*giveaway over* What's in the Bible? #4 DVD Review & GIVEAWAY!!

Phil Vischer

 Note: Giveaway details are at the bottom.

I am very excited about a new DVD series for kids from Phil Vischer, the creator of Veggie Tales called “What's in the Bible?” We were given given a copy of the 4^th video “Battle for the Promise Land” to review for Tyndale. Based on the cover I wasn't all that excited about watching it but I was hooked within the first minute. I loved the bantering back and forth between the puppets and how they all helped each other learn about “housewares,” er... I mean the historical books of the Old Testament. :) The focus on this DVD was on the books of Joshua, Judges, and Ruth. There was some review of what had happened in the Pentateuch (that I am assuming were discussed in the first 3 videos) with fun songs to help remember the first 5 books of the Bible.

The first episode was part review and mostly about the book of Joshua. The favorite song of all 4 of my kids is “You can't stop a Train.” They loved the silly impossibilities that are summed up with “Standing in the way of what God is going to do will be really, really, really really not so good for you.” My 10 year old summed up what he learned in that episode by saying, “I learned that if people stand in God's way God will give them what they deserve if they won't repent, like Pharaoh died and the Canaanites died because they tried to stand in God's way.”

The second episode focused on the books of Judges and Ruth. I thought that they gave a good representation of the Cycle of Apostasy from the book of Judges. My 6 year old summed that up by saying, “I learned that they kept on bowing down to idols, then an army came, then they turned to God, then God sent a guy to rescue them, then they bowed down to idols again. It's hard to understand why they turned back to idols when they just got saved by God but it's true stories.” What a a great discussion starter with my 6 year old!

Here are some things I loved about the DVD:

* the focus on the fact that the Bible is true and helping kids to understand it.

* the focus on God's rescue plan of redemption that is tied throughout the Bible.

* it explains difficult concepts (redemption, holy, sanctified) in a way that makes sense to kids.

* “Tricky Bits with Phil” explained a difficult question in a way that made sense to everyone and left me with an “ah ha” moment.

* fun songs to help kids learn the books of the Bible. My kids have so many Veggie Tales songs memorized and I am excited to have them memorize the songs from these movies so that they can have the books of the Bible and where they are and what they are about memorized.

I think that these DVDs will be great to watch together as a family because they are great discussion starters and can be referred back to time and time again as different challenges come our way. They will also give us all a good overview of the Bible. I think these DVDs would be great to use for a neighborhood Bible club as well.

I asked each of the kids to write a review of what they thought of the DVD and my 4 year old said, “My favorite character is the pirate. It will be good to watch as a family. It is funner than Veggie Tales (if you ever watched them) because it is a Bible story about it and we have not got Bible stories ever as movies. The guy in the car didn't know the rest of the Bible and he was going to learn it through the story.”

I think that these DVDs will be a great way to learn more about the Bible and His-story as a family and to share with others to introduce them to Christ in a non-threatening means. My 8 year old summed up all of our feelings when she said, “I can't wait until the rest come out because I really want to own all of them.”

Go to www.whatsinthebible.com and www.tyndale.com for more information.

Disclaimer: I received this DVD from Tyndale House Publishers, in exchange for my review. No other compensation was received.

GIVEAWAY DETAILS: I was given a coupon for a free copy of this DVD to give away on my blog. If you'd like a chance to win it please leave a comment below. A winner will be picked out of a hat on Sunday night 11/21/10 at 8pm EST.

I'm Not Perfect

I'm not perfect. Are you surprised? For some reason I always am. I am a first born child and, as I recently read in The New Birth Order Book: Why You Are the Way You Are by Kevin Leman that I borrowed from the library, that means I am prone to perfectionism. There is a problem with that since (surprise, surprise) I am not perfect. My constant realization of that fact causes me to often live a discouraged life. I am not a perfect follower of Christ, I am not a perfect wife, I am not a perfect mom, I am not a perfect housekeeper, I am not a perfect homeschool teacher. The list could go on forever but the one that I have really been struggling with lately is the last one I mentioned.

At the beginning of school I was super excited because we were starting early (which means we get to get done early!) and because we started a new curriculum (Sonlight) that looked so exciting. The first few weeks of school went well then we lost steam. I had been warned that it was pretty much impossible to check all of the boxes in Sonlight but I didn't know what boxes not to check and soon got overwhelmed at the fact that I hadn't gotten all the boxes checked. I got so frustrated that I wanted to give up. In my head it is all or nothing and since all is often really difficult, if not impossible, to be all I hide under the covers and do nothing. That is not really an option in real life and I often need help to bring myself out of that slump. I sought God and got some advice from Glenn and a couple of wise friends. The conclusion I have come to is that it is OK if we are not all on the same week. It is OK if we finish after the first week of May (public school doesn't get out around here until the end of June anyway). Also I decided that I needed to add to Caleb's workload because the curriculum that I have chosen for him is way too easy and it has given him too much free time to cause trouble and distract his sisters. I had found a book called Plants Grown Up from Doorposts at my aunt's house when I was helping her sort stuff and she let me have it. I decided to start working through it with Caleb. He's got school learning down pretty well. I want to focus more on character training with him.

We started it yesterday with each kid on a different "week" of our curriculum. It didn't go perfect but that is ok (honestly, it is!). This morning I made a list of what each kid needed to do on our whiteboard and told them that they needed to have all of their initials erased before they could be free. I think that that will be helpful. It is going to take some time to get back on track again because we kind of got out of the habit of getting serious amounts of school work done everyday when I was hiding under the covers.

I am thankful for God's grace and that His mercies that are new every morning and that He loves me and chooses to use me even though I am not perfect.