Tree of Life Mothering

We are back in Arizona after our two week vacation in Utah to see our  older 2 sons/brothers, grandparents, aunts, uncles, and cousins. Now that we are back I can embark on getting books for my kids to read recommended in the fabulous book pictured above. It’s also time for another review and giveaway! Today’s review and giveaway is the book Give Your Child the World by homeschool mom, blogger, and author Jamie C. Martin. Jamie is doing a summer book club in conjunction with the publication of this new book. To learn about the “Read the World Summer Book Club” go here. It started this past Monday June 27 and goes until August 22nd  I showed the summer book club/challenge to my kids and the prizes that were available. They weren’t that interested in the prizes. What is it with these kids?! They are so much less motivated than my first batch of kids, ages 18-22, who are out of the nest and flying well. It’s like I have “two families” of kids and the second family, ages 6 to 14, are so different! They complain I have nothing in this house for them to read when we are brimming with books! So now I am bribing them to do the challenge by paying them money for each book they read from the lists in the book. I would really like to broaden their tastes for different kinds of books (namely, beyond fantasy) so I think this summer book challenge will help with that.

We printed off the downloadable book log/tracker forms and I have them taped up on the wall around a world map. We got books from the library. We started reading last Tuesday night. This past week the theme of the book club is “Multicultural Week,” which corresponds to Chapter 5 of the Read Your Child the World book. Next week is “Africa Week.” If your child reads one book according to the theme of each week, the child can enter the random drawing for prizes at the end of the book challenge in August. If you read books that are listed in Jamie’s book pictured above then you can get double entries!

I give this book 4 1/2 out of 5 stars. That’s because I wish that I could change the title. I don’t want to “give my child the world.” I want to give my child a love for all of God’s children who live in this world. I understand though that the author is appealing to everyone, not just God-believing people, so she chose the title she did. It also bothers me just a bit that the author has notes for certain books letting the reader know that that book has mention of religion or religious beliefs. I don’t believe that religion is something to be “warned” about. Despite those two things, I am enjoying the book. I bought the Kindle format. So I love that with my Kindle app I can have this book on my phone. I can easily take my phone with me to the library to find books to check out, if I forget, to ahem, plan and put the books on hold at the library online.

The book has 12 chapters, divided into two parts. The first part is written to persuade you as to why it is important to give your child a “global perspective.” It also included tips on how to create a “global consciousness” in your child with guides to ethical spending and connecting with global causes   The second part has a chapter explaining how to use the lists in succeeding chapters. Then each chapter after that has lists of recommended reading for the following cultural themes:

• Multiculturalism
• Africa
• Europe
• Asia
• Middle East
• North America
• Latin America
• Australia, Oceania, and the Polar Regions

Then in each of these lists, Jamie breaks up the recommendations of books into three age groups: 4 to 6 yr. olds (so picture books), 6 to 8 year olds (easy readers), 8 to 10 year olds (chapter books), and 10 to 12 year olds (chapter books for older kids). I totally appreciate these recommendations, because I realize how Euro and American-centric my book reading with my kids has been. I totally needed to know what other books are out there to represent other cultures! I plan on using this guide for many years to come, not just this summer. It will take us a long time to read all the books recommended.

So I am giving away a copy of this book! Please comment below with why you are interested in this book. The drawing will be held a week from today on Sat. July 16, 2016. If you don’t want to wait to see if you win a copy, then buy it today on Amazon! The Kindle version is only 8.99 and the paperback, through Prime, is only 9.89. A total deal if you ask me!

Note: I paid for this book to review with my own money so no need for anyone to suspect that my opinion was persuaded at all by a sponsor. 

This year to celebrate Independence Day I am priming up for it by reading a little bit from these two books every day for our homeschool devotional. Some years when it’s summer I have skipped doing devotional, but this year, I feel like I missed so many homeschool days while we were moving that I want to make the most of these summer days! With three kids out of the nest I am realizing how fast the time goes and I want to share as much as I can with these younger ones to kindle their interests while I can. 

