Tag: Advent

Just in time for Christmas, I got the chance to check out a copy of Seek and Find: The First Christmas by Sarah Parker and Andre Parker from The Good Book Co. (Available on Amazon and The Good Book Co.)

This is seek-and-find takes a 12-days-of-Christmas approach, instructing children to start off finding one object, then two of one object, all the way up to 10 of the same objects. They generally start off easy with large objects that you can’t miss. As the number of objects increases, they generally get smaller, which makes it harder to find everyone although none of them are “tricky” as is the case in other seek-and-finds.

I liked that it portrays a more accurate sequence of the Christmas, with Jesus’ birth falling about halfway through the story, followed by Jesus’ visit to Simeon, the Magi seeing the star, visiting Herod and finally presenting their gifts to Jesus on the last page.

This seek-and-find book was able to engage all my children, ages 6 to 9. We did find that it was hard to keep track of the smaller objects that you had to find multiple copies of, so we used a dry-erase marker to help keep track. The pages are thick like board-book pages, so they can withstand this and erasing. (And a magic eraser got the marks off without issue!)

Find Seek and Find: The First Christmas on Amazon and The Good Book Co.

 

I recently got the chance to review All About Christmas by Alison Mitchell from The Good Book Co.

This is a book for the entire family, chockfull of fascinating facts about the history of Christmas and life during Jesus’ time that it is truly a book for all ages: My younger children enjoyed finding a page or two for me to read to them, while I myself was enthralled by page after page!

Basically, the book walks you through the Christmas story as told by Luke and Matthew. It breaks these passages down, defining words and incorporating cross-references, while also giving a more well-rounded picture of their meaning and putting them in context. There is also just really interesting things you learn, such as:

  • what life was like for kids during Jesus’ day and the toys and games they played
  • Biblical background about angels
  • information about the Roman occupation and King Herod
  • the history of some of the first Christmas carols
  • different Christmas traditions from around the world.

Thick with beautiful pictures and illustrations, it is a coffee-table-worthy book that you could leave out and thumb through for all of Advent and reread again and again each year.

Find All About Christmas by Alison Mitchell on Amazon and The Good Book Co.



With Halloween behind us and Thanksgiving around the corner, Christmas is not too far off, either.

Which is why I’m so exited to share the news that a Sunday School curriculum I wrote to walk kids through Advent (the weeks leading up to Christmas) is now available from The Sunday School Company!

“Humble Beginnings: A 4-Week Children’s Ministry Curriculum” is a 4-week series that teaches kids the Christmas story through the lens of the humility toward God and his will that each of the key players showed: Mary, the shepherds, the wise men and Jesus himself. It also includes crafts, activities as well as memory verse and activity pages that go along with the lesson every week. It’s packed with fun things to do!

If you work in children’s ministry, make sure you check it out or share with your church. As a bonus, The Sunday School Company, always offers one week of the series as a free download so you can always just check that out if you’re not sure if you want to purchase it or not.

You can access “Humble Beginnings: A 4-Week Children’s Ministry Curriculum” here from The Sunday School Store.

Stay tuned for more children’s curriculums that I’m developing!