Although I write from the perspective of a grandmother of six children in the Sonrise Stable series, currently I only have one granddaughter. But, she is greatly treasured! She loves my pony, Toby, and enjoys helping take care of him as you can see in the images below.
Toby was a little surprised at this new watering technique—tossing the entire bucket in the trough!
But, what Alice likes even better than carrying water buckets to Toby is playing in his water trough! :)
As with my own daughters, I feel a great responsiibility to teach Alice about God. Hence my search for Christian material suitable for her age.
If you've read some of my horse book reviews, many are negative. I don't enjoy writing negative things, so it was refreshing to find these books by Ellie Holcomb that I like so much!
Alice, at a year and a half, isn't saying many words yet, but she clearly says, "Member, member!" as she carries the Don't Forget to Remember book over for me to read. This is actually the second of Holcomb's books, but the one I discovered first. Alice laughs (screeches actually) at the cat sitting on the zebra's head on the book cover. Some of the pages are so detailed, Alice and I play a "Find the (whatever animal)" game.
See the book covers and a sampling of the pages in the gallery below (click to enlarge)
From Who Sang the First Song?
God's song says, "You're good!
You are wonderfully made,
And I'll never stop loving you
all of your days.
I suppose you could quibble over the meaning of "You're good!" knowing that we're born with a sin nature.
So I want you to sing with your life and your voice,
For I created the earth to make a joyful noise!
So now we know
who sang the first song.
God, who made us, knew all along
That every heart and every thing
Was born with a song, it was made to sing.
It may be questionable whether technically God sang over creation, since He spoke things into existence. But, I think it's probable, and the book beautifully shows children the wonderful creation and presents God as Creator.
To me, the "song" we were created to sing, doesn't have to be a musical song. It's our life purpose, why God put us here. And in rightly serving that purpose, we bring glory to Him.
One Amazon review I read stated that the book didn't hold their toddler's attention. Alice loves these books! She'd have me read them a dozen times a day if I could stand the repetition. And they contain wonderful messages adults will benefit from being reminded of.
Reading them aloud, I had trouble with the rhythm of the books at first. Then, I learned the books are actually songs! After listening to her youtube videos, my reading flow improved.
