The voyage of Noah’s ark is one of the most often retold stories in the history of mankind. This tale of God’s judgment upon unrepentant mankind holds a place of endless fascination for young and old alike, with the echoes of the event being retold in myths and legends throughout many cultures. In The Ark, the Reed, and the Fire Cloud, Jenny L. Cote approaches this event from early history (found in Genesis 6 – 9 of the Bible) through the eyes of the creatures called by God to board the ark.

The first in a new series aiming to retell major historical events through the eyes of Max – a Scottish Terrier, and Liz – a sleek French feline, and their respective mates Kate and Al, Cote sets the stage for the continued involvement of these animals throughout history and establishes their characters. Adopting the commonly utilized simplification of animals coming two by two to the ark, God gathers animals from every continent and nation, which strangely coincide with modern geography and foreign languages perfectly. The story of Noah and his family is recounted alongside to the journey of the animals following God’s beckoning presence in the fire cloud – though the animals’ point of view is dominant.

Though Cote’s unique retelling is light-hearted and fun-filled, God’s glory, honour and righteousness are always front and center, contrasted with the lies, deceit and self-interest of the enemy who makes his presence felt upon the ark. The importance of a personal relationship with God is illustrated through Max’s need to set himself aside and full rely on his maker.

A full-length novel at 476 pages, this series debut seemed longer than the plot warranted. Though I succeeded in reading through the work aloud to my young ones - and they were duly entertained by the comical carousing of Al, the plump orange tabby, throughout - I wonder if many readers in the targeted age range of 9 – 12-years-old will make it through. A huge amount of character development, background and detail was included that seems to only puff up the page count rather than truly contributing to the storyline.

While landing firmly in the realm of lengthy chapter book, a handful of illustrations are provided by Rob Moffitt, one at the beginning of each part. These black and white line drawings are adorable, bringing the boxy terrier and his friends to life. Additional drawings in the mix would have been enchanting.

Though a generally enjoyable read, I was disappointed to find several of the doctrinally important occurrences following the landing of the ark rewritten to be ‘pet-friendly’. The sacrifice made by Noah and his family, resulting in God’s pleasure and his promise of the rainbow is glossed over, and God’s ensuing promise and new commands for life in this post-flood world are entirely rewritten and inaccurate as well.

From an author who claims to “stay true to the facts and events that God gave in His word, and the facts known from eyewitness accounts in history” I find this deeply disappointing. I truly enjoy Biblical fiction, but firmly believe that the basic facts as laid out in scripture should be clearly incorporated within storylines to avoid confusion – particularly in writings for young children. As a result of this omission of facts that could have been easily included in the story, I’m unable to recommendThe Ark, the Reed, and the Fire Cloud to potential readers. Perhaps future installments will provide more in step with scripture.

CLICK HERE TO BUY NOW AT CHRISTIANBOOK, AMAZON.COM OR AMAZON.CA!

CONTEST CLOSED

Don’t forget to enter our contest for one of three copies of the DVD Painting Revelation: A Visual Exploration of the Last Book of the Bible from Debby Topliff.  Open internationally, closes June 20/09.

My six-year-old daughter loves exercise videos; I’m not sure how that happened. If given free access to DVDs that guide her through structured physical activity, she faithfully completes the disc on a daily basis, dragging as many of her younger siblings along as she can round up. When I discovered Alphabet Exercise - a children’s exercise video that teaches letter recognition along with the formation of numbers and letters – I knew we had to try it.

Designed for children from three- to five-years-old, Rock ‘N Learn’s unique exercise program integrates early literacy skills with physical activity. A funny gentleman named Alphabet Al guides children through 35 minutes of gentle physical activity while clad in a blue tux: complete with cummerbund, bow tie, top hat and gloves. Al introduces children to each of the capital and lower case letters in turn, providing an active movement that begins with the specific letter. L for example is lift, P is pick and T is twist. The letters appear onscreen along with the action word and related vocabulary words that begin with the letter throughout the segment.

As the letters change, the colourful, digitally generated background that Al and his exercise mat appear shift and the music changes as well. At times Al switches off with children performing the movement, or is accompanied by computer-animated characters. A pause is provided while each new letter is introduced, allowing for a relaxed pace that will accommodate most children. Some of the letter segments encourage children to form the shapes of the letter with their bodies, an excellent reinforcement for kinesthetic learners.

Developed in conjunction with a certified fitness trainer, a variety of balanced exercises are included: stretches, light cardio, upper body, lower body, and isometric exercises are all present. A natural intermission is provided at N for nap, providing a break that can be used to divide the workout into two segments, or just a pause before resuming with letters O through Z.

