The SG Notebook

We have a couple of winners in our writing contest! You can get to the winning entries from the contest page, so hop over and view them if you get a chance

Just wanted to make a quick reminder that we have a writing contest going on! Entries have started coming in, but there is still plenty of time for your children to get their thinking caps on and come up with a thoughtful, and even fun, submission. Kids have had a lot of fun doing our writing contest in the past and I know yours would too. And remember, if they participated before, they still can again, as long as they are in the right grade.

We LOVE hearing from the children and are waiting to hear from yours!

Blessings, Maxine

You still have time! We are currently accepting submissions for our third writing contest and wanted to encourage you to have your children join in. Hope some of your children are already thinking about, and working on, their entries. You didn’t know about it? Well, hop on over to our contest page and get all the info! We LOVE reading the creative work that children send in. It’s always a delight to hear what they have to say.

I thought I should mention one area where there sometimes is some confusion: When sending in your entries by email, please copy the child’s original writing within the body of the email. Sorry, but we cannot accept attachments. Thanks for understanding!

Hope you’re having a great fall so far.

Maxine

Is the building of Christian character in children still desired in the parenting of today? Unfortunately, I think most of you would undoubtedly agree that instilling virtue in our young folks is a slowly dying American dream. We want to see gains in the area of education; that’s a big priority. We’re concerned about rights and choices. We’re very concerned about things such as equal pay and health care, etc. But what about character? Is that why we allow them to sit in front of the computer and tv for hours on end? Is that why we give them tons of secular books to read, but sometimes don’t get around to inspirational or spiritual literature? Just a few questions for us to think about, and please don’t think I’m being judgmental. I have and still do struggle with the very same issues that you do.

For the record, though, SG does care a lot about it. In fact, it’s our top priority when it comes to what we offer to children. It looms largest in any publication we offer to the young. Once again, I want to encourage you to go to our main Growing Children page and there you will find all the links to the pages on our site that we have in place for the purpose of helping parents in this important crucial aspect of preparing their children for the world they must deal with. We want to help; really we do.

Also, if you bookmark the following site, you may get a few helpful ideas, particularly if you’re homeschooling:

Christian Character Builders

Blessings to you as you raise your tender plants.

For His Glory,
Maxine

Did you receive our newsletter last week? We hope that you are enjoying meaningful mealtimes with your family. We had a lovely family dinner last week as my parents and sister joined us for my daughter Selena’s birthday. Talking, togetherness, and tasty food are all wonderful components to a successful meal!

Speaking of tasty food, here is a great resource for children’s recipes. I was excited to see that there are even recipes that preschoolers can participate in! The Happy Face Sandwich is something we might try soon. If your child enjoys pizza, the Breakfast Pizza will tickle their fancy!

What fun things have you eaten lately?

In Him,
Beverly

Happy to see September again? I am. I’ve always loved this month. We’re back to school in our house and we’re back to many other things at Speakable Gifts. While we start the Junior year of high school here and preschool at Bev’s house, we’ve also just published another edition of the newsletter. Somehow, we’re wading through the technical issues, partly due to the fact that Bev has agreed to do the bulk of the work. We’ve spent a lot of phone time trying to resolve our computer woes, but we’ve managed to persevere! You would not believe what yesterday was like, but we got it done and sent. If you haven’t subscribed yet, what are you waiting for? It’s as easy as one, two, three, so hop over and sign up! If so, you’ll get the current edition right away.

We’re also back with another writing contest for your children. As usual, we have the two categories utilizing two of our Speakables: Second to fourth graders on the Aesop fable and fifth to sixth graders on a very popular saying (proverb). Want more details? You can find them here.

And new products are about to emerge. We’re excited about them and are in the process of finding the best way to have them published here at Speakable Press. We’re hopeful (and prayerful) that God will see us through and we can offer them to you very soon. Of course, we’ll let it be known as soon as these publications are available.

God’s blessings to you and your household. Have a wonderful, wonderful fall of the year. Whatever your schooling situation, hope you get off to a good start.

For His glory,

Maxine

We’re getting excited at our house about starting up preschool! Our daughter, Selena, will be three in about a month. She recently was crying because she couldn’t say the “right words” when she was flipping through her books. I told her that we’d start working on learning to read in September. She knows her letters and their sounds, so we’ll be doing Hooked on Phonics Learn to Read program. Lena and Shana listen over and over to SG’s Verses and Hymns for the Very Young cassette, and Lena has memorized many of the hymns. She says “Holy, Holy, Holy” is her favorite! We’ll use some of the verses on the cassette for this year’s memorization.

Do any of you “preschool at home?” If so, what are you using? So far I’ve gotten number and shapes workbooks, games, and a big calendar for learning days of the week, months, and yesterday, today, tomorrow! We thought of themes for each month, and will be learning corresponding verses, songs, and doing projects. I’ve found a few good resources online, and I thought I’d share them with you.

Free Printable Phonics Worksheets

Preschoolers and Peace Blog – this is a blog I recently discovered, and it is an incredible resource!

Preschooler Express Theme Station: help with themes and corresponding activities

More printable activities

Hope these resources are useful! If you have found other helpful links that you would like to share, please leave them in the comments.

In Him,
Beverly

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: