The Story Of Christmas

The Story of Christmas, retold by Gwen Ellis, is an easy-to-read children's book about the birth of Christ and the events surrounding it.

From the website: ...this book begins with the birth of John the Baptist. Next comes the angel appearing first to Mary, then to Joseph, the trip to Bethlehem, the birth of Jesus, the angel’s announcement to the shepherds, the wise men and their gifts, fleeing to Egypt, and at last heading home to Nazareth. The “Can You Retell the Story” activity at the end of the book is a fun way for children to learn to tell the story themselves.

There are 10 stories in the book and each is based on verses from the Bible such as An Angel's Message (Luke 1:5-20), A Baby Named John (Luke 1:57-66), Joseph Marries Mary (Matthew 1:18-25). Each story covers two pages (with large illustrations, so it really amounts to two paragraphs) which is great for kids' short attention spans. At the end of each story there is a question to discuss with your child to get them thinking about the passage they just read and encourage dialogue between you and your child. A couple of the questions are The name Jesus means "savior." What does a savior do? and Who was the first to hear about baby Jesus? They are easy enough questions for a child to reflect on.

At the very end of the book there are 4 pages of pictures from the book ... the pictures are all out of order. You can have your child point to the pictures to retell the story in the correct order. I like this addition to the book since I know they teach this in Kindergarten...retelling stories they read and putting pictures in the correct order of how things happen; so this is something useful I can use with Kayla to help reinforce those skills she's learning.

The book also comes with a DVD of 6 short stories from Jesus' life. The narration was done in a calm and soothing voice - not loud and distracting like a lot of children's shows are. It held both Kayla's and Lucas's interest throughout.

A hardcover book with a DVD for $10.99 is pretty great for a Christmas gift for young children to learn more about Jesus and "the Christmas story."

"This is a Mama Buzz review. The product was provided by Thomas Nelson for this review."

Bubber!

One of the issues that goes along with Down syndrome is low-muscle tone. Low-muscle tone affects Kayla's gross- and fine-motor skills. I especially notice it with fine-motor skills when I watch Kayla work with her hands. I can see where she has difficult with finger placement and using the whole hand for a lot of activities.

Playdoh is good for her to work with for strengthening her hand muscles, but again, with the low-tone she sometimes has trouble manipulating even that. When she does play with it she likes doing something repetitive with it - especially cutting it over and over and over. Even though this is good practice for her; it's not easy for her to press down with the toy knife and cut in to.

Well this past weekend she was introduced to Bubber for a review.

This is a very light-weight modeling compound imported from Sweden. What caught my attention in the description is it "...is an excellent source for tactile stimulation...improving gross- and fine-motor skills." As a mother of a child with special needs, I'm always on the look out for a product that is going to help improve something!


Along with the Bubber we tried out the Castle Molds, Spoon-Knife, and Mirett. Kayla thoroughly enjoyed playing with all of the products - but especially with the cutting tools - she was able to cut away to her heart's desire with no problems at all!




And it does leave "clean, sharp edges when cut."


We squished it and rolled it and made faces (I liked using the Mirett tool for carving out the eyes, nose, mouth, hair...and writing Kayla's name out.)

I did find it a little hard to mold anything concrete out of it - it seemed the more I manipulated it the more it fell apart...so I'm still trying to figure that out. But what matters most is Kayla's impression of it. She played with it for over 1/2 hr ... and that is saying a lot for Kayla's attention span! If something doesn't interest her more than 5 min, she's done with it. After 20 min I asked her if she was done and wanted to clean it up. Her response, "No, I playing." The best part was when we finally were done (Lucas was waking up from his nap) and after putting it away she told me "Thank you playing me" - score one for Bubber!

Bubber was relatively easy to clean up - it doesn't stick or stain - but since it was crumbly (although not a dry crumbly) there were several pieces on the floor. However, I found them easy to clean up with just a napkin. It never dries out either, so this will be around for a long time for the kids to play with.

Also - one of the best features - it's gluten free! Not that I have to worry about Kayla actually eating it, but still, knowing it's gluten free means it is something safe for her...and a great alternative for kids who have a wheat allergy and can't play with playdoh.

Two thumbs up from Kayla!

"This is a Mama Buzz review. The product was provided by Timberdoodle for this review."