My son’s birthday is coming up and I’ve started collecting some birthday books for him. (OK, mainly just the ones we already own.) One of my favorite birthday books is a little I Can Read Book called, Happy Birthday Barnabas by Royden Lepp.

It’s the story of a little bear who sees his forest friends walk by with cupcakes, crayons and other “suspicious” items. Finally, he follows them to see they’ve set up a party just for him! Barnabas is so happy he stops and leads his friends in a prayer, “Thank you God for birthdays, cupcakes and tea time with friends.” (<—sorry about that big spoiler!)

It’s a simple little book but I love the sweetness of it! I had pictured the author/illustrator, Royden Lepp to be a grandfatherly man who sipped tea while sketching in front of his fireplace. Instead, (after I googled him today) I discovered he is a man with eclectic interests–including photographing reptiles and drawing realistic warrior images from the Bible. Very cool. I just love the extremes of this fuzzy little Barnabas and a drawing of a scary looking Goliath. (Really, check out his blog to see his portfolio!)

There are several Barnabas books in the series—in each one, it looks like Barnabas is always looking for a way (and finds it) to praise God. The name Barnabas means “encourager”. So, maybe that’s the reason for these books? To encourage kids? To show how easy it is to encourage yourself by thanking God for his blessings? Regardless, they are fun books your kids will love!

Do you have any good birthday books to share?

Our Shoes2Share linky goes live on MONDAY. Don’t forget to collect some shoes (even from your own closets). Let’s see how many shoes the Impress Your Kids community can collect!

linked to Feed Me Book Friday

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I’m a big fan of kids’ music. I know, some of you think it’s akin to fingernails on a chalkboard. But I like it. It keeps my kids actual KIDS longer. And most of the Christian kids music is filled with scripture. So, to have my kids running around singing scripture? Well, I can’t think of any music I like better than that!

One of my favorite artists is actually a good friend of mine, Yancy. She’s released several mainstream adult contemporary radio kinda music. But recently she’s jumped head first into kids’ music. Rock-N-Happy Heart is for the tweens in your life. Praise Party: My Best Friend is her preschool album. And we listen (and dance) to both of them regularly!

Lydia loves loves loves the preschool album. But I have to admit she feels kinda cool when we listen to “Aunt Yancy’s big kid cd!”. Here’s the thing about Yancy, she’s not just a performer. She’s not just a girl who likes to sing. She’s really  not just someone who wants to sing about Jesus. Yancy wants KIDS to know and follow Jesus from their earliest years. She is a Children’s Pastor’s kid and has grown up in the church–loving and being a part of singing songs to Jesus.

Yancy just released a devotional to go along with her Rock N Happy Heart CD. It is a very cool (very detailed!) book that gives a full week of devotions for each song on the album! There’s tons of scripture, personal stories and some pencil/pen activities. I got it out this week to do one of the devotionals with Lydia. It was definitely too old for her but I think we made it work nicely.

Lydia’s favorite song is “Paid In Full“. Here are some of the lyrics:

C’mon, c’mon I need to testify
How Jesus has come, He changed my life
Healed my broken heart from being lost
Took my hurts and scars at the cross
These things take zero cash
Like a fairytale this love will last

Sickness don’t bother me
Jesus was bruised for me
and now it’s I have a friend who really believes in me
Lonely days are gone Jesus is there for me
If life starts to crumble, push or pull
I have no fear cause Jesus paid in full

Every little thing’s been paid in full
Jesus paid it all, it’s paid in full
I’m forgiven and free I’ve been made whole
Jesus paid it all, it’s paid in full

What a powerful message for a little girl to sing! Whew, it brings tears to my eyes! But it’s a big idea. Yancy gives some great teaching and breaks it down nicely for kids. She starts off  the “Paid in Full” week of devotions with 2 questions:

1. What if you were at a shoe store and someone told you you had to pay for every single shoe in the store and not one of them was for you?

2. What if you picked out several outfits and someone secretly paid for all of them?

How would you feel? I asked Lydia these questions and she thought it was SO funny to pay for all the shoes in a store! We tried to follow the directions in the devotional and draw her favorite shoe. It didn’t quite turn out right…but Asa even got in on it and they had fun.

