Are you feeling torn about Christmas? Loving the sights and smells, but hating the thought of the stress and commercialism? Want to make sure the Lord is glorified in your family, but wondering if you’ll get sidetracked by all the busy-ness?

You are in good company!

That’s why we’ve put together a new book that will:

Save you money on gifts — and help you give presents that will be remembered forever.

Help you make your house look like Williamsburg at Christmas — while spending almost nothing to do it!

Save you time by giving you menus, a shopping list and plans to fix the best Christmas goodies ever with tried and true secret recipes.

Inspire you to host a Caroling Party and take the gospel to your neighbors in a way they will love. And make it easy, too.

Encourage you to introduce new traditions that will focus your family’s hearts on home — and Christ!

Equip you to make this Christmas a Christ-centered one, full of happy memories for your children.

Just Released! Buy it now!

Christ-Centered Christmas

The Ultimate Guide to Celebrating a Christmas Your Family Will Never Forget

by Hal & Melanie Young

Authors of the CSPA 2011 Book of the Year, Raising Real Men

eBook download $15 Just $6 to celebrate the release! That’s 60% off!

Buy Christ-Centered Christmas now!

One of the most important things we did when we were a young couple was to establish our own family traditions. It helped us to realize that we were a family and it created bonds of memories that have strengthened our marriage and blessed our children over the years. Now the parents of eight children, some grown, we’re thankful we can share Christ-centered Christmas with you!

Praise for our holiday books:

“…a wonderful full color compilation of all kinds of important things about having a “family Christmas celebration.” Things like: recipes, gift ideas, traditions, ornaments, caroling, decorating, history and menu planning. Once again (like their Thanksgiving ebook, you can read my review HERE) this is a wonderful resource to prepare your hearts and minds for the TRUE meaning of CHRISTmas.” Dawn Winter of Guiding Light Homeschool

“This is one resource that you will want to keep handy to use year after year. Having all this information in one book will make your ongoing teaching and training of how to celebrate Thanksgiving easier than you ever thought possible.”        Phyllis Sather

“History, Real LIFE, Yummy Food and a great way to celebrate as a family – what more could you ask for?  This is simply beautiful! Your Becoming a Great Cook section is wonderful for me – but even more so for my girls! I can’t wait to print this out and put it in their Home Economics/Cookbook Binder. A family treasure for sure!” – Lynn McInnis of This Day Has Great Potential, about We Gather Together

Download this gorgeous 80 page, full color book now for $15 our introductory price of $6!!
An email will be sent to you with a link for any downloadable items. Thank you for your business!

Raising Real Men has been named Christian Small Publishers 2011 Book of the Year!!

We can hardly believe it ourselves, but it’s true! Won’t you come celebrate with us at our first ever Facebook Party tonight at 8pm EST?

All you have to do is go to the Raising Real Men Facebook Page, login to Facebook, “Like” the page, and join the fun!

Hal and Melanie will be there the whole time to answer your questions and enjoy your fellowship and so will quite a few special guests we’ve invited!

We’ve also got some party favors (freebies) planned, and a whole host of giveaways! Including items from:

