What's in the Bible Video Review and Giveaway

Phil Vischer, the creator of Veggie Tales, has created a new DVD series that is engaging and fun that teaches more than just morals and Bible stories. It's called What's in the Bible-and explains what is in the Bible and how the stories all fit together to tell THE story of God's love for us. Though animation and puppetry is used, there is plenty in these videos for adults to learn, too! I like that Phil Vischer, himself, also presents a lot of the content. From Tyndale: Kids today consume a staggering five hours of media each day, and may spend about one hour a week in church. Seven out of ten American adults believe kids receive inadequate spiritual instruction. For conservative Christians, the number rises to nine out of ten. It’s no wonder the Church is so biblically illiterate:

· 64% of Americans said they did not read the Bible because they are too busy.

· In a report on America’s religious illiteracy, USA Today reported that 50% of high school seniors think Sodom and Gomorrah were married.

· A 2000 study showed that 60% of evangelical Christians believed that Jesus was born in Jerusalem rather than Bethlehem.

· Only half of American adults can name even one of the four Gospels

Phil’s series, What’s In the Bible?, is part of the solution to the problem of biblical illiteracy. This 13-part DVD series will take you through the entire Bible—Genesis through Revelation—in a format that provides the best of biblical education for kids. The first two DVDs, In the Beginning and Let my People Go, will take you and your kids through Genesis and Exodus through hilarious new characters, catchy songs, and engaging animation.

As Christians, my husband and I want to teach our children about God. We believe that we can't depend upon the church to do it. I truly think this series would be a good tool to use to help children understand the story of God and what He's done for us. This is not just another collection of Bible stories.

This video series addresses a lot of big questions.

Who wrote the Bible?

How do we know we can trust it?

How do all the stories fit together to tell ONE story?

These first two videos In the Beginning and Let My People Go even address some difficult topics.

Why are there different numbers of books in Jewish, Catholic, and Protestant Bibles?

How long is a day when referring to Creation?

Explains words like testament and canon.

And more.

These show how the Bible is reliable and verifiable. Though a three year old might enjoy the video series, it is well beyond a three and most four year olds. This is recommended for ages 5-9, but I believe that most adults can still learn from this...it is that thorough. (Teens may feel it is beneath them, though.) This is a video series that I would love to have with our personal collection (not just the first two episodes)!

This trailer gives you a great idea of what the videos are like.

Something to note: There are some references to secular things such as books, movies, and television. These are in passing and not dwelt upon. Personally, I do not have a problem with it, but wanted to make sure others knew about it. Interested? You can buy it, or you can win it right here!

I have two certificates (videos 1 and 2) for one reader (if you live outside the US, you can mail the certificates to www.tyndale.com to be redeemed). Even if you don't have children of your own or any you would like to give these to, they would make a fabulous donation to a church library. If you are interested in winning the certificates, please leave a comment making sure I have a way to contact you. Leave another separate comment if you are a follower as a bonus entry! Giveaway ends Tuesday, April 6 at 7 pm (EST).

Thank you Tyndale.com for providing me a review copy.

Homemade Resurrection Eggs

Now that our daughter is 3 1/2, it is important for us to focus on the real meaning of Easter.  Though she doesn't completely understand the how and why of Jesus' death and resurrection, we want M to understand that Easter is not just eggs, bunnies, and baskets.

For our resurrection eggs, I used an empty egg carton, plastic eggs, and some small items to tell what actually happened to Jesus.  The following items are in the eggs.  I chose not to put the verse inside the egg, though I have them listed on a piece of paper.  I numbered each of the eggs to help tell the story in order.  (Click on verses to read the Scripture verses.)

Please read about all the verses and items I placed in our homemade Resurrection Eggs over at This Simple Home.  I have even created a Resurrection Eggs printable for you!!

We have been using these for years, and I am amazed at how my children can use these to tell the story of Jesus' death and resurrection!!

Winner!

Karen K is the winner of Here Burns My Candle by Liz Curtis Higgs.  I'm sure she won't be disappointed!

Easter Activities and Basket Fillers

We are doing some different things this year, but I thought I would share with you from Easter past (last year actually).

For the baskets I made a teddy bear for E (then a baby) and a button book for M.

If you make a button book, and your child is like M, I would suggest matching button colors to shape colors.

We got a play hat at the Dollar Tree.  

We matched some paper number eggs.

M helped to make a little chick. (Two fuzzy balls, felt or paper beak, and googley eyes.)

And we made a button egg.

This year we will update the button egg to the three year old version by adding ribbon stripes.

Sadly, I noticed that not one of those things is about Jesus' death and resurrection.  I guess I should be honest and tell you that we didn't emphasize the reason for Easter last year (nor did we focus on the Easter bunny). 

 This year is very different now that M is nearly 3 1/2.  We are reading the Easter story in a couple different Bibles.  M loves the resurrection eggs I made.  I need to post about it soon.

Let Others Reply to Comments

For those of you who blog using Blogger, I thought I'd share how to make it possible for other bloggers to reply to your comments.  You just need to go to your dashboard, click "edit profile."  Then click "show e-mail address."  Don't forget to save it!

It makes communication so much easier!  Hope this helps!

Noah's Ark Bath Toy

At this time of the year our family is thinking about Easter and the resurrection of Jesus, but I wanted to show you our simple Noah's ark bath sponge.  M's Sunday school teacher made one for her months ago, but it was time to replace it.  These are the arks I made for my children.  Notice the matching colors so we don't need to worry about which belongs to M or E.

I just took a new kitchen sponge and rounded the two corners.  And Ta-Da!  Noah's ark!  (If you are interested, you can see some preschool activities of Noah's ark.)

Also, I wanted to let you know I made my own resurrection eggs to share the story of Jesus' death and resurrection with our three year old.  I will be posting soon!

Alphabet Practice

We used this puzzle just for fun before M was even 2 years old. Now that she knows the alphabet, we pop the letters out of the puzzle and put them in order. Notice she still flips some, but that is still developmentally normal. It is fun to say the sounds the letters make after they are in the lines. Of course we put the letters back in the puzzle for storage.

Last year when M was still learning to talk, we taught her to say "pop" each time a letter came out. She still does it out of habit if she doesn't say the letter name.