The above book, the Miracle of America the Birth of a Nation is published by the good people at nccs.net. It features a bunch of stories about true miracles that happened in America. First it tells the story of the storm that came from a preacher’s prayer in the Old South Church in Boston in 1752, to sink French ships so they couldn’t attack the British colonies. The next story is about the Bulletproof George Washington. The stories that follow involve the Revolutionary War and the making of the Constitution.

I love that each story is fairly short, just right to read one a day for our homeschool devotional. I also love the photographs that have been taken of real people, in historically accurate costumes, with some taken at the replica of Independence Hall at Knotts’ Berry Farm in California. 

It’s a beautiful book to treasure! I found mine at my local public library but now I want to buy my own copy to keep and share year after year! I give it 5 out of 5 stars.

This book, the Founding Fathers by Jonah Winter, features a short biography of each of the Founding Fathers. Sometimes the language seems a little too “friendly” like the author is trying to sound like a kid, with phrases like “dude,” but I am still enjoying the book. We are reading one bio a day. It’s interesting to read tidbits I haven’t read in other books, like each of the Founding Father’s stances for the Boston Tea Party, how much livestock and land each one owned as well as slaves, their religious views, the languages they mastered, years served in the military, and each one’s nickname. The back part of the book has some summaries about things they argued about and a list of Internet resources. I give it 4 out of 5 stars, because I wish the illustrations weren’t quite so cartoonish.

Do you realize that you can find information about your ancestors in Google books? I’ve found quite a bit of information for filling out my family tree this way. From the video above, with Lisa Louise Cooke, of lisalouisecooke.com, I learned a shortcut. Maybe it will work for finding the husband of my 3rd great grandmother’s sister. Said sister stayed behind in Iowa in 1857 to marry a guy instead of crossing the plains to the Salt Lake Valley. I sure would like to find his name and add him to the family tree. 

On other blogs you might see bloggers talk about toy, clothing, gadget or makeup “hauls.” Not on this blog. The only hauls I am going to feature on here will be about books! I loooove books! On my trip to Utah for two weeks I went to four Deseret Industries! I was looking for a specific book, Teach the Children by Neil Flinders. Growing up, I saw this book on my parents’ bookshelf for nearly a decade. The author was a colleague of my dad’s, in the McKay School of Education at BYU. Then I went away to college and got married. Then I had kids and started homeschooling and found out that that book is a gold mine full of homeschooling philosophy. So, when I decided I wanted to read it, do you think I could find it on my parents’ shelf among the vast, multitudinious collection of books they own? Noooooo! Somehow, in the decades since I left home, it has disappeared!

So I have been on a hunt for the book ever since. Any time I go to a thrift store in Utah that has LDS books, I look for it. I didn’t find the book on this last hunt, but I had fun buying a few other books I couldn’t pass by! I was able to find all these books in this post for $1 to 2 a piece. Hooray! Maybe these are my summer reading list. The super awesome news is that four days after I got home, yesterday, my mom called me up to say that she found the book for me on her trip to D.I. that morning! She is going to bring the book to me when she comes in three weeks. Oh God is good, He is watching out for me! I thank Thee God for sending that book my way!

In the meantime I will be looking at these other books. The first is Mine Errand from the Lord, a collection of Pres. Boyd K. Packer’s writings. I will be reading it on Sundays.

I think I will read one of these stories a day to my kids over dinner when Dad is home with us. 

I read Whence Came They a few years ago and enjoyed it. It’s about how Britian ties in to the House of Israel. I am so excited to have my own copy now that I can mark up and keep. The one I read before was from the public library. 

I am a huge fan of Malcolm Gladwell. I listened to his book, Blink, on audio during a February and March of one long winter. It definitely helped me get through that winter. I’ve heard alot about the Tipping Point so I can’t wait to read it!

