The Night Night Book Review & Giveaway



I love books and reading them to my children.  I especially love to snuggle up and read naptime and bedtime stories to the little guys.  Over the years we have had a few favorites.  You know what I am talking about, that one book that kids bring to you every day or every night, that one book that your 2 year old can pretty much recite with out you. 



The Night Night Book by Marianne Richmond has become that book for us.  Little Bits is quite happy to have it read to him on a daily basis.  Once you start reading a page he will finish your sentence for you.  We have read this book so many times that he has most of it memorized. 



The Night Night Book is is a board book that is geared for the younger ones.  It starts off with a child that is in his "comfy bed, all tucked in.  Cozy blanket toes to chin."  Then he goes through saying night night to the trees, flowers and sun.  Night night to to his crayons, smock and glitter glue.  The story is very cute and has a little rhythm to it, which of course little kids love.

 

It is illustrated very nicely, with adorable cut out pictures that are bright and colorful.  Little Bits loves to point out certain things and count crayons, flowers, stars and as we read through The Night Night Book.

This little board book makes a great naptime, bedtime or anytime story book and would be a great addition to any toddlers story collection.  You can purchase your own copy for $7.95 on Amazon.

You can also WIN a copy of The Night Night Book!  The publisher of The Night Night Book, Sourcebooks, has offered to GIVEAWAY one to one of my readers.  The GIVEAWAY will run until June 17th 2011.  Here is how you can enter to win: 

• You must Follow LSG through Google Friend Connect, so please let me know that you follow. 
• If you are also an email subscriber that will get you an extra entry if you let me know. 
• Let your readers know about this giveaway by posting about it on your Blog, Facebook or Twitter page and let me know or leave me a link. 
• Check out some of the other books by Marianne Richmond and tell which others interest you. 

You can find other great Naptime and Bedtime Story ideas over at Smockity Frocks.

We received The Night Night Book free of charge from Sourcebooks for review purposes only.   The opinions expressed her are mine and I was not influence by the company or the free product.

Mystery of History Review

History is one of my favorite subjects, always has been.  I can vividly remember sitting in history class listening to my teacher tell us stories of people and places from long ago.  I always liked to listen to the stories being told verses reading them out of a stuffy old textbook. 

When I became a homeschooler I started of with stuffy old textbooks for history because that is what I knew.  I eventually graduated to living books and only used textbooks when I had too.  I had heard many great things about The Mystery of History  but thought it was just another, say it with me, stuffy old textbook.  Once we received Mystery of History Vol.1: Creation to Resurrection and dug in I realized how wrong I was. 

 

It is a textbook, I guess, but it has such a different tone to it that I hesitate to call it a textbook.  The Mystery of History author Linda Hobar has way of presenting history in a way that you feel like you are reading a great book or that someone is telling you a story.  We loved this about Mystery of History.  It was not stuffy and boring but fun, interesting and quite refreshing! 

 

Let me tell you some of the things that we enjoyed about Mystery of History:

• Like I said, we liked the story form of the book.  The content is interesting and holds our attention. 
• Love, LOVE the strong biblical base of this book!  Mystery of History is definitely taught from a biblical world view.  Biblical men, women and events such as Adam & Eve, David, Noah, Ruth & Naomi and The Tower of Babel are included.
• I like to teach as many subject together as I can with my children, even though they are in different grades.  MOH allows me to do just that. The reading is geared toward kids in K-8 grades and each lesson has activities that are appropriate for younger, middle and older students. 
• Mystery of History is chronological.  They recommend doing a time line as a visual. 
• We like that it is hands on.  MOH recommend that the kids make memory cards (index cards) for drilling purposes and games.
• Not that anything else is needed, but I really liked that Linda gives ideas for extra books and videos to dig a little deeper in each lesson. 
• The Mystery of History Folderbooks are amazing, they make great lapbooks!

Mystery of History is a very well put together curriculum that can stand alone or be used as a wonderful history resource.  Bright Idea Press has all 3 of the Mystery of History volumes available as well as folderbooks, craft packs, notebook pages, cds and coloring pages to compliment your Mystery of History Curriculum. 

 

Mystery of History Vol. I - Creation to Resurrection, $49.95
Mystery of History Vol. II - Early Church and Middle Ages, $49.95
Mystery of History Vol. III - Student Reader, $59.95

 

If you are interested in purchasing any of the Mystery of History curriculum please Click Here

 

Please be advised that we were given Mystery of History Vol. I and MOH Folderbooks Vol. I Quarter 1 at no charge for review purposes only.  The opinions expressed here are mine and I was not influenced by the company or the free product. 
I am an affiliate of Bright Ideas Press, because I love their products.  If purchase thru one of my links I will make a small percentage from your sale.

Just as I Am , Without One Plea

 by Charlotte Elliott

Just as I am, without one plea,
But that Thy blood was shed for me,
And that Thou bidst me come to Thee,
O Lamb of God, I come, I come.

Just as I am, and waiting not
To rid my soul of one dark blot,
To Thee whose blood can cleanse each spot,
O Lamb of God, I come, I come.

Just as I am, though tossed about
With many a conflict, many a doubt,
Fightings and fears within, without,
O Lamb of God, I come, I come.