As they drew I told them that the first question is what happened to Jesus. He had to pay for ALL of our sin, even thought it wasn’t his. The second question is what happened to us–Jesus paid for all of our sin and we didn’t even ask or deserve it.

To help us remember these shoe stories and the verse Yancy put with it, we made some little footprints. I traced Lydia’s (bare) feet and she said, “Mommy. This story is about shoes. I need to have shoes on.” Oh well! Then I wrote the verse on several other pieces of paper.

We put them in order and began to memorize Romans 6:23:

The important words I wanted her to learn were SIN, DEATH, GIFT and ETERNAL LIFE. So, I wrote those on the foot cutouts and the rest of the words on rectangles. We put them in a long line, then rearranged them into little square and then finally we made a poster of them.

Lydia didn’t memorize the whole thing that day (I didn’t really push her, either) but she definitly got the four key words down pat. Those simple ideas coupled with the devotional and her favorite song is a huge seed planted in my daughter’s heart. I honestly look forward to the day in her future when this song and scripture pop into her head. Rather, when the Holy Spirit brings it back to her remembrance!

And hey–it gets even better! Yancy has offered to give away TWO copies of both the CD and the new devotional book! For a chance to win one set, leave me a comment with your favorite kids’ CD (Christian or not) and I’ll announce the winners on our Saturday fyi@iyk post!

If you’d like an additional entry, leave a separate comment if you do any of the following:

1. Tweet the following: I want some rockin’ kids’ music from @yancynotnancy and @impressyourkids! http://bit.ly/rockinheart

2. Follow and/or like Yancy on facebook and twitter.

3. Post some other place (tumblr, your blog, facebook status, etc.) about this post with a link: http://bit.ly/rockinheart

But even if you don’t win, will you poke around Yancy’s website? Get to know her? Buy her CDs & books? I promise you WILL have a rockin’ happy heart!

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You’ve heard people say it and you’ve probably said it yourself, “When I’m a parent, my kids will never do so-and-so.” And if you said it, you really believed it. I was a Children’s Pastor for several years and I said that sentence so many times it’s embarrassing! I have always been able to clearly see why and how parents were missing the mark with their kids. The problem is, I don’t think you can always see those same mistakes in yourself. Or maybe it’s just harder to discipline the little darlings that are your own flesh and blood.

These past few weeks and months I have felt like I am the worst parent in the world. And I do not say that as hyperbole. All the roads I thought were leading to obedience and responsiveness in my children were doing the exact opposite.

I finally picked up a recording of a radio interview with Dr. Kevin Leman based on his book, Have a New Kid by Friday. The second I was finished with the CD,  I gave it to my husband and made him listen to it. Then I borrowed the book from the library and read it in one day.

I was just going to share one or two of my favorite tips from Dr. Leman’s book but as I was writing the post got to be so long, I thought it might be fun to do a play-by-play of the book. Then we could unpack one chapter each day…just like the book suggests. What do you think? Wanna play?

Next Monday, July 19th we’ll start a week long series tackling some of the issues in Dr. Leman’s book. I’ll give you some of my favorite parts. Then we can discuss in our forum how this practically works for our families.

If you’d like to get the book before we start discussing it, I found it at the Family Christian Store this weekend for only $5. (On their website, too!) The audio is only $7.98 on ChristianAudio.com. Or you can always try the library, that’s where I read it to begin with!

I’m looking forward to talking to you about this. Parenting is not for the weak. And it’s certainly not for the solitary. I need people to help me and I’d love to talk with you about this book and these principles!

photo by mdany

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Amanda asked me if I had any good camp books to share with you this week, and the only ones I could think of were these songbooks that we found a few months ago. I love using songbooks instead of story books from time to time and was thrilled to discover these Camp Song books at our library.

I spent many a summer at camp learning all those classic songs like Found a Peanut, Bringing Home a Baby Bumblebee, and Make New Friends. Juliet had a blast learning these song and I had fun reliving my camp days. There’s something about songs that really bring back memories, isn’t there?

While I’m not interested in getting a real campfire going, we had some imaginary play by making our own pretend campfire in our living room. You can read more about how we made it using scraps of paper, river rocks, and twigs on Silly Eagle Books. It was fun and easy and the kitty cat LOVED it. It was the perfect place to sit next to and sing our camp songs together.