This is one of those books that I don’t read cover-to-cover. Like it says on the cover, it contains summaries of all-time great books. I will pick it up when I want to spend 5 to 10 minutes on a break from my daily work to learn about the classics. I found volume 2 a few years ago for Father’s Day for my husband. But I haven’t seen it since we moved. I’m wondering if one of my college kids took it?

I love the song Amazing Grace. I am looking forward to reading about the author, John Newton. This one will be another book to read on Sunday. 

I read the above book years ago and loved it so much I asked my parents to buy a copy for my son for his birthday when he turned 17. It’s basically a book for casting vision as to why college is so important and how to pick the best college for you. My son is now in college so he has his copy with him. I was so happy to find another copy to keep at home. Now I’ve got three kids at home who I want to inspire to go to college. Maybe I will read them a little bit from this book every day as part of our devotional.

I started reading this book while I waited at Big O Tires in St. George to get our flat tire repaired before we headed home. It is a collection of true stories of people being inspired, through the help of angels. It is so wonderful!

The winners of the Eternal Warriors Healthy Eating class are…(drumroll please)

Linda Hansen for the newbies and Stephanie for the returning students.

I will be emailing you the details about the class on Monday, June 27th.

For those of you who didn’t win…please come register at the discounted price! The early bird discount ends tomorrow, Saturday, June 25. Get all the details here. 

It is a wonderful class! Here is what one mom in the current session says about it:

I will forever be thankful to Celestia and her EW Healthy Eating Class. Before her class, I would constantly try and lose weight only to stop after a couple of weeks because it was just too hard! With Celestia’s tools and techniques I have been able to get through my emotional eating, grow spiritually, and finally stick with my weight loss plan.  I have lost 15 pounds in 4 weeks and continue to be amazed at how well I am doing. I am on the road to losing 50 more pounds and I am not looking back! Thanks for everything!

Amy B.

This book is about a remarkable family. Kip and Mona Lisa Harding, the authors, are the parents of ten children. They homeschool and have figured out how to get their children into college by age 12. This is another book that would make a great summer read.

The book totally strikes a chord in me. When I was in junior high, I started noticing that seventh grade history was a repeat of 4th grade history. In both grades we studied Utah history. I wondered why we had to repeat the subject three years later. I remember feeling eager to study something else. Then with math in 6th grade I was also eager to move ahead of the class. In 8th grade, we studied U.S. history, which was a repeat of 5th grade. “Couldn’t we take out all this repetition and just condense this all into 4th through 6th grade, and then move on to college?”

So I love that the Hardings have basically answered the wish that I asked the universe decades ago. When you read this book, don’t feel like you have to do what they say, and if you don’t, you aren’t a good parent. They are just sharing what has worked for them. More power to them! I think it’s awesome!

The book tells their story, how they met, how they started homeschooling, what they have done to fit homeschooling into all their cross-country moves, and how to get kids into college at age 12. It’s a fascinating story! I also love that the end of the book has some appendices of recommended resources such as other books to read, movies for the whole family, and even a playlist of wholesome Christian music.

I give it 5 out of 5 stars! Read it and get inspired for next school year!

I have been reading a series of blog posts from a friend, Heather Farrell, co-author of the book below. She wrote them last year and I am finally posting about them. They are well worth reading!

No matter your stage in life as a mom, I encourage you to read these posts and share them with your older daughters, daughters-in-law, and granddaughters of childbearing age. They harmonize with what I have felt and known for a long time about “birth control” and having an attitude that is open to life.

Blog post #1 
“When it comes to having children, it’s all about having an open heart.”

Blog post #2

“The women who delivered Moses.”

Blog post #3

“A culture of light or a culture or darkness.”

Blog post #4

“No respecter of persons.”

Blog post #5

“A brief history of eugenics.”

Blog post #6

“Tamar: What’s a girl to do?”

Blog post #7

“The meaning of marriage.”

