Celebrating Advent

Celebrating Advent – Family Devotions and Activities for the Christmas Season
Written by Ann Hibbard
Published at Revell

About the Book

Help focus your family on what really matters at Christmastime.

If you ask kids what Christmas is about, you'll get a variety of answers. Presents, decorating, presents, Santa Claus, presents, carols . . . presents. Few will say anything about Christ. How would your kids answer that question?

In a culture obsessed with material things, it can be difficult to help our kids understand and celebrate the true meaning of the Christmas season. In Celebrating Advent, author Ann Hibbard has created a way for parents to set aside a daily time during Advent to talk with their kids about the spiritual meaning of the season.

Learn practical steps you can take to make Christmas a more meaningful, happy experience for your family. Inspiring and creative family devotions provide a moment of peace and reflection for each evening of Advent, while fun and inexpensive project ideas help you focus your kids' attention on what really matters at Christmas: Christ.

Who is Ann Hibbard?

Ann Hibbard is a Bible study teacher and the author of several books, including Family Celebrations: Meeting Christ in Your Holidays and Special Occasions. She resides in Virginia with her husband.

My Thoughts

Last year was the first time we decided to celebrate advent with a Jesse Tree and with following a special story during that time.    We enjoyed it very much the kids and I.    This year, I am planning to continue this special time with a new story and other ideas.   So when I had the opportunity to review the Celebrating Advent  book I was more than eager to see what ideas I could gleaned from it.

This delightful book will allow you to approach the Holidays with a fresh look on the season.    In it you will discover advent devotions for two years that you can alternate as the years go by.   And you will also find celebrations, family worship ideas as well as the Twelfth Night Party which includes a feast, a pageant and a service. 

Last year, our Jesse Tree consisted of brown paper on which I painted a Christmas tree on it.    This book gives you detailed instructions to make one out of felt…  I wish I would be a great seamstress and created one but the reality is I am not that great and I don’t have the time to figure it out this year.  However, you will also find instructions to make a Jesse Tree with a tree branch as well as instructions to make an advent wreath which has been a dream of mine for quite some time.   Finally, at the end of the book you will also find symbol patterns to put in the Jesse tree.  These are different than the ones we had last year and I plan to use them this time.    What I usually do is that I ask one child per day to color the symbol of the day and glue it on the tree.   The kids have a blast to decorate these and it makes our Jesse tree more interesting than if I would be the one coloring them…  

Finally, at the end of the book you will find some hymns included as well as the music sheet that goes with them.

Celebrating Advent is definitively complete to make your advent days interesting and fun for everyone in the family.    Last year my husband didn’t enjoy having the story read during supper time but having devotions instead will probably grab his interest this year.  The devotions are two pages long and includes a little story, Bible readings as well as discussion questions that everyone in the family can participate while having our daily time around the table, a prayer, a song (if you want to sing), the Jesse tree activity as well as a special study for adults.  It is indeed complete and will bring you to Christmas with a new perspective.   I personally think that all Christian families should get this marvelous little book to make their Advent time more meaningful this year.

Celebrating Advent is available at your favourite bookseller from Revell, a division of Baker Publishing Group, even at amazon.ca.

Disclaimer: Book has been provided courtesy of Baker Publishing Group and Graf-Martin Communications, Inc. I was not monetarily compensated for this review. Please note that the review was not influenced by the Sponsor in any way. All opinions expressed here are only my own.

BOO!

Boo!
From PicPocket Books

About the App

BOO! Halloween with Sophie and Sam is magical. Come meet the owls, pumpkins and ghosts on Halloween night with a playfully spooky (but not scary) rhyming tale. Get in a Halloween mood, because this night is for me and for you… full of laughter, mischief, and of course… BOO!

My Thoughts

Halloween is just around the corner and some parents might be looking for books on the special day for their kids to read.

I received this app with a specific request to review it before the big day of trick-or-treating…  I agreed on it and immediately downloaded the app.

Once the app was installed on the iPad, I proceeded to read it by myself before I put it in the hands of my little girl.   And to be honest, I personally am happy I did this.  Though the images are adorable, there are some things in it that bug me… like the ghosts, the haunted house and the witch.  The music is somewhat creepy though sweet at the same time.  

There is interaction through the app where your child can touch the screen and you can hear the cats meowing, the cauldron bubbling and so on.   The reading is well done by the young lady and she even have intonations that goes with the theme of the story.

However, even though we let our kids running Halloween we have some reservations on letting them using scary things as costumes.   We never decorated our pumpkins in a scary way or even the house for that matter.   Consequently, I personally won’t let my three years old interact with this app because there are scary things in there and knowing that she is a pretend kid I don’t want her to start pretending about ghost and haunted house.

