The SG Notebook

How excited do your kids get about their birthdays? Of all the events of a given year, I’d venture a guess that for your children, and most children, their birthdays are at the top of the list for excitement. And well it should be. It’s the anniversary of their birth, a cause for celebration.

Imagine a child who doesn’t know when that special day is. Soon we’ll be posting fresh new Speakables (our writing activities for children) and as always, included will be the “Child of Courage” category. Our source for this Speakable so far has been the monthly child who is spotlighted at the VOM Kids of Courage site. Since I didn’t get to do it this month, I thought I’d link to a recent article about a little fellow in Sudan who “thinks” he is five years old. Imagine that: He thinks he’s five but can’t be sure. When you read this article (I hope to your children) you’ll see why. I hope reading this article as a family will help the youngsters in your home appreciate better what their lives are like, but more than that, it would be so good for their character growth if reading about John will stir up feelings of compassion and a desire to pray for this little boy and others like him. I sure do hope this is so. And as it says at the end of the article, pray with your kids that those who fight against peace in southern Sudan will come to know the Prince of Peace.

Check in later in August or early September for a fresh new writing project about another child or children of courage in the face of persecution.

For His Glory,

Maxine

Those who have known us for a while know how we feel about the Kids of Courage website. In fact, our Child of Courage Speakable is always based on an article from that site. I can’t tell you how important it is to have your children feel something of the weight of what others their age are going through by way of suffering and/or starvation. It’s a necessary part of their upbringing, I would say, and I think you would agree that it would be a great flaw in our parenting if we allowed them to view life only from the vantage of “what’s in this for me?” Stacy at the Persecution Blog talks a little about the KOC site and also has a link to the location where you can sign up for their newsletter.

Surely this newsletter would have a good use in your home school, Sunday school, Christian school, and family life. Also, let us help. We always have a child from somewhere in the world featured on a Speakable. The current one is here if you want to use it for a writing project. Don’t forget to click on the blinking “push pin” to go to the bulletin board where you can always find short think questions about the Speakables.

Blessings for the Lord’s Day tomorrow.

This is the current hymn in our children’s writing activities section. I found a cute video of kids singing it just right. If you can get past the fact that the audio and video are not synchronized, I think you’ll enjoy it and perhaps your kids will too:

Well, when you come to March, you start thinking about warmer weather. Soon we’ll see the kids playing outside. At least I hope we do. There was some kind of statistic in the news recently which was a pretty disturbing one. Apparently children are spending far more time in front of their computers and TV sets than you can imagine. And, of course, exercise seems to be often in the form of Wii and video games rather than getting fresh air outside playing the games that maybe you and I played back in the “good old days.” If you would like some help with that, we have an article from last summer’s newsletter which may be informative. We really would like to encourage you to encourage your children to “go outside,” as I recently heard said on the radio.

If you are rusty on the rules for some of the old games or would like suggestions on different ways to play, there are a few links with the article.

Obviously, I am a proponent of many things old fashioned and this is one area where I have to admit I fall in that category. I think our children are hooked on far too much technology. Much is good about it, so don’t get me wrong. But I certainly would like to see more moderation in that area.

Just my two cents worth.

Maxine, a/k/a Nanna

February. Our hearts turn to thoughts of love. This is a wonderful time to teach our children about the love of God in Christ Jesus. They cannot learn this too often now can they? I hope Speakable Gifts is and will in the future be a resource for you to this end. Maybe your kids will learn more of the love of God in one of the Bright Gems devotionals; perhaps a Speakable activity will help. Please let us know if there is any way that we can serve you better. We want to help you in your home and be a resource for that which is good. We’re trying to provide products to that end, but we don’t want to stop there. We want to be a friend to families in many ways.

Maxine, a/k/a Nanna

We’re tickled pink over the number of children who have responded to our second writing contest. We even had a couple of school classes take part! Now THAT makes it really exciting and challenging. Just wanted to thank all of the children who took part. Praying God will use your own words to speak to your hearts! Also, please pray for those of us who are judging the entries. It’s hard to pick just one, especially from the younger group where we had a HUGE response. Thanks again.

Maxine, a/k/a Nanna

We’re having our second writing contest and invite you to have your children take part. Entries can be sent in by email or postal mail through November 15th. We thoroughly enjoyed the children’s submissions last time and look forward to receiving them again! Details for Contest 2 are here.

Just want you to know about a new feature coming. We’re calling it “Homemade Children’s Parties,” and it’s strictly a fun topic. No lessons, papers or the like. Just fun. The hope is that folks can stop by and get ideas and suggestions for having birthday parties in a home setting. It’s just getting started. We have an introductory page up and running and in the weeks coming up we plan to add more info and pages. I’ll probably come back here from time to time to announce some of the additions. There’s also going to be a new feature in the newsletter called “Homemade Party Tips.” If you’re interested in this type of info, that’s another reason for you to sign up!

For His Glory,
Maxine

The alert is: The second edition of our e-newsletter Helping Children Grow is going out in a couple of weeks. A couple of weeks? You may be thinking to yourself, “What’s up with that? Aren’t these periodicals usually going out on a weekly basis, or at the very least, monthly. So…what’s the big deal about the fact that this one’s going out in two weeks?” Good question. Well, for those who don’t know, SG has a bi-monthly newsletter. That’s not the recommended frequency, but for us, it’s the best we can do because of time constraints. I know of others who have quarterly ones, so I don’t feel so bad.

Also, I’ve made a decision which was a difficult one for me. When I sent out the first issue, I was under the assumption that it was the common acceptable practice to send out newsletters to your customers, without the need for them to sign up. I wasn’t necessarily comfortable with that, but thought it was the norm. After checking into it further and getting more information, I do believe I’d rather not do that. I’ve decided that SG will only send out its newsletter to people who subscribe. So, the next issue will go out to everyone who received the first one and the recipients will be told that it’s their last issue. That is, unless they sign up to continue to get it which, of course, I wish they would. The same applies to a few friends who I included in my list.

Honestly, I think many of you who are reading this post would enjoy reading our little attempts to help you encourage your children in different ways which we think are good ways. This coming issue will give you some results of my surfing around the internet for places that are geared towards helping your kids have some good wholesome fun this summer, and there will be some links that I KNOW will be useful. What do you have to lose? Sign up and check it out. You can always delete these emails when you’re finished. I know what it’s like to have those inboxes get all cluttered up.

Also, don’t forget the Writing Contest! If your son or daughter is going to participate, have them send in their entry soon—May 15th will be here before you know it.

Have a blessed day!

For His Glory,

Maxine, a/k/a Nanna

We have one child (high schooler) in our homeschool, which makes it a bit difficult to engage in certain types of school projects. As you probably already know, one of the most blessed tasks a parent/teacher can have is one of leading children in a mission activity. I’m sure it’s been your experience, as it has been mine, that the kids in your home or class get quite excited about it all. So, since it works better for a group rather than an individual, I introduced this idea to my Sunday school class of third and fourth graders yesterday. They were excited and happy about it, as I knew they would be. So we’re going to fill an Action Pack to send to Sudan. If you want more info about this for your homeschool or Sunday school, go the the Voice of the Martyrs site to learn more.

If you want help in thinking of other things you could do, our “Child of Courage” page addresses this and has a link to an article in the archives at VOM’s Kids of Courage section.

Have fun with whatever you may decide to do. One thing we need to remember: Doing any kind of project for the benefit of other children who are needy has a wealth of “benefits” which redound to our kids. The term which describes these benefits may be an old one, but it’s still alive and well today: It’s called character building. Surely this is worth as much, if not more, than all the math, English, science, etc. that we may teach them.

For His Glory,
Maxine