Why I Give Activity Book Review and Giveaway

I have heard people say that it is better to give than to receive, but I never realized there was actually a verse in the Bible that states this. Acts 20:35 says "I have shown you in every way, by laboring like this, that you must support the weak. And remember the words of the Lord Jesus, that He said, ‘It is more blessed to give than to receive.' (emphasis added)" We have been endeavoring to instill this into our children for a while. We don't want them to think Christmas is all about "me, me, me" or just about getting gifts. First and foremost Christmas is about Jesus. We have always said we exchange gifts because the wise men brought presents to Jesus. The children will go to the thrift shop and purchase gifts for each other and for mommy and daddy. So Christmas has been about giving others gifts as well as receiving gifts. While they think this is fun, I do want to make sure they understand why we do this. I was excited to get the chance to receive Corine Hyman's new activity book, Why I Give as an opportunity to "embrace a spirit of giving" not just at Christmas time but throughout the year.

Why I Give is a downloadable ebook full of coloring pages, journal pages, activity pages and craft ideas. It is a companion book to Corine Hyman's picture book, Why We Give Gifts at Christmas Time. While I received a copy of the activity book as a member of the Launch Team, Corine also sent me a copy of the storybook as a thank you. I can't tell you how much we appreciate her generosity! 

Why We Give Gifts at Christmas Time is a sweet story that focuses on Evelyn who goes around to all her friends asking why they give at Christmas time. The answers she receives vary from why her friends give, to some actual things they do to give and with what kind of attitude. Each reason is also accompanied by a Bible verse emphasizing what her friend says. Though I love the premise behind this book and the fun, colorful drawings I do I have to say I found it a bit repetitious However, the children have all said they enjoyed it very much and we have read it more than once, so that tells me it is a hit in our house.

The activity book, Why I Give, focuses on each of the reasons given in the story book. Though it is wonderful to have the story to read, you do not need it to use the activity book with your child(ren). As I stated above, there are several different kinds of pages included in this book. I chose to print out the entire book one time so I would have the craft/gift ideas printed out for myself. However, I then only printed out the coloring, journal and activity pages a second time. And then for the younger children I only printed the coloring pages. 

Coloring page, journal page, activity page

Craft/Gift Idea pages

I have arranged each child's book in order for now to keep myself organized. By "in order" I mean that the coloring page is always followed by the activity page and journal page.

Each day when we work on the book we start with the coloring page. I also read (or have the older girls read) the top of the page and we read the Bible verse.

The first page they got to color is actually the cover of the book.  It is hard to tell from the picture, but it says Why I Give with a picture of a gift and then By:__________, where they write their name. 

Here is the first page which states "I give because it reminds me of God giving me the gift of His only son Jesus." This is a shortened version of what you will find in the story book.

 As we do each coloring page the older girls also do the journal page where they have to write and/or draw something in relation to the reason for giving we just read about.

For this first journal page they were to write or draw some ways they could give as a reminder of God's love.

So far the only activity page we have done was the first one which was tic-tac-toe, which the girls loved playing with each other and with me. Some other activity pages included are filling in the missing letters to find words to form into what the Bible verse says, matching the shapes of the words to learn the Bible verse, figuring out how many squares are in the picture of a gift, and crossing out letters to reveal the Bible verse.  I just love the way we get to focus on the Biblical verses and that the children really get to think about why they are giving and how we can give. Corine Hyman also included a page of ideas to choose from that we may want to try as a family. Also included are Scripture Cards that we can use to play Go Fish or a matching memory type game with by printing out two of each. I figured we would wait until we get through the entire book and then we would be able to play with them to help reinforce what we have learned. 

I love that craft/gift ideas have been included. In my opinion the crafts do not really need to be done in any particular order. There are some lovely ideas for gifts to give to loved ones and friends. We actually started out by making Bird Seed Cakes for our feathered friends. 

Not only did we make them for the birds, the girls also decided we were going to give some of the cakes to their friends so they could also feed the birds. We gave a couple to our neighbor and some to a friend at story hour.

We are looking forward to making several more of these crafts. I love that she includes the list of needed materials, detailed instructions and a picture of the finished product (for those of us who are visual, that is wonderful). Here is a list of the crafts included:

• Bird Seed Cakes
• No-Sew Fleece Blanket
• Bottle Cap Magnets
• Thank You Extra Hand
• Rock Paperweight
• Personalized Mug
• Heating Pad
• Flavored Popcorn
• Decorated Notebook
• Candle Holder

We are going to continue with this book throughout this month as we prepare for Christmas. When we finish all the pages I plan to staple the coloring pages together to make a book and the journal pages together to make a separate book. I haven't decided whether I will make the activity pages into a book or just include them with the coloring pages or just put them with the children's other school work. 

