The World God Made

I love vintage Arch books - We had quite a few of these at my grandparents' place.  Look at these gorgeous illustrations!  

The Christmas Story

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The Christmas Story, illustrated by Eloise Wilkin, has 2 different covers but the inside pages are the same, and I have both versions.  Coincidentally, I saw a post on My Little Bookcase about making 'story stones' using pictures from Little Golden Books.  Jackie had the exact same situation - she had 2 copies of the same book, so she decided to cut the pictures from one to make a nativity scene with story stones.  I didn't have a nativity scene either, so this was the perfect quick and easy craft for me! Just throw some Mod Podge glue on there and you're good to go!  I don't tend to make a lot of structured crafts with my daughter as she prefers to make up her own inventions with shoeboxes, ribbon, constuction paper, etc, but this was a great simple craft to do and we can use it every year to decorate at Christmas.

Little Benjamin and The First Christmas

 

 

 

 

 

Another beautiful vintage Arch Bible book to share with you today.  In this book, the main character, Benjamin, is the son of the inn-keeper.

So in my town, it has been a bad couple of weeks for sickness - seems like all the schools are getting hit with it pretty bad!  I heard a school in the neighbouring town had all the kids sick except 5 the other day!  My 6 year old had a bad cough/fever a couple weeks ago, and now last night she caught the flu bug and was throwing up.  Not to mention my 1 year old who has been up screaming in the night about her molar coming through!  Hopefully we will all be in ok shape for Christmas!  How is everyone else doing?

Eloise Wilkin - Prayers for Children and My Little Golden Book About God

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Some of these pages absolutely make me tear up, especially from My Little Golden Book About God - written by Jane Werner Watson and illustrated by Eloise Wilkin.  What a beautiful way to talk about God to small children.  And some of the illustrations seem to show the children and God communicating with each other through nature - it's amazing.  And the way that the author explains how we can also feel God's love through our family and friends and our memories of them- awesome.

Does anyone watch the show Parenthood?  It is so, so good.  I cry almost every week when I watch it.  But it's not a depressing show - just very poignant, with lots of humour in it too though.  Anyway, the theme song over the opening credits is Bob Dylan's "Forever Young".  Since this post is about prayers for our children and about teaching them about God, I thought you might like to read over the lyrics and listen to the song here over this YouTube clip.  Love it!  I couldn't get the clip to embed into the post so you'll have to click on the link.  I dedicate this song to my daughters - hopefully one day they will read this blog - kind of cool to think that it is like a digital scrapbook that they can enjoy when they are older!

"Forever Young"- Bob Dylan

May God bless and keep you always
May your wishes all come true
May you always do for others
And let others do for you
May you build a ladder to the stars
And climb on every rung
May you stay forever young
Forever young, forever young
May you stay forever young.

May you grow up to be righteous
May you grow up to be true
May you always know the truth
And see the lights surrounding you
May you always be courageous
Stand upright and be strong
May you stay forever young
Forever young, forever young
May you stay forever young.

May your hands always be busy
May your feet always be swift
May you have a strong foundation
When the winds of changes shift
May your heart always be joyful
And may your song always be sung
May you stay forever young
Forever young, forever young
May you stay forever young.

Parenthood - Forever Young by Bob Dylan

Linking to Kid Lit Blog Hop

My Prayers - Whitman Tell-a-Tale

 

 

 

 

 

 

Love these cute pics from Whitman Tell-a-Tale's "My Prayers" - especially the Sunday outfits and the beautiful little white church.  I still remember when my older daughter was 3 and she prayed - "God, please help me not to be scared of the vacuum cleaner".  Hahaha!  Another funny story is when we were attending a church that met in a movie theatre - every time we drove by a theatre she would say - "Look, there's church!" At that age she didn't know that building was usually for movies, or what a typical classic church building looked like!

Linking to Cozy Book Hop

Dean's Gift Book of Prayers for Children- Illustrated by Janet and Anne Grahame Johnstone

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Another amazing book illustrated by Janet and Anne Grahame Johnstone for you.  They were twins - Janet drew the animals and Anne drew the period costumes.  They illustrated more than 100 books.  Before my 15-month old baby daughter was born, I used mod-podge to mount some pictures that I took out of my second copy of the Dean/Johnstones book of Mother Goose - I didn't post those pictures on that blog post at the time so I will post them here.  As you can see they are not actually on the wall of the nursery as they are supposed to be yet!!  I really must get around to doing that ...


Linking to The Children's Bookshelf

Arch Books - Jon and the Little Lost Lamb and A Penny is Everything

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 I especially love the vivid illustrations on Jon and the Little Lost Lamb - the modern Arch books just don't have the same appeal, I think.  I would love to collect more of these Arch books. I remember spending time in my Oma's attic reading these books, among many others.  I would read anything I could get my hands on.  She even had old issues of Reader's Digest going back to the 1960's - yep, I read those too.  Seriously, I think that 90% of my free time as a kid must have been spent reading.  :)

Linking to Cozy Book Hop