10 Favorite Bedtime Books for Boys

By on January 30, 2012 in a little fun, book review, growing godly men, Manly Virtues, Uncategorized

Mixed with the smell of baby lotion, footie pajamas, and snuggles, reading with our boys before bedtime is hands-down my favorite time of the day. Piled on the couch together and soaking up the last few moments before bedtime, it’s my last chance of the day to hear their giggles and to impress God’s truth on my boys…my two favorite things. Each night, my oldest son lingers over the bedtime book basket, choosing the perfect book to bring a smile and a laugh to our day’s end. Likewise, I linger over the shelf of books I’ve handpicked to point my boys to Jesus, because I realized long ago that I needed to use every opportunity to capture their heart…bedtime books included.

It works for us, this routine of two books and a Bible story before bed, and I thought I might share a few of our most treasured reads. Since Jonah (our oldest at 4 years old) chooses our “Giggle Book” for the night, I asked him to help me with this list. Our list is split into two categories–Giggle Books & Mom’s Picks. I hope you find a few new treasures!

Giggle Books for Boys:

Zoomer is just plain fun and all-boy! The hilariously far-fetched things Zoomer does gets my son laughing the deep, belly laughs. Although his dad begs him to get ready for school, how can Zoomer make time for school with such a full schedule? He has to blow the world’s biggest bubble, build a Brontosaurus out of sand, launch a rocket ship—and that’s just the beginning! Boys will laugh out loud at the surprise ending that proves Zoomer knows best after all.

You knew I had to go there…I mean, I am a boy mom, after all! Aliens Love Underpants is perfect for bringing out the silly in your boys. When little aliens fly down to Earth, they don’t come to visit because they want to meet the Earthlings. They simply want to steal everybody’s underpants! I double-dog dare you to keep a straight face while reading this one!

How Do Dinosaurs Say Goodnight? Boys & Dinosaurs. Need I say more?

Rhyming Dust Bunnies Bug! Rug! Mug! Hug! These dust bunnies love to rhyme. Well, except for Bob. Much to the other bunnies’ frustration, Bob can never get the rhythm right. Then he saves everyone from a big, scary monster wielding—gasp!—a broom, and they all breathe a sigh of relief. But can Bob save them from the big, scary monster’s next attack? Vrrrrrroooommm . . .

Double Trouble In Walla Walla will have you doubled over in laughter from the antics of a magnificent red-head named Lulu who sets the entire school ablaze with catchy two word phrases such as higgledy-piggledy, chitter chatter when she is sent trit-trot down to the principals office for all of her fancy-schmancy yak-yak. Don’t miss this one. It’s a hoot!

Mom’s Picks:

The Boy Who Changed the World is one of our all-time favorites! This engaging story reveals the incredible truth that everything we do matters! The book is beautifully illustrated and shares the stories of Nobel Laureate Norman Borlaug, Vice President Henry Wallace, Inventor George Washington Carver, and Farmer Moses Carver. I love using this book to remind my son that he can do big things for God.

I’d Choose You is a book I pull out when it’s been a rough day around our house. This book helps encourage conversation about our bad day and reinforces that, even on our worst days, we are we are chosen and treasured (Deuteronomy 7:6) A message that even Mommy needs to hear some days!
His Mighty Warrior: A Treasure Map from Your King offers the truth about what it really means to grow up strong, brave and true. I cannot recommend this book highly enough! You know all those warrior prayers we’ve been praying? This book addresses some of the same things, but from the boy level. Take a look at the preview feature in Amazon…I promise you’ll be hooked!

Brave Young Knight tells the story of a boy in competition with other young knights to become prince of all the land. In a series of contests and competitions, the king recognizes the brave young knight as the winner, not because he was the fastest or strongest, and not because he was smarter or more cunning than the other knights. Rather, the brave young knight is the winner because he doesn’t follow the crowd, instead making decisions based on what is right and true and in accordance with his faith. The moral of the story is that the bravest young boys are those who exhibit the strongest character.

Lightkeepers: Ten Boys Complete Box Set Along the same theme as The Boy Who Changed the World (above), each book in this set takes a look at ten boys and how God changed them into men who changed the world in some way. I love the themes of each of the books and the ten boys who represent each of the themes are great role models. The individual books in the set include: Ten Boys Who Changed The World, Ten Boys Who Made A Difference, Ten Boys Who Made History, Ten Boys Who Used Their Talents, Ten Boys Who Didn’t Give In. And if you are interested, there are girl versions of all of these, too! (Note: My boys aren’t quite old enough for this set yet, but I can’t wait to read them to my boys! My set is waiting on our shelf! Recommend for Age 9 and up)

Our Favorite Bible:

I would be missing an opportunity if I didn’t share our favorite Children’s Bible!

The Jesus Storybook Bible is our absolute favorite because “every story whispers His name”.  I love how each story points back to Christ and God’s beautiful plan of redemption. The illustrations are gorgeous, too!

Moms, let’s not forget to seize every last opportunity of the day to have fun with our silly boys and to point them to Jesus. Do you have a book that should be on this list? Share it in the comments!

