Tag: parenting

My 4-year-old son reviews The Beginner’s Bible: Bible Story Favorites

The first story is about Adam and Eve in the Garden. A sneaky snake came, and God said, “Don’t eat fruit from this tree!” Then a big lie comes into the world. Then they have to leave. And then Jesus will always come to save people from their sins.

The next story is about baby Moses. He got put in a basket, because he needed to be hided, because of the king. (He’s a mean one.) So he actually starts crying. Baby Moses starts crying. And I’ll show you, right there–there’s a dragonfly, right by the princess and the baby. Then the princess picked the baby up and said, “I want to keep you.” So Miriam prayed to God, “Please keep Moses safe.” God kept Moses safe, because he watched over Moses.

[The third story] First Joseph’s brothers think he’s bad. They sent him away, far away, to some men, two men riding horses, and the rope tied up to Joseph. And then he goes in jail. And then he meets a man in jail. The man says, “I used to work for the king.” He [Joseph] says, “I had a dream, I gave a drink to the king.” (He wasn’t mean.) Soon the man got out of jail. And then the man went back to work for the king, and he [the king] had a dream. Soon Joseph gets out of jail. And then the king says, “I have a dream. What does it mean?” “It means: save up food.” That’s what all the people did. Soon the food stopped growing. No one had any food, so they went to the king for help. And then Joseph says, “I am your brother.” And they did not know who he was. Joseph looked so different than he did before. “God is good!” Joseph’s brothers cheered. That’s the end.

I like everything about this book. This book is good for people who know Jesus. It comes with a CD that has all the stories that are in the book.

The last two stories are about Jonah (he gets spit out of a whale) and Jesus. Jesus saves everyone from their sins. That’s all I’m going to tell. That’s it. Good-bye! (You have to write “good-bye.”)

Find more about The Beginner’s Bible: Bible Story Favorites at its Zondervan product page or on Amazon by clicking the book’s image above. Read the rest of my 4-year-old son’s reviews here. Jake wishes to comply with FTC guidelines and disclose that he received a review copy of this book from Zondervan, but not with any expectation as to the nature or content of the review.

My 4-year-old son reviews Field of Peace by Joyce Meyer

This book is about baseball. Buh-buh-buh-buh baseball!

Some of the characters’ names are Boyd, Arnold, Coach Pouch. Boyd is trying to win the baseball game.

Arnold the Armadillo turns into a big ball, because he’s hiding. That means he’s scared. He curls up. The team stops and loses, but the giraffe tries to win.

When they lose, the giraffe feels bad.

The skunk has a rake. He sprays, and then the giraffe has a hat on his nose because it’s stinky!

Boyd [the giraffe] thinks that Arnold wouldn’t win the Wilds’ championship. Then Arnold was by himself in the field because they were gone. But then everyone misses him.

Boyd feels bad because he misses Arnold. So he tries to get Arnold.

And he [Arnold] did this–he batted the ball even though he was a little ball.

At the end of the book, Boyd is feeling peaceful inside. That means you’re feeling happy!

My favorite part is when Arnold shook his hands down and up, down and up, because he was scared. This book made me feel good. I’ll show you what I really like: it has “peaceful” inside the book.

My 4-year-old son received an Advanced Review Copy of Field of Peace from Zonderkidz. Find more about Field of Peace on Amazon or at Zondervan. It’s slated to release September 4. Read the rest of my 4-year-old son’s reviews here.

My 4-year-old son reviews a Duncan Butterfly yo-yo

Not long after my 4-year-old son began doing book reviews on my blog (the best part of this blog, according to some), he had an idea.

“I know, Dad. We could review a toy! We could review a yo-yo!”

I emailed the folks at Duncan, not sure if there even is such a thing as a “review copy” of a toy, but, lo and behold, we got a yo-yo in the mail this week. Below, my 4-year-old son reviews it. Before we could profitably use it, we shortened the string, using this video to guide us, although the packaging did include instructions for that. Here’s my 4-year-old son now, in order of his observations as he played with it:

I’m not really good at using a yo-yo because I just learned.

In response to his two-year-old brother’s “Is it mine?”  “Nope, not yours. It’s mine.  So don’t play with it.”

I don’t think I can do it, Daddy. This is too hard for me. It’s good! But I don’t really know how to use it yet.

It’s a good knocker. It’s a good yo-yo.

I’ll tell you how it works. You roll it up, once you already use it first, and all we have to do is just get it up to your hands and pull it down and then bring it back up. That’s the end. That’s it.

(Later) It’s really easy to use.

(Later later) I can’t really do it! This knocker’s not very easy. I got to go to bed. Good night!

The folks who gave us a yo-yo for review (thanks!) emphasized that it’s for ages six and up. I see the wisdom in their age recommendation. Perhaps when “my 4-year-old son” becomes “my 6-year-old son,” we can have another go. For now, he’s finding other ways of having fun with the yo-yo, racing through the house and dragging it behind him.

