Drawing Closer to God with a Devotional for Young Women {A TOS Review}

At the beginning of the year I started on a journey of reading through the Bible in three years in an attempt to get into the Word of God more consistently. It was also my desire to have my older girls, Tabitha and Amelia join me, so they could get into the routine at an earlier age than I did. This is definitely a habit I want to instill in the children. Unfortunately, even though we are only reading a chapter a day, they still fell behind and weren't able to catch up. I realized this expectation was still a bit much for them at 10 and 11 years old. However, I still want them to have a desire to wake up each morning and start their day with God. So, when I had the opportunity to review the devotional titled Beloved: 365 Devotions for Young Women from Zondervan, I decided to have Tabitha give it a try. 

This lovely 384 -page, hardcover devotional is designed for young ladies from the ages of 13 to 18. Even though Tabitha is only 11 1/2, I thought it would be suitable for her, and I was glad she agreed to give it a shot.   

After a short, one-page introduction, the author, Lindsay A. Franklin, shares 365 daily devotions which are also no longer than one page in length. Each day's reading begins with a short Bible passage from the NIV Bible. These passages range from one to three verses in length. This is then followed by a short, two to three paragraph devotional reading which focuses on topics that young ladies will find relevant in today's world. Each page concludes with four blank lines which are meant to be used for journaling or a short prayer to reflect on the day's reading. 

Here's a look at a couple of the pages.

The devotions begin by letting the reader know she is very much important in God's plan. Even though the Bible is inundated by stories of men, there are many women who are also important, women whose stories can inspire us, teach us, and show just how much we are valued, or beloved. After several days of looking at Song of Songs, Genesis, and then Proverbs where the reader takes a quick look at what an ideal (or nobel, or virtuous, or excellent) woman should look like, the reader will make her way through the Bible from Genesis, Exodus, and Numbers in the Pentateuch, into the historical books of Joshua, Judges, Ruth, 1st and 2nd Samuel, 1st and 2nd Kings, 1st and 2nd Chronicles, and Esther, before heading to the New Testament. At the end of the year, Tabitha will have read the stories of approximately sixty women from the Bible. 

As the reader goes through this devotional, she will find herself focusing on the story of one Biblical woman or girl at a time, sometimes for several days. The author focuses on one to three verses at a time, digging into the story and pulling out details that are made relevant to the reader. Sometimes there will be a day in the midst of a story where related Scripture is looked at, such as looking at verses from Micah when reading about Miriam, or looking at significant verses from Matthew, Hebrews, and James when learning about Rahab while in the book of Judges.

Let's look at a couple of the women that Tabitha and I have read about.

When looking at Eve, young ladies will be reminded that they are not defined by their mistakes because God sees beyond them and cares for them. From the story of Abigail, which is focused on for two weeks, young ladies are reminded that they should turn their anger over to God, not seek revenge, pursue peace, fill their lives with relationships with those who love God, but have room for those who we can share God with as well, and celebrate the good things that happen in life, along with quite a few other lessons. 

And that is just two examples of the women that are focused on in this devotional. Young ladies will also read about Noah's wife, Sarah, Hagar, Miriam, Ruth, Bathsheba, Tamar, the Queen of Sheba, Jezebel, the Shunamite woman, Mary the mother of Jesus, the Samaritan woman, Martha, Eunice, and so many more.  Each of these women's stories has something to teach young women.

Parents should be aware that  because of the wide age range this devotional is designed for, they may deem some material inappropriate for their child.  For instance, three weeks are spent on the story of David and his many missteps. This includes the stories of Bathsheba, and the mention of the difference of sex in marriage and outside of marriage, and the story of Tamar who was raped by her half-brother. In light of this, I would definitely say that this devotional is not appropriate for younger girls. It deals quite frankly with such topics in a way that is biblically sound, but still not needed for younger children to know. 

That said, this is a wonderful devotional for a teenage young lady, and even older women. I know I have gotten some interesting tidbits out of these stories, and the author has a way of making these stories relevant to our day and age, even talking in language that young women can relate to.

Tabitha has been reading this devotional by herself in the morning, and sometimes, if she is in a rush, she will also reread that days' reading before going to bed at night. She has been enjoying learning about different women in the Bible and how the characteristics apply to everyday life.