Just as I am, poor, wretched, blind;
Sight, riches, healing of the mind,
Yea, all I need in Thee to find,
O Lamb of God, I come, I come.

Just as I am, Thou wilt receive,
Wilt welcome, pardon, cleanse, relieve;
Because Thy promise I believe,
O Lamb of God, I come, I come.

Just as I am, Thy love unknown
Hath broken every barrier down;
Now, to be Thine, yea, Thine alone,
O Lamb of God, I come, I come.

Just as I am, of that free love
The breadth, length, depth, and height to prove,
Here for a season, then above,
O Lamb of God, I come, I come!


This is a beautiful song, I love the words and the tune.  In church today I listened to this song play softly in the background as we were preparing to take the Lord's Supper.  I was reminded of the beauty of the gospel, in that the Lord takes us just as we are.  There is nothing in us that brings us to Him, our sin does just the opposite, but in His mercy  He draws us to Him.

He calls us, as we are and forgives us of our sins.  For the believer, the child of God, He looks at us and sees His precious, perfect Son Christ. 

Little Amadeus Mozart DVD's

The LSG Kids have been enjoying a wonderful DVD series called Little Amadeus Mozart.

This series is educational as well as entertaining.  The Little Amadeus Mozart series takes kids to a world where music abounds and helps to build an interest in classical music.  There are 13 episodes in this series, that are mixed with facts and fiction about Little Amadues Mozart, his family, friends and of course his music.

Although the series is somewhat fictional there is still lots to learn.  Kids not only learn about the music of Mozart, they will learn about the piano, woodwind, bass and string instruments, Vienna, the Imperial Court and much, much more!  This is music mixed with a bit of history and a whole lotta fun.

One of the best things about this series is that it is much more than a video series.  Along with the DVD set you get a computer cd that has coloring pages, activites and lesson plans to go along with each of the 13 episodes.  You can also print these right off of the Little Amadeus website, as well as play some great games like conduct an orcestra, identifiy instruments and memory.

The Little Amadeus series is avaiable directly through the series' creators, Naxos.  The series is available for $24.99 and includes 13 episodes from Season 1 on 4 DVD's as well as the computer cd taht includes the lesson plans and fun activites for the kids. 

We received the Little Amadeus Mozart DVD series free of charge for review purposes only.  The opinions expressed here are mine and I was not influenced by the company or the free product.

Children's Miracle Music

We were blessed with the opportunity to review Children's Miracle Music with our kids.  Children's Miracle Music is a wonderful new way to get chores done around the house.

As a momma of 4, sometimes I can feel like the maid in my home.  I expect my kids to help out with chores but no matter what chore chart we have used I am still constantly having to remind my kids to do this and do that.  It is very frustrating to repeat myself over and over.  Enter Children's Miracle Music and you have a whole new world!!  Really!

I explained to my kids that we were going to have certain areas in the homes where they will each do "Acts of Kindness" instead of chores!  One of the goals of Children's Miracle Music is for the children to take ownership in their area or "Act of Kindness" and keep up these areas out of love and kindness for others in the family.

Here is what I really like about Children's Miracle Music:

• It is SO easy!  You pop in a CD and your on your way to a clean home!  Depending on if you are doing the morning or evening CD determines what the CD directs you to do.  Like in the morning you make your bed, get dressed, eat breakfast, brush your teeth and do your act of kindness.  In the evening you do your act of kindness, get in your pj's, go to the bathroom, brush your teeth and say your prayers. 
• Chores have never been so fun!!  While you are doing your acts of kindness, brushing your teeth, getting dressed, etc you are doing it all to the tune of fun and upbeat music.  For instance, you get 1 song to brush your teeth and 3 songs to do your act of kindness.  It is amazing what you can accomplish in 3 songs!
• My evening act of kindness (yes, I play too!) is the kitchen and the music really helps everyone, even ME, to get things done.  It really puts a fast pace on getting things done around here which is great cause it gives us more time to PLAY!
• Did I mention the game board?!  Yep, there is a really neat game board that you can hang on the refrigerator or wall.  Everyone has their name on the board and each morning and evening the kids get to add points for each thing that they have done. 
• I am sure that you are wondering what the points are for.  Well, this is one of the best things about Children's Miracle Music kids earn points, not money, and the points get used to go on special dates with Mom and Dad.  Once the kids get 100 points then they have earned a date.  These can be as simple as playing games together one night or going out for ice cream.  I love how this builds parent/ child relationships. 
• Children's Miracle Music also helps build teamwork.  I took their suggestion and paired an older child with a younger child.  The older child helps the younger child with everything that they need to do from brushing teeth, making beds to doing their acts of kindness.

 We really love Children's Miracle Music and I totally recommend it!! 

Children's Miracle Music is available for $99.00 and includes:

• 4 CD's (2 for the morning and 2 for the evening)
• 1 Game Board with Dry Erase Marker
• 1 DVD - Secrets To A Transformational Family

 Please know that Children's Miracle Music was given to us free of charge for review purposes only.  I was not influenced by the free product or the company.  We liked Chilren's Miracle Music so much that I became an affiliate for them, so if you purchase through my site I will earn a small percentage back which would be a real blessing!