Family Mealtime Rescue! Book Review and Giveaway.

Today we are sharing a great way to get more from your family dinner time with John Avery Whittaker's Whit's Ends Meal time devotions.

Title: Adventures in Odyssey: Whit's End Mealtime devotions from John Avery Whittaker
Authors: Crystal Bowman and Trisha Goyer.
Format: Paperback 112 pages
Published: March, 2013 Tyndale House

If you are not familiar with fictional Adventures in Odyssey Radio Series, John Avery Whittaker is the owner of Whit's End Ice cream shop in the town of Odyssey. Kids from all over town come to this friendly mentor for advice. In this title (with a little help from some great authors) Mr Whittaker offers kids and their families over 90 Menus for five course Meal time devotions. Each one contains:

• A Mealtime prayer.
• A Fun activity as an Appetizer.
• The Main Course is a lesson or thought to ponder followed by Table Talk discussions
• Finally Vitamins and Minerals give you a way to creatively thank God.

You aren't limited to using these just at home either! The guide is small enough to take on picnics, to the yoghurt shop or wherever you happen to be eating.

This will definitely be a great way to get our family dinners back on track. The activities and lessons are fun and entertaining. Kids five and older would likely get the most out of this book but younger children would have no problem joining in too! I really liked the inclusion of the different devotions for extra special days of the year such as Christmas, Easter, Thanksgiving and Birthdays. 

We are excited to be able to able to share this with another family with our first Giveaway!

The Prize:
A paperback copy of the Whit's End Mealtime devotions,
Three Bible Character Masks and Play Kits! (Includes 4 Masks, Play book and teaching guide)
The Story Ruth
David and Goliath
Joseph and the Coat of many Colors

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Terms and Conditions: Please use the Rafflecopter widget to enter. The giveaway is open to US and Canadian readers. One winner will be randomly drawn within 48 hours of the giveaway ending. The winner will then have 48 hours to respond. If they do not respond within this timeframe, a new draw will take place to find a new winner.  Amazon links are affiliate links.

Disclosure:  Paperback version and an e-book of this title was provided for my honest review by Tyndale publishing house and I have chosen to giveaway the hard copy version. Tyndale publishing, Facebook, Pinterest, Twitter and Google have in no way sponsored, endorsed or administered this giveaway.

Holy week Activities Pt 2:Cooking Bible themed foods

The Piwi Kids enjoyed the Calvary Chapel Bible study lessons,  puzzles and coloring pages so much we completed 2 each day. I am seriously considering adding several each week to our regular curriculum.

We like cooking together and we tried to make some foods like Jesus and his Disciples would have eaten. We started with Dates. We made a plant based recipe from the Happy Herbivore Abroad -it tasted just like my Nana's recipe!

On Holy Thursday we made the Last supper craft from Catholic Icing.  The instructions and printables made it so easy to create a centerpiece that looks like it took forever!

The 'bread' in front of the 'table' is Un-leaved bread or Matzoh similar to that which Jesus and his Disciples ate at the Last supper. The recipe we used was from the Sunset magazine for Homemade Matzos. These huge crackers are Crisp, Light and extremely yummy!

I mixed up the Flour, salt and Olive oil (that's all it needs), divided it into 12 portions and then handed them over to the Piwis to roll out.

  

They cooked very fast 2-3 minutes on the pizza stone and they were ready! 

Matzos became Holy Thursday's Movie Afternoon snack

Thanks to our Kiwi roots It isn't the Triduum without Hot Cross Buns!  Last year I shared the recipe we use. This year were the most successful batch yet thanks to (I think) a new type of flour I switched to recently for bread making.

Every afternoon during Holy week we sat down together with a snack and watched a Movie. The majority were Veggie tales. A selection that I hadn't previously considered for this week was Rise of the Guardians. This review by Gail Finke at the Catholic exchange convinced me it was worth renting. We all loved it and it generated a lot of discussion between Miss K and I about the themes in the movie and how it related to faith.

We all learnt a lot this week and really enjoyed the time we spent together on our 'Stay-cation'.  The Piwi's, however, said their favorite part was an egg hunt and their Easter baskets (they picked the activity that involved Chocolate of course!).

Holy week actvities part 1: Palm Sunday Donkey Craft

This week is our version of Spring Break 2013. All our regular curriculum is set aside for a Holy week unit study.

I wanted the Piwi's to work on it together so instead of a going with a set unit study we designed a relaxed one of our own.We started Palm Sunday with some arts and crafts

 We made our own version of the Clothespin donkey craft from Freefuneaster.com.Mini Piwi painted the donkey and clothespins and then added self adhesive felt for the mane and tail.The other cute activity we found at Catholic icing: Hand print donkey craft.

We added our Palms to the finished product and Miss K surprised me with a palm bracelet decorated with the blossoms she had collected at the park. So sweet!

Our Bedtime book was Humphry's first Palm Sunday by Carol Heyer. The camel we loved, in Humphry's first Christmas, is back and in Jerusalum as Jesus arrives triumpantly. The illustrations are just as adorable and funny as the original! It is one we intend to add to our bookshelves!

The bible study of our unit study is from the free Calvary Chapel curriculum. 

I printed out the bible studies related to all the events of Holy week. Each lesson has a memory verse, questions, a word puzzle and coloring page. We read the scripture passage aloud, answer the questions together and then Mini Piwi and I color while Miss K does the puzzle. We are a couple of lessons in and this is working well.

Sharing is Caring Blog hop is all about Easter!