• Daniel Forster of Doorposts is going to let a winner have Their Choice of any one book in their For Boys Section!
• Joe & Teresa Wirtz of Lighthouse Productions (formerly Home 4 School Gear) is giving away a Petri Dish & Agar Experiment Kit and a boss Owl Pellet Kit!
• Joan Rudder of Visual Psalms is offering one of their gorgeous prints!
• Candace Allgood of SONbeams is donating a copy of both The Get It All package of their Let’s Learn preschool curriculum and ABC Bible Memory Verse Songs in the download forms. Wow!
• Diane Hurst of Gentle Shepherd is giving away four copies of My Alphabet and Number Pictures!
• Chautona Havig is giving away a complete set of her Wynnewood series of novels set in Medieval England!
• Felice Gerwitz of Media Angels is giving away a complete set of the Truth Seekers mystery novels!
• Nancy Sasser of Savory Favors is going to customize five free Hershey’s bars for a blessed winner! 
• Catherine Jaime of Creative Learning Connection is donating a copy of York Proceeded On and Leonardo the Florentine! See our review of York here and Leonardo here.
• Kate Estes of Hands and Hearts is donating a 25% gift certificate to her wonderful store of history kits and more! And check out the party favor below!
• Lisa Hogden of Me and My House Ministries is giving away a Freedom & Simplicity of Lifestyle Education through Discipleship (Biblical home ed) Seminar (downloadable OR LIVE, if they want to come to North Platte, NE on the 28th!) And see the Party Favor below!
• Marie Rippel of All About Spelling will give away a complete “All About Spelling Level 1″ plus a Deluxe Interactive Kit. This is everything that you need to teach Level 1 of their spelling program. This is a $79.90 value!
• Sybil Lane of Baby Signs will donate a Baby Signs Complete Starter Kit! And see below for their favor!
• Anita Mellot is going to giveaway a copy of her soon-to-be-released new devotional book, School Is Where the Home Is: 180 Devotions for Parents
• Chris of Teach with Games is giving away three sets of Printable Games!
• Brooke McGlothlin is giving away a copy of her great new book Warrior Prayers: Praying the Word for Boys in the Areas They Need it Most
• Dan & Deb Deffinbaugh of Timberdoodle are donating a copy of Naked Eggs and Flying Potatoes: Unforgettable Experiments that Make Science Fun!
• Terri Johnson of Knowledge Quest is giving away a copy of Map Trek! We loved this resource!

And wow! Harvey & Laurie Bluedorn of Trivium Pursuit are offering us a wonderful collection of their fantastic resources! Highly recommended stuff here!

• 4 copies of Teaching the Trivium: Christian Homeschooling in a Classical Style by Harvey and Laurie Bluedorn On Sale this Week!
• 4 copies of The Fallacy Detective by Nathaniel Bluedorn and Hans Bluedorn – Our guys loved this!
• 4 copies of The Thinking Toolbox by Nathaniel Bluedorn and Hans Bluedorn
• 4 copies of Bless the Lord by Johannah Bluedorn Stanford

Why don’t you head over to their Teaching with the Trivium Facebook Page and “Like” it as a thank you?

Party Favors

Everyone who gets there before they run out gets the Party Favors! Show up at our Facebook Page at 8-10pm to get these treats!

Kim Kautzer of WriteShop is joining the celebration by offering 50 World of Sports StoryBuilders for just $1 ($7.95 value) tonight for 1 hr ONLY (8-9 pm EDT) for the first fifty attendees of our Facebook Party to sign up!

Kate Estes of Hands and Hearts is giving everyone who attends a 15% off coupon!! How wonderful!!

Lisa Hogden of Me and My House Ministries is giving us ALL her Freedom & Simplicity™ for Homeschool Conventions (ebook). Good through this weekend (May 15th!)

Sybil Lane of Baby Signs will offer a 15% discount to Party goers!

Laurie Neumann of the Christian Home Business Connection is giving away a copy of Lessons from the Proverbs 31 Woman for Homeschoolers to everyone!

We are going to offer a wonderful discount on our summer LIVE webinar series for parents wanting to get geared up for the teen years – BootCamp 9-12! You’ll have to come to the party to see how much!

Keep checking back for more!

Dear Friends,

We have been nominated for the Christian Small Publisher Book of the Year, which honors books produced by small publishers each year for outstanding contribution to Christian life. The really exciting part is that this award allows everyone to vote – publishers, retailers, authors, and yes, readers, too!  This is the last week that voting is allowed, so we are going to be celebrating – and asking you to vote – until March 31st. Stay tuned for great give-aways and freebies every day this week.

We were delighted that our son could enjoy the same books his brothers had and grow up with the same heroes, but also that he was able to learn to understand complex language. That helped so much when his reading caught up! He jumped right to reading on grade level!

We discovered another benefit, though. We all loved listening to the Hentys as we were working or driving. They are stories that are just bound to grab your attention!

But why Jim Hodges when there are several folks doing the same thing? Well, we first chose Jim Hodges because all his books are unabridged! We wanted our boys to hear the whole thing – all about the geographic location, the historical setting, and the terrific language - and not to hear some simplified version  that would miss some of the greatness. Also, Jim has a pleasant voice and loves the books himself – makes a difference, that’s the same reason why Hal read Raising Real Men for our audiobook – interpretation counts. I’d choose Jim Hodges now for even more reasons. When we were first starting out, Jim took the time and trouble to help us. He recommended us to his own newsletter list. He gave us advice and counsel on our audiobook. He’s been a real friend to our ministry. Buy from Jim!