Mind I know that not all parents will think like me and won’t have any issues with this story.   So if you are such a parent, let me tell you that the story is quite cute and colorful even though the theme is spooky.    The drawings of the story are adorable I find. 

Apparently the iPad version includes discussion questions for kids, parents, and teachers.  Thought I have received the HD version of the app, I have not stumbled on the discussions questions.   So I am wondering if it might be forgotten in the release of the app…

Boo! is available on iTunes for the price of 2.99$.

Disclaimer: I received the app for review purposes. I was not monetarily compensated for this review. Please note that the review was not influenced by the Sponsor in any way. All opinions expressed here are only my own.

Names of God Bible

Names of God Bible
From Ann Spangler
Published at Revell

About the Bible

Open the door to a more intimate relationship with God.

Discover the Hebrew names of God within the biblical text

Encounter God through prayers, promises, and devotional readings

Experience God's character more deeply by studying his names

One of the best ways to get to know God on a deeper level is to know his names and titles as revealed in Scripture. Now the bestselling author of Praying the Names of God and Praying the Names of Jesus uncovers the richness of God's character and love found in his names right within the Bible text.

The Names of God Bible restores more than 10,000 occurrences of specific names of God--like Yahweh, El Shadday, El Elyon, and Adonay--to help readers connect with the Hebrew roots of their Christian faith and experience a deeper understanding of God's character. Perfect for personal study, prayer, and reflection, The Names of God Bible includes these special features:

More than 10,000 names and titles of God restored to their Hebrew equivalent and printed in brown ink to stand out within the biblical text

Names of God reading paths lead readers to the next reference of the name so they can pray and study the names of God throughout Scripture

Name Pages feature

• background information associated with the most important names and titles of God
• key Scripture passages in which the name is revealed
• devotional readings for each of the featured names
• specific Bible promises connected to each of the featured names

Calling God by Name sidebars shed light on the relationship between biblical people and the specific names they called God.

Who is Ann Spangler?

Ann Spangler is an award-winning writer whose fascination with the Bible has resulted in books that have opened the Bible to a wide range of readers. She is the author or coauthor of several bestselling books, including Praying the Names of God, Praying the Names of Jesus, Women of the Bible, and Sitting at the Feet of Rabbi Jesus. Together, her books have sold nearly 3 million copies. She has held senior positions at two Christian publishing houses and lives with her two daughters in Michigan.

My Thoughts

We have plenty of Bibles at home.   So to be honest I didn’t need another Bible in our house.  But this one is different as you can discover throughout the book the various names of God as well as connect to the roots of the original language the text was written.  I loved the idea and wanted to see it with my own eyes so I jumped on the opportunity to review it.   I love to see the embedded names on the side of the leather-like cover.    Written in Hebrew I know that each and single one of them is a name of God.

The text of this Bible is based on the God’s Word Translation and the idea behind this Bible was to insert the Hebrew names of God in their places within the text.   So while you read this book you won’t encounter God, LORD or Jesus but instead you will discover El Shadday, Adonay, Elohim and many more names that describe God .    Also throughout the Bible you can read more about a specific name and discover why God is also named that way.   In a two page description, you will discover a new aspect of your Creator and the one who loves you very much.    For example, Yahwee Nissi (The Lord is my banner) is the one who will prepare me for battles that will eventually come in my life.  While reading the information associated to one name, you will also be referred to a key scripture as well as promises linked to this name (again scriptures from the Bible).  

In this Bible you will also have a pronunciation guide to the names and titles of God as well as a reading path system for you to follow.  The Bible also contains book introductions, sidebars connecting the biblical people and the specific names of God as well as a topical prayer guide. 

My disappointments are that not enough of the writings of Ann Spangler are found in the Bible.   I would have love to have devotions based on the Praying the Names of God and Praying the Names of Jesus books in it.  Also I would have liked to have a detailed index to find specific scriptures on a subject like love for example.  Though I would have liked to have these in the Bible, this Bible could be a wonderful tool in your hands to learn more about who God is and how He responded to the needs to His people – and still answer to this day.   

This Bible would be a wonderful gift for Christmas or for someone looking for a new version of the Bible for 2012.  

The Names of God Bible is available at your favourite bookseller from Revell, a division of Baker Publishing Group, even amazon.ca.

Disclaimer:  Bible has been provided courtesy of Baker Publishing Group and Graf-Martin Communications, Inc.   I was not monetarily compensated for this review. Please note that the review was not influenced by the Sponsor in any way. All opinions expressed here are only my own.