Getting Closer to God with Psalms for my Day {A Homeschool Review Crew Review}

Disclaimer: I received a FREE copy of this product through the HOMESCHOOL REVIEW CREW in exchange for my honest review. I was not required to write a positive review nor was I compensated in any other way.

When I was given the opportunity to review a lovely child's praise devotional from Christian Focus, I jumped at the chance. I thought it would be a great opportunity for Hannah to start having her own time with the Lord to start her day. She has been reading Psalms for my Day each morning, and sometimes at night as well. 

This 88-page, hardcover picture book contains passages of Psalms translated from the Hebrew by Dr. Alec Motyer, devotional thoughts written in a way a child can comprehend, along with a short, relevant prayer written by Carine MacKenzie, and beautiful, full color illustrations by Catherine Pape. 

After the table of contents and endorsements, this book introduces the Book of Psalms, explaining how the psalms were written to be songs of praise to God. You will also find an explanation of the translation of the Bible passages found throughout the book. Alec Motyer was a Bible scholar, and he used the original Hebrew so we can have a feel for what they really meant in the original language of the writers.

Following this introduction, there are 31 daily devotions, each from a different psalm, though of course, this is only a fraction of the psalms that are in the Bible. Though all of the psalms are important, I was thrilled to that there were several of the psalms that I was quite familiar with, such as Psalms 1, 8, 23, 46, 100, and 150. Sometimes the entire psalm was included, other times only portions of it. 

Each devotion follows the same format and spans the full double-page spread. First you read the passage from the day's psalm, then there is the short devotional, and finally you finish with a prayer which is usually 1-3 sentences in length.

Bible Passage for Psalm 8: 1-9

Devotional section

Prayer

And here's a look at the full double-page spread.

Here's a look at a couple more:

As you can see, each devotional focuses on a specific aspect of God. Besides the ones seen here, you will find such aspects as the Suffering Saviour, the King of Kings, God's Holiness, Our Strong God, Worthy God, and so much more. 

Also interspersed throughout the book are pages of quotes from Alec Motyer and double-page spreads of illustrations of God's creation. 

Finally, at the back of the book you will find a short, one-page glossary of new words that may be unfamiliar to the reader.

I did want to note that you may find the wording of the Bible passages to be a bit confusing at times, especially if trying to read it out loud. And I would say it could be more of an issue if you already know the passage well. However, as I have noticed at other times when reading other translations, having to read the Bible in other versions really makes me think about what I am reading, instead of just zinging through what is already in my head. So, even if it seems weird at first, definitely give it a chance, and remember that Dr. Motyer wanted to look at what the original Hebrew words really meant with his translation. 

I think Psalms for my Day is a wonderful book for young children to be able to start digging into God's Word. Children who are 7-11 years old, should be able to read this independently. You can also choose to read it to younger children (ages 4-6). In fact, I have decided that I would like to start adding a Bible time back into our day, and I plan to read this to the younger children. 

And I just wanted to mention the illustrations one last time. They really are lovely and add quite a bit to the devotional. And I love the extra illustrations added in between some of the devotionals. 

I highly recommend this book for your Bible time or for older elementary children who would like to have their own personal time with the Lord.

You can find Christian Focus on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and YouTube.

Don't forget to click on the banner below to see what my fellow Crew Mates had to say about this book or one of these two other books we were able to choose from: 

30 Prophecies: One Story 

Not If, But When

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. 

Becoming Firmly Planted with Real Life Press {A TOS Review}

We recently completed a quick survey of Old Testament stories with our core curriculum. We started with Creation and touched on many of the main events as a part of our history lessons.  Due to the fact that we would focus on one a day and then move on to the next story, we didn't get a chance to really dig into each one. Which is perfectly understandable, as it was an introduction suitable for a first grade curriculum. When the opportunity came up for us to review Firmly Planted, Books of Moses, Part 2 by Jay and Heidi St. John of Real Life Press, I thought it would be a blessing for the children and I to have a chance to go back through these stories in more detail. 