A Give-Away!

Jim Hodges is going to give five blessed winners each a G.A. Henty audiobook of their choice! I wish we could compete! So how do you win?

First, go cast your ballot for the Book of the Year. Click here, then scroll down to NONFICTION – RELATIONSHIPS / FAMILY, where we sure hope you will vote for Raising Real Men! Be sure to hit the “Submit Votes” button at the bottom! If you’ve already voted, keep reading…

Then, head over to sign up for Jim Hodge’s newsletter. You ought to, anyway, he has great resources and terrific deals. Click here, and sign up on the lower left!

There, you are entered! Keep an eye out for more giveaways and freebies this week. Oh, and if you have time, what are your favorite books for boys?

I think more and more people are discovering that a lot of that storm and stress is cultural. There’s no question that teenagers have different needs than their younger siblings: they’re going through physical changes that affect their emotions, they are yearning for independence long before their judgement matures, and unfortunately, our culture expects them to sit still and wait another decade or so before they become “useful members of society.” Some teenagers decide they’ve had enough of jumping through hoops to gain “credibility”, and just check out of the process. Psychologists Joseph and Claudia Allen, in their new book Escaping the Endless Adolescence, saying that “Twenty-five is the new fifteen,” observing that some of our college graduates act with the level of confusion and irresponsibility we used to associate with young teens!

But we’ve found that it doesn’t have to be that way. If you adopt the view that teenagers are just the youngest of young adults, and start to work with them on that basis, incredible things happen. We’ve seen in our own family and those nearby that teenagers are capable of all kinds of things. Just in our own business, we rely on teenagers to set up and maintain our websites and computer net, to do typesetting and graphic design, produce videos and CDs, and handle packing and shipping orders. Some of these are skills that no one but the teenagers have! And they run errands, watch siblings, and do much of the cooking, too. When they see that there is a real place for their real contributions, they rise to the occasion. Often, it just takes some understanding and wisdom on the part of their doorkeepers — us!

Today’s freebie is from Homeschool Group Leader.com, and they really get it. 18 Ways to Get Teenagers Onboard and Interactive by Kristen Fagala and Denise Hyde is a quick guide full of ideas that will work in your own family as well as support groups and church ministries. Why let all that energy and enthusiasm languish when you can guide it to productive use? As Kristen and Denise write,

Teen zeal can energize like nothing else. Teen apathy can discourage like nothing else. The desire to help teens rise above the threatening whirlpools of detachment, disinterest or dispassion to be all that God has called them to be is what motivates many parents and leaders of youth to get involved and seek answers. We pray that these 18 ideas for motivating your teen(s) to get onboard and become interactive with your group will keep you motivated, too.

This is a great resource, and it’s available for free right here!

Maybe you’re looking for a curriculum that is specifically aimed at your teenaged sons.  Have you considered Blessed Is The Man?  This is a high school unit study curriculum by Lynda and Lauren Coats is structured on the lessons of Psalm 1, verse by verse.  It’s designed to train young men for leadership in the family, community, and church, emphasizing the development of Godly character as well as academic skills.  It includes vocational and business units as well as most college-prep courses; you add the higher math and addition science, if desired. This is a $74.95 value and we’re going to give it to someone who is subscribed to our newsletter or signed up on our Facebook fan page.  If you’re on both, you get two chances!

If you can read this, obviously you’re “computer literate,” but you might not be able to explain the finer points of Microsoft Excel to your high schooler, or help your student debug an HTML problem on their blog. Maybe you’re looking for a good, structured curriculum to help them get started and develop the basic skills that change them from just a “user” to someone who really understands how their computers work. Maybe you’d like more skills yourself! Phyllis Wheeler of Motherboard Books has what you need, and she gets you started with an audio session called “What Homeschool Mothers Really Need To Know About Computers”. To help us celebrate the release of Raising Real Men, she’s offering this as a free download! Plus, just for fun, she’s also giving away her Internet Scavenger Hunt, a $10 value, to introduce your kids to interesting facts on animals and geography while searching safely.

