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! 

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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! 

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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!!!

27 Comments

Hands-On Bible!

By on July 16, 2010 in book review, connection with boys, The Word

My boys like to get dirty.

They like to try things, fix things, build things.

They are hands-on, all the time.

And that is how they learn and remember.

I’m sure many of your boys are the same, and that is why you need to know about the latest Bible from the gifted people at Tyndale House!

Hands-onBible

So why am I so excited about the Hands-On Bible? This pretty much sums it up:

Jesus Taught With Hands-On Lessons And Illustrations

The Hands-On Bible uses the same experience-based learning to communicate God’s Word in an active, understandable way. This new edition features updated tip-ins, a portable size for kids, an attractive cover, and online parenting helps. With hundreds of fun, memorable activities (A “Do-It” activity in EVERY feature!) and the full New Living Translation text, the Hands-On Bible is packed with activities that invite kids to crawl inside the Scriptures and experience God’s Word! (From the Tyndale House site)

 

I knew I loved this Bible (NLT edition) when I opened the front cover and read this: “Since this is your bible now, go ahead and trace your handprint on the page!” Hands-on right from the start!

Since the minute the Hands-On Bible came out of the box, I have not been able to keep my four-year-old away from it! And really, I have not wanted to put it down either! There is activity after activity after activity – hands-on ways to get the Word of God into our boys’ hearts.

My favorite lesson so far:

Isaiah 40:31 – “Strength to Fly”

It’s the old “push the back of your hands into the sides of a doorway and then let go” trick.

The lesson: Stop pushing so hard and God will lift you up and give you new strength!

I remember doing this little trick OVER and OVER again once my friends and I discovered it. Imagine the impact of attaching a Scripture and lesson to that experience – that will stick in a boy’s mind and heart!

Along with the meaningful experiments and experiences, the Hands-On Bible is full of fun illustrations, interesting facts and mini-devotionals. Lots going on to keep our boys active and interested in the Word! Who doesn’t love that?!

At the risk of sounding cliche, you DO need to get your hands on a Hands-On Bible!

The Hands-On Bibleis available in hardcover and softcover.

 

*****

To celebrate the launch of the Hands-On Bible, Tyndale House is having a rockin’ contest for you and your family starting today! How would you like to win monthly family pizza nights for year and other fabulous prizes? Head over to the contest site to join the fun and enter to win! AND there are sample activities from the Hands-On Bible for you to check out as well!

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Many of our M.O.B. Society writers are sharing their own thoughts on the Hands-On Bible over the next month – check out their reviews in the linky below!

THANK YOU to Tyndale House for providing review copies of the Hands-On Bible! And our children say thank you as well!

*****

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