We received the PDF digital download version of both the Family Study Guide and the Student Workbook. You will need to have a computer or device to view the ebooks on,  plus a printer for printing out the worksheets. It was quite convenient to have the PDF version, as I read the daily readings during our Bible times, from my tablet, and printed out the worksheets for the children to use during our school time. This study is also available in physical format, which some of my fellow Crew Mates received. It is a part of a series focusing on being Firmly Planted in God and his Word. Each of the studies in this series are 10 lessons long, with each lesson designed to last a week.
The Books of Moses, Part 2 focuses on the time period between Joseph being sold into slavery (Genesis 37) and the Israelites exploring the promised land (Numbers 13-14).  Here is the list of lessons:

• Joseph Sold Into Slavery
• Joseph Saves His Family
• Moses and the Burning Bush
• The Plagues
• Crossing the Red Sea
• The Ten Commenadments
• The Tabernacle
• The Golden Calf
• Choosing the Levites 
• Exploring the Promised Land

The Study Guide begins with an introduction that explains the origin of the title of the series, "Firmly Planted." Our desire is the same as that of the St. John's, to have our children and ourselves firmly planted in God's word, so we can reap the benefits of the well-watered, nutrient-rich soil and yield fruit and not wither, as stated in Psalm 1 verse 3. 

Before the weekly lessons begin, there is also a section that explains the icons that will be found  in each weekly lesson. 

• The Seed is the "key concept" for that week's lesson.
• Planting the Seed is the easier of the 2 memorization options, suitable for younger children (approximated ages 4-11).
• Additional Planting the Seed is the more challenging memory selection.
• Watering the Seedling is the short, 5-6 minute, story lesson to help the seed "germinate."
• Daily Study contains the daily devotions which guide us into learning what God is teaching in the week's passage.
• Digging Deeper is meant for older students or adults to lead to deeper discussions.
• Taste the Fruit is the life-application segment.

Let's move on to the actual lessons. 

Each week starts with a Bible passage to read. You get an overview, with select verses on the first day, and then you delve into other verses as the week progresses. Having these specific verses from the Bible passage helps the children to focus on the relevant verses, and keeps the children from being overwhelmed. 

It took me a few weeks to get a feel for how to present the lessons. We tried morning Bible time, and then we tried evening devotion time. I finally found the best plan was to focus on reading the daily Bible verses in the morning along with the devotion passage. In the evening, I combined my shortened version of Digging Deeper (as our children are quite young) with a discussion of Taste the Fruit. These last two sections usually have additional Bible verses to read and discuss. From what I can see, these verses are from the New Testament and help connect what we are learning from the Old Testament with Jesus.

The Firmly Planted studies also include lots of fun worksheets for a wide range of ages. You will find them in the Student Workbook.  There are puzzles, mazes, coloring pages, word searches, Map It! pages, copywork, Write About It: Fruit of the Spirit, prayer journal sheets, and so much more. After a bit of trial and error, I discovered the worksheets that are the best fit for our family.

During our morning lesson time, the children have time to use the coloring sheets or the Picture It! pages. 

While I am working with the younger children on their preschool time, the older girls have independent workbox time. This is when they work on the more challenging worksheets. I have them work on the copywork one day,  the "What Do You Remember?" sheet another day later in the week, and the "Write About It: Fruit of the Spirit" page when I can fit it in.  Additional activities they have been enjoying are the crossword puzzles, word searches, and mazes. 

I love that they have to use the Bible to fill in the crossword puzzle. One word of caution, to get the correct answer, you will need to use the ESV of the Bible. We have found that the needed passage isn't always in the actual reading, so I will pull up the required verses on biblegateway.com. Most of the time they have been able to work independently. However, there are times we work together, especially if they are getting frustrated.

Occasionally, there will be Map It! pages. Completed maps are included, as well as blank maps for the children to fill in. I have them view the one map on my tablet to help them find the needed information.

 I have found the above worksheets to be the perfect amount for right now. Especially because if we did all the included worksheets, we would never get our other subjects done. 

There are also worksheets for the "Upper Class," made specifically for the older child. These assignments really help older children to dig deeper. 

I have enjoyed using this study, though I do wish there was a bit more direction on when to use each worksheet. I haven't found a great time to make them fit with the actual lesson, so we use them randomly throughout the week. Additionally, the children have said some of the devotion information is a bit difficult for them to understand. I am probably going to put this aside for now and revisit it when they are a bit older and can get more out of it. This will also allow Hannah and Harold to be able to participate more. 