Click here to download both freebies!

Really understanding your computer is more than being able to use email and Facebook, and really understanding writing is more than just forming words and sentences, isn’t it? We all expect our kids to be able to read and spell, but what we really want is kids who can express their thoughts clearly and convincingly in writing. Kim Kautzer has a curriculum to do just that – WriteShop is a full K-12 program, with all kinds of helps to inspire successful writers, showing them how to create everything from simple stories to persuasive essays. She even tells you how to write and publish children’s books!  WriteShop’s step-by-step approach lets you teach with confidence, so your children learn to write with confidence.

For one of those who comment on this post, Kim is giving away your choice of WriteShop Primary Teacher’s Guide w/Activity Set Worksheet Pack – w0rth up to $37.90!  Plus we’ll give extra entries for posting on Facebook, Twitter, your blog or other places – help us get the word out that Raising Real Men is officially released tomorrow!

But WriteShop has so much to offer, Kim is also giving away a $35 gift certificate, so you can pick the level and the focus you need!  We’ll give this prize to one of our Facebook fans. If you haven’t joined Facebook yet, give it try – there are all kinds of interesting things happening, not to mention our own rapidly growing “Raising Real Men” community!

(While you’re there, why not join WriteShop’s fan page, too!)

Hal

We long for our children to serve Christ. We want them to share their hearts with us and to follow us as we follow Christ. We believe that building unity in our family will help us accomplish that. As our boys identify with our family and build happy memories, that the ties which bind them to us, we hope will go through us to the Lord. One of our workshop CDs shares a whole hour’s worth of ideas that you can do to have A House NOT Divided: Building Unity in the Family.

Our friend, Felice Gerwitz, at Media Angels will soon be releasing a new book that sounds like a great resource, too.  She’s sending me a copy to review and I can’t wait to read it!

Written by mother-daughter team, Paula Stevenson and Sky Stevenson McNeill, Secret Code Time: Creating an Unbreakable Bond Between Mother and Child sounds great! Here’s what Media Angels says about it:

Do you sit at the side of a crib and wonder what your relationship with your child will be in years to come? Do you wonder what it will be like; will you have a communication relationship that has no boundaries? Or have the years slipped by too quickly, and you now feel like there is an impenetrable wall that goes up anytime you try to talk to your child?

Join this mother-daughter team as they recount hilarious antics and reminisce about heartfelt moments that forged an unbreakable bond that would last a lifetime.  Come along on their journey, as they take you step by step in how to build a bridge of communication with your children from an early age and how to mend and restore a broken parent-child relationship.

Want a sneak preview? Today’s freebie is the Secret Code Time Relationship Checklist. Click here to download the checklist and do a check up on your relationship with your children!

Want to read it before anybody else? I am very excited to announce that Felice Gerwitz of Media Angels, the publisher of Secret Code Time has agreed to let us give away two prepublication copies of Secret Code Time! That’s right – you can get a copies before it is even published – just like the big magazine reviewers do!

One copy will be given to someone who comments on this post. I’d love to hear what special things you do as a family to build unity with your children. And as always, you get extra entries for posting about this contest or Raising Real Men on your blog, email loop, forum, Facebook page, Twitter, anywhere on the web you like! I can tell you guys are spreading the word and we appreciate it more than you can know!

A second copy will be given to someone who twitters mentioning @raisingrealmen! Follow us on Twitter

I apologize for not posting these sooner, but we’ve been swamped with Katie’s heart test at Duke and the children getting the stomach flu. We are so grateful for your prayers!  Here are the winners from Saturday, Monday and Tuesday’s contests:

Beyond Numbers: A Practical Guide to Teaching Math Biblically by Katherine Loop from Christian Perspective:

Congratulations to: Randy K and Bonnie (I don’t have an email, Bonnie! Send me a note!)!

Hands and Hearts History Kit of Your Choice from Hands and Hearts:

Congratulations to Gaines Family and Rachel S!

Beeyoutiful Family Vitamins Gift Pack from Values-Driven Family:

Congratulations to Paula!

And congratulations to Joy Ellis, to whom we are giving a special gift! Joy has blessed us incredibly by spreading the word about Raising Real Men and our celebration! Thanks, Joy!