Following the 35 minutes of movement an animated guide to printing the letters and numbers is quickly presented. Encouraging children to follow the onscreen movements with their finger in the air (air-writing) is absolutely the best method for imprinting proper letter formation in young learners, so I was thrilled to see this included. The printing segments bring the discs total run time to 44 minutes.

The delivery of the exercises is fairly standard for children’s programming. Big goofy smiles, wide eyes, bright flashing colours, and squeaky voices are all par for the course. Al’s voice speaks in a clear rhythm, complete with rhymes as he introduces each letter, the accompanying movement and additional vocabulary words. The accompanying music varies in style though it sounds synthetically generated throughout. It serves mainly to reinforce the tempo of Al’s speech and the pace of the physical movements, never forming what one would consider a proper song.

Fully chaptered, viewers can move between segments while watching, or through the excellent navigational menu. Each of the letters is available to select on the menu to go straight to its segment. A “Play All” option, and buttons for the numeral printing and alphabet printing segments are also provided. The ease of menu selection makes it easy for parents and teachers to reinforce any difficult letters, and to easily focus on specific skills.

It wasn’t long before my daughter started offering unprompted feedback. “This guy is so funny mommy!” she exclaimed when he introduced the letter A. “Oh, this is so fun!” was her response to the letter B, when she got to bicycle on the floor with her legs in the air. Because we use an Orton-Gillingham approach to phonics which emphasizes letter sounds over letter names, she’s still unfamiliar with some of the letter names, and isn’t entirely confident with the others.

Though my oldest is outside of the recommended age range, the reinforcement provided by this DVD is just what she needs. We’re able to kill three birds with one stone – provide an outlet for physical activity, reinforce letter names, and help her learn proper printing technique. With my three-year-old starting to count and learn the ABC song I have great hopes that this fun-filled disc will help her along in her journey towards or recognition. Educators working with young children should certainly put Alphabet Exercise on their short list of products to look into further.

A video sample can be viewed online at the Rock ‘N Learn website.

CLICK HERE TO BUY NOW AT AMAZON.COM OR AMAZON.CA!

CONTEST CLOSED

Our winners are:

Tarasview, Shawntele, and Michelle.  Thanks to everyone who entered!

I am thrilled to be partnering with artist and teacher Deborah Topliff, the creator of the Painting Revelation DVD for a giveaway of 3 copies (one to each of three winners), anywhere worldwide, of her remarkable pictorial journey through the book of Revelation.

In her journey through the book of Revelation, Debby felt led to paint the scenes described in this prophetic book in order to understand the imagery more fully.  Her work is now available for us all to learn from as a supplement to our own studies of the Bible.

Revelation is such a difficult, and often abstract book of the Bible for Christians to journey through, but Topliff’s simple pictorial presentation makes it much more approachable and accessible, even for young children.

In addition to the visual journey through Revelation, Topliff has included an array of study resources including instructions for planning a study, discussion guides, worksheets, leaders guide, a visual key to the painting, and a JPEG of the entire work.

There is so much more that I can say, and have said.  You can find my full-length review here.  This is such a wonderful resource, and I know that the blessed winners will have their perspective of Revelation forever changed through this study.

If you’d like to purchase your own copy you can order directly from the Painting Revelation website or from CHRISTIANBOOK.COM or AMAZON.COM!

CONTEST DETAILS:

To enter visit Debby’s website and leave a comment letting me know if you watched the preview, looked at the painting, or simply browsed.  What are your initial thoughts?

For additional entries:

1. Subscribe to this blog for updates – see the left hand sidebar. Leave an additional comment letting me know you’ve subscribed (or if you already subscribe).

2. Write a post on your blog promoting and linking to this contest. Leave an additional comment with a link to your post.

3. Add the Quiverfull Family button (see the code box in the right hand sidebar under BUTTON UP!) to your blog’s sidebar. Leave an additional comment with a link to your post.

4. Digg, Stumble or otherwise share this post on a social networking site.  Leave an additional comment indicating how you shared this post.

5. Follow me on Twitter at http://twitter.com/quivermamma

Each additional step taken counts for 1 additional entry.  A total of 6 entries are available if you complete all of these steps.

The contest will close at 12 a.m. MST on Saturday, June 20th, 2009. Three winners will be randomly drawn for the DVDs (one per winner) on Sunday, June 21st, 2009 and notified by email. Please fill your email address in the comment form when you are completing your comment so that I can contact you.  The winners must respond with a mailing address within 72 hours of my email, or new winners will be chosen.  This contest is open worldwide, thank you for your generosity Debby!

