Thursday, March 4, 2010

Raising Real Men

Raising Real Men: Surviving, Teaching, and Appreciating Boys
Click Here ~~~> Hal and Melanie Young's website

Go to the website above to read a free chapter. With purchase, you can also download a free PDF study guide.

I really enjoyed this book. Hal and Melanie write with just the right combination of frankness and humor. They are serious about raising sons to be God-honoring men. With six boys (and two girls), they have tons of parenting experience to share. It is an easy, friendly read making this book accessible to every parent.

Lots of encouragement and real life anecdotes of their children and boys in general through history. I nodded. I laughed. I totally related! I recommend it to all parents of boys.

**I purchased this book during the preorder. I received no compensation for my opinions. They are mine and mine alone.

Wednesday, March 3, 2010

Colorbok XY&Z Glitter Alphabet Stickers

I hated these stickers with a passion. I bought these for a homeschooling project for my preschool boys. My plan was to make a board with spaces for the alphabet, 26 upper case cards and 26 lower case cards. First they would need to put the letters in order and then match the upper and lowercase letters. I found a sticker font that was similar to the printed letter. Actually, this was harder than you'd think. Most "A"s have the swoop thing at the top of the lower case version (as seen in this post).

So I found these blue/greenish glitter stickers at Joanne's (which I cannot find online to show a picture to you). Everything was prepped for the project and what should have taken mere minutes became over an hour long fight with these things. They would not come off the backing or separate from the sheet easily. Most of them were torn even when I was very careful. I was too stubborn and irritated to get out the scissors because I shouldn't have HAD to! Many letters had to be pieced together when applied to the cardstock. Even though there were 136 letters on the sheet, I ran out of suitable pieces several times.

These were, without a doubt, the WORST stickers I have ever used.

**I purchased these stickers on sale at Joanne's. I received no compensation. This opinion is mine and mine alone.