We also made some pretend paper marshmallows, but next time I think we’ll use the real ones. They’re more fun to eat!

What camps songs do you remember from your childhood?

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Lydia is at Vacation Bible School this week. It’s the High Seas Expedition by Group. It’s got an eye-catching pirate-like ship with cute sea animals and lots of nautical decor. Each day they are focusing on a new aspect of the Bible–the Bible is true, the Bible is comforting, the Bible is surprising, etc. The theme song is a roaring, swelling dramatic musical about diving into God’s Word and having his love roll over you. It’s quite exciting!

This afternoon, after Asa was in bed (poor guy fell asleep in the car), I remembered a great book to read to Lydia that lines right up with what she’s learning about at her VBS. No, it’s not the Jesus Storybook Bible (although, I’m sure I could find a connection if I tried), it’s one of my other favorites, Mrs. Rosey Posey and the Hidden Treasure!

Three little boys are playing pirates in Mrs. Rosey Posey’s tree house. She sends books and apples up the rope swing and when the boys investigate their books they find a treasure map with a clue: “A treasure sweet. Open it up, adventures meet!” They follow the treasure map hoping for an edible treasure and finally discover a chest with Bibles and candy bars. Mrs. Rosey Posey tells them that God’s Word is sweeter than candy and more precious than gold!

They ask about the second part of the clue–the adventures meet! She tells them stories of giants and kings and talking donkeys and giant fish swallowing men whole!

This is such a fun book–cute illustrations, fun dialogue and easy, kid-friendly, powerful words that lead kids to God and His Word. I’m so happy Lydia is being immersed in a program like this VBS that is showing the many wonderful facets of God’s Word. And I’m glad I remembered this little book to remind her of how precious and exciting God’s Word is in her life!

This would be a great book for our little boys. How fun to dress up like pirates, make a cardboard tube telescope and follow a map to a hidden treasure of stories from God’s Word? What am I talking about? My little girly princess would love that, too! And I’m all about anything that helps my kids understand how awesome God’s Word is!

The law that brings respect for the Lord is pure.
It lasts forever.
The directions the Lord gives are true.
All of them are completely right.
They are more priceless than gold.
They have greater value than huge amounts of pure gold.
They are sweeter than honey
that is taken from the honeycomb.
Psalm 19:9-10

linked to Feed Me Books Friday!

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This is a picture of Lydia reading The Little Mouse, the Red Ripe Strawberry and the Big Hungry Bear to Asa. She has it memorized and loves to “read” it to him. He loves this book and any excuse to be read to! So, they happily sat down this week and Lydia read it to him–complete with sound effects and voices.

When she was finished she said, “Let’s write this down for our BOOK CLUB!” We’re doing the Summer Reading Challenge at our library and she is so excited about it! Lots of companies and libraries challenge kids to read AND give lots of fun prizes. I compiled a list of reading programs and encourage you and your kids to join one this summer!

1. Local Libraries. Our whole state is doing Make a Splash! Read! this summer. If Lydia reads 10 books (or has them read to her) she gets to write her name on a fish paper and put it on the bulletin board at the library. And even though that sounds incredibly lame, she is ECSTATIC about this! If she reads 5 more books she gets a Chick-fil-A coupon and if she reads 5 more her name is entered into a drawing for a big bag of books and a Skippyjon Jones puppet!

2. Barnes & Noble’s Passport to Summer Reading

This one looks so fun! Elementary aged kids download a passport and then complete it by reading 8 books—and noting the books’ locations in the passport! Once they’ve read 8 books and completed the passport, they get their choice of a free book from Barnes & Noble! There are even some downloadable parent-kid activities to go along with it! I so wish Lydia was old enough to do this! (Begins May 25)

3. LifeWay’s Summer Reading Race!

I’m not sure if this one is that great of a deal but it looks kinda fun. You get a “racing card” at any LifeWay store and it acts as a 15% coupon for any book in the children’s section. For every 5 books that you buy and read from LifeWay you get a prize (but it doesn’t say what that is!). They do have a good Reading List that is great for any time! (Begins June 5)

4. Borders’ Double Dog Dare

Kids 12 and under can read 10 books to earn one of ten specially selected free books from Borders Bookstores! There is a downloadable form to fill out and the free book is yours! If we do this one, I’m totally getting Ramona the Brave for Lydia! (Ends 8/26/10)

5. Scholastic Summer Reading Challenge

I have to admit, I spent about 20 minutes on this website trying to figure out how this challenge works. The best I can figure is you create an account and log the minutes you spend reading. These minutes will be added up to help break the world record for reading. Not sure how motivating that is but the website is kinda cool and is divided up between older and younger readers.