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Planning for a Smooth (or Smoother) Week! {Review}

By on September 26, 2011 in book review, homeschool

In our household, routine and schedule are our close friends.

I say close friends because without them, our week quickly falls apart. With two high energy boys, I have an even greater need to have activities clearly planned and to know exactly what its coming next in our day.

Maybe your household isn’t the same, but I know that, whether homeschooling or not, my week will go MUCH smoother if I have a PLAN.

My only problem is that I can easily get distracted from our schedule and watch the week quickly go down hill…

Boo.

I have a SERIOUS tendency to procrastinate and get distracted and I have seen how that negatively affects my entire family, especially the boys.

I need help in this area and for me it has come in two forms.

1. Jesus.

I can do all this through him who gives me strength. ~Philippians 4:13

I can’t do it – HE can. Enough said.

2. This planner…

This brand new Ultimate Homeschool Planner from Debra Bell and Apologia has been a true gift for me these past few weeks of homeschool!

A little more about it…

Count your blessings while charting your family’s homeschool journey with this gorgeous day planner from best-selling author Debra Bell. The Ultimate Homeschool Planner will help you prayerfully prioritize your family’s lessons, assignments, and activities as well as academic and personal growth goals for each of your children. Includes teaching helps, record-keeping, and pages to document God’s faithfulness throughout the year. {from Apologia website}

This is not just a place to plan your lessons for the week, month and year. This is a place to commit your week to the Lord – both personally and for school – and record the ways He shows up and blesses your days.

I like having everything in one place and I can do that with this planner!

For me: a place to record prayer requests, Bible verses to memorize, Scripture reading plans, ways to reach out to others, appointments and so on.

For school: a place to journal achievements and memorable moments for the week, as well as evidences of God’s grace throughout the week!

And that is all on top of the lesson planning space…

You can check out a sample of all these great features for yourself right here!

Now, don’t get me wrong. Getting this planner is NOT going to make your week magically become smooth. Sorry.

But I have found great motivation and organization through it AND I’m not wasting time looking in a million different places for plans and prayers and so on.

Wasted time in our house = restless boys = chaos = not good.

You get the picture :)

I am so grateful to Apologia and Debra Bell for putting together this wonderful tool for homeschool parents – check it out and see how it could bless your family as well!

{Stay tuned for lots more fun with Apologia as we get closer to the Relevant Conference as they are sponsoring the MOB Society to the conference, as well as the MOB meet-up at the conference! If you’re coming to Relevant, make sure you RSVP for the meet-up on Facebook! Hope to see many of you there!}

*****

Disclosure: I received a planner from Apologia to review. I was not compensated in any other way for this post and all opinions are 100% my own!

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A Grand Adventure AND a Grand Giveaway!

By on August 30, 2010 in adventure, book review, giveaway, your turn

This might be long but it is TOTALLY worth reading to the end (hint, hint – a chance at free stuff!) 

As moms, I think it is safe to say we are in the biggest adventure of our lives. Maybe even more so as moms of boys, as they are discovering the glory of adventure themselves and taking us along for the ride! 

That’s why we at the MOB Society were thrilled to learn of a brand new, fun, biblically-based AND educational book from Ken Ham (Answers in Genesis) with Karen Hansel that is all about adventure! 

Charlie and Trike's Grand Canyon Adventure 

So what exactly is Charlie and Trike in the Grand Canyon Adventure all about? 

A brief description: 

In this first presentation of the Green Notebook Series, Charlie and his triceratops buddy, Trike, set off with a burly one-eyed tour guide and a passel of mules to hike deep into Grand Canyon. But there’s trouble on the trail when Charlie goes off on his own to dig for fossils. What’s more, Charlie’s convinced the tour guide is a thief, but any plans to catch him are quickly foiled. Once in the Canyon, Trike does his best to explain to his friend the worldwide Flood and why we can trust the Bible. Finally, with the help of the tour guide, Charlie sees and understands the truth in a way that will change his life forever. 

When this book arrived on our doorstep, my boys were intrigued by the large hardcover book with a fun monkey and dinosaur on the cover. The book is geared at children ages 4-8, but even my two-year-old was eager to read it with me. 

And what we found when we opened it was even better than we were expecting! 

Along with gorgeous illustrations and fun characters, the Grand Canyon Adventure is a wonderful history and geology lesson and provides many surprises along the way: fold-out maps, journal entries, informational flaps to discover and a fun poster. My little adventurers kept going back to the maps – they were fascinated! 

We loved so many things about this book, but the most important aspect was the biblical explanation of the formation of the Grand Canyon. We may talk about the Flood with our children, but putting the story with something they can actually see and explore TODAY brings it to life for them. 

And isn’t that is our job as parents? Bringing faith and God off the page and making it alive and tangible for our children. I am so thankful for beautiful, well-done resources like this book to help us along the way! 

********** 

We’re thinking some of you might like to check out this super fun book, so how about a little adventure contest?! 

HERE is how it works: 

It might seem a little complicated, but we want to give EVERYONE a chance to win so stick with us! 

