No Way!

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Ants That Count!

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You Can Be A Hero for God

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Do you go to church with your family? Do you ever feel like you would like to be someplace else, maybe playing?

Let me tell you a story about a grown-up who went to church one day, when he really didn’t want to.

He was a regular guy, not a preacher. His name was John Egglen. He had never preached a sermon in his life.

But then one morning he did. The snow left his town of Colchester, England, buried in white. He thought of staying home. It was hard to walk through all the snow!

But he thought about it some more. He was, after all, a deacon. A deacon is a type of person who helps out at the church. And if deacons didn’t go, who would? So he put on his boots, hat, and coat and walked the six miles to the Methodist Church.

He was one of the few who came. Only 13 people came to church that wild, snowy day. Twelve members and one visitor. Even the minister was snowed in.

“Let’s all just go home,” someone said.

“No, let’s have our church service,” said John Egglen. They’d come this far; they would have a service. Besides, they had a visitor. A 13-year-old boy.

But who would preach? Egglen was the only deacon. That meant he had to preach. He didn’t know anything about preaching.

A Lousy, Life-changing Sermon

His sermon lasted only ten minutes. It made no point in an effort to make several. (It wasn’t a very good sermon.) But at the end, he lifted his eyes and looked straight at the 13-year-old boy who had come as a visitor and said: “Young man, look to Jesus. Look! Look! Look!”

Did the challenge make a difference? Let the boy, now a man, answer. “I did look, and then and there the cloud on my heart lifted, the darkness rolled away, and at that moment I saw the sun.”

Because John Egglen told him to look to Jesus, he did. And he saw that Jesus was real, and that He loved him!

The boy’s name? Charles Haddon Spurgeon. England’s prince of preachers. Charles Spurgeon was one of the greatest preachers who ever lived. Many people came to know the love of Jesus through his preaching.

Did John Egglen know what he’d done? No. Do heroes know when they are heroic? Rarely.

Just be faithful – God will handle the rest.

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I Want To Be Like Jesus

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Jesus, You’re My Hope

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Award-Winning Children’s Books Announced

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The 2012 Newbery Medal winner is Dead End in Norvelt by Jack Gantos, published by Farrar Straus Giroux. Age level: 10 and up

Melding the entirely true and the wildly fictional, Dead End in Norvelt is about an incredible two months for a kid named Jack Gantos, whose plans for vacation excitement are shot down when he is “grounded for life” by his feuding parents, and whose nose spews blood at every little shock he gets. But plenty of excitement (and shocks) are coming Jack’s way once his mom loans him out to help a fiesty old neighbor with a most unusual chore–typewriting obituaries filled with stories about the people who founded his utopian town. As one obituary leads to another, Jack is launched on a strange adventure involving molten wax, Eleanor Roosevelt, twisted promises, a homemade airplane, Girl Scout cookies, a man on a trike, a dancing plague, voices from the past, Hell’s Angels … and possibly murder. 

One of two Honor Awards Books for 2012 is Inside Out & Back Again by Thanhha Lai, published by HarperCollins Children’s Books, a division of HarperCollins Publishers. Age level: 8 and up  Hà and her family flee war-torn Vietnam for the American South. In spare yet vivid verse, she chronicles her year-long struggle to find her place in a new and shifting world.

Breaking Stalin’s Nose by Eugene Yelchin, published by Henry Holt and Company, LLC. is the other Newbery Honor Awards Books. Age level: 9 and up  Sasha Zaichik has known the laws of the Soviet Young Pioneers since the age of 6: The Young Pioneer is devoted to Comrade Stalin, the Communist Party and Communism. A Young Pioneer is a reliable comrade and always acts according to conscience.

On the eve of his induction into the Young Pioneers, Sasha’s world is overturned when his father is arrested by Stalin’s guard. Yelchin deftly crafts a stark and compelling story of a child’s lost idealism.

The Newbery Medal was named for eighteenth-century British bookseller John Newbery. It is awarded annually by the Association for Library Service to Children, a division of the American Library Association, to the author of the most distinguished contribution to American literature for children.

