Thursday, November 17, 2011

Lapbook review!

If you look over there, on the right side of my blog, you will see a link to a wonderful lapbooking site called "A Journey Through Learning". ------------------->

In September, Baby and i were privileged to review a wonderful lapbook called "Todo Acerca de Mi (All About Me)". It was a lot of fun for both of us. As you probably figured out by the title, this lapbook is written in Spanish! Thankfully, there were English directions and translations throughout, as i am not fluent in Spanish.




The book is made up of three different folders. It covers a lot of basic information for the child to fill in, with help from the parents if needed.



The first folder asks the child about their name, address and name of parents and siblings. The second folder asks about themselves; things that they can do alone, like tie their shoes, snap, and button. It also talks about their favorite color, and gives a place to record their height and weight.
The third folder talks about their favorite things; foods, toys, books and best friend's name. It also has a part about what they can do in the kitchen. Can they chop things, stir, knead, or bake? There is also a maze that they can do and put into the lapbook.

Baby and i enjoyed doing this lapbook. It is perfect for little people. Although Baby is 6, she just learned English about a year ago, so the Spanish was a bit difficult for her to understand. She did learn her address and phone number from working through the lapbook. She will gladly tell you the city that she lives in too.
When her Daddy came home from work, the day we finished it, she was thrilled to show him what she had done. Now she enjoys looking at the book and uses it to "play school"! She is very proud of it, and loves to show it to everyone who comes to visit.

Thank you to "A Journey Through Learning" for this wonderful opportunity!

Definitely check out all that they have to offer, whether it is in English or Spanish.

Blessings,
Alycia

Gift Guide and Giveaways

Here is a link to the 2011 Homeschooler's Gift and Educational Resource Guide.
It is put out by Homeschool Enrichment Magazine. Really a great find!
Make sure to check it out!
http://homeschoolenrichment.com/goodies/GiftGuide/2011/

Don't forget to enter their giveaways while you are there!

Blessings,
Alycia

Tuesday, November 1, 2011

About Halloween, or why we don't celebrate it.

i am a Facebook fan. Did i tell you that? If not, well, there it is.
Problem is, Facebook, like most other internet entities really goes all out for Halloween. i just recently posted to my friends that i couldn't help them with getting Halloween items for their games, because it is against my religion. While i was making light of it, i was very serious. i do not celebrate Halloween. i used to, when my oldest, Lady was little and i mean little. i think the last time we did anything with Halloween, Lady, was 4.
People, especially my Christian friends who do not feel convicted about Halloween, get irritated at me. They must feel that i am trying to judge them about their participation in this "holiday". i'm not. i guess i am just trying to be clear on where i stand. i firmly believe that Christians have NO BUSINESS celebrating this day.
There is nothing about it that glorifies God in any way. In fact, you could say that it is Satan that is being glorified. Does that make you uncomfortable? i think it should. Jesus said that the light should not have anything to do with the darkness. Halloween celebrates darkness. Really.

Here is an article i found on a website about real witches and their beliefs.

"Samhain(pronounced Sow-in, Sah-vin, or Sahm-hayn), known most popularly as Halloween, marks the end of the third and final harvest, is a day to commune with and remember the dead, and is a celebration of the eternal cycle of reincarnation. Samhain (once again Halloween) is the most coveted sabbat by the Wiccan (and many Pagan) religions.

In the European traditions, Samhain is the night when the old god dies, and the Crone Goddess mourns him deeply for the next six weeks. The popular image of her as the old Halloween hag menacingly stirring her cauldron comes from the Celtic belief that all dead souls return to her cauldron of life, death, and rebirth to await reincarnation.

Halloween, plain and simple is our favorite time of year. A true time for witches, Witchcraft itself, and Wiccans alike who feel that on this night the separation between the physical and spiritual realities is it's least guarded and it's veil the thinnest. It is a time for dimensional openings and workings, it is a somber holiday, one of dark clothes and thoughts for the dead, it is said to be the time when those of necromantic talents can speak with the dead and it is certainly a time to remember ones own dead. Witches believe it is a time of endings of relationships and bad situations and it is the time when one can see the glimmer of hope in the future. There are as many concepts attached to this holiday as any other, truly a time of remembrance of our ancestors and all those who have gone before."


Time for those with necromantic talents to speak with the dead? Really? And this is okay how? Jesus said that the dead have no part of the living, or rather nothing to do with the living. Do you really think that necromancers speak with the dead? According to the Bible, they are actually speaking to demons, or fallen angels posing as the dead. Creepy, huh?!

One friend asked me what religion didn't allow pretending and eating candy. i don't think any religion is against eating candy or pretending. BUT, (and this is a big ol' but!) i do think that "trick or treating" and dressing up for Halloween is not a good thing for Christians to be doing. Why?
Here is a good answer gleaned from another website:

"Some trace the origins of present day "trick-or-treat" to Samhain, which was the supreme night of demonic jubilation. Spirits of the dead would rise out of their graves and wander the countryside, trying to return to the homes where they formerly lived. Frightened villagers tried to appease these wandering spirits by offering them gifts of fruit and nuts. They began the tradition of placing plates of the finest food and bits of treats that the household had to offer on their doorsteps, as gifts, to appease the hunger of the ghostly wanderers. If not placated, villagers feared that the spirits would kill their flocks or destroy their property."

The problem was... if the souls of dead loved ones could return that night, so could anything else,human or not, nice or not-so-nice. The only thing the superstitious people knew to do to protect themselves on such an occasion was to masquerade as one of the demonic hoard, and hopefully blend in unnoticed among them. Wearing masks and other disguises and blackening the face with soot were originally ways of hiding oneself from the spirits of the dead who might be roaming around. This is the origin of Halloween masquerading as devils, imps, ogres, and other demonic creatures.

Others trace "trick-or-treat" to a European custom called "souling". Beggars would go from village to village begging for "soul cakes" made out of square pieces of bread with currants. The more soul cakes the beggars would receive, the more prayers they would promise to say on behalf of the dead relatives of the donors. At the time, it was believed that the dead remained in limbo for a time after death, and that prayer, even by strangers could guarantee a soul's passage to heaven.

In many parts of Britain and Ireland this night used to be known as 'Mischief Night', which meant that people were free to go around the village playing pranks and getting up to any kind of mischief without fear of being punished. Many of the different customs were taken to the United States by Irish and Scottish immigrants in the nineteenth century, and they developed into 'trick or treat'".

i never realized that as a kid, never even would have given any thought about it. Actually, it kind of bums me out that i know about it now. Of course the Bible has an answer for that too: " ... Once our eyes are opened, we can't pretend we don't know what to do. God who weighs our hearts and keeps our souls knows that we know, and holds us responsible to act ..." ~Proverbs 24:12 (thank you to my friend Tanya, who doesn't know that i spent an entire day looking for that verse before finding it on her blog!) So that means that now that i know the truth, i cannot act as if i don't. i am not a great Christian by any means, but, if i know that something is glorifying the enemy of our souls, i don't want to participate. Someone used to say, "If the devil was throwing a party, would you go?" Nope. i wouldn't.

So, those are just a couple of the reasons that we don't celebrate Halloween. It is dressed up to look like harmless fun. It isn't, and now you know.

Blessings to you for a wonderful November!
Alycia