The kids and I just finished reading Pirates Past Noon, of the Magic Tree House series by Mary Pope Osborne. I remembered that someone had told me about something fun on the Magic Tree House website, so I looked it up. There is a Magic Tree House Passport that you can download and print. After reading a book, your child can answer a few questions about the book, then print out a stamp to put in the passport. If you are familiar with the series, you know that the books take Jack and Annie on adventures all over the world and throughout time. Jacob enjoys these books, and I think he will really like this little reward activity after each book. You can find the Magic Tree House passport here.

My parents and grandparents gave Skylar some money for her birthday and told her to go shopping for some new clothes. Soon after her birthday we made the shopping trip! She already loves to shop, so we had fun and got some cute clothes at Target and Kohl’s. She bought 2 complete outfits and one pair of jeans. She carried her purse with her money in it and paid for everything herself. Here she is with her new stuff:

PBS has a new show called “Dinosaur Train” that was on this morning. Anytime there is a new show, I pay close attention to see if it is appropriate for the kids to watch or not. The show this morning gave us things to talk about, but we will not be watching it again.

From the PBS website: “Dinosaur Train embraces and celebrates the fascination that preschoolers have with both dinosaurs and trains. The series encourages basic scientific thinking and skills as the audience learns about life science, natural history and paleontology. Each of the 40 half-hour episodes features Buddy, an adorable preschool age Tyrannosaurus Rex, and his adoptive Pteranodon family as they board the Dinosaur Train and embark on whimsical voyages through prehistoric jungles, swamps, volcanoes and oceans. The episodes include two 11-minute animated stories, along with brief live action segments hosted by renowned paleontologist Dr. Scott Sampson, that unearth basic concepts in life science, natural history and paleontology.”

The “basic concepts” include the Triassic, Jurassic, and Cretaceous periods and “cool facts” that clearly teach the theory of general evolution and an ancient earth. If you believe the Biblical account of creation as I do, this show is not what you want your children to be watching. It is designed for 3 -6 year-olds; the scientific community that holds to the theory of general evolution would love to get all of our kids filled with their ideas at a young age. Parents, we have to pay attention to what our kids see and hear and teach them the truth!

If your kids like dinosaurs, as mine do, find ways for them to learn about dinosaurs in the context of what the Bible teaches. Don’t be fooled into believing that all scientists believe in general evolution. There are plenty of well educated scientists who believe in creation and a young earth. The book Dinosaurs By Design by Duane T. Gish, Ph.D, is an excellent resource for kids who want to learn about dinosaurs from a creation science point of view. I also recommend the Apologetics Press Dinosaur Coloring Book, which contains a lot of good information about dinosaurs. We have both of these books, and my children and I have learned a lot from them.

Here are just a few links you’ll enjoy checking out:

From Heart to Heart with Diane, you must learn about this natural sting remedy in her post “Sting Magic”! I am also ready to try eggplant after reading her recent post “Elegant Eggplant.”

More food ideas:

“Making Homemade Chocolate Chips” from Heavenly Homemakers

“Recipe for Candy Bar Brownies” from Chica and Jo

And make sure you visit Stephanie at Adventures in Babywearing for 15 days of giveaways!

Have a great week everyone!

My Entertainment Book came in the mail recently! We get one of these each year because they save a lot of money, especially if you eat out very often. There are coupons for restaurants, golf courses, sporting events, and lots of other stores and shows. Most of the coupons are “buy one get one free.” The Entertainment Books are different for different areas, so there are even coupons for local businesses. Once you own and register a book, you can even check their website for other deals and coupons. I definitely recommend ordering an Entertainment book if you haven’t already!