For more information and past winners, check out the link below:

http://www.ala.org/alsc/awardsgrants/bookmedia/newberymedal/newberymedal 

The 2012 Caldecott Medal winner is A Ball for Daisy, written and illustrated by Chris Raschka, published by Schwartz & Wade Books, an imprint of Random House Children’s Books, a division of Random House, Inc. Age level: 3 and up

Here’s a story about love and loss as only Chris Rashcka can tell it.  Any child who has ever had a beloved toy break will relate to Daisy’s anguish when her favorite ball is destroyed by a bigger dog. In the tradition of his nearly wordless picture book Yo! Yes?, Caldecott Medalist Chris Raschka explores in pictures the joy and sadness that having a special toy can bring.  Raschka’s signature swirling, impressionistic illustrations and his affectionate story will particularly appeal to young dog lovers and teachers and parents who have children dealing with the loss of something special.

Blackout, written and illustrated by John Rocco, published by Disney · Hyperion Books, an imprint of Disney Book Group. Age level: 9 and up summer’s power outage draws an urban family up to their building’s roof and then down to the street for an impromptu block party. Rocco illuminates details and characters with a playful use of light and shadow in his cartoon-style illustrations. He delivers a terrific camaraderie-filled adventure that continues even when the electricity returns.

Grandpa Green, written and illustrated by Lane Smith, published by Roaring Brook Press, a division of Holtzbrinck Publishing Holdings Limited Partnership. From the creator of the national bestseller It’s a Book comes a timeless story of family history, legacy, and love.Grandpa Green wasn’t always a gardener. He was a farmboy and a kid with chickenpox and a soldier and, most of all, an artist. In this captivating new picture book, readers follow Grandpa Green’s great-grandson into a garden he created, a fantastic world where memories are handed down in the fanciful shapes of topiary trees and imagination recreates things forgotten.In his most enigmatic and beautiful work to date, Lane Smith explores aging, memory, and the bonds of family history and love; by turns touching and whimsical, it’s a stunning picture book that parents and grandparents will be sharing with children for years to come.

The Caldecott Medal was named in honor of nineteenth-century English illustrator Randolph Caldecott. It is awarded annually by the Association for Library Service to Children, a division of the American Library Association, to the artist of the most distinguished American picture book for children.

 

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Little Boy Blue, Come Blow Your Horn!

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Many years ago, children read nursery rhymes, which are poems. They can be fun to read. Maybe you will like them.

OLD MOTHER GOOSE

Old Mother Goose, when

She wanted to wander,

Would ride through the air

On a very fine gander.

WINTER

Cold and raw the north wind doth blow,

Bleak in the morning early;

All the hills are covered with snow,

And winter’s now come fairly.

FINGERS AND TOES

Every lady in this land

Has twenty nails, upon each hand

Five, and twenty on hands and feet:

All this is true, without deceit.

A SEASONABLE SONG

Piping hot, smoking hot.

What I’ve got

You have not.

Hot gray pease, hot, hot, hot;

Hot gray pease, hot.

CROSS PATCH

Cross patch, draw the latch,

Sit by the fire and spin;

Take a cup and drink it up,

Then call your neighbors in.

THE OLD WOMAN UNDER A HILL

There was an old woman

Lived under a hill;

And if she’s not gone,

She lives there still.

LITTLE BO-PEEP

Little Bo-Peep has lost her sheep,

And can’t tell where to find them;

Leave them alone, and they’ll come home,

And bring their tails behind them.

Little Bo-Peep fell fast asleep,

And dreamt she heard them bleating;

But when she awoke, she found it a joke,

For still they all were fleeting.

Then up she took her little crook,

Determined for to find them;

She found them indeed, but it made her heart bleed,

For they’d left all their tails behind ‘em!

It happened one day, as Bo-peep did stray

Unto a meadow hard by–

There she espied their tails, side by side,

All hung on a tree to dry.

She heaved a sigh and wiped her eye,

And over the hillocks she raced;

And tried what she could, as a shepherdess should,

That each tail should be properly placed.

 

LITTLE BOY BLUE

Little Boy Blue, come, blow your horn!

The sheep’s in the meadow, the cow’s in the corn.

Where’s the little boy that looks after the sheep?

Under the haystack, fast asleep!

RAIN

Rain, rain, go away,

Come again another day;

Little Johnny wants to play.

THE CLOCK

There’s a neat little clock,–

In the schoolroom it stands,–

And it points to the time

With its two little hands.

And may we, like the clock,

Keep a face clean and bright,

With hands ever ready

To do what is right.

TWEEDLE-DUM AND TWEEDLE-DEE

Tweedle-dum and Tweedle-dee

Resolved to have a battle,

For Tweedle-dum said Tweedle-dee

Had spoiled his nice new rattle.

Just then flew by a monstrous crow,

As big as a tar barrel,

Which frightened both the heroes so,

They quite forgot their quarrel.

OH, DEAR!

Dear, dear! what can the matter be?

Two old women got up in an apple-tree;

One came down, and the other stayed till Saturday.

LITTLE JUMPING JOAN

Here am I, little jumping Joan,

When nobody’s with me

I’m always alone.

PAT-A-CAKE

Pat-a-cake, pat-a-cake,

Baker’s man!

So I do, master,

As fast as I can.

Pat it, and prick it,

And mark it with T,

Put it in the oven

For Tommy and me.

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Imagine Making Jesus Happy!

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Do you feel good or bad when you obey your mom or dad?

Most of the time, I bet you feel good. (Maybe not at first.)

Jesus says something about us obeying Him.

If anyone loves me, he will obey my teaching, Jesus said. This is in the book of John, Chapter 1, verse 23.

Obey his teaching means to obey what he has put into the Bible. We obey him by loving God, and loving each other as we love ourselves.

He wants us to be kind to each other and to forgive each other. He wants us to pray to him every day. This shows that we love him.

He wants us to have faith. Faith means that we believe in him and what he has said.

He says that when we have faith in him, he is happy about that.

Imagine making Jesus happy!

 

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Dogs Say Their Prayers

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The Christmas Story Told by Children

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Bravo to the children of St. Paul’s Church of Auckland, New Zealand.

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All of a Sudden …

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Chapter 1  Hide That Baby

Moses was a beautiful baby, just like you were. He lived with his Mom and Dad and brother and sister a long time ago, in the land of Egypt. Moses and his family and friends were not Egyptians. They were Hebrews. They were slaves in Egypt. They had to make bricks for the Egyptians, without being paid for it. The Egyptians yelled at them, starved them, and worked them all day and all night. It was awful. Then it got worse.

The Egyptian king, also called a pharaoh, delivered an evil decree. All the baby boys of the slave families must be killed. Moses was a baby boy! The Egyptian king said this because he was afraid the boys would grow up, fight for their freedom and take away his kingdom.

Moses’ mom and dad loved God and they loved Moses. They would not hurt him! He was their son, their beautiful baby.

So they came up with a plan to save Moses. They hid Moses in a big yellow basket, and then put the basket in the slow-moving river Nile near their home. The mother told Moses’ sister, Miriam, who was 7 years old, “Go alongside the river as the basket drifts along, and make sure that Moses your brother is all right.” So Miriam did.

She walked along the riverbank, never taking her eyes off the basket! Moses the baby was sleeping, wrapped in his soft blanket that smelled sweet, like blue lotus flower. He did not know what was going on. (He was just a baby.)

All of a sudden, Miriam saw something scary. She gasped and her hand flew to her mouth. She saw women from the king’s house down by the river, talking and laughing.

End of excerpt from audiobook “The Unbelievable (but True!) Story of Moses”

Do you want to teach your little ones Christian truths but sometimes it’s hard to find products that will educate them in a way that grabs their attention?

This audiobook is a perfect choice. “The Unbelievable (but True!) Story of Moses” was produced in a professional studio with Bob Souer, one of the best voices in voice acting/narration today.

This audio book, geared for children ages 4 to 8, has an original story true to the Bible. It provides an exciting way to introduce children to the Ten Commandments in language that they can understand (“Ten Rules For Living Large”). The story of Moses also encourages faith in God and the value He places on individuals (“Who’s That Calling My Name”).

This Bible story features adventures, thrills, joys, challenges and the love of God for His people. Born a slave, Moses becomes a prince of Egypt, only to be cast out years later. But God meets Moses in the wilderness. “Go back to Egypt,” God tells Moses. “Set My people free.”  Full of self-doubt, Moses obeys God.

What follows is an entire people saved from bondage. Children will delight in this story of pharaohs and frogs, second chances and sundering seas, complete with music and sound effects.

If you want to provide your little ones with the best product in Biblical-based teaching, click on link here. Etsy.com is completely secure. It is the world’s largest artists/handcrafts store and has been featured in the major media.