UPDATE, three days later: See his original artwork (a yo-yo) here.

Family Fridays: Why blog about family when I can go to the beach with them?

Today I took my two boys to the beach part of Lynch Park. Yesterday we went to the playground part of it. SO MUCH FUN. So… no actual blogging on this Family Friday. Just happy memories and tired bodies from time well spent outside together.

My 4-year-old son reviews Zoom, Rocket, Zoom!

5, 4, 3… liftoff! It says, “Whoo-oom!”

The astronauts are flying in the rocket ship. They’re in orange shirts. And they have space helmets on, and one is dark-skinned, and one is light-skinned. And there’s two seats, even cords, even channels to see how fast they go.

Lunar landers–they shoot flying out on the side to get it landing. And one big one on the bottom, one big spike, two big spike, three big spike, four big spike, five big spike, six big spike, seven big spike. And three on one of the shooters.

The earth’s right by kind of a circle of stars, and the lunar lander is right by this astronaut that’s going “Byoo!” He’s not really saying something; that’s just how he’s flying. “Byoo!” means he’s going, like jumping. This astronaut is digging, even working in space. Even there’s 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10 bumps here and 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 16… 16 lumps over here!

“Moon buggies are good at roll, roll, rolling,” as they travel in space. Space rockets are good at–bam!–flying.

Rocket ships are good for playing, eating, and typing, and sleeping and good for “weightless somersaulting.” [laughs] That’s so funny!

Astronauts are “good at space walking… almost dancing.” Space satellites fly around in circles, around planets.

There’s wheels, some lumps… and the stars. And the machine driving around on the Mars.

The moon buggy’s rolling around, and it’s right by the lunar lander.

The end.

This book is good because it has astronauts in it, and every age should read it… even grown ups. Every, every, every person. Even you!

Find more about Zoom, Rocket, Zoom on Amazon. Read the rest of my 4-year-old son’s reviews here.

My 4-year-old son reviews Duck Soup

My 4-year-old’s prelude to the review, as we were getting ready to type it up:

Remember what Catherine’s mom said? Only read it one time. We’ll look at it, and I’ll tell you, and we’ll review it.

And now… his review of Duck Soup by Jackie Urbanovic.

The story is about Max. Max is the duck, this duck [points to cover]. Max is making soup. And everyone else doesn’t like it, but only the bunny likes it. Max’s soup tastes not right. Chives! He needs them.

Brody, Dakoko [=Dakota] and Beebe come and eat his soup: “I hope it smells better… Max must be finishing now… [gasp!] I think I know where Max went… in the soup.”

They try to get Max out by stirring, by yelling, by pouring the soup to fall into the drain and leave Max behind. Max comes in and says, “My sooouuuuuppp!”

I like that the bunny likes the soup. I didn’t like that everyone else doesn’t like it. It’s funny that Max comes in and says, “My sooouuuuuppp!” People should read this book because it’s funny. 7-year-olds would like this book. That’s all.

Duck Soup is here on Amazon. See my 4-year-old’s other book reviews here and here.

My 4-year-old son reviews The Jesus Storybook Bible

A long-time family favorite has been The Jesus Storybook Bible (subtitle: Every Story Whispers His Name). Friend and fellow blogger Robbie and his wife gave us this sweet gift when our now four-year-old was born.

Following on the heels of his first book review, my four-year-old here reviews The Jesus Storybook Bible. (Cool thing: the author of the book he reviewed blogged about it here.) As before, I did the typing, but the words below are all his. For the purposes of this review, he focuses on “The terrible lie: Adam and Eve lose everything, from Genesis 3.”

This story is about a snake, and the two people that God told them not to eat the food on that tree… and they did. And a big lie–a really, really, really, really big lie–came into the world. And then it felt like everything was going to break. And I even know that story.

God had to send them out of the garden, because they were being naughty. God sent them away. God gave them a note that said that they were going to get back to their place. God said he was going to forgive them.

It’s wroten [written] good. This book has a bird on it. And bats might come into the house and might like the book, just in case if they come in the house. [Editorial note from dad: four-year-old son just saw a news story about bats.] It’s a good book. It could help somebody if they were crying, and if they were sad, and nothing could work… except only if a book could work, and only if someone said Jesus StoryBible Book and they could buy it.

Here’s a sample page of the Bible, from Zondervan’s product page (click for larger):

There’s a great accompanying website for The Jesus Storybook Bible, with sample pages, audio files from the audio version, and more. You can also find the book on Amazon.

Family Friday goes to the Olympics: Less ball sports, more boat sports

Image: John David Merce,, USA TODAY Sports

Olympic volleyball on the TV evoked two different reactions from our two boys the other day. The two-year-old started jumping up and down on the bed chanting, “Vol-ley-BALL! Vol-ley-BALL!”

This same two-year-old had at another time been lounