tool that can be used ongoing to celebrate “catching” one of your children or your spouse exhibiting one of the fruits of the spirit.

The kit comes with a white plate, a painting set, and instructions. Thankfully if you make a mistake, the paint wipes right off until you bake the plate in the oven to “set” it and make it safe for use with food.

I’m excited to start using the plate to highlight when my kids make good choices.

Lately we’ve been battling a certain 2 year old’s use of the phrase “stupid dummy” and I’d much rather be celebrating positive behavior and kind words than constantly reminding her that we don’t use those negative mean words.

I like that the Family Honor Plate, with regular use, has the ability to facilitate a family culture of building one another up in love.

While I’m certainly not the most crafty person around, thankfully you don’t have to be to still have a pretty, festive plate! 🙂

A sample of the Table Thyme Discussion Cards come with the Family Honor Plate but the full set is worth investing in as well.

There are some really fun questions like “would you ever go sky diving and why or why not?” and then others that are more serious in nature. I really love this one below, because I think it gets kids thinking about the responsibility of the parents to teach the kids obedience.

Communication is the key to connecting, building and maintaining healthy relationships. When we raise our children to be confident in their ability to communicate with others and get their point across, situations are less stressful and they have better outcomes.

Learning communication skills is a lifelong process and it’s critical that we start the process early in our homes.

With Christmas coming up in the next few weeks, both the Family Honor Plate and the Table Thyme Discussion Cards would make a great family gift!

I’m all for “experience” type gifts that create memories and opportunities for connectedness. These do both!

Here’s to more family connectedness through the holidays and all year long!

Thanks to FlyBy Promotions for sharing a review copy of these with me. All opinions are my own. Affiliate links are used in this post.

Parenting With Purpose: Using Music to Plant God’s Truths in Our Children’s Hearts

May 4, 2016 By LeeAnn G. Taylor

As a brand new mom with perfectionistic tendencies, I gobbled up every type of parenting resource I could get my hands on. If it was a tip that promised to help me be the best parent possible, I wanted to know it and put it into practice, pronto!

After I spent hours of those early months Googling every possible parenting ‘best practice’, I eventually realized that each person blazes their own unique parenting path. Best is quite subjective in the realm of parenting.

However, occasionally all my searching would turn up a useful nugget of information that made it onto my parenting Pinterest board and eventually into action in our home.

One of the most helpful ideas was a suggestion to turn every day activities into opportunities to incorporate music in our home. It seems that people smarter than me have figured out that our brains process information in the form of music differently from the spoken word.

{You can learn more about the music-learning connection here.}

A peak into our home during those first few years of my daughter’s life would have surely given you multiple opportunities to giggle as you listened to me sing made up songs about everything from diaper changes and bath time to picking up toys and getting dressed.

Those songs may not have rhymed or ever made it into a songbook somewhere, but my kids got a kick out of them and they seemed to clue into my requests more so than if I just jabbered alone.

Kids’ brains are already little sponges, but music opens up their minds in a whole new way. As my children have grown, I’ve used music to teach them basic important information such as our address, phone number, and how to spell their names.

It wasn’t long after implementing this teaching method before I realized I could tap into this God-given natural ability of children to memorize through music for even more important lessons.

As parents seeking to impart God’s truths into our kiddos as they grow, we have an incredible opportunity to capitalize on this natural ability and use music to plant seeds of truth into their hearts!

Those of you who have been around here awhile know that I love to find and share helpful resources to use as we all seek to parent (and grandparent!) with purpose and create God-centered homes.

Today I’m excited to share with you the CD/Book combo My Sing-Along Bible: 50 Easy-Read Stories + 50 Fun Bible Songs.

If you grew up going to Sunday School, you’ll recognize many of the songs sung by the kids on the CD. You’ll hear Jesus Loves Me, Jesus Loves the Little Children, and Joshua Fit the Battle of Jericho, plus traditional hymns like All Creatures of Our God and King.

The book has beautiful brightly colored images, a small little devotional for each topic, a scripture verse, and the lyrics to each song. The book works perfectly as a morning quiet time tool for little ones since the sing-along aspect keeps their attention, even when they’re too little to read.

My daughter already has her favorite songs memorized and is working on learning all the books of the Bible by singing along with the two bonus songs at the end, one for the Old Testament and the other for the New Testament.

My son loves to follow along when we listen to the CD in the car. And I love seeing his little chubby hands flipping through the pages while he sings along with the music.

I’m so thankful we have quality tools like this to help teach our kids the Word of God! What are some of YOUR favorite resources for teaching young kids scripture and Biblical truths?

Thank you to Tyndale House Publishers for sharing this book! Disclosure of Material Connection: I received this book free from the publisher. I was not required to write a positive review. The opinions I have expressed are my own. I am disclosing this in accordance with the Federal Trade Commission’s 16 CFR, Part 255: “Guides Concerning the Use of Endorsements and Testimonials in Advertising.”

If you’re interested in connecting with others who are also passionate about creating a God-centered home, I’d love to have you join the Parenting With Purpose Facebook group for encouragement, resources, and inspiration! You can also subscribe to posts by email here.

Parenting With Purpose at Easter

March 24, 2016 By LeeAnn G. Taylor

With Easter upon us in a few short days, I wanted to share a few ideas we’re using this year with our kids to make sure we’re focusing on Jesus’ life, death, and resurrection, the true meaning of Easter.

But first, here’s a glimpse into our reality right now with three kids ages 6 and under. This was our attempt at teaching them to share last weekend. I’ll let you guess how long that lasted…

Sharing or not sharing, we still attempt to teach them, right?

It’s the same with Easter. While I know my kiddos won’t understand everything about Jesus’ death and resurrection while they’re still so young, I can still begin to teach them at an age appropriate level.

Now don’t get me wrong; we still enjoy our church’s Easter egg hunt too, complete with bounce houses and face painting because my 6 yr old thinks getting her face painted is truly the best thing ever and who am I to deprive her of that joy?

But it’s so important to us to make sure we’re planting the seeds of truth in their little hearts and minds during a time when the world around us already recognizes that there’s something special going on.

We started this with Salem, our oldest, when she was tiny, just 2 years old, by reading the simple board book What is Easter? (thank you Noni!), a book that acknowledges the bunnies and eggs kids see during this time of year while at the same time introducing the concept that it’s really Jesus that we celebrate. This year it’ll help Kai, our 3 year old, remember that Easter isn’t just about candy and eggs.

I’m trying something new with him this year too. It’s a simple activity called All Wrapped Up Like Jesus. Now, you need to know that I will never, ever, ever call myself a “crafty mom” but this is the kind of activity that only requires supplies you already have on hand. Okay, are you ready, fellow non-crafty moms? This activity’s supply list is….toilet paper. That’s it! Here’s the drill, and I promise, your young kids will love this “active” activity!

Read Matthew 27:57-61.
Take the toilet paper and wrap your child up in “grave clothes”. If you have more than one child, have your kids take turns playing the part of Jesus and wrapping one another up.
After each child is wrapped up, have them try to break loose from the toilet paper. Talk about how Jesus’ followers must have felt when they found out that Jesus was alive.

My older daughter’s favorite Easter activity is to make Resurrection Rolls. These little treats are baking-challenged (that’s me!) mom approved…just 4 ingredients…crescent roll dough (from a can!), marshmallows, sugar and cinnamon.

For this activity, start with reading the Easter story from the Bible. Our favorite Bible for preschoolers is the Jesus Storybook Bible. As you work through the steps of the activity, remind your child about what you just read.

Spread out the crescent roll triangles individually on a baking sheet. These represent Jesus’ tomb.
Next roll one marshmallow first in butter and then in the sugar/cinnamon mixture. This represents Jesus’ body being prepared for burial with oil and spices. If your child is like mine (not okay with cinnamon), then try using red sprinkles to represent blood.
Place the spiced marshmallow in the center of the crescent roll, wrap it up, and press the edges together so the crescent roll seals. This represents the tomb being sealed with the stone.
Bake the crescent rolls according to the directions on the package.
After they cool a bit, let your child open up one of the rolls. The marshmallow is gone – Jesus is alive!

We also use some of the activities from the e-book A Sense of the Resurrection to help bring the sights, smells, and tastes of the Easter story to life. The author, Amanda White, has been a children’s pastor and is fabulous at breaking down complicated concepts into tangible activities that impress God’s Word on our kids’ hearts! She very generously has offered us a discount – use the code MOSAICLIFE for 20% off. This is also great curriculum to use in churches with kids at Easter!

Finally, one of our favorite traditions we started last year is to have what Amanda calls an “UnEaster Basket” or what we call a “Jesus Basket” instead of the traditional Easter basket.

I felt like this was the first time they really “got” the concept of Jesus paying for our sins. I know personally I learn better with object lessons and this one was impactful to my adult-heart too!

I just love it when we can use what’s happening in our world around us to teach biblical principles to our kids and Easter is the perfect time for it!

Whatever you decide to do, I pray you are able to sow seeds of truth into your little ones’ hearts this Easter!

LeeAnn

A Trick for Toddler Tantrums

February 25, 2015 By LeeAnn G. Taylor

I have to be honest.

Parenting is hard work and I’m going to go out on a limb and say I’m not winning the “Mother of the Year” award any time soon. Remember, I’m letting go of perfectionism, so pursuing an award for the best mother ever just isn’t on my bucket list.

Sometimes good enough is good enough.

And although most first time mothers wish they did, we all know hospitals don’t send you home with a user’s manual when they roll you out to your car in a wheelchair holding your new bundle of joy. Newborns, with their squishy little faces and darling coos, grow into willful toddlers and, at least for me, at times it feels like an alien has taken up residence in our home!

My sweet, sweet baby boy has turned into a little man with his own thoughts and opinions about almost everything. His current favorite phrase when he’s frustrated is “NO, I DON’T WANT TO, MOMMY!” and he says it complete with an angry face and a stomping foot.

It’s epic. And not in a good way.

At times I’m tempted to get frustrated right back at him but instead, I’ve found a solution that works every time. Or sometimes. Or once out of every three times I try. {Ahem.}

Reading a book!

Truly, grabbing my frustrated little man, taking him out of his currently frustrating environment, and plopping ourselves on the couch with a fuzzy blanket and a good book is usually a great solution to the mayhem that occurs when his little toddler self is having trouble controlling his own emotions.

This week we received a new book in the mail, so of course this book made it to the calm-down-couch pile of books. {Part of the fun of blogging is receiving books to read and review and this was one of those times}.

The Berenstain Bears’ Please & Thank You Book

I grew up with the Berenstain Bears teaching me all manner of socially appropriate behavior through great quality children’s books. Reading was and still is one of my favorite things to do any time I have a few extra minutes (or hours!).

I was excited to crack open this cute little board book and see what new adventures Mama Bear, Papa, Brother, Sister, and Honey had in store for me. Small in size, the thick-paged board book is perfect for little hands still learning to turn the pages.

And what better topic for me to read to my strong-willed toddler than a book about manners? In The Berenstain Bears’ Please & Thank You Book Brother, Sister, and Honey yell “I want a cookie!” and Mama Bear is shocked at their poor manners!

In the span of 20 short pages, Mama Bear walks her cubs through a reminder of when to use the magic words – please, thank you, and you’re welcome – and rewards them for doing so with some of her scrumptious cookies and milk.

My “big” kids (ages 2 and 5) listened intently to the book and the littlest asked to read it over and over again, like little ones tend to do! It’s a great book for me to read during our “cool down” times after tantrums as a simple reminder of appropriate behavior and manners.

If you’d like your own copy to use during the inevitable toddler-tantrum moments, you’re in luck!

To win a copy of The Berenstain Bears’ Please & Thank You Book, choose one (or several) of the entry methods below.

Ways to Enter this Giveaway:

Leave a comment on this post.
Visit The Mosaic Life Facebook page. And *like* it if you like it. 🙂
Sign up to receive blog posts by email.

I’ll choose a winner on Tuesday, March 3rd. This would be a great addition to a child’s Easter basket this year!

“Disclosure (in accordance with the FTC’s 16 CFR, Part 255: “Guides Concerning the Use of Endorsements and Testimonials in Advertising”): Many thanks to the Propeller Consulting, LLC for providing this prize for 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 the same prize on another blog, you are not eligible to win it again. Winner is subject to eligibility verification. US and Canada readers/addresses only. Winner must respond within 48 hours or another winner will be chosen.”

This post contains affiliate links {full disclosure}. If you click through an affiliate link to make a purchase, we receive a small percentage of the sale at no extra charge to you. Proceeds help pay for this site and support our recently adopted Compassion International child, Eva, from Columbia.