6. Pizza Hut Book It! Summer Break Reading Challenge Sweeps

Oh, Book It! I loved participating in Book It! as a kid. I still have my old button with all the stickers on it. *sigh* This summer, if your child (K-6) reads 5 books they can be entered to win a prize pack which includes some fun summer gear, $20 and The Voyage of the Dawn Treader by CS Lewis (one of my FAVE books!). Plus, after poking around the website, I found lots of good parent reading resources! (June 15-August 15)

7. Here are some more reading programs that aren’t in my area but may be in your neck o’ the woods: Half Price Books ($3 for every week you read 15 minutes or more!), National Amusements (free movies for reading books!), TD Bank ($10 for reading 10 books!)

Do you know of any other Summer Reading programs? Especially one with fun prizes? Share in the comments so we can all join in!

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This week at the library I happen to see a Zonderkidz label on the edge of a book. Zonderkidz is the kids arm of Zondervan, a Christian publishing company. So, I checked it out. The book is called The Grimy-Slimy Bug Safari. It’s about a little girl named Tracy who goes outside to hunt for bugs then hangs upside down from a tree to see them all. Honestly, I’m not really sure what the message was…the illustrations are fun, the rhyme is cute but it was just about a girl hunting bugs. Nothing more. Nothing less.  BUT. The more we read it, the more it grows on me.

The message isn’t life changing, it doesn’t have any scripture, there isn’t anything for me to even make a teachable moment out of. I like that it quietly mentions God and His role as Creator. I like that a normal fun colorful book has the same God-ward worldview that I try to have in our family. And. My kids love it. They ask me to read it every day! The fun of the book to them is that it’s a “topsy-turvy” book–every picture of Tracy hanging from the tree, you can turn upside down to see what she sees.

Not to mention, I started having all these great ideas about doing a bunch of bug crafts and bug hunting hikes and teaching Lydia to hang upside down on monkey bars!

Plus, finding this book gave me a great idea! I went to my library’s website and searched for “Zonderkidz”. It only brought up 22 books, but it was 22 Christian-themed books I’d never read to my kids! Then I searched for more Christian publishers that have kids’ extensions: Tommy Nelson, Standard Publishing and Concordia. I’m going to place a few on hold and see if we can find anything we like!

What’s your kids’ favorite Christian book?

linked to Feed me Books Friday hosted (today) at Mom Tried It!

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Last week at the library I randomly picked up The Quiltmaker’s Gift by  Jeff Brumbeau and illustrated by Gail DeMarcken. It had such pretty whimsical illustrations I thought it would be a good one. We sat down to read it and were immediately enchanted.

It’s the story of a selfish materialistic king who wants everything. Finally he discovers there is an old woman in the mountains who makes the most beautiful quilts. More beautiful than any quilt. But she won’t sell them. She only gives them to those who are in need.

He demands a quilt but she refuses. She tells him to give away some of his stuff and with everything he gives away, she’ll add to the quilt. He grudgingly does so and then is swept away by generosity and happily gives everything away!

It’s a beautiful story of the power of generosity and giving.

This week, when we were at the library I noticed The Quiltmaker’s Journey. This is the prequel to the Quiltmaker’s Gift. It’s the story of how the Quiltmaker became…the quiltmaker.

She was a pampered child in a walled city full of prosperity and wealth. One day she ventures out of the city and sees poverty for the first time in her life. She is grieved by the un-even-ness of her city and theirs. So, she returns to collect her wealth and confront the leaders of her town.

They are appalled at her and her desire to help others. They say, “Just don’t look at the poor and then you won’t have to think of them!” They banish her and she leaves the town penniless. Soon she discovers the only thing she can do to help others–sew. And she begins her ministry of quiltmaking for others.