As part of our vacation in Utah, I took the kids to see their grandpa’s office at BYU. We got to see him in his natural habitat, surrounded by books, papers, and his computer. All that was missing was ice cream! I got my love of books  (and ice cream)from my dad and hope to pass that love on to my children. I could spend the rest of my life in my parents’ home, just reading all their books!

I am always looking for great, Christian-based books for kids. Here’s a list of books, sorted by grade level, from exodusbooks.com called “The Outside of a Dog” booklist. Not sure what’s behind the funny name, but these books look like they will appeal to my kids. So many books, so little time!

I found this great podcast interview about how to navigate fantasy books from a Christian perspective. I am not big on fantasy, but I am always wanting to understand them because my kids get into them. 

What fantasy books do you like and what do you think aren’t appropriate for kids?

I  heard about this beautiful novel about family love in a BYU speech. It’s called Pillars of the House by Charlotte Yonge. If I am going to spend my time reading fiction, I want it to be entertaining as well as supportive of family love and the trials of real life. I’m just not a fantasy girl. 

This sounds like a great pick for the one novel I read this summer. I heard about it from this BYU speech featured below by Leslee Thorne Murphy. This is what Dr. Murphy said about it:

 [Pillars of the House ]narrates the adventures of a family with ­thirteen children. Their father is a poor clergy­man working as a curate to help oversee a ­parish in the Anglican Church. They are a complex and lively family whose members have their share of joy, laughter, and comfort in one another as well as their share of the ­conflicts, petty betrayals, and estrangements that any group of humans encounters when they interact on a daily basis. In other words, this family behaves as a typical family does.

That is, until their father contracts tuberculosis from a poor man he helped to nurse, suffers for years, and dies the day that his wife delivers her last two children—twins. Their mother passes away three years later, having never recovered from complications due to falling down the stairs while she was pregnant. The thirteen children are left to fend for themselves, and this is where the real plot of the novel begins.

Yonge’s novel narrates the children’s ­predicament and the means they take to ­survive. Underlying this narrative is a prolonged contemplation on what it means to live a peaceful life in the midst of nearly unimaginable adversity. 

Sounds intriguing right? Here is a link to some digital copies. 

We’ve been bonding with cousins this past week at Grandma’s house! It was fun to see my sister read some books to our nieces who were here from Maine. 

How are you all coming with your summer reading?

I found another great source for encouraging summer reading. It’s this podcast, episode 27, from the Read Aloud Revival. The lady interviewed in the podcast mentioned yet another summer reading challenge. This is about the fourth summer reading challenge I’ve mentioned, so I am not sure what we will be doing when we get back from Utah and return to normal summer life. They all look so good! See here and here. Here’s another Christian summer reading challenge for kids here. One thing for sure, we will be doing lots of reading! I plan on getting my reluctant reader (11 year old boy) involved with the new book on the Alamo from Nathan Hale. My sister picked up her copy for her kids to read on the train ride back to Maine. They are probably reading it right now! Hale’s books are graphic novels of actual historical events, and my 11 year old loves them! I will also be using this guide to boys and reading here. i love having something to look forward to after vacation!

In the podcast mentioned above, Pam and Sarah talk about three ways to make summer reading memorable:

1. Read together

2. Make it fun (give rewards, use challenges to stretch their reading tastes, set up a tent outside to read in, have simple parties to celebrate reading with themes)

3. Help your kids find great books to read

If you are thinking you don’t have time to read yourself, try reading a book instead of going to Facebook, or whatever indulgent digital activity you do each day. You will see the minutes add up! Here are some ideas from blogger Crystal Paine about how moms can find moments to read to herself. See here and here.

If you want a summer reading guide for yourself, check this out from Modern Mrs. Darcy It has too much fiction for my taste, but maybe you will like it. I just picked up a bunch of nonfiction books for a dollar each at the thrift store, including Boyd K. Packer’s biography and the Tipping Point by Malcolm Gladwell, so I think I will plow through those. I I can’t wait! Let’s stretch our brains with reading this summer!