December 31st, 2009 — 3:39pm
Believe it or not, I had never heard of a Jesse Tree before this year. I have a fellow homeschooling friend, Jenn, who has made an online Advent Idea Box, and that’s how I heard of the Jesse Tree. That’s also how I found this book, The Jesse Tree, by Geraldine McCaughrean.
The Jesse Tree is a fantastic book that you can read to your children during the season of Advent. It’s definitely something I plan to use with my boys next year. The author weaves the stories of the Bible in such a way that children of all ages, including “older” children, can enjoy them together. In the beginning and at the end of the book is a huge 2-page spread of an actual Jesse tree, illustrated, of course, with all of the symbols that you would put on your Jesse tree. The Introduction explains what a Jesse Tree is, in simple terms, using the example of a family tree. A Jesse Tree is simply a tree that depicts stories of the Bible that led up to Jesus’ birth. As the book puts it, “Jesse trees were the Bible-storybooks of unlettered people” (page 8). As you add the daily symbols to your tree, you can read the corresponding chapter from this book. At the top of each chapter is the picture of the symbol that should be placed on the tree that day. Here’s a picture of our Jesse Tree this year….since I had never really done one before, we didn’t get too creative, and we still have a couple of ornaments left to put on….although now that I know the true meaning behind this tradition, I’m anxious to get more creative on next year’s tree. The kids still had a lot of fun with it, maybe a little too much fun, as I see Jaden took the green marker to our tree.
Anyway, the book starts out with the story of a carpenter, who is working away when a little boy wanders into the church where he’s working. As time goes on, the carpenter begins to tell the little boy the stories behind each symbol of the Jesse Tree. Stories such as the story of Adam and Eve, Noah, Abraham and Sarah, Joseph, David, etc., are told in chronological order, leading up to the story of Mary and Joseph and the birth of the Baby Jesus. As the stories weave on, told in such an imaginative and wonderful way, it seems the carpenter rather enjoys his time with the little boy, even though he might not admit it. The story ends in a surprising way.
The book is just full of beautiful illustrations, and I really do recommend this for any family celebrating the season of Advent. You could get a headstart on it by getting it early and reading it for yourself….as it will probably lead to many discussions with your children. I am very much excited to have this on my bookshelf; it’s a resource we will use over and over, I am sure. You can purchase The Jesse Tree from Lion Hudson for £4.99, or from Eerdmans for $20 in the U.S. I definitely recommend this book for all families. It’s a resource that will help you teach your children the true meaning of the Christmas season….and may lead to an even deeper meaning for yourself.
(Disclosure: I was provided this book, free of charge, by Lion Hudson.)
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December 17th, 2009 — 2:51pm
and
Congratulations! Thank you all for entering; be sure to enter my other 2 giveaways: one for a Storia Home Handmade Christmas Banner and one for a Lilyja Lace Silver Ring. Most of all, have A Very Merry Heart Prints Christmas!:)
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December 10th, 2009 — 8:13am
Our family is celebrating Advent for the first time this year; we are making new traditions and just having a lot of fun with it. Knowing that we were going to start our school days with an Advent devotional of some kind, I was on the hunt for good stories that could go along with our beliefs and make it even more enjoyable for the boys. Then I read about Jotham’s Journey and Bartholomew’s Passage, two books written by Arnold Ytreeide and published by Kregel Publications.
Jotham’s Journey is A Storybook for Advent. It is divided up into chapters for each day and week of Advent. It even has a yearly calendar in the back that tells you what day to start each year, all the way up through 2078. In the beginning of the story, Jotham ends up running away from home, hoping that his family will come looking for him, and they do; but after finding clues that a jackal has dragged something/someone off, they fear their son is dead, and they uproot their tents and move on….Jotham being left behind. This book carries him on the journey of a lifetime, all through the land of Israel, to find his family. There are many dangers that Jotham must face, including people like Decha; but along the way he will meet people like Zechariah with his baby son, John; Elizabeth; Salamar and the other wise men who are earnestly searching for the new King; and even the angels who announce that the Messiah has been born. Jotham’s story is like a first-hand account, as if you are right there with him through the whole story of Christmas, living every moment before and during. Will Jotham find his family? The conclusion of the story is very powerful….