This audiobook is available, for only $9.95, on
http://www.etsy.com/shop/faithaudiocenter

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Prayers For Children

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You can talk to God. That is what prayer is: talking to God.

You can tell him about what is going on in your life.

You can pray for other people.

You can thank Him.

Here is an example of a prayer.

Dear God,

Help me with my school work. I don’t like having to do it. Help my Mom. She gets mad at me sometimes for things I can’t help. I want to have a best friend. Take care of my family. Thank you for all the good things I have. Amen

Here are other prayers for children.

The Lord’s Prayer

Our Father who art in heaven;

Hallowed be Thy Name;

Thy kingdom come;

Thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven;

Give us this day our daily bread;

And forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us;

And lead us not into temptation;

But deliver us from evil;

For Thine is the kingdom, and the power, and the glory, forever and ever. Amen.

Prayer at Bedtime

Now I lay me down to sleep,

I pray the Lord, my soul to keep;

Guide and guard me through the night

And wake me with the morning’s light. Amen

Prayer Before Meals

God is good and God is great.

And we thank him for our food.

By his hands we all are fed.

Thank you, Lord, for our daily bread.

God is great and God is good,

And we thank him for our food.

Poem: Jesus Loves the Little Children

Jesus loves the little children,

All the children of the world.

Red and yellow, black and white,

All are precious in his sight,

Jesus loves the little children of the world.

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World Wildlife Fund

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This may be an ad, but it’s for a great group, and the animation is appealing.

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Wonderful Animation Children and Parents Can Enjoy

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How to Make a Forest from a Patch of Grass

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Since Danish filmmaker Myles Thompson and his daughter made this wonderful video together, I want to share what Myles has to say, to both parents and their children:

My daughter created a tiny nature reserve in our garden to save the wildlife in the grass from the lawn mower.

We stopped to talk about it, and then spent the afternoon looking for wildlife in the grass.

What she found really amazed me: so many little creatures in a tiny patch of grass.

Wildlife often seems remote and disconnected from our day-to-day lives, and our impact on the environment as individuals seems minimal.

But my daughter’s idea – that an individual can save a tiny patch of the earth suddenly changed the way I think, and inspired me to do something.

So, I’m sending out this thought in the hope that others may be inspired to appreciate the diversity of life on earth (even the slugs and snails) and take positive action to protect it.

I hope this inspires you too.

As environmentalist David Orr wrote: “When we heal the earth, we heal ourselves.”

Maybe together we can save an entire forest…starting with a tiny patch of grass?

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Would You Like to be a Hero?

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Would you like to be a hero?

Did you know you can be a hero for God?

How?

In the Bible, the Lord Jesus tells us that we are to love God, and then love each other as we love ourselves. The Lord says that this is the most important rule. This is found in Matthew Chapter 22, verses 37-40.

When we love Him, each other and ourselves, it makes Him happy and proud of us. We are His heroes.

Sometimes, though, it can be hard to love others.

We want to be good and kind, but we sometimes fail at this. We will be selfish or angry or mean. We might not show our angry feelings but they are there just the same. We may hide our mean feelings but they are still inside us.

I have failed at this. So when I do, I pray, ‘Lord, please forgive me that I did not show love to that person. Lord, please help me by giving me some of your love for others.’

He always forgives me. He will forgive you, too.

The Bible says that ‘there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus (Romans Chapter 8, verse 1).

This means that God will not condemn us. Condemn means to blame, to criticize, to find guilty, to point the finger at, to find fault with.

Have you ever seen someone give a thumbs down sign? That means they are saying that something is bad. God will not give you a thumbs down sign when you are following Jesus.

We need His help. He knows this. He understands this.

When we are trying, with His help, to love Him and love others, we are his heroes.

We can ask for His help each day. That’s a good way to do it.

Photo by Angela Chitwood, ArtStyle Photography
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You Are Special-All About DNA

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You are special, meaning different, one-of-a-kind. You are not like anyone else. You get to be you and that is awesome.

We learn from science that a program inside our bodies determines what color of eyes we have, whether our hair is curly or straight. And other things like that. It has a part in how you like to sing or read your books or play with puzzles. This program is called DNA.

DNA makes every living thing different from other living things. It makes a horse have its arching neck, silky mane and delicate ankles. It makes a robin have a little red vest. It makes a bee buzz.