We are excited to be part of Sharing is Caring Blog Hop hosted by Monika from Life With Lovebugs.
If you would like to be part of the hop you can join in the fun by signing up here.

The theme for March is Easter! We are sharing how Family project for Lent and a Family Easter tree activity.

 

Lenten Family tree project

I found a beautiful poem based on centuries old story that traces the wood of Jesus's cross back to its creation in the garden of Eden. We read 'The Easter tree' by Fr. Victor Hoagland  and then continued the 'Tree of life' theme by creating a family tree display.

We did have big piece of art paper but they seem to have disappeared.  Instead Miss K glued lots of recycled art paper together to make something large enough for all our branches.

 We colored in the tree and made a leaf for each member of our extended family. The Piwi's drew pictures of each person or things they like.

Before gluing on the leaves we labelled the roots of the tree God to remind us that God the creator  is the root of all our lives. The trunk we labelled Jesus to remind us that he is what anchors the branches and leaves of our family tree.

Plans for Lent: Helping, Giving & Kitties

Over the weekend we took the Piwi’s to visit their Kitty friends at Friends for life.  Miss K would love to volunteer at a shelter but is too young (even if I was there, there are legal/safety issues preventing it). For now the Piwis and I just go to adoption events once or twice a month and hang out and play with the cats. Just before Christmas the kids had asked to buy some toys & treats for the shelter. They were so proud to make their ‘donation’ and wanted to do it again.

Perry gets a kiss from Mini Piwi

Their chance came when Mr Perry had decided not to eat the wet food Piwi Daddy had purchased for him -it was case of 24. I was going to take it down to the local Petco and donate it. Miss K had a better idea  and ultimately made a ‘Valentines day gift basket’. 

Here she is ready to take it in to the cats….

They know many of the long term Cat residents by name and their toy preferences. The volunteers there were so kind and made a big fuss about how nice the gift basket looked and how much the cats would like it. Miss K was beaming! We always ask after any of the kitties that aren’t there and this week we found out that two of them were recently adopted into their fur- ever homes.  It was a very good visit!

Most of the cats were out playing but some decided to nap in their 'condos'

It was also a great start to our Lenten focus: Giving and helping others. Usually during Lent, I have given something up, but this year we wanted to try something more positive as a Family. Our inspiration was some amazing work being done on Missions by equally amazing relatives.

I was wondering where to start with incorporating the theme into our lessons when I came across The Giving Book: Open the Door to a Lifetime of Giving by Erin Sapin. The book itself is great with parts to fill in and lots of ideas. Even better though is that there is a Christian teachers guide at  www.watercanpress.com which includes lesson plans to use with the book from a Christian perspective . We plan to do these lessons along with our easter catechism lessons. 

Another great book (by Mark Kimball Moulton, Josh Chalmers, and Karen Good) is one I reviewed recently.  Change the World before Bedtime uses cute illustrations and rhyming prose to explain how a little boy can become a ‘super hero’ and change the world by bedtime. It offers simple ways and ideas for service projects that even the littlest volunteers can help out with. Mini Piwi especially liked this book with it's busy pictures full of little details for her to point out.

We are really looking forward to this project and are positive it will be something we can take beyond Lent 2013 as a family.

I was sent Change the world before bedtime in exchange for an honest review. to be submitted to Schiffer Publishing Ltd, via Netgalley. I will not receive any monetary compensation from the publisher or Netgalley. The links to Amazon do contain affiliate links where I do receive a small commission for any purchases made through these link.

Saving $$ on 2013 Curriculum

I usually stock up on manipulatives and educational games during the after Christmas sales. They get put up in the closet -or in a box if we are about to move. My usual criteria is that it needs to be well discounted, something we can use to enhance our curriculum and portable. I have listed the items I found and purchased in the sales. The Prices listed are correct at the time of this post.

Amazon

 
Uncle Milton Bug catcher and magnified observation dome. $4. Miss K really loves the the one she received for Christmas. It is well made and easy to use.


Learning resources Head full of numbers game. $7. I really liked the idea of this game. Looks like number boggle. Shake up the number dice and then write down all the possible number equations from the numbers before time runs out.


Learning resources Cross section Frog model $7. See our post here


Learning Resources Big Cat Math game $5. For K and up.


Melissa and doug 100 PC solar system puzzle. $9. I had been really wanting this one for awhile!



Wilton Build a cake puzzle set $5. These are way more expensive in the craft shops. They do like a good project and the answer to my limited cake decorating skills.


The Great word race board game. $10. It looks like a fun way to practice spelling!


American Girl McKenna 397 Piece Movie party crafts $4. Miss K isn't really into the dolls (Daddy is grateful after learning the were $100+) but she Loooves the crafts.

The Mailbox end of year $1-5 sale
I was soooo excited with the $3 theme kit clearance at the The Mailbox. Usually I print or draw our lap book or tot books. These theme kits have colorful laminated pieces! The ink alone would probably cost more to print these. They usually retail for around $20.
They are available in Pre k, K and Grade 1. I got a selection in Pre k for Mini Piwi and a few Grade 1 for Miss K for revision. Look at everything you get...

 Amanda Bennet 12 days of Christmas

We are watching closely each day to grab some good deals on Unit studies. They are also have an I-Pad Mini giveaway.

Miss K really wants to do unit on Pets because we are about to start a study about Community service. She has chosen to do a report on Pet shelters.

 Click here to visit Unit Studies by Amanda Bennett.

St Annes Helper is having a sale on their copywork books. The samples we tried were really good so we have ordered some for Miss K. Use discount code: catholicmom

Click here to visit St. Annes Helper.