Countdown to Christmas: Memory Making Stories & Activities for Every Day from December 1st to the 25th has a story for each of those days leading up to Christmas. I loved them! The last two days are the Christmas story taken from Scripture. The stories are nearly all from the 1800s and early 1900s, so sometimes the language is a bit challenging, but we find our children don’t have any problem when we read aloud with expression and explain as necessary. There are some classic stories from beloved authors like Louisa May Alcott, author of Little Women, Florence Kingsley, writer of several of the books Lamplighter has reprinted, and Margaret Sidney, of Five Little Peppers and How They Grew. Others have never been reprinted until now. I found them to be very good character-building stories and touching, as well. These stories will inspire some great conversations!

 Hal and I decided long ago that we would not do Santa Claus in our house, although I have quite happy memories of the practice as a child and even thought Santa was a theophany — an appearance of Christ. We just couldn’t imagine telling our children about someone who was omniscient, omnipotent (how else could he make toys for so many children) and omnipresent (or he couldn’t deliver toys to every child in the world over one night), then one day tell them, “Well, Santa’s not really real, but this other story, about a God who is omniscient, omnipotent, and omnipresent, He’s real.” And the evidence for God isn’t even as obvious to a child as a room full of toys. So, I was very concerned to see if Countdown to Christmas would work for our family. I was very happy with it! There were a very few stories that concerned legends about Saint Nicholas or the Baboushka, but they were historical stories that I will feel very comfortable telling my children, “Listen to this old legend folks in Italy used to tell their children at Christmas.”

More Than Stories

Countdown to Christmas has a lot more than stories, though! Each day has carols, or quizzes, or riddles, or crafts, or recipes! I really liked that there was a recipe for a traditional pudding when there was a pudding story, because that is the first thing my guys would ask, “What is that like? Can we make some?” One day had traditional children’s games from the time period. I was intrigued; these were things I had heard about in my reading of period books, but I didn’t know what they were referring to. Again, my children will love this.  

The crafts ranged from the quite easy to the pretty difficult, so some will appeal to children of one age and others another. I liked that that there wasn’t too much to do any one day. Sometimes I hesitate to start something with my children because I know we won’t be able to keep it up, but Amy makes it very plain that you can pick and choose and substitute as you like. Altogether, there’s just a nice mixture of activities – active and quiet, crafts and games, paper activities and cooking. I think we’ll like it a lot and our family is looking forward to starting it December 1st!

I really like that it starts December 1st, too. Every year, I am so busy getting ready for Thanksgiving, that it’s not until Thanksgiving is over that I start thinking about Christmas. Well, by the time my attention turns that direction, I’m already late in starting many of the Advent programs. Arrgghh! Starting late is no way to reduce stress! Amy’s book lets us get done with Thanksgiving, then turn calmly to preparation for Christmas.

A Great Deal!

If, like me, you are excited to find something that’s not just fun, but enriches your children’s hearts and minds in the Advent season, I encourage you to head out to Amy Puetz’s website and order a copy right now! Amy says that if you order it by Wednesday, you can be sure to have it in time to start on the 1st! And… Amy has graciously offered us a discount code to get 20% off! You can use the discount code C2CAmy to get $5 off this terrific resource!

I want to be sure to mention, too, that Amy Puetz is a homeschool graduate herself and has tons of great resources at her site. As the mother of now two little girls in addition to my six growing men, I am completely intrigued by her Costumes with Character book and I’ll be doing a full review of it soon. If you have girls that want to dress up historically, check out this great concept! And a bonus! Amy said the C2CAmy discount code will work on this book, too!

Countdown to Christmas: Memory Making Stories & Activities for Every Day from December 1st to the 25th, Amy Puetz, A to Z Designs, 2010, 152 pages. Read a sample chapter here. Order from AmyPuetz.com.

We received a free copy of this book in exchange for our always honest review.

Hal and Melanie Young have six sons and two daughters—the six boys came first. Their children range from 2 years old to out of high school. They speak on parenting, educating your children and family policy issues among other subjects. You can read more about their ministry at RaisingRealMen.com.

Summary

Divided into two parts, the Young’s first offer biblical foundations for how they parent their boys (and, yes, sometimes even their girls). The introduction to part one looks at the virtues of being a man and how God intended for men to be, well, men. Chapter one is an apologetic for our boys having the right set of heroes to look up to. First and foremost must always be Jesus Christ, then dad. After that, you, as the parent must help your son to be discerning as to who they look up to.

Chapter two looks at the biblical foundations for a boys sense of adventure and boldness while chapter three offers tips on how to teach your sons to stand for something while learning how to be responsible. A helpful chapter is the chapter on boys and guns and what the Bible says about the subject.

This section concludes with chapters on what it means to be a servant leader and how to train your boys to be citizens with a proper understanding of their role as a citizen both here and in Heaven.