Don’t forget the Estes’ Super Sale! And we’d love to continue the conversation with you on Facebook (fan us on the righthand side of this page) and our newsletter (sign up there, too!)

And Happy Birthday to John Calvin, our eldest son, without which we’d be drowning in a byte-mine!

Hal & Melanie

I grew up in an entrepreneurial family and I have to confess that when we were first married, I thought it was great that Hal went to work and then came home and was done. Over the years, though, life as an employee changed: more hours, less security, less freedom. We also grew to need more time and flexibility for ministry. Working together as a family like we did growing up looked more and more attractive, until finally a layoff gave us the extra push we needed to strike out on our own.

We have come to realize that we want to cultivate an entrepreneurial spirit in our children. It would have been much easier to start a business when it was just us and fewer expenses, so we want our guys to have the courage and skills to be business men from the beginning if that’s what God wants them to do. And not just that, but the strengths of an entrepreneurial spirit: reasonable risk taking, hard work, creativity, discernment, and initiative are very valuable in most careers.

Raising Real Men talks about how to instill that spirit in your boys and how to teach them to manage money, avoid debt, and prepare for the future.  Today’s resource will help you put it into practice raising boys!

Teaching Good Things is hosting today’s free giveaway and it is huge!

Teaching Good Things. is all about equipping families with practical skills. I had the opportunity to look through their Making and Managing Money for Teens by Olivia Brodock the other day. Talk about practical! It had tons of ideas for businesses that teens and preteens could get started. I loved that it talked about how to get started, the cost of start-up, and what was involved in running each kind of business. It is a solid, practical way to get your children thinking, then working toward starting a micro-business of their own. That micro-business may even be God’s leading toward a career. I think about a relative of mine who started a web business as a teen and is now the CEO of an industry leader in the same field.

Unbelievably, Teaching Good Things has offered fans of Raising Real Men a free copy of Making and Managing Money for Teens! This eBook costs $16.97, but she is giving it to you free to celebrate our release! What a blessing! Thank you, Brodock family!

Go to Teaching Good Things and Get Your Free Copy of Making and Managing Money for Teens!

When you get to the cart, enter the code (it’ll be on the link above), hit update, then enter your zip code and hit update. While you are there, sign up for their newsletter to get a free 7 part mini-course called Encouraging Eager Hands! They have lots of great resources and a fascinating blog. Enjoy!

You aren’t going to believe today’s contest provided by Values-Driven Family! A $93 value!

Values-Driven Family, the ministry of Marc and Cindy Carrier, is all about raising our children according to the principles and values found in Scripture. Their site is chockful of free articles and help to raise a godly seed. The Carriers have generously donated a Gift Pack of premium quality Beeyoutiful vitamins for our contest. The Gift Pack, worth $93 dollars contains a three month supply of SuperDad vitamins, a three month supply of SuperMom vitamins, and a bottle of SuperKids vitamins (how long it lasts depends on how many children you have!)! We have started using these vitamins ourselves and are so thankful for them – and our children love the natural berry taste! And Values-Driven Family gives you a 15% discount off purchases of Beeyoutiful products, too. Thank you, Marc and Cindy!

While you are at the Values-Driven Family site, be sure to sign up for their newsletter. I was totally amazed at the freebies they give you when you sign up! I tend to be a little jaded – we’ve been parents and homeschoolers for decades and I have more things than I will ever use, but wow! I saw quite a few things I can’t wait to download. They have charts for a daily schedule and chores and behavior, memory verse and values posters, and tons of download freebies from other publishers!

How can you enter? The winner of this huge prize will be chosen exclusively from those who help us spread the word about Raising Real Men. Just post about our book, Raising Real Men, or this Celebration anywhere on the web (blogs, forums, email loops, Twitter, Facebook, Digg, anywhere, with a link back to http://raisingrealmen.com and let us know in the comments. Every posting is an entry.

We are hearing from all over the world (Singapore to The Netherlands!) that Raising Real Men is changing parents’ hearts toward their boys. That is our hope! We don’t have the huge advertising budget that many publishers do. You are our team. Your recommendation is the best marketing we could have, anyway!