I have also been reading some of the devotional. Mostly so I could be able to write an informative review. However, I am getting quite a bit out of this book, and think I will continue reading daily. I started reading toward the middle of the book, as that is where my personal daily readings have been, in the book of 1 Samuel. That was how I happened to notice all this detail about the women in David's life.

I love the simple beauty of the devotional, and how it is so feminine with soft pinks and floral designs. I also appreciate that the devotions are not dated, but numbered, so a young lady can start at any time of the year. And if a day is missed here or there, it isn't going to throw her off track. 

I definitely recommend this devotional for the young ladies in your life. This would be a lovely gift for Christmas, to start the new year with these devotions, or even on someone's birthday or other special occasion. Personally, I would definitely wait at least until the teen years. I know I am debating if I really want Tabitha to continue into some of the details of these stories mentioned above. 

You can find Zondervan on Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, Pinterest, and Instagram.

Don't forget to click on the banner below to see what my fellow Crew Mates have to say about Beloved: 365 Devotions for Young Women.

Making the Bible Come Alive with the Planet 316 Story Bible {A TOS Review}

As Christians, it is very important to my husband and myself that we bring the children up in the Lord. In light of this, our core curriculum is focused on the Bible and on God, plus we've been memorizing Bible verses during school time for years, and just recently the older girls started a daily Bible reading schedule with me, though we have to work on being a bit more diligent. All of the girls have a Bible of their own, and Harold will be getting one when he gets a bit older. Until then, I thought it would be neat for him to have this really cool interactive Story Bible which we recently received. 

Thanks to the Homeschool Review Crew, we had the opportunity to check out the Planet 316 Story Bible and the companion Planet 316 Story Bible App from Planet 316 and WorthyKids/Ideals. 

The colorful, hardcover Story Bible in and of itself is a wonderful addition to our home. This 303-page book contains over 100 stories from the Bible. I was pleased to see that there was a nice variety of stories, unlike other children's Bible storybooks that I have seen. Yes, there are the well-known tales such as Creation, Noah, Moses, David & Goliath, Jonah, and Daniel from the Old Testament. And in the New Testament you will find the familiar retellings of the different aspects of the Christmas story, Jesus as a boy in the temple, The Good Samaritan, The Prodigal Son, Jesus's death and His resurrection. But there are other, not so-well known stories included as well. Stories such as Jacob wrestling with God, Moses and the Egyptian, Israel disobeying God after the Battle of Jericho, Saul's disobedience, Jesus miracle of turning water into wine, Jesus and Nicodemus, Philip and the Ethiopian, and stories of Paul. 

This book begins with a letter to parents and grandparents, and then gives instructions on how to download and use the app.

There is a Table of Contents in the beginning of the book and an index of "People, Places, and Things in the Bible" at the end. Both the Old and the New Testament begin with a lovely double page spread which includes a collage of images found in the stories (some of which even "come to life" but more about that later). 

Each story is between 2 and 6 pages in length, perfect for children with shorter attention spans. There are some full page illustrations, and the occasional full page of text, but the majority of the time text is printed above or below the main picture.

With 55 Old Testament stories and 49 New Testament stories, this Story Bible does a wonderful job of sharing the story of God's love with the reader. 

Now that I shared a bit about the book, let's look at the app that goes along with it, the app that makes it come alive. 

First of all, the app is FREE! Yes, free. However, without the Planet 316 Story Bible it won't do you much good, so you do need to have the book. 

Now, before I decided I would like to request to be on this review, I had downloaded the app and checked out the sample pages, which you find by clicking on the purple "Pages" button on the screen shown above. I was then able to confirm that I would be able to use the app with my phone. I was so glad that the app is available in both the App Store and Google Play. 

Once the Story Bible was in hand, and the app was on my phone, we were able to begin bringing these stories to life. I just click on the green "Start" button in the bottom right corner of the screen, and it brings up a screen which says "scanning." You have to have the phone pointed at the page of the book so it can scan the image and utilize the augmented reality (which funnily enough I had never heard of until receiving this product, even though my hubby now tells me he has used apps that use augmented reality). 

If there are no pictures on the part of the page we have it pointed it, it will just sit there scanning, until we move the phone to show the image.

You do have to hold the page and the phone still, plus we have noticed this app works best in a room with decent lighting, or the image becomes a bit shaky. Once it has an image scanned, that image will pop up on the screen, becoming three dimensional, music and/or sound effects will play, and you will be prompted to tap the characters. 