Bumblebee takes a drink from flowers

Think of all the different kinds of animals. Think of all the people you have seen. They are all different! Why does a giraffe have that long neck? Why does a rooster crow? DNA!

You are wonderfully made, the Bible says, Psalm 139:14.  It’s talking about your one-of-a-kind self. You are special. As you grow up, you will discover that you have talents that belong to you. You will find out more about what you like to do. You might wish you had a friend’s freckles, or could run as fast as that boy at school. But you are extraordinary, just the way you are.

 

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More Animation from Catalonia

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A Little International Flavor

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This animation is from a television network in Catalonia.

Catalonia is one of the 17 independent communities of the Kingdom of Spain. Its capital is Barcelona. It was colonized by the ancient Greeks.

Here is a map of Spain, with Catalonia marked in red.

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Alligator Shoos

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God made so many strange, unusual, different, wonderful animals. I wonder why He made so many.

Here are some facts you can learn about alligators.

Chew Your Food, Dear

Maybe you have heard that at home, but chewing is something alligators do NOT do. They swallow the meal whole, or tear off a chunk by grasping and rolling. To help digest those unchewed meals, they will eat stones.

What’s For Dinner?

Just about anything. Birds, turtles, small mammals, fish, even poisonous snakes.

Home Sweet Home

Alligators live in wetlands and swamps in southeast United States coastal areas –Louisiana, Florida, east Texas, southern Arkansas, Mississippi, Alabama and Georgia.

They Get HOW Big?

Alligators can get as big as 20 feet in length, but usually they are between 6 and 16 feet in length.

Watch Where You Step

Alligators dig deep holes near water, which stay wet, a source of water for other animals during times of drought. Florida cattle ranchers were glad during a 1981 drought for these water holes, because they were the only source of water for their cattle.

Hey Mom!

Alligators usually do not attack humans, except in cases of a mother protecting her young, or where the alligators have lost their fear of humans because of public feeding. Mother alligators make a nest for their eggs that is a mound of vegetation and mud. It “cooks” or incubates the eggs until they are ready to hatch, in 60 to 100 days. She looks out for them for a year or more, in most cases.

Photo of alligator from www.weforanimals.com

Here’s another picture of an alligator. Wait, that’s not an alligator! It’s an alligator snapping turtle.

Photo of alligator snapping turtle by Gary Stoltz from www.weforanimals.com

 

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I Am a Promise

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I Am a Promise by The Gaithers

I am a promise

I am a possibility

I am a promise with a capital P

I am a great big bundle of potentiality

And I am learning to hear God’s voice and I am trying to make the right choice

I am a promise to be anything God wants me to be

When my daughter Cara was a little girl she loved this song. She had a record of it that she would play. She also liked to sing it. Sometimes we would sing it together and dance around.

It’s a great song, don’t you think? I bet you could sing it, too.

To help you sing it, I have a video clip of the whole song.

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You Can Talk to God

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Have you ever been alone, like maybe when you have to go to bed, and you’re waiting to drift off to sleep, but you can’t and there’s no one around to talk to?

You can talk to God! He loves you and wants to hear about your day, how things are going. He is interested in you.

He says in the Bible that He will be a friend to us. Friends listen! You can share whatever you like with him. (He understands about a mean older sister). You can tell Him how you want a dog but can’t have one. Maybe you don’t like school. It’s OK! You can tell Him things, from little things to big things. Even things you don’t talk to anyone else about. He understands.

Sometimes, it seems like people don’t want children to talk. You have probably been shushed before. But God will never shush you.

When Jesus was here on earth, He especially invited the children to come and talk with Him. People were bringing their babies and children to Jesus. But some of the other grown-ups said, don’t bother Him with those children. What are you doing?

Jesus said, Let these little ones come to me. They are important and I love them. In fact, children have the right kind of heart for being close to God.” And Jesus hugged them.

You see, He loved children. He still does.

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Can You See What’s Hidden in the Photo?

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Did you see the bird hidden in the picture? It’s hard to find. Good job!

God made something called camouflage for animals. It means that they can blend into their surroundings, remain hidden. This camouflage helps protect them from any enemies. The enemies can’t see them!

This is important when they have babies in a nest. The babies and the parents are safe. They can rest.

Even some insects, as little as they are, have camouflage. Some animals need it when they are on the hunt. Like the animal pictured below. Can you see it?

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Ants That Count!

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