Sign up for our newsletter (new subscribers this month will be entered to win a $70 collection of workshop CDs) and fan our Facebook page to join the conversation!

Caleb knocked him flat! He knew the battle from house to cornfield. He had stood there behind the Stonewall Jackson statue and yelled, like General Bee, “There stands Jackson like a Stonewall! Rally behind the Virginians!” He’d never forget it.  Likewise, the children had heard Booker T. Washington describe the sacrificial love of his older brother in wearing his painfully prickly new shirt until it was softer in Up from Slavery before they visited the Booker T. Washington National Monument and they studied with great interest where it all happened. Hands-on, hearts-on history doesn’t just stay with them, it changes them.  Especially boys. Boys love verbs. They love to do, to be. They draw verbs, they live history, they aim to be their heroes. That’s the kind of thing we talk about in Raising Real Men – please read a sample chapter while you are here and we’d love for you to buy a  copy!

It’s very fitting that today’s party celebrating the Official Release of Raising Real Men is brought to you by our friends at Hands and Hearts

You know, so often, I intend to do hands-on things with our children – I know it really makes the learning not just fun, but memorable, but life intervenes and I never seem to have on hand the things I need. It’s frustrating! Hands and Hearts: Hands on Homeschooling that Touches the Heart has loads of resources that make teaching easy. They have books, kits, games and all sorts of things especially relevant to those teaching with a classical, Charlotte Mason or notebooking style. It’s the History Kits that really caught my eye, though. Wow. The activities were extremely well-balanced: fun and profitable, things boys will love and things girls will love. And lots of it. And complete – no “just pick up these 12 items” that so many “kits” have.

Today’s freebie is 15% off anything at Hands and Hearts! What a deal!

Just enter the code realmen in your shopping cart for 15% off your entire purchase until February 28th in this awesome store!! I’m going to ask you not to share this code around the net, but you are entirely welcome (encouraged) to post about it and direct them back here to get it!

Jeff and Kate Estes, the owners of Hands and Hearts, are the real deal, that’s why it didn’t surprise me when they were so generous with us (wait til you hear about the contest!). When Katie, our baby, had wracked up thousands of dollars of medical bills and I was feeling frantic, Kate spent hours on the phone with me helping me to figure out how to manage. They have a lot of experience, because their incredibly cute 3yo, Noah has a fatal disease. I know, I know, I just posted a pic of him the other day, but I can’t resist – he is soooo cute. In the midst of that, Jeff lost his job, then the CPSIA regulation boondoggle nearly caused them to close down Hands and Hearts. They are on the verge of losing everything and here they are worried about our book release and giving us stuff to help celebrate. That’s the kind of folks they are.

We have two awesome Hands and Hearts History Kits to give away – your choice! They are worth up to $60 each!!!

Here’s what they say about them: Does hands-on history cause you heartache?   How many times have you purchased a wonderful-looking history curriculum or activity guide, only to find yourself defeated by supplies that were expensive, hard-to-find, or just plain burdensome?  Let Hands and Hearts History Discovery Kits do the hard work.  Each kit combines interesting, significant hands-on art, language, math, science, and cultural projects with our exclusive Bible Truths Memory Cards and ready-to-use notebook pages.  Best of all, absolutely everything you need to do the projects is right in the box!

One winner will be chosen from among those that comment on this post. You get extra entries every time you post about the Celebration, Raising Real Men, or the Estes Homeschool Deal (I’m about to tell you about it!) on the web or on your social media. Just tell us about it (a link would be great!) in the comments.

One winner will be chosen from among our newsletter subscribers. Sign up to get news, tips, and encouragement on raising godly boys in the toolbar on your right. And why not fan our Facebook page while you are at it? I think you’ll enjoy the conversation!

These kits look like so much fun, my children were horribly disappointed to here they weren’t allowed to enter the contest   We’ll choose a winner Tuesday morning!

What’s this about the Estes’ great homeschool deal?