After each chapter is a small devotional with verses and concepts that are explained in a child-like way. In my opinion, this book would be great for younger and older alike, although parts of it could be a little scary for very young children. It’s probably a book we will pull out every Christmas season. You can buy this book from Kregel Publications for $13.99, which is well worth it, in my opinion, for a whole month or more of chapters and devotionals for Advent.
Bartholomew’s Passage is A Family Story for Advent. It too has chapters divided up by the days and weeks of Advent, so as to break it up into bite-size chunks. This is one book that would definitely be good to read in our family right now, as Jacob has been studying about the Romans in history….it might help his history to come alive even more. This is the story of Bartholomew, a boy whose town is attacked by Roman soldiers; in all of the confusion, Bartholomew loses track of his family. The Romans capture Jotham, and all seems lost as he is made a slave, and he hears that his parents were shipped off to Rome to become slaves themselves. Bartholomew is rescued by Nathan, though, and so begins his journey across Israel to find his family. As he journies, he will meet people such as Cornelius, Dorcas, Rabbi, etc. He will also face many dangers, including the danger of being captured again by the Romans or worse yet, by the evil Decha of Megiddo. Will Bartholomew find his family? Again, this book too ends in a very powerful way. The story is just written in such a vivid way, as to make you feel you are making the journey right alongside Bartholomew.
This book also has devotionals at the end of each chapter with verses. It could be read to younger and older alike, although parts of it could be scary for very young children. You can buy this book from Kregel Publications for $13.99, which again, in my opinion, is a very reasonable price for such a wonderful book.
Now, on to the giveaway! I am giving away one copy of these books, Jotham’s Journey and Bartholomew’s Passage to two very fortunate readers. You will win only one of these books. I will draw the winner, using Random.org, on Thursday, December 17; then I will give the lowest number that is drawn the copy of Jotham’s Journey and the highest number that is drawn Bartholomew’s Passage. I hope this makes sense; I just want to open the giveaway up to more than one reader, yet make it fair at the same time. You can enter in one or more of the following ways; please leave a separate comment for each way that you enter.
1) Leave me a comment, letting me know which book would be your favorite, if you had to choose.
3) Follow my blog (only if you really want to); or you can subscribe to my posts.
4) Follow me on Twitter; tweet about this giveaway.
6) Blog about this giveaway on your own blog, being sure to link back to Real Heart Prints.
7) Leave me an additional comment, letting me know how you found out about this giveaway.
Place my blog button (located in my sidebar) on your blog (only if you really want to).
Good luck, and Merry Christmas!
(Disclosure: I was provided with 2 copies of each of these books, by Kregel Publications, free of charge, in exchange for my honest review and giveaway.)
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December 10th, 2009 — 7:00am
Lately, the boys and I have been celebrating Advent, thanks to the wonders of Jenn’s Advent Idea Box. We’ve done so many arts and crafts, and we’re set to do much more. Last night I went to the dollar store and the craft store to get more supplies. We are stocked up!:) Anyway, we’ve done a couple of fun things so far that the boys and I just loved.
First we made ice cream cone Christmas trees out of sugar cones, green icing, and little candies or sprinkles.
We used mini M&M’s for ours. They were so much fun to make….
and even better to snack on afterwards.:) At least it was bathtime after.:) Totally worth the mess, though.
Then one night we made popsicle stick snowflakes with popsicle sticks, glitter glue (our Dollar Tree here had huge packs of glitter glue for $1 (just an fyi)), and other little buttons, jewels, and beads that we glued on for decoration.
Daddy even got in on this one with us, using the hot glue gun to glue the popsicle sticks together for our snowflakes, since regular glue just wasn’t cutting it too well. He also got a little sidetracked and made his name.:)LOL (Guys and popsicle sticks….)
Of course, Jaden thought it was more fun to try to eat the glitter glue this time; he usually does really well with it and loves it, but he was kinda cranky this night anyway. Still, we had a lot of fun and made quite a few beautiful snowflakes to hang in our windows or wherever else we might want them.
We love Christmas crafts; I have plenty more up my sleeve, and I’ll be sharing some more of our finished products with you over the next couple of weeks. For more Things I Love Thursday, visit The Diaper Diaries.
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