The SG Notebook

I told you it was coming! Our newsletter subscribers got first dibs, but now our Christmas list is available for everyone to view and enjoy. Click on the picture above to see what we recommend for children of all ages. We’ve even included links to reviews of some of the books! Consider a meaningful gift for a child you know this year.

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

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

Well it’s that time again, and it is so hard to believe that it is here already. Yes, our kids are going back to school. Whether your children go to school outside of the home or are homeschooled, you might be starting to think about organized lunch making. Here are some websites that may be helpful:

Lunch Ideas

Article on Essential Vitamins and Minerals Kids Often Miss (and how to get them!)

Paper Bag Lunches

8 Healthy Lunch Box Ideas

We hope these links are helpful to all of you as you thinking about feeding your children healthy and energy providing foods!

In Him,
Beverly

Bev and I are busy with our VBS at church this week, and I’m sure many of you know how that can tie up things in our lives. So projects have been on hold for a bit. God willing, we’ll be back soon to let you know what’s going on here.

Our theme for VBS this year has been Daniel. The children have been learning about many facets of the life of this great man of God. Indeed he’s a Christian hero that each child should learn about! I’ve been enjoying going over those familiar stories once again–Daniel refusing to eat the king’s food, the fiery furnace, the humbling of King Neb., the handwriting on the wall, and of course, tomorrow’s feature: the lion’s den. We even have a lion’s den set up in our church! Exciting stories, and the best thing about them is that young folks learn about the greatness of God through Daniel. Hope he’s a special hero in your household.

Dare to be a Daniel,
Dare to stand alone!
Dare to have a purpose firm!
Dare to make it known.

Don’t you pray that more and more of our youth would dare to be a Daniel?

For His Glory,
Maxine

There is quite a lot going on in our government these days. Is your head spinning over it all? I have to say that mine is. In last fall’s newsletter, we talked about helping our children to appreciate their government, while including several links to good sites to help with that. One of those links is a big favorite with me and I think it’s worthwhile repeating, especially for some of you homeschooling parents who are preparing for the coming school year. Most folks will appreciate Ben’s Guide to U.S. Government for Kids, even as a fun place to go as a family. I particularly like it that it’s broken down into various age groups. Hop on over and bookmark it for future reference if you don’t have the time to look it over today.

One of these days we may be featuring a quote about government in one of our writing contests, so keep that in mind a well!

Talk to you soon, Lord willing!

Maxine

We’ve been scratching our heads lately, trying to find more ways to make life easier for our customers. So I’d like to let all of you know that you can now find us on Facebook and Twitter. Please follow us! We’ll be posting updates, sale prices, new products, and helpful hints frequently, so tune in. Tell your friends too.

If you are a homeschooler, and you belong to a homeschool group, did you know that you could receive wholesale prices on some of our publications by ordering as a group? If you would like a PDF of our wholesale prices emailed to you, please contact me at beverly@speakablegifts.com.

God Bless,
Beverly

Well, we’re back! We’re back from vacation and the long spring sale just ended, but that doesn’t mean you still can’t find a good deal at SG. We’re keeping the Dover Little Activity books at the sale price because we really want to see them in the hands of little children. They’re great books so we would strongly encourage you to take advantage of this special. We doubt that you’ll find a better price anywhere. For the special price, the books must be purchased as a nine pack assortment and we’ll keep them at this price until they are gone! Read all about it!

Maxine and Beverly

Beverly and I will be away on vacation next week. So things are slow here. Hopefully, when we return we can finish up some projects and have a couple of new publications to offer you in the fall. At least that’s our hope and prayer.

In the meantime, we’ll be travelling with the kids, and husbands and my other daughter on a trip to take in some historical sites.

God bless you and yours. Perhaps you will have a chance to do some travelling with your children too. If so, hope this article helps a little.

Blessings,

Maxine, a/k/a Nanna

We have our first winner in our first giveaway! My husband just drew out the name and the person who will receive the junior version of either Scrabble or Monopoly is . . . . Barbara, who has a blog called “Ramblings From an English Garden.” I hadn’t known Barbara before, but I can see we have a lot in common. As I went for a quick visit a few minutes ago I can see that she loves the same Lord that I do and is enjoying grandmotherhood as much as I am. In fact, according to her last post made yesterday, she’s expecting to have a granddaughter born today! I have contacted Barbara to let her know, though I doubt if she has time for this today.

Thanks so much to all of you who participated. It was fun having this little giveaway and I seriously doubt if this will be the last one. Don’t forget to visit here often to see what’s going on. It’s here that we’ll be announcing our special sales, writing contests, and whatever else we we may be doing. We’ll be having household tips, especially regarding your children, and plenty of links, not just to things of interest at our own site, but to other places as well. So, pop on over often!

Thanks again for helping out; we appreciate it so much!

Maxine, a/k/a Nanna