This is how well-regarded Jeff & Kate Estes are: When we all heard what a difficult time they were having, the Christian publishing community rallied round them and gave them tons of valuable homeschool and family products to help them raise money. 100% of the money raised goes to take care of this precious family, not one cent goes to any of the publishers! That means that if you jump up and “bear one another’s burdens” that you will receive over $339 of products for just $39. That’s like multiplying your money by a factor of nearly 10 times. Plus, all donors will be entered in a contest to win one of five prize packages. Two of them are worth over $849: real, not virtual merchandise from some of the most popular publishers in the homeschool market – including us! Wow! It’s not often you can do something to give to someone else and bless yourself so much, too. Won’t you step up and help? I’d appreciate it! Just click here to see for yourself.

“Just received the book over the weekend. By page 2 1/2 of the introduction I knew I had to read the entire book. By page 23 I was crying. So far, every paragraph begs for the next one to be read. And I don’t even have boys. God has blessed me with three girls.”  Ken Porter

“I’m hanging on to every morsel of this read, and finding it difficult to imagine that so many books have been published without scratching the surface that the Youngs do. So much practicality & truth packed into a easy-to-read format!” Angela Wheeler

Today’s freebie is hosted by Kap and Pen Publications.

The owner, Gail Kappenman is a gracious lady that puts ministry first in her business. She is offering us TWO freebies today!

These are difficult times. I know they are for our family! That’s one of the things we are really praising God for in bringing our book out now. With Hal’s cancer, the doctor said he would be able to work a half day at most and he would be unable to do the international engineering consulting that brings in a lot of our income at all. What a blessing that the Lord led us to write Raising Real Men now! Only He could have known that we would need this income now. He is so good!

“It shall come to pass that before they call, I will answer; and while they are still speaking, I will hear.  Isaiah 65:24

Ever since we lived in Louisiana and learned about Tony Chachere’s Creole Seasoning (Yes, you can get it at Wal-Mart , beans and rice have been the mainstay of our hard times cuisine. Well, Gail tells us that we can do even better:

In this eBook, Gail Kappenman shares quick and easy recipes that will help us save money on our grocery bills. She even includes the cost per person (usually well under $1). It’s a $2.95 value and you get it free.

Hang on a second, though, because Gail is offering us another of her $2.95 eBooks free, too! She has a very interesting sounding title telling how to plan those treasure hunts that churches and clubs do. It sounds like a lot of fun and I’m going to download a copy for my teens, it sounds like something they like might like to plan. Just email Kap & Pen at orders@kapandpen.com and grab these freebies.

I hope you’ll go check out their other products, too, though. I want a copy of their Bible Journal for myself! Parents of boys ought to consider The Young Man’s Handybook, especially. Written by Gail Kappenman and Martha Greene (MarmeeDear to many of us), it has cooking and kitchen help for boys as well as fishing, hunting, building, first aid and more. I have to confess, when I first glanced through it, I thought, “I don’t know…” mainly because they use silhouette illustrations of Victorian-looking boys like we ladies like so much. I wondered what the boys would think, so I handed it to my very manly 12 year old – the all-guy, outdoorsman one. Well, guess I was wrong. He loved it!  When I was looking for it the other day, I said, “Hey, does anybody know where The Young Man’s Handybook is?” He jumped up, “You mean that book that tells how to build a log cabin? Of course, I know where it is!” And that is probably the best endorsement I can give it.

Christian Perspective is graciously providing today’s contest prizes:

Beyond Numbers a Practical Guide to Teaching Math Biblically, by Katherine Loop, a homeschool graduate. This looks fascinating to me! I read James Nickel’s Mathematics: Is God Silent and was amazed by how much of the Lord’s character can be seen in math. I wondered at the time, though if someone who didn’t have the math background I do would be able to understand it. Katherine has stepped into that gap. James Nickels said that Beyond Numbers was “A great, general-purpose introduction for a typical parent.” Katherine is offering us two hard copies to give away with a value of $8.99!

BTW, Christian Perspective has a free monthly newsletter with a short story with a message, a homeschool tip, and more. Check out the archives and sign up on their site!

How can you win? One winner will be chosen from among Raising Real Men’s Facebook fans. To join our Facebook page, just click “Become a Fan” in the right sidebar or click on any Facebook in this paragraph

Another winner will be chosen from those who comment on this post. You can get extra entries by posting about this contest or Raising Real Men, on your Facebook wall, blog, forum, email loop, or Twitter and linking back here. Just put a link or cut & paste your post into a comment. Thanks so much for spreading the word for us – it’s a blessing to us!