I look forward to seeing God bless three special readers with this DVD.  Thanks for entering!

Here in Canada, we are largely sheltered from the hazards of working with asbestos. However, that wasn’t always the case. Despite knowledge of the potential threat to health, asbestos manufacturers failed to disclose the health hazards of this once common building material.

As a result many workers in the shipbuilding industry, construction, auto mechanics, contractors, and demolition have contracted a form of lung cancer called mesothelioma. Even family members of those exposed to asbestos regularly have contracted this disease.

It’s not surprising to find that many asbestos manufacturers are now bankrupt. What with the dramatic decrease in demand for their product, coupled with lawsuits from those now terribly ill, financial pressures have been great. The only hope those damaged by exposure to asbestos have for compensation is to engage a Mesothelioma Lawyer.

My own grandfather was exposed to asbestos during the course of his career as an instrumentation mechanic in the airforce, as well as his career as an instrumentation technician at a large chemical plant. I’m thankful that his lungs have been fairly healthy in recent years, despite chronic, reoccuring bouts of bronchitis that he suffered from a decade ago. I’m not sure if there’s any relation there, but with asbestos, who knows?

…I just don’t have one of those nifty, sidebar, follow me buttons with a birdy on it! Does anyone know where I can nab the code for one of those for free and quickly? In any case – if you are a regular reader here, and we aren’t yet catching each other on twitter, please follow me, and I’d be happy to return the favour. You can find me tweeting here. Looking forward to catching your tweets!

The last time we were in the city, the front page of the lifestyle, or possibly the home section featured a man who had torn out his lawn and replaced it with synthetic turf.  The whole thing.  A foreign concept to country-bumpkins like us, this fellow was an allergy sufferer who couldn’t see the point of putting up with the paint of his reactions, and the inconvenience of constant maintenance, so he went for the synthetic route.  Now I can understand his frustration – in the city lawns are not optional – they are mandatory.  Here we just let the cows loose in the girls fenced off yard for a few days, and we’re good for another couple of weeks (told you we were bumpkins!)

For folks with bigger lawns, Southern California’s EasyTurf supplies synthetic grass for residential lawns, commercial installments, playgrounds and even Putting Greens. So what do you think? Fake grass, the wave of the future?

Personally I can’t see myself switching over anytime soon. Living turf provides such a range of nature study activities for children – my girls and I all love finding tiny creep crawlies amongst the grass stems. And besides, that would put our cows out of a job.

Today is the first day that we’ve had the girls kiddy pool out.  They were SO excited.  Summer has been such a long time coming here in Alberta – it just hasn’t been warm enough.  A couple of nights ago we had frost here!  After getting the water from the truck-fill in Thorhild, it was pretty cold though, so they mainly just splashed and played, they didn’t really hop in and ‘swim’ around.  Maybe the sun will have warmed it up enough by tomorrow?

In our neck of the woods here in Alberta, most of the wells drilled draw hard water up from the ground.  The big well companies advertise water softener devices, the local grocers sell water softening salts, and many housewives work hard to dimish the limited cleaning properties of hard water (let alone the staining potential of mineral rich water).

Permanent and easy solutions are available in the form of water filters that process each and every drop of water as it enters the home.  Treating both cold and hot water, LifeSource filters use a carbon-based system to remove chlorine.  Their Beotron Water Treatment System conditions water without using salts, chemicals or magnets, resulting in water that is naturally soft; not slippery and slimy as is often found with ordinary water softeners.  Your pipes won’t corrode from exposure to salt, and the natural minerals present in the water will not be stripped out and replaced by sodium, maintaining the natural magnesium and calcium content. 

These heavy duty systems can be installed both within and without the home, are rugged, and are designed for ease of use.  The automatic filter cleansing cycle can be set on a timer to eliminate any concerns regarding ongoing maintenance and upkeep.  If you’re tired of hard water, take a peek!

The past couple of days have been blissfully full of the Lord’s presence in my life.  When I look back on everything that he has done for me, I’m just in awe of his merciful kindness. I realize  that those looking in from the outside of a Christian life often see what doesn’t make sense to them, what doesn’t seem to be rational.  But really, Jesus is the only truth, the only way – it’s all been about Him, and it always will be.  He’s the Alpha and the Omega, my all in all.  It’s personal, experiential, and goes far beyond platitudes or empty theology.  He’s IT.