Tuesdays Treasure - 14

This week at the Plaza I noticed that they started putting out the Christmas decorations (a little early to my way of thinking!) which got me thinking that I wanted to share with you some of the books we use at Advent with our family in case you wanted to purchase them to bless your family before Advent begins on 27 November 2011.

Personally I love Advent as it is an opportunity to take all the commercialism out of the Christmas Season and a time to build family traditions and memories.  I love that it is an opportunity to pass on traditions to my children and to create traditions using the colours of Advent.  More on this next month ........

Jotham's Journey

• Author: Arnold Ytreeide
• Format: Paperback
• Number of Pages: 168
• Vendor: Kregel Kidzone
• Publication Date: 2008
• Dimensions: 9.25 X 8.50 (inches)
• ISBN: 0825441749
• ISBN-13: 9780825441745
• Ages: 8-12
• Series: Family Story for Advent

About 11 years ago I first read about Jotham's Journey on the Sonlight Forum in the lead up to Christmas.  I was looking for something different to do that would enrich our family.  There were a few positive comments and some negative but I decided to take the plunge and purchase a copy (which is now falling apart with use) I must confess this is by far the BEST advent story book I have ever purchased.  Every year we talk about it and we read it for a couple of years in a row until I purchased the next two books in the trilogy: Bartholomew's Passage and Tabitha's Travels. We now read one of the books each year starting at Advent.  I love Advent Wreathes and Jesse Tree's and look forward to sharing our stories with you this coming November and December.

A few of the book sites have listed this book for 4-8 year olds and I disagree with this evaluation as the story is quite in depth and needs children to be older for them to appreciate the content.  There are quite a few frightening happenings that young children should not go to bed thinking about (such as when Jotham's is kidnapped by .... (better not let the cat out the bag here LOL)) We tried reading Jotham's Journey with Sir N last year but he was too little to understand.

To obtain the full pleasure of the trilogy you need to read Jotham's Journey first.  The other two books can be read in any order. Each book comes with a chapter explaining Advent Wreathes and traditions.  The back of the book has a calendar giving the dates of Advent for the next 10+ years.  Each evening you light the candle on the Advent Wreath and then read the story.  (We share out a holiday lollie that we only eat at Advent) At the end of each chapter there is a focus on Jesus page with scripture and a prayer.

I found some great information on how and why Jotham's Journey was written. 

Format: Paperback
Number of Pages: 168
Vendor: Kregel Kidzone
Publication Date: 2009
Dimensions: 9.25 X 8.50 (inches)
ISBN: 0825441730
ISBN-13: 9780825441738
Ages: 8-12

Format: Paperback
Number of Pages: 160
Vendor: Kregel Publications
Publication Date: 2010
Dimensions: 9.25 X 8.50 (inches)
ISBN: 0825441722
ISBN-13: 9780825441721
Ages:8-12

These books are currently on sale at Christian Book.com and they are also available at Amazon.com where you can take a sneak peek inside as well as from The Book Depository and in Australia from Koorong.




Which are some of your favourite books for Advent ?

Blessings

Edited 12/10/2011

Thank you Erin from Seven Little Australians who recommended I take a look at Aussie Book Threads where she has a special section of  Advent / Christmas list of picture books and chapter books. Take a look and see if you can find something for Advent that would suite your children's ages.

This post is linked to Favourite Resources Link Up Party over at  Learning All The Time

Our Alfalfa Sprout Head

Last month we attended the local Sustainability Expo where Bunnings had a craft table for little people so they could make a Alfalfa sprout head to take home. 

This is the process we followed:

Each child was given a small plastic cup to decorate.

Sir N used pva glue with a brush, glitter, pompoms, wiggly eyes, pipe cleaner and foam cut outs.

Next we took our little Alfalfa pottle to the lady who added one teaspoon of Water Storage Crystals to the cup and filled it up with water.  She then asked Sir N to stir and see what happens.  His face was priceless!  Once the crystals were fully hydrated another lady sprinkled the Alfalfa sprout seeds over the top.

We took our Alfalfa head home and put him onto the window sill to watch and grow.

Beginning to germinate.  Look carefully and you can see little roots ...

Next day and we can see the beginnings of leaves

Sprouting forth and leaves still encased in seed covers.

There we go our first two leaves open !

1-2-3 Success !

We are planning on growing Alfalfa sprouts this summer to have in our salads.  There are many health benefits and they are easy to grow in a jar.

The seeds did not all sprout together and we ended up with only a few germinating at a time.  From the reading I have since done you need to soak the seeds over night in water before spreading them over the top of the gel to grow.  I am planning on growing some beans and sunflower seeds this spring with Sir N.

What have you grown with your children in the past ?

Blessings

From Pillars of Pine: The End of an Era

Blog Post from Pillars of Pine: The End of an Era: Feeling a little saddened today. Over the past few days, I've been researching and comparing pricing with the overseas 'super-stores'. The issues we've had is to factor in the high cost of shipping from the US to our store, plus then the shipping to our customers, and of course, we also need to add on the dreaded GST. All this means we're completely at a loss - to list the same products on our site, at a competitive rate, means we'd need to sell products at a loss of around 30%.

When we first began Adnil Press 11 years ago, we were easily able to price our overseas products at the same or less than one could order it direct from overseas. But times have changed. And homeschooling has changed, too. It's just as easy now for a homeschool Mum to order from overseas as it is to order from a local supplier.

So, it's sell-out time! We're keeping a few items, as we have a printing contract with IEW, we're able now to focus on those products, as well as our own. We are also organising to become affiliates of the larger stores, so as each title sells out, we shall put up a link to these other sites, from where you can find the products needed for your homeschool.
And, as I stated, some items are here to stay. All products from 'The Institute of Excellence in Writing' will STAY. This includes associated products such as All About Spelling and Teaching the Classics. Of course, we'll also continue to stock our own resources (including 'Australia, the Wide Brown Land for Me!'), our other Australian resources, and there will no doubt be a few smaller suppliers as well - such as Times Tales, Life of Fred, etc.
For the rest, as of this moment, everything else is on 'sell-out' status. This includes God's Design, Story of the World, Memoria Press and even Apologia Science. We are very saddened to have to take these steps, but unfortunately, we are simply unable to compete in the pricing wars, and we understand the need to purchase products at the best pricing possible. We hope you will support us by using the affiliate links that will be appearing on our site as our stocks run out.
We thank you for your support, and hope that somehow, the reduction of our business and our stock will open doors elsewhere and in all, work towards the greater good.
God bless,
Linda.