We’ll announce the winner on Monday. We’ll be taking tomorrow off to worship. Have a lovely Sunday!

And, drumroll please, I’d like to announce the winners of yesterday’s contest to win one of two ABC Bible Memory Verse Songs: Lindsey Hoy, from the comment section, and Hannah Crouch, one of our Facebook fans. Congratulations!  Also, I just checked and dear Candace at SonBeams has left the link live for us and you can still grab yesterday’s freebie. Thank you, Sonbeams!

We’re having a party to celebrate and you are invited!

Every day from now until then, we’ll have a giveaway – that’s right, something everyone can have for free! – and a contest with fantastic resources and prizes provided by our fellow Christian publishers who want Raising Real Men to take off with a bang! We have resources for preschoolers, elementary age students, teens and parents coming. Don’t forget to check back every day in the next week or you’ll miss a treat! Why not sign up for an RSS feed, so you don’t miss a thing? Just click here. We hope you’ll check out our friends who are sponsoring this celebration with gifts up to $93 in value!!!:

Sonbeams, Hands and Hearts, WriteShop, Values Driven Family, Christian Perspective, Kap and Pen Publications, Teaching Good Things, Motherboard Books, Homeschool Group Leader, Media Angels and Lynda Coats Unit Study Emporium!

Today’s party is hosted by Sonbeams: Raising Up SON-Beams for Him!

I’m really excited about introducing you to Sonbeams! You may know that we have eight children who range in age from adult to infancy. I find I get a little lazy about resources for the little guys – after all, we have so many things from when the big guys were little, I forget I need to keep an eye out for new and better things. I was happy when Candace of Sonbeams contacted me about sponsoring our celebration. She sent me a download of her ABC Bible Memory Verse Songs

I loved them! It’s a collection of 26 Bible verses set to really sweet, happy songs. What a fantastic way to hide the Word of God in our children’s hearts. Years ago, we had a CD that had a few Bible memory songs on it and we still – probably 15 years later think of them whenever we hear a reference to those verses. This is the easiest way to memorize Scripture I’ve ever found. It’s child-friendly, too, as the songs are sung by children. I think this is a great addition to any family with young children.

There are several great options on the Sonbeams site: you can download the songs, or buy a CD, or buy a CD, teacher’s guide, even music. Check it out!

I am thrilled to tell you that Sonbeams has offered to give you a download of one of their songs free! They let us decide which one and we chose “C – Children Obey Your Parents in the Lord, for This is Right.” We all want our children to know that verse, right? LOL! I think you’ll love it. Please note that if you want to get their newsletter, and I hope you do, you’ll have to sign up separately as Candace wanted this gift to be completely free of obligation!

Download your gift from Sonbeams here.

That’s not all! Sonbeams is also sponsoring a contest for us!

They have given us two ABC  Bible Memory Verse Songs CDs to give away! They’re worth $13.95 each!

Here’s how we’ll choose the winners:

One winner will be chosen from among fans of Raising Real Men‘s Facebook page. Just head over there to fan us and you’ll be entered, or just click “Become a Fan” in the side bar on your right!

Another winner will be chosen from those who comment on this post. Leave a comment with a tip or a question about raising young boys (since today’s resource is for younger children) for Christ!

Want more entries? Just post about this week’s celebration or this contest or Raising Real Men with a link back here on your Facebook wall, your blog, an email loop, forum or Twitter. Then post a comment with the link or you can cut and paste your post if you post somewhere private.

We’d love for you to help us out by doing this because we really want to spread the word about Raising Real Men. We are getting so many letters from parents who have had their hearts changed toward their boys because of this book. Just this morning I was talking to a mother who had given the book to a friend who had an older daughter who was calm and quiet, then adopted a little boy. She was so relieved to find out that he was a normal boy and she had a renewed vision of how to raise him to be a real, godly man.  Why not read a chapter or order a copy while you are here?

We’re signing copies you order from this website, plus you get our study guide, free shipping and the first Sugar Creek Gang audio book as free bonuses! Just click here!

Don’t forget to come back for tomorrow’s freebie and contest! We’ll announce a winner tomorrow, too!