So today is Day 2 of the Ultimate Blog Challenge for April along with the Blogging A to Z challenge. The letter of the day is “B”, which for me is for babies, Bibles and books. We have four children who are 18, 16, 14 and 12 respectively right now. While I miss them being babies to a certain extent, I enjoy seeing the people they are becoming. Three of our children are boys and they truly are a handful. Our youngest is our only girl and she is quite the princess. My boys keep life interesting and one never knows what might be discussed when we sit down to meals or what they will attempt to do.
Bibles play a critical role in our family. My husband became an ordained minister the same year we were married. So we have worked to bring up our children in the word of God. As we search for homeschooling materials, Biblical companies are the main one we use. It is important to us to have a Biblical worldview and for our children to back up what they believe with Scripture references. So we have quite the collection of Bibles, concordances, Biblical commentaries and dictionaries around our home.
The other thing our home is full of is books. I grew up believing that books were my best friend. I was never bored or lacked things to do because I always had books to read. I have tried to instill the same love of reading in my children. They have not all grabbed hold of the idea as I would wish, but we are still working on it. It is fun when we prepare for a move to see all the books loaded into boxes. We have Biblical books, Language Arts and Literature books, books on writing, books for Math, books for Science, books for History and books for the Arts. On top of those books, we have books on homeschooling, books to read for pleasure and various other books. Each member of the family has at least one bookcase in their room. Plus we have other bookcases scattered around the house. Books make homeschooling much easier. Even if I never bought any more curriculum for our children, I could homeschool from the books we have. With seven people living in our home the books really add up.
“B” is also for blogging and Bible Journaling. I started blogging as a way of keeping our extended family aware of what was going on in our lives along with providing a record for our children. Writing makes things more real somehow and easier to remember. Utilizing photographs helps keep those memories as well.
Bible Journaling has become a new pastime for me. I especially love getting on Pinterest and Facebook to see what others are creating. Here is a sample of one of works.
So what does the letter “B” represent or bring to mind for you and your family? I welcome comments!
Truth and Grace Homeschool Academy 
Love the A-Z writing challenge 🙂 We have a lot of books in our home too, 7 people here too and the bookshelves are overflowing. The smell of them, the feel of them in your hand, sigh, it’s my happy place 🙂
Popping over from the blogging homeschoolers group,
Rebecca @ http://www.hiphomeschoolingblog.com
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Thanks for stopping by Rebecca. I know what you mean about books! I just love them and can’t have enough of them.
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I came across your blog through the UBC. You have picked very interesting and very important areas for “B”. Having a separate bookshelf in every room, that must be so exciting. I love reading and obviously books. 🙂 I too wish to instill the same love of books in my daughter. Thanks for sharing !
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Welcome! Thanks for stopping by! Our bookshelves are not necessarily expensive ones. In fact I have two different ones that my husband actually built for me. Almost all the rest of them were purchased from Ikea. Quite a few of them, we were able to purchase on sale which really helps. I pray you are able to instill a love of reading in your daughter.
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B is for Bingz’ my nickname heh. I love books too but find it much easier to read more with my Kindle as my kids are still a baby and a toddler for now. It’s so nice to inculcate the habit of reading in your kids! Right now I bring them to the library to read, my baby is more into pulling the books down from the shelf so far heh.
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Thanks for stopping by. I love your nickname. Little ones love pulling down anything they can grab. Trust me I have been through it four times. They also love the gravity game – see me knock stuff down, see it fall to the ground see adult pick it up and put it back so that the cycle can begin again. Taking your children to the library is an excellent way to help instill a love of reading.
I love books, but I also love my Kindle app for my Ipad. I am able to download all kinds of books for me along with my children. This works wonders when traveling. It saves space and weight.
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“B” is for the Bible in this house as well. I find myself in a strange place with my children right now. My daughter will be seven in late June and I feel she is ready for some better Biblical reading material. We work with the Children’s Ministry at our church, have our excessive amount of Bibles, a great toddler Bible (which is still great for my four year old son), but I really am insterested in finding something suitable and special for her as she is developing into quite the little reader. Might you have any suggestions?
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If you are looking for readers, I would suggest looking at Christian Liberty Press, Rod and Staff, Christian Light Publications along with Abeka. Any of their readers for either Literature, History or Science will be good.
If you visit the websites: 3rs of Homeschooling, Simply Charlotte Mason, AmblesideOnline, or Heart of Dakota, you will be able to find even more selections. I hope that helps. I am glad you stopped by.
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Thank you so much for all of the resources! I’m so glad to have found a like-minded mother/teacher. I look forward to reading more of your work.
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You are quite welcome!
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