Really Woolly My First Easter ~ book review and giveaway

Disclaimer: I voluntarily reviewed a complimentary copy of this book which I received from the author. All views expressed are my opinion.

If you are looking for a sweet addition to a young child’s Easter basket, Really Woolly My First Easter fits the bill. This die-cut board book has a bright, glittered cover and is in the shape of an Easter basket with a handle. Written by Bonnie Rickner Jensen, illustrated by Julie Sawyer Phillips, and published by Dayspring, an imprint of Tommy Nelson, this adorable book will provide hours of snuggle time with you little one while you read and teach the truths of God’s love.

photo credit Lizzie Anne Photography

This is a precious board book for a little one to snuggle up with someone and read. It is bright and colorful, with a special rhyme about joy and a prayer on each 2 page spread. The joy of spring, rain, new beginnings, growing, Easter, Jesus, and in “my heart” are sweetly covered to help a young child learn about all that God has placed around us. Each page also contains Easter eggs in the illustrations to provide an egg hunt for the readers, encouraging new discoveries each time. This gorgeous book will captivate the child’s wonder and scripture will place the truth of God in their heart, moment by moment.

The Really Woolly line has been a best-selling brand for 15 years. It is known for sharing encouragement about the relationship Jesus, the Shepherd, has with us, His sheep. The characters are well-known and loved.

photo credit Lizzie Anne Photography

This beautiful board-book is perfect for those aged 0-4, and beyond, to reflect on the beauty of spring, new life, and the resurrection of Jesus. Purchase your own copy today. Or visit JustRead Publicity Tours on Instagram to enter to win a copy of this book.

Blessings,
Lori, At Home.

Easter (Homeschool style – late!)

We joyfully spend our Easter weekend with about 2000 others who are learning to lead in the church. We had a fabulous Lads to Leaders weekend every year that concludes with worship with all these lovely church family members. It is such an encouragement!

This year, the girls list of activities is huge –

Good Samaritan
Year Round Songs of Praise
Year Round Bible Reading
Year Round Puppet Theater
Year Round Bulletin Board
Keepers
Debate
Art Says It
Bible Bowl – individual test
Bible Bowl – team events
Pearls
Songs of Praise convention event
Bible Reading convention event
Puppet Theater convention event

It feels like I am missing an event or two but that could be because several events are wrapped up in Art Says It. The thing I want to share about this is the commitment. I am so proud of the girls because they committed to the program and their chosen events and then stuck to it. They wanted to stop sometimes. They didn’t enjoy it sometimes. But every time was time spent with God and learning more about His will and way. This is where the purpose of the program lies. It is fun to get recognition for things but the truth is that I would rather see their desire continue to grow.

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The girls have already documents hours towards next year’s convention and events. Because they enjoy it and it is important to them. If you have opportunity to get involved with Lads to Leaders, I highly recommend it. You will do nothing better than to encourage your children to grow in God.

 

AND, then we celebrated Easter later.

The fun part, I mean. We enjoy hiding eggs and eating fun foods. When we returned home from Lads to Leaders, the Easter Bunny had left baskets on the table for the girls. Nothing grand but a few candies they don’t normally get and a pretty hair doo-dad.

We had bought a carton of cascarones – confetti eggs. We did that one day about a week after Easter before At Home Dad went to work. We hid the eggs. The girls got to find four each and then they could smash them on someone. They had some oopsies and threw a couple that didn’t break. Guess who was faster than they were at grabbing them? Yep – I got to smash a couple of eggs on mischievous girls. 🙂

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A couple weeks later, we hid our glow-in-the-dark Egglo eggs and had a nighttime egg hunt. It was fun since the girls came in from dance and got to do that. A nighttime egg hunt is always different so it was lots of fun.

You know – it is good for kids to learn that it isn’t the day that is important. It is what it commemorates and the time spent together. This is huge so that when you can’t celebrate a holiday “on its day” it doesn’t become a heartbreak. Because, life happens and holidays don’t take breaks. I have seen too many people put aside good works because they felt they had to celebrate a holiday “on its day.” That is just not true and the sooner we learn that, the easier and more meaningful celebrations become.

So, celebrate when the time is right for your family and remember the important things in life. And most of all,

HAVE FUN!

 

Blessings,
Lori, At Home.

 

Egglo – a TOS review

Do your kids love glow sticks? Glow wands? What about glowing swords? Have you ever done an egg hunt in the dark? Why? Did it have a purpose? Was it for fun? Or was there something more?

Egglo Entertainment has taken the concept of the fun, glow-in-the-dark egg hunt and found a bigger, better purpose than just “fun.” They are helping show children that Jesus is the light of the world and that light shines bright in darkness in a way that they won’t forget.