  

We KNOW that boys of any age are drawn to adventure and we want to hear about those explorers, so tell us about your favorite adventure – or failed adventure! – with your boys in one of the following ways: 

*Bloggers:Post your story on your blog, link back to this post and link up here (with your post permalink) no later than 9:00 am CST Friday, Sept. 3rd. 

*Facebook users: Post your story on the MOB Society Wall – Start your post with OUR GRAND ADVENTURE to make it easy to find! 

We will be choosing one winner from each section based on YOUR VOTES! You can vote as many times as you want by: 

*Reading through the blog posts linked on this site and telling us your favorite by NUMBER in the comments for this post. (Example: I vote for post #1!) 

*Browsing the stories posted on our Facebook Wall and “liking” your favorites. Then come back here and tell us you “liked” a post in the comments! 

The blog post and Facebook post with the most votes will each receive a free copy of the Grand Canyon Adventure! 

********** 

What if you don’t want to write a story? 

You can STILL WIN! 

You’ll want to vote often because we will choose two random winners from those who comment on this post to each win a book as well! 

  

In that case, here are a few extra chances to enter: 

*Follow @masterbooks4u on Twitter (2 entries – leave 2 comments!) 

*Tweet about this contest/giveaway, mentioning @TheMobSociety, @masterbooks4u and the link to this post (4 entries – leave 4 comments!) 

*Post about this contest/giveaway on Facebook (4 entries – leave 4 comments!) 

*Buy the book on Amazon (20 entries – leave 20 comments!) 

Comments close Friday, September 3rd at 5:00 p.m. CST. Giveaway is open to U.S. residents only. 

OK! Did you get all of that? Good! Now share YOUR adventure and get people over here to vote for it! 

  

Thank you to Master Books and New Leaf Publishing for providing the review and giveaway books and for hosting this fun event!

19 Comments

Wild at Heart: Discovering the Secret of a Man’s Soul, A Review

By on July 22, 2010 in book review, connection with boys, giveaway, the heart

“The world of posers is shaken by a real man. They’ll do whatever it takes to get you back in line –threaten you, bribe you, seduce you, undermine you… You must let your strength show up.”  – John Eldredge

Most moms of boys will agree, raising sons is harder than ever in today’s culture. We live in a society where masculinity is frowned upon and stifled in our schools, sports fields and even in our churches. Our sons are expected to stay seated, be quiet, and conform, when everything in them is telling them to do the opposite. Even moms don’t truly understand why boys take such risks or where their need to explore and conquer comes from or why they can’t seem to back down from a challenge.

In John Eldredge’s book Wild at Heart: Discovering the Secret of a Man’s Soul
he addresses the God-given urges that are placed on the hearts of males everywhere: a wound that needs to be healed, a battle to fight, a beauty to save and an adventure to live.

Wild at Heart, which has been re-released by Thomas Nelson Publishers as a revised and expanded version nearly a decade after its first publication, isn’t a how-to for raising boys, but rather a sneak-peek into the inner workings of a man. Eldredge does an amazing job weaving his own personal story of emotional abandonment by his father, with snippets of adventure movies, stories of battle  and observations about the often overlooked intrinsic differences between men and women.

Boys who are forced to conform to our society’s watered-down version of masculinity are left feeling incomplete, insecure and defeated, Eldredge says. But those that are allowed to fully experience who God made them to be – the heroes, the warriors and the soldiers – grow up to be fulfilled and confident.

Eldredge is a counselor as well as an author, and has come into contact with so many men who weren’t permitted to follow their hearts when they were younger, which has left them with the constant fear of being exposed as failures as adults. The author himself spent decades searching for acceptance and approval of his masculinity finally discovering that he could only truly find this with our Heavenly Father.

As a mom of two boys, I found Wild at Heart to be both refreshingly truthful and intimidating. My husband and I strive to provide our sons with the encouragement, trust and support necessary to grow them into brave men who love the Lord. But we so often find ourselves wanting to shelter and protect them rather than give them the freedom they so desperately need.

After reading this book, we’re inspired to give our boys – especially our oldest – more responsibility, more of our trust and more opportunities to find what stirs their souls and ignites their passion.

*****

Thanks to the wonderful people at Thomas Nelson and this recommendation from Kristy, I (Erin) was able to read Wild at Heart for the first time recently.

Wow! Wild at Heart: Discovering the Secret of a Man’s Soul
is a non-fiction book that reads like a captivating novel AND reveals parts of my husband’s and sons’ hearts that I did not comrephend or even know were there. At the risk of sounding over-dramatic, I was blown away by the impact this one book had on the way I view raising my boys – and it’s not even a parenting book!

But it does reveal so much about the heart and God’s design for it as Kristy mentioned above. And that’s what we’re all about here at the MOB – reaching the HEARTS of our boys for the Lord.

So let’s get this fabulous book into your hands! With a little help from Thomas Nelson, we are giving away four copies of Wild at Heart here on the blog!

To enter to win, just leave an answer to this question: What is the biggest mystery to you about your boy’s heart?

And if you’re on Twitter or Facebook, check out ways to win there as well!

THANK YOU Thomas Nelson!!!

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