The SG Notebook

Here are a few facts about the little country of Vietnam. Perhaps you could talk about it for a geography lesson, but mostly you may want to use this information to talk about one more place which desperately needs the gospel. I hope you are guiding your children into a greater awareness of and concern for the needy children in restricted and hostile nations. I sincerely hope your young ones will not be caught up in the trap of this society’s obsession with me-ism. I bring these articles and situations to your attention as a source of encouragement for you to touch their tender hearts. I hope it helps. More information is at the Kids of Courage site. (Note: If you come across this post at a later time, the article at KOC may be different than the one for this date. You will still find an article that will give you information on some country where children live in a persecuted situation.)

Capital
Hanoi

Size
In area, the U.S. is about 30 times bigger than Vietnam. Almost 30 Vietnams would fit inside the U.S.

Time
At 6:00 a.m. U.S. Central Standard Time, it is 7:00 p.m. in Vietnam.

Religion
Many in Vietnam are Buddhists, many are spirit worshippers, and some follow no religion at all. The government controls religious activities. If churches do not register with the government, the members of the churches can be arrested and fined. Christians from minority tribes are treated unfairly. Some tribal Christians hide their Bibles and read them in secret. Some also worship or baptize new Christians in secret.

Pray for Vietnam!

For His Glory,
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

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

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

Believe it or not, I’ve just discovered ANOTHER helpful blog with craft projects to do with your kids! You’ve got to go there and check it out. I just heard about it on one of my homeschooling groups and wanted to pass it on to folks here as well. Lots and lots of free gift ideas, recipes and printables. As Vicki from the group said, this is a VERY talented grandmother who is giving of herself on her blog. You know how I am, I’m always ready to put in a plug for a grandmom who is doing something constructive with her life!

As soon as you can, go over to see “Happy Bird” at her Crafting Haven. I’ve already bookmarked it on my computer for future reference. I will be very surprised if you don’t do the same. Here’s yet another resource for helping your kids learn the fine old art of making things themselves. Those of you who are homeschooling will especially love it!

Blessings and Happy Crafting,

Maxine, a/k/a Nanna

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.

From one of my groups, I found out about a really neat blog site. Scripture Lady.com is one lady’s ministry which has the purpose of helping others get kids interested in the Word of God. Now I would say that’s a pretty worthwhile cause, wouldn’t you? From what I see of it so far, it’s geared primarily toward’s younger children, so there’s probably not much for our high school here, but definitely there are probably some ideas for teaching Sunday school and perhaps VBS. But for those of you homeschooling younger ones, this seems to be a good site to bookmark. I’m sure going to.

I think it’s so wonderful how various people have found meaningful ways to use their blogs to be a help to others.

Maxine, a/k/a Nanna

If you don’t have Legos in your house, why not? I’d venture a guess that most homes have them, but just in case you don’t, please do get some and start your collection. No home should be without them, especially if you’re homeschooling. I have this great site that’s sure to be a help, thought I’d pass it along. Hop on over and take a look, why don’t you? You’re going to want to bookmark this place: Little Brick Schoolhouse

Enjoy your weekend and a couple of days off from school.

Maxine, a/k/a Nanna