The children love being able to take turns tapping the characters to hear them talk.

What we found quite impressive was that if we were holding the book and phone just right, it appears as if the images are popping right off the page, like a pop-up book.

Not only that, some of the characters and objects become animated. For example, we've noticed people walking around and fire from a sacrifice exploding off the page.

We've even noticed additional characters showing up.

If you couldn't tell, we are quite impressed by this new technology which makes stories jump to life. Our nighttime Bible time has definitely gained an extra dimension. What's been really cool is that there have been stories to go along with most of the passages we have been reading out of the Bible during our school time. We have been making our way through the time of the Judges and Kings with our core curriculum. Then at night we cuddle on the bed or the couch and find the coordinating story in the Planet 316 Story Bible and bring the story to life. Plus I think it helps the younger children that we get to reread the story in a way that is easier for them to understand.

We've read about Joshua, Gideon, Samson, Ruth, Hannah and her son Samuel, King Saul, David (both as a boy and as king), King Solomon, and the prophet Elijah. During Holy Week before Easter, we put our curriculum on hold, so at night we flipped to the New Testament to read some stories about Jesus.

If you would like to bring these Bible stories alive for your children, I would highly recommend the Planet 316 Story Bible and the companion Planet 316 Story Bible App. And if you don't have a tablet or phone to utilize the app, I would still recommend this Bible for young children. The stories are perfect for a short Bible time for younger children, and older children could even help read the stories. I love that the Bible references are given under the title of the story. You could even have older children find these passages and read them during their own Bible time. 

You can find Planet 316 on Facebook and Twitter.

Don't forget to click the banner below to see what my fellow Crew Mates had to say about this wonderful, interactive Story Bible. 

Blogging to Bible Study Family Edition: Creation

For this first week of the Bible study I didn't give the girls a lesson each day.  We had worked on our Creation Lapbooks back in May and I know we spent some time more recently doing Creation during Bible Time.  So this week we reviewed our Creation Lapbooks

We reviewed what was created on each creation day:

Oh, daddy helped too.

Then we played our match game.  The girls have to match the picture card representing each creation day with the number glued to the lap book.

Then I decided to created yet another Muffin Tin this week.  

First I made an open faced sandwich.  I spread peanut butter on the bread first.  Then for the darkness I put chocolate frosting and for the light I put Fluff.

Then the girls watched as I "air" popped popcorn.

Then the girls crushed some graham crackers to represent dirt.  I asked the girls what we should have for day 3 (we discussed each day before deciding what was going to represent each day) and we decided on broccoli trees.  Then Tabitha suggested brown sugar for dirt.  I told her it was a great idea, but how about we crush graham crackers instead so we don't have so much sugar.  She was fine with the compromise.

Here is the complete tin.

Day 1: God created light.

Day 2: God created the "firmament" or air.  So we had air popped popcorn

Day 3 God created the land and vegetation.

Day 4: God created the sun, moon and stars.  We had chicken noodle soup as the girls have a nasty cold.

Day 5: God created the fish and birds.  I was going to have fish crackers, but our store doesn't carry any. So we opted for fish sticks.

Day 6: God created the animals and man.  We have chocolate covered animal crackers from my daughter's last fund raiser.

Day 7: God rested.  I wasn't going to do anything for this day.  But then I saw the marshmallows and thought they would make cute pillows (my hubby had been thinking along the same lines before I even asked him).

The stars were cut out of apple slices and a wrote the number on with food coloring.

They did pretty good for not feeling well.  

We also read a book we have called I Wonder Who Hung the Moon in the Sky by Moan Gansberg Hodgson.  It is told from the view point of a boy named Jared who lives in Arizona.  He wonders such things as, 

• Did God use a crane to hang the moon in the sky?
• Did God use suspenders to hold up the planets? and
• Why did God make dirt?

Each one of his many questions come about in reaction to something he sees or is doing at the time.  For example he sees a crane and notices his grandpa wears red suspenders to hold his pants up.  His family gives him reasons for how or why these things happen, making sure to glorify God for his creation. 

It is a cute little book, seeing God's creation from the eyes of a child in all his innocence who tries to make sense by using what he knows.  I would recommend you check this book out if you can.

If you would like to see what others are teaching their children about creation, head on over to Butterfly Wishes and Wonderland Dreams 

I am also going to link this up to Muffin Tin Monday

And Read, Explore, Learn