After having laid the biblical foundation for their parenting, Hal and Melanie offer practical tips on how to actually parent your sons. The first chapter in this section looks at how you should teach your boys diligently and without ceasing. The second chapter in this section looks to how to teach the boys to use money.

An extremely helpful chapter is the one entitled “Your Own School for Boys.” In this chapter, the authors detail major key differences in the development of boys when it comes to education. Basically, this chapter helps to keep parents from sounding the “freak out” alarm when little Johnny doesn’t learn as well as little Timmy.

In two practical chapters, they look at the misconception that chivalry is a thing of the past and that working in the kitchen is for women. No, you will not scar your boys for life if you make them work in the kitchen! They conclude the book with how to guard your son’s mind from the spiritual battles that will take place in their lives. The last chapter is the guide on how to set your boy free to become a man. Mom’s will definitely want to read this.

Review/Recommendation

The only real issue I had with anything in this book was their section on stewardship and how to teach your sons to use a credit card. They act as though a credit card is inevitable and therefore every child must be taught how to use one. I have not used a credit card in six years. I don’t plan on using a credit card ever again. Anything you can do with a credit card can now be done with a debit card.

Outside of that one issue (and it is really a non-issue), I highly recommend this book to any parent who has a son (or three). I cannot tell you how many times my wife and I, the parents of three boys so far, would say, “Man, I wish we knew someone with similar convictions as us that would allow us to pick their brain on raising our boys.” Well, we now have that brain to be picked.

Hal and Melanie write as though they are sitting at your kitchen table discussing what they have experienced in their 20 years of raising boys and offer their experience to you. They make it a point to declare that “this is what we do” and not that it is the only way to do it. They maintain a humility (boys will do that to you) throughout the whole book.

To read this book once is to plant many seeds in the mind of the parent. To own it and have it at your disposal is to have a watering can with an infinite amount of water to water that seed. This will be a book my wife and I reference again and again.

Terry Delaney

Christian Book Notes

Buy Raising Real Men Now

When I carried my baby son, Flash Boy, for the first time, the very first thing that I noticed about him were his hands. His hands were much larger than the hands of his baby sisters. Next I noticed that his arms were larger, so were his legs and feet. Oh! Even as babies, girls and boys are very different. The weeks after giving birth and on proved more differences. He was very, very active, turning around much earlier than his sisters. It’s as if he couldn’t wait to get moving around and exploring the world around him.

Having raised three girls, I thought my experience with them would be a big help with him. Most of it were but some of my mothering styles were not working with Flash Boy. I had so many questions because he was very different from his three sisters. Second daughter Artsy Princess is a very excitable child, but hubby and I always say, that Flash Boy is 100 times more excitable and active than Artsy Princess.

A lot of my questions about raising up boys have been answered in Raising Real Men – Surviving, Teaching and Appreciating Boys, a very handy book written by parents of six boys and two girls, Hal and Melanie Young. I cannot help but appreciate the way that Hal and Melanie shared their experiences in raising up their boys. Their methods are biblical, practical and full of love. As I read through the book, their love for God, for each other and for their children are fully evident. Some of the topics they spoke of are boys’ need for heroes, handling guns and violent weapons, work, leadership, sports and competition, teaching responsibility, teaching them at home, handling money and bullying.

When the writers first contacted me, they asked me to review and see if their book is applicable to Filipino families. I can say that this book is not only applicable to Filipinos, but it is applicable to each and every family who are raising up boys to become Godly men. Kudos to Hal and Melanie Young for writing this very delightful and insightful book!

Here’s a short anecdote about Flash Boy, now 2 years old. I learned from the Youngs that boys must be allowed to help around the house, that they should be trained early on to help their moms and sisters. One day, I came home from the market with a few bags of goods and a boxful of eggs. When Flash Boy saw me, he immediately came and wanted to help with the box of eggs. I didn’t want to give it to him but he was so insistent that I finally let him have it. He was so proud of himself carrying the box of eggs into the house. I was following closely behind him trying to make sure that he doesn’t drop it. When he saw our helper, he called her and said, “Catch!” and promptly threw the box at her. Both the helper and I screamed that the eggs would break. Seeing that the helper was not able to ‘catch’ the box, he picked it up again and said “Catch!” , once again throwing the box at her. Well, we ended up with half the eggs I bought all cracked open. But to see the value of Flash Boy being allowed to help, I’d gladly buy more boxes of eggs for him to help me carry!

Thanks to the authors, Hal and Melanie Young, for sending me an autographed and free copy of Raising Real Men – Surviving, Teaching and Appreciating Boys.

You can buy this book here.

Watch out for my blog interview with Hal and Melanie Young!

Michelle Padrelanan

Beyond the Silver and the Gold-

A Filipino Family’s Homeschool Journey