After being in the Dominican Republic, these books really came alive to me. I don’t want to be the same after what I’ve seen there. I don’t want to hide my eyes from the poor and needy. And I want my children to understand the same. I want them to see their comfortable life as a means to help others. It reminded me of a video by Brooke Fraser after she went to Africa with World Vision…

These books started a great conversation about how we can help others. Lydia suggested without any prompting that we give away all of Asa’s baby clothes so other babies could have clothes. Then she suggested we find all the baby toys in our house to give away. It’s not much, but it’s a start!

How do teach your kids about generosity?

linked to Feed Me Books Friday at The Adventure of Motherhood

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I picked up The Little Red Fishat the library a few weeks ago. It’s the story of JeJe who is finally old enough to accompany his grandfather, the librarian to the library. Which just happens to be in the middle of the woods (and for some reason, this makes it more exciting!). As he waits in the dark for his grandfather, he has an adventure (or maybe a dream or maybe both) of his little pet fish jumping through and into a book…with JeJe tumbling after him. It’s gorgeous and it absolutely sweeps you into the adventure with JeJe and his fish.

If I remember correctly, it was written by Tae-Eun Yoo as a final project for a masters program in design.  The illustrations are all black and white with only the fish and the book showing bright red. If you are a fellow bibliophile you will appreciate the vivid portrayal of how a book can captivate you!

Along those same color lines is The Red Book by Barbara Lehman. I just picked it up today because of the title. Oh yes, I always judge a book by it’s cover! This book has NO words. It’s the story of two little boys on opposite sides of the world who pick up the same book and when they open it up they see each other! One of the boys finally uses some balloons a la Up to visit his new friend. It’s such a fun story that again, shows the power of books!

Another one of my favorites is Good Night, Gorillaby Peggy Rathman. I think this is a staple on many children’s bookshelves but if you’ve never read it–you must! It’s a hilarioius story of a gorilla who sneaks  his animal friends out of the zoo to spend the night with the unsuspecting zookeeper…and his wife, who puts them all back safely in the zoo. My daughter loved this book the first time I read it to her and now loves to read it to her little brother. Both of them laugh and laugh at the sight of Mrs. Zookeeper waking to a roomful of animals. My favorite part is the little mouse toting his banana and the flyaway balloon seen on every page.

Do you have any favorite word-free books?

Linked to Adventures in Mommyhoods‘ Feed Me Books Friday hosted this week at our very own Vanessa’s Silly Eagle Books!

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As I searched through the songs on the Seeds of Worship CD I found one of my favorite verses, Romans 8:38-39:

For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord.

I so want my kids to know and believe God’s love for them. This verse-song is on the Seeds of Courage CD and at first I thought, “What does that have to do with courage?” But think about it–how different would you live your life if you knew NOTHING could come between God and His great love for you. It would be easy to stand firm and in strength during all occasions.

The first thing I thought of when listening to this song was one of our favorite books! I got this book as a review on my personal blog a year ago and it has barely left the kids’ bedside tables since. It’s called God Loves Me More Than That by Dandi Daley Mackall.

The story is really a little boy asking questions about God. He asks how big God’s love is, how wide, how loud, how soft and how deep. It’s absolutely beautiful. The questions are answered in measurable kid-friendly descriptions. The illustrations are modern and so realistic–but whimsical and childlike, too.

It’s gorgeous and a go-to book for us. So, I was excited to find a song to go along with it. Then I realized—wait a minute, that’s not the same verse! The book is based on Ephesians 3:17-19,

And I pray that you, being rooted and established in love, may have power, together with all the saints, to grasp how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ, and to know this love that surpasses knowledge—that you may be filled to the measure of all the fullness of God.

Oh, well! So much for lining things up perfectly! But guess what? This is still a perfect connection! Here are two verses that talk about God’s great love for us! What a fun activity you could put together for your kids with this book, the Seeds song, a few heart shaped crafts and a group hug!

It’s easy to impress your kids! Use books, songs, crafts and whatever is at your fingertips to them show God’s great love!

:: :: ::

If you leave a comment on this post, you’ll be entered in our Seeds Family Worship CD giveaway. And if you do THIS activity with your kids, blog it and leave the link on our MckLinky, you’ll get FIVE additional entries! If you have no idea what I’m talking about, see our Ultimate Blog Party intro page!

Want more great book suggestions? click over to Feed Me Books Friday at The Adventure of Motherhood!

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