You can click the image above to see the Amazon page for more information.

I talked about reading from this Bible during Easter week.  My boys each got an Adventure Bible a year or two ago.  TheOldest got the straight NIV, but TheMiddlest got this version.  I love it.  I always wanted something more than the Bible storybooks.  I wanted verses I could give them.  And the NIV or the NASB is great for that, but I always wanted one that I could read whole passages at a time and “feel” more on their level.  This is that Bible.  It’s also great for your younger readers to read on their own. 

The Product Description on Amazon says:

Now kids 6-9 can share in the love for God’s Word with The Adventure Bible for Early Readers. Based on the bestselling Adventure Bible and written in the New International Reader’s Version (NIrV—’The NIV for Kids!’), this Bible is designed especially for early readers who are ready to explore the Bible on their own.

And From The Back Cover (also from Amazon):

Ready for Adventure? The Adventure Bible for Early Readers takes you on a fun, exciting journey through God’s Word. Along the way you’ll meet all types of people, see all sorts of places, and learn all kinds of things about the Bible. Most importantly, you’ll grow closer in your relationship with God. Here’s a quick tour through the features: ‘Life in Bible Times’ Articles and illustrations describe what life was like in ancient days ‘People in Bible Times’ offer close-up looks at amazing people of the Bible ‘Did You Know?’ provides interesting facts that help you better understand God’s Word. ‘Let’s Live It!’ include hands-on activities to help you apply biblical truths to your life. ‘Words to Treasure’ highlight great verses to memorize. A Dictionary/concordance for those tricky words. Book Introductions for basic facts about each book of the Bible (who wrote it, where it took place, and why it was written). 20 color pages with games, a scavenger hunt, and other Bible fun, with a jungle safari theme. 8 pages of color maps.

This is the Bible for that step between the story book Bibles and my “real” Bible.  Hope you love it as much as we do! 

This post is linked up with Children’s Book Monday at A Path Made Straight.

And get this, I didn’t come up with it. 

I slacked and didn’t keep up with the days and finally quit doing the Children’s Book Tuesday.  Then one of my sweet bloggy friends (who found me looking for Children’s Books posts in the first place, hi Kathi!) had a link last week to a Children’s Book Monday.  SoVainMe thought “Huh, I do that on Tuesdays, not Mondays.  She seems confused.”  And then I went alookin’.  A Path Made Straight has been doing Children’s Book Mondays for much longer than I had even thought of doing Children’s Book Tuesdays!  Hello?  A little research always helps, right?  Measure twice, cut once? 

So here’s my children’s book for this week.  (or for the last 2 months, whatevs) 

And then go comment on her site and leave your children’s book fav over there!

Little Colt’s Palm Sunday
Written by Michelle Medlock Adams
Illustrated by Wayne Parmenter

What a sweet little book.  And for us it’s a great way to start the week before Easter!  It’s all pretend based on the real story, a poem told from the donkeys’ points of view.

Jesus the Christ stroked Little Colt.

He had a gentle touch.

“He’s pleased with me!” thought Little Colt.

“I like him very much.”

And then the men took off their coats

And pulled the colt real near.

They placed their coats upon his back,

And said, “Jesus, sit here.”

We read the real version found in Matthew 21:1-11 and the we read this sweet cutesy book.  Hope you enjoy!

I fell in love with one of the lesser characters.  Mrs. Sowerby.  I found myself not only wanting to sip tea in the cottage with her, but wanting to be her.

She had so many children.  She baked.  She had a cottage.  She stood up to powerful wealthy people when she was decidedly neither.

She loved not only her own children, but these two nearly orphaned kids as well.

And my favorite chapter of the book was the one where she listened to her son.  Really listened.  And then commented to him to let the two children laugh.  The two that had so very little to laugh about.

It was a good reminder.  One that I will paint on my wall.  And in my memory.

Because sometimes I don’t.

I stop them in the midst of their play for chores.  For school.  Just because I don’t want to hear the chaos anymore.

But I don’t want to cut that time short anymore.

I want to remember to..

let them laugh.

I did a little looking around and found the official Usborne site – it has sets you can order, individual books, and close out deals.  And this site that lists each book clearly and shows you an example of one of the 10 week studies.  As with most curriculum “sets” it was a little pricey – $50 for the complete Human Body study (though, I’m so in love with them, it may be added to our curriculum budget).  And I’m  sure you can find them in bits and pieces, once you’ve determined what’s in a set, at homeschool used book fairs.  Inside this book is a Quick-Links section that you can go online and the kids can play online games related to their lessons.

Here is an example of one of our lessons.  (I told my four year old girl to cut out pictures of food from a stack of magazines sitting on the table and inadvertently left my Usborne book out too.  I turned around to find that she had cut out every piece of food from the Usborne book.  I was able to just tape it back together.)

We then made a huge food pyramid.  Each section of the pyramid was one sheet of printer paper.  I measured to the center of each sheet and drew a line to the corner.  Then just pieced them together.  And had the older 3 write (or copy) the correct foods and servings onto the pages.  If I could change anything I would’ve used a different color for each food group to make it clearer. 

Then we cut out food from magazines.  I piled the food pictures all in the floor and had the kids line up and bring their food to me while I taped each one in the correct food group.  The 8, 6, and 4 year olds chose the groups on their own.  The 2 year old had more help, but still participated.  This was an activity that we spread out over several days.  (Are ya kidding me?  We never would’ve been able to do all that in one day!)

This is the same study that we made the full people a few weeks back.  We’ve checked to see the capacity of our lungs, we’ve made an obstacle course out back of how the heart works, we taste tested sour, bitter, sweet, and salty, and I’ve answered more questions in our “non-school” time because their minds are thinking so much about the lessons.

Do you have a children’s book you love?  Doesn’t have to be curriculum, but that’s great too.  MckLinky is broken this week, so leave me a comment with the link of the post (not just your site) and include a link in your post back to me.  Then we can have a carnival and all come visit each other.  Please share your favs!

If you order this book through the Amazon link above in the text - I get a kickback!

A friend gave this book to us and I just love it!  We’ve done one lesson each day.  It has a very simple layout, short easy reads.  All four kids usually gather around and look at the pictures over my shoulder while I read to them.  I love that the lessons have the kids really look at the art.  I like that it includes art of different mediums. 

This is one of the kids' favorite lessons so far.

And I love that there is a suggested activity with each lesson.  A simple activity – I need simple right now on most days, not everyday can be an oil painting Toulouse-Lautrec kind of extravanganza, now can it?

On the left is TheMiddlest's, top right is TheOldest's, and bottom right is ThePrincess's.

This activity was a “one line drawing” similar to the one they studied in the lesson.  Didn’t they do great?!

Now join us in this blog hop!  Link up and we’ll come visit – we always love to see what children’s books we might’ve missed along the way!  (and if you’ve been doing Children’s Book Tuesday without me – ahem, Kathi! – please feel free to either link up a new one or one of your old posts – I’m SO not picky!)