If you would like to instill in your children the importance of having a giving spirit I would highly recommend both Why We Give Gifts at Christmas Time and the activity book, Why I Give. The storybook is $16.95 and the downloadable activity book is only $4.99 and can be used with all the children in your immediate family. 

I have been given the opportunity to offer one copy of the activity book to one reader of my blog. 

All you need to do is enter in the Rafflecopter form below. There are only 3 simple mandatory entries, with the remainder of the entries being optional. Remember, you do not have to do the extra entries, but they will increase your odds of winning. 

This giveaway is now over!

This giveaway is open to US residents 18 and over. 

The giveaway runs December 7-13, 2013.

Thanks for stopping by and good luck!

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Disclosure: I received the Why I Give Activity Book by Corine Hyman as a member of a Launch Team and in exchange for my honest review. I received no further compensation, though I did receive a copy of the story book Why We Give at Christmas Time as a thank you. I was not required to review the storybook. This did not in any way influence my review. I only recommend products I use personally and feel will be a good products for my readers.

Little Learning Lovies 1 Day Sale

Disclosure: I am an affiliate with Little Learning Lovies and receive a small commission on purchases made through my links. Thank you for your support. All opinions expressed in this post are my own and are in no way swayed by any compensation I may receive. 

Little Learning Lovies has passed the 2000 follow mark on Facebook and is celebrating with a store-wide sale. 

There is so much going on over at Little Learning Lovies. Not only has a printing service and laminating service been added (for an small charge), but the owner has been busy working on these new Honor Tags.

These nifty tags can be downloaded for you to print, cut out and laminate yourself, or you can purchase them all ready to use. Award these to your children when they learn specific skills or show different character traits. You can learn more about them by clicking on the Honor Tags image above. 

These Honor Tags are included in the 10% off Store-Wide Sale!

Yes! Store-wide!

That includes the Boxables and the Lovie Packs!

It includes all of the printable activities, even the ones already on sale!

If you've been looking at anything in the Little Learning Lovies' Store, why don't you stop by today and help her celebrate over 2000 Facebook fans

Disclosure: I am an affiliate with Little Learning Lovies and receive a small commission on purchases made through my links. Thank you for your support. All opinions expressed in this post are my own and are in no way swayed by any compensation I may receive. 

Little Learning Lovies Summer Activity Challenge

Disclosure: I am an affiliate with Little Learning Lovies and receive a small commission on purchases made through my links. Thank you for your support. All opinions expressed in this post are my own and are in no way swayed by any compensation I may receive. 

Well, summer is officially here, with all its heat and humidity (around here at least). We've been taking it easy, though we are still doing some fun learning (like how to write letters as we write to pen pals and where different states are as we participate in a post card exchange). But the children don't want to just do this all summer. They want to play as all children do. But what to do?

I also know all my readers are not homeschoolers. I've seen many comments floating around already about wanting school to start back up. Perhaps those parents are just at a loss of what to do with their children. Well, Sandra at Little Learning Lovies has come up with a fun pack of Summer Activity Cards called "64 Fun Things to Do This Summer." And right now, they are on sale for just $1.00!!

To make things even more fun, Sandra has issued a challenge and their are prizes involved. So, you can spend time with your children and maybe win some prizes, how does that sound? I invite you to continue reading if you would like to know the details!

Here are the rules:

• This challenge is open world wide.
• No purchase necessary to participate (thought having the deck of activity cards makes life much easier!)
• Challenge begins July 1st 2013 and ends on September 1st, 2013.
• Every Friday, there will be a “Challenge Check In” post on the Little Learning Lovies Blog where you’ll be able to either link to a blog post about your progress or leave a comment stating how many and which ones you've done.
• You will have until the following Thursday to link or comment for the week.
• Each Thursday during the Challenge, she’ll pick one random participating family to get a $2 gift certificate to the Little Learning Lovies Store.
• On September 2nd, she’ll pick 5 random winners who participated and completed all 64 activities to receive a $10 gift certificate to the Little Learning Lovies Store!
• Substituting activities is okay:  She tried hard to make the activities easy for anyone to complete, but sometimes you might not be able to.  You may substitute another activity as long as it’s not a repeat of any other in the pack and it’s fun!  Just let her know when you check in!

So, what do you think? Would you like to participate? Are you ready to have fun and make memories with your children?

Head on over and check out the Activity Card Pack and just start playing with those children. The first check in will be this Friday, July 5th. (Just for the record, I believe one of the activities is going to see the Fireworks, so if you were planning on going to the fireworks this week to celebrate Independence Day you will be completing an activity and be able to link that up and maybe win a $2 GC to the LLL store.)

