Learning about the Bible through drawing

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The Picture Smart Bible giveaway

My children love to draw and color. When I heard about The Picture Smart Bible, I was very intrigued on how this Bible study incorporated drawing and visual learning. They graciously sent me a copy to review and giveaway!

What is The Picture Smart Bible?

The Picture Smart Bible is an overview Bible study geared for 4th grade on up. It uses a master drawing sheet with symbols, items to trace, and captions to write in order to help children (and adults) remember the important points in each book of the Bible.

The Picture Smart Bible Drawing

You do not need to be an artist to use this curriculum! :) The Master Drawings (pictured above) or the Student Sheets (not pictured) contain all the information you need. If you can trace and color–you can do this Bible study! I am currently doing this Bible study with my 3 oldest children, 14 yrs., 13yrs., and 11 yrs. old. Younger children can also participate by using the Master sheet as their coloring sheet. (I hear they are currently working on a K-3 edition.)

I challenged my older children to read through the Bible this year. The Picture Smart Bible is fitting in perfectly because it gives an overview of  each book of the Bible. What I am planning (we are currently working on Genesis) is doing the TPSB lesson before reading that book of the Bible. That way we can discuss what they’ll be reading and they’ll have some background information that will help them read through the Bible. So far all 3 of my children have enjoyed this format. I’ll be sharing more of my thoughts after we have had a chance to really use this program.

You can get a sneak peek at a lesson by hopping on over to their Facebook page. While you are there, be sure to “like” it! :) They have also started a Pinterest board with many Bible activities, lessons, and craft ideas.

There are several different purchase options:

  • printed version (you can purchase OT and NT separately if needed)
  • cd of the curriculum
  • download of the curriculum

See their site for more information.

Enter the The Picture Smart Bible Giveaway

The Picture Smart Bible is letting me give one of you a cd of the complete curriculum! What the cd includes:

  • The Teacher’s Script
  • The Master Drawings
  • Student Sheets
  • Tests/Answer Key
  • Materials for both the Old and New Testament

– over 400 pages and an $81 value! Enter via the Rafflecopter widget below!

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Disclosure: I was given a set to review and offer as a giveaway. All opinions are mine.

Serving others this summer (A.C.T.S)

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I am excited to be a part of the Summer of Service A.C.T.S. blog tour! You’ll be seeing several other bloggers sharing about this opportunity during the next couple of months. Why? Because serving others is something I want my kids to learn how to do not only in special settings but as a lifestyle. I want them to have eyes to see where they might be able to fill a need for someone, cheer someone up, help someone with a task–without expecting anything in return. This mindset doesn’t come automatically. In fact, I’m still working on it! Half the time I get so absorbed in my life and my schedule that I forget to see how God might use me to help others.

SERVE

Collecting and crushing cans for a service project.

Having intentional service activities and opportunities through the year helps my kids and I to focus on others. During the fall/winter we worked on collecting items for Operation Christmas Child. In the summer my older children will spend a week serving our local community in various projects such as roofing houses, painting, sorting food for the local food bank and more. My younger children will be doing several service-related projects in their Sunday School this summer (with family involvement too.) Here are some projects/activities that we (my own kids/local church) have done in the past:

  • Plan and play games with nursing home residents
  • Organize food at our local food bank
  • Serve meals at our local food bank
  • Collect trash
  • Hand out flowers to nursing home residents
  • Make fleece blankets for local shelters
  • Make hygiene bags for local shelters
  • paint things– picnic tables, benches, houses
  • weed gardens
  • clean bathrooms
  • wash cars
  • bake cookies

If you need more service ideas, Adventures in Odyssey has a weekly service calendar handout that is customizable! (Save to your computer and then open if it is not viewing correctly.) They also are sharing a free mp3 of one of their radio episodes– Business of Busyness.

ACTS of Service WhitsEnd.org

Adventures in Odyssey is joining with Christian bookstores across the country inviting kids to participate in a Summer of Service. They’re promoting the biblical message, “When you serve, everybody wins,” encouraging kids to serve their families, their communities, and their world. Whether it’s baking cookies for an elderly neighbor or putting together a care package for missionaries overseas,
kids will discover that serving can be a blast!

How the A.C.T.S. (A Call to Service) challenge and contest works:

Kids who join A.C.T.S. can pick up a service log and collect fun character stickers for hours served at participating bookstores throughout the summer, or download a serving log online at whitsend.org. At the end of the summer, kids can record and upload a short video telling how they serve and why they’d like to become an Adventures in Odyssey Ambassador.

A hundred winners will get the brand new AIO Album, and after online voting, two grand prize winners (one boy and one girl) will get to travel on an exciting Good-Goers Mission Based Adventure trip to another country with a parent! The out-of-country destination will be announced on a live podcast May 22—hosted by AIO actors Katie Leigh (Connie) and Chris Anthony (Chris)—which you can watch at whitsend.org/acts. You don’t want to miss it!

Join Adventures in Odyssey this summer to discover how fun it can be to serve others!

What tips do you have to help children learn to help others?

Learning How to Make Lotion

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beesilk lotion

My oldest daughter and I have been experimenting with our essential oils lately! She occasionally has eczema flare-ups on her hands so we thought we’d try to make our own salve. Since I have never made anything like this before, I needed a recipe and a video how-to. I had recently picked up (affiliate) My Buttered Life: The Baby Edition and found a wonderful (and easy) recipe to use there that included video step-by-steps too.

BeeSilk lotion ingredients

All I needed was:

I thought I had a bag of beeswax pellets, but could not find it. My local store only had a beeswax bar. If you get a beeswax bar, it will be helpful to have a scale to weigh the right amount. I had to eye-ball 1 ounce of beeswax. :)

melting ingredients for lotion

Everything was melted in a double-boiler. I added lavender essential oil to our batch because lavender may be used to soothe and cleanse common cuts, bruises, and skin irritations. It is also an essential oil that can be used safely by all– babies to adults.

lotion

We couldn’t believe how easy it was to create our own salve! I feel good about letting my daughter use this, my infant son, and my elderly father-in-law. I know the ingredients in this product are all beneficial to our bodies and not filled with harmful additives.

Next on my list is to make my own Bug Off! bars for the summer. It is basically the same ingredients, except you’ll need either lavender, citronella, lemon grass or peppermint essential oils (See my essential oils store or contact me.) The recipe can be found in the MadeOn Summer Edition ebook.

How have you been using your essential oils?

You Might Also Be Interested In:

Gentle Baby Lotion for Newborns

 

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