I think it is a great study for digging into God's word and investigating what the Lord wants us to know. I do think older children will get a lot more out of it though. 

You can find Heidi St. John (The Busy Mom) on Facebook, Twitter, and Pinterest.

The Crew was given several different Real Life Press products to choose from for this review. In addition to the study we reviewed, you will find reviews for Firmly Planted, Gospels, Part 1, Firmly Planted, Gospels, Part 2, The Busy Homeschool Mom's Guide to Daylight, The Busy Homeschool Mom's Guide to Romance, and Lapbooking Made Simple.

Join us in a Bible Study Challenge-Blogging to Bible Study

I am going to be participating in a Bible Study over at Jessica's Lil Corner.  I will actually be posting about this challenge over at my other blog, Turn My Life Around.  Here is some information about it:

Each week on Monday by 12Noon EST there will be a Bible Study Challenge posted up for all who are interested to study the same scriptures, lessons, etc. You will have one week each week (from Monday to the following Sunday) to study whatever is posted up on the challenge, so you busy people out there have a bit of time during the week to sit and really dive in and study at your convenience. Once you feel like you have did your part for the weekly challenge head over to your blog and post up in regards to that weeks study material (we may have questions or we may just simply ask your thoughts) then head back over to Welcome to Our Wonderland orJessica's Lil Corner and post your link in the linky area letting others know you are participating. 


So...basically to keep things simple:

1. Head over to Welcome to Our Wonderland or Jessica's Lil Cornersometime during the week (beginning January 3rd) and get that Bible Study challenge for the week.

2. Study then post your thoughts, questions, etc. on your blog (be sure to include the button for the Bible Study challenge inviting others).

3. Head back over to Welcome to Our Wonderland or Jessica's Lil Cornerand post your link in the linky EACH week you participate to let others know you are participating in that weeks challenge.

4. Visit whatever blogs you choose that are participating and post nice and respectful comments to the posts that interest you. And...if you are interested support your blogging Bible Buddies with a follow!

5. Come back the next week for a new challenge!

I didn't realize until last week that they were also going to have a family edition.  If you are interested in participating head on over to Butterfly Wishes and Wonderland Dreams.  This week we are starting out with Creation.  I plan on using these ideas for our Bible time.

Easter Bible Time

In our house we call our family devotional time "Bible Time." I have called it that since the older children were little. Usually we read a story out of our little Bible Story Book or pick a board book we have (usually Jonah or David and Goliath). However, this past week and a half we have pulled out the Resurrection Eggs (as I have seen on multiple blogs) and let them guide our Bible Time.

As I have no idea where the booklet is that came with the eggs when I bought it many years ago I have been choosing to read the corresponding Bible story from which ever of the Gospels seems to tell the story most clearly for each night.

First we open the previous nights' eggs one at a time and Tabitha will answer my questions about each one if she can. For example, we go through a series of questions for the first egg. "Who rode the donkey?" "Where did Jesus ride the donkey to?" "What did the people shout?" "What did the people wave?" (By the way, the answer to that question tonight was "pompoms.") She is definitely starting to remember more and what she doesn't remember we discuss. Not sure how much Amelia is picking up, but she loves getting her turn to hold all the objects.

When we get to the egg from the very last night we also attach a picture representation to our cross.

Then we read the verses for that night's egg or eggs (2 at the most), and introduce that night's object/egg.

On Palm Sunday we made very simple palm branches.

I printed them off the internet and cut them out. Tabitha snipped the fringes and Amelia glued on the word "Hosanna" to the back. She refused to let me help her cut , and seeing as she was trying to hold the scissors by the blade I decided she wasn't quite ready. We use these to wave as we sing the song "Hosanna, Loud Hosanna."

If I had a decent amount of ink I would have printed out the Resurrection Eggs Printables that Carissa has available on her site. Here is a link to them.

If I am not in the hospital this weekend with a newborn we will be making Resurrection Cookies. I did this years ago with the older children (though none of them remember). I found the recipe again here, though she is unsure of the original source. This website has loads of information and ideas for focusing on "Resurrection Sunday" as opposed to "Easter." Especially here.

I also hope to make Resurrection Rolls for the first time.

To see what others are doing to raise their little ones for the Lord check out Raising Rock Stars at Carissa's blog.