Disclosure: I am an affiliate with Little Learning Lovies and receive a small commission on purchases made through my links. Thank you for your support. All opinions expressed in this post are my own and are in no way swayed by any compensation I may receive. 

Little Learning Lovies Boxable Storage Box Review

Disclosure: I am an affiliate with Little Learning Lovies and receive a small commission on purchases made through my links. Thank you for your support. All opinions expressed in this post are my own and are in no way swayed by any compensation I may receive. 

I have really been enjoying the fun, educational printable games and activities that have been created by Sandra Modersohn, founder of Little Learning Lovies. A new creation has been in the works and she is officially launching them today!

May I introduce you to Boxables, "super sturdy printable boxes that you print out on card stock and assemble in about 20 minutes."  "12 - 15 of [their] fun [Boxables] games will fit right in there! Easy to take along when you travel and, best of all, easy for the kids to keep neat!!"

I received the original box to review, but quite a few different designs have been added recently.

Here is the printed, un-assembled box with the instructions in the top right corner. All that was required to put this together was a glue stick and a pair of scissors.

Here are the step-by-step instructions.

Step 1 was to print all the pieces out.

 For the 2nd step I needed to cut out the pieces that would form the bottom of the box.

The bottom has three pieces: The outer bottom, the support and the decorative inner sheet. I cut them out and folded the tabs.

Then the extra support and the inner sheet were glued inside.

Step 3 consisted of cutting out and putting together the front section. This also has a support piece.

It gets folded in half lengthwise and unfolded, then I did the same with the tabs. The tab to the bottom gets glued to the length of the front, then the support piece gets glued in and the remainder of the front is glued down. I had been a little confused at the instructions here because it said we would glue the remainder down in a moment and somehow I skipped where it said to glue it down. This was completely my oversight, no clue how I missed it. It may have been the constant running back and forth to take care of Harold.

The front is now attached to the bottom.

In Step 4 the back is put together in a similar way to the front.

The opposite bottom tab is glued to the back of the back section.

The decorative piece is then glued on top.

And then the decorative tab is folded down and glued.

Quite simple so far, wouldn't you say?

We move on to the sides in Step 5. 

I cut out all 4 pieces along with the part designation just in case I needed it. Looking back, I really didn't need to keep the letters as we were told to use the "big" sections first, which would be J and K. 

I turned them over and folded the flap to crease it.

They are then glued to the remaining tabs of the bottom section. 

It was in here that I got a little confused as to when to glue down the folded tabs of the sides. It's not that the instructions are not clear. I was just expecting to glue them down a little prematurely. They are actually the last thing to get glued down. Once I realized that I understood what I was doing. 

Now it is time to bring the sides together. I turned it over to put glue on the tab of the back piece, which is then brought together with the side. Then I did the same with the front tab.

It was a little trickier to get glue on the two remaining tabs as I did not want to ruin the parts that were already glued together.

Here is what the box looks like after all the sides are joined.

The only thing left to do was insert and glue down the side decorative pieces. Of course this is where I messed up a bit. Having to put the glue on and push it down inside sounded simple enough, but you have to make sure it is lined up properly. The bottom should fit snug to the bottom of the box. Then you glue down those tabs (you know, the ones I was concerned about).

I realized after I had the tabs glued down nice and securely, that the one side should have been pushed down just a little bit more. My left side is  about 1/4 inch above the right side. 

Fortunately, you can't really tell.

The Boxable Storage Box was very easy to assemble as long as you read the directions carefully. I do have to say it took me almost double the time suggested to complete it. I would recommend putting it together with no distractions (i.e. when the children are in bed), I am sure it wouldn't have taken me near as long.

Now it is just waiting for some Boxable Games to fill it with. The games come with their own printable file folder that match the game and fit nicely in the box. 

Here are some of the Boxables Games I would love to try. 

My favorite Math Games:

My favorite Early Learning Topics:

My favorite Literacy Games:

And my favorite Boxable Box Designs:

There are many more to choose from, just stop by the Little Learning Lovies Store  to see for yourself. Both the Boxes and the Games sell for $2.00 a piece, though there are several games right now that are on sale for 50% off, that's just $1.00. 

To find out more about the Boxables, you are invited to a Facebook Party for the Launch. It is scheduled for 9:30 pm EST tonight, June 20th. You can RSVP here. I plan to attend, and I hope to see you there.

Disclosure: I am an affiliate with Little Learning Lovies and receive a small commission on purchases made through my links. Thank you for your support. I received a Boxables Storage Box in exchange for my honest review. All opinions expressed in this post are my own and are in no way swayed by any compensation I may receive. I only recommend products I use personally and feel will be a good products for my readers.