We were introduced to Egglo last year as part of the Review Crew and the girls have asked off and on all year long to do egg hunts with the Glow in the Dark Egglo Eggs. Each time we pull them out we have an opportunity to reinforce Jesus’ teachings – that He is the light of the world (John 8:12), that He is the light in the darkness (John 1:5), that life comes through him (John 3:16). The The Egg-cellent Easter Adventure book stays on our reading shelves all year long and gets pulled out once in a while and read.

I love showing you products that have staying power and Egglo does, based on how the girls have enjoyed using it over the past year. But I want to share a little more with you about what we did more specifically in the past couple of weeks.

On the Egglo website, you can sign up to get free printables. One of the items that comes is a scavenger hunt. Actually, we ended up with two of them because I found a second one on the website under “Egglo all year round.” I printed out the scavenger hunt clues for the Light of Jesus treasure hunt, rolled up the clues, placed the eggs and the treasure, and we had a scavenger hunt. The girls raced around the house from place to place, oblivious of the rain that had stuck around for a couple of weeks now, enjoying the search for the glowing light of the eggs. Once they had collected them all but before I let them into where the last egg was to collect their prizes, I pointed out that all 12 of the clues combined to form something they needed to have. They then noticed that each of the letters at the beginning of the clues were different and the found LIGHT OF JESUS pretty quickly. We spent just a couple of minutes talking about that and then I let them have their surprises. After that we chatted some more about how the Light of Jesus is seen in our lives.

We used the video version of the book this year, while they followed along with the printed version of the The Egg-cellent Easter Adventure book. I put the video on the computer and the girls sat at the table with their books (and a snack, of course). They followed along and talked about the story as it progressed. They enjoyed the audio version of it more this year, perhaps because we have listened to a lot more audio books since we last listened to this book. As the story went along, they noticed a whole lot of little details that they hadn’t picked up on last year, regarding the way they kids talked to each other, how that changed, how each of the placed visited in the story tied together, how there was a history being shown, and more.

I am really proud of the growth I am seeing in the girls’ knowledge of Jesus and His words in the Bible. Part of what came with our package of eggs this year were Egglo Treasures Scripture Scrolls. Each scroll contains a sentences from a verse of the Bible. After the egg hunt, the girls were opening each little scroll and reading it. They were recognizing the verses that they knew and recalling where they were found. Those they didn’t know, they were reading over and over to help them remember the verse. Each of the little scrolls says “Based on …” and has the citation of the verse. The girls wanted to know exactly what the verse said so we looked them up and read them directly from God’s word. We also sang several songs that are from the same verses that several of the scrolls have on them.

Another way that the scrolls were used was to help a new reader practice her reading skills. J has figured out just how much fun it is to read everything, everywhere. She took each of the scrolls, unrolled it, read the Bible verse, and rolled it back up. She also was reading the Egglo Bible Verse Stickers, which are stickers of pictures of scrolls with the same Bible verses on them. She was so proud of herself. She was reading the Bible and so proud of it. I am pretty proud of her, too.

The Egglo Glow in the Dark Egg Hunt Event Curriculum is another resource that you might want to invest in. It contains a lot of valuable information to help think through and plan a large gathering to focus on Jesus being the light of the world. In addition to uses for the Egglo eggs, there are food ideas, activities, scripture memorization games, questions to accompany the activities, and more. There are also a large number of reproducible files including invitations, pictures, coloring pages, and scripture scrolls.

Once again, we have really enjoyed the Egglo products. We have made a wreath using a printable from the curriculum and some of the eggs. We have read. We have colored. We have had egg hunts. We plan to use the scrolls and the stickers to stuff the eggs for our church egg hunt. We have had fun.

At Home.

 

Quick and Easy Easter Candy

 

We wanted a fun activity for this evening so we made Easter candy. It can’t get any easier than this, unless you count unwrapping something from the store!

 

Ingredients:

chocolate chips and/or white chocolate chips
Easter themed sprinkles

 

Instructions:
(simple version) Melt chocolate chips; sprinkle with sprinkles; cool; eat.

(Detailed version for those who need a step by step – I am right there with you!)

• Unless you wanting an interesting look and flavor, use just one type of chips at a time. Put a good amount of chocolate chips in a microwavable bowl. Microwave on high for 60 seconds.
• Take out and stir. Microwave for 30 seconds.
• Stir. Microwave for 15 seconds.
• Stir. Microwave for 10 seconds. Stir and that should be good. The chips should all be melted and you should have a smooth mixture. (We started out with frozen chocolate chips so this was how long it took for ours but yours might take more or less time, especially if your chocolate chips are at room temperature.)
• Spread out on wax paper.
• Sprinkle the Easter sprinkles (or whatever you have) on top.
• Place in the refrigerator for 20 minutes or so to harden.
• Break into pieces and eat.

 

 

This is a quick and easy way to make something fun. If you don’t have sprinkles, now is the time to look. JoAnn’s had the Easter stuff 40% off and they still had a little bit of St. Patrick’s Day at 70% off. I am sure other places are starting to discount their Easter goods, as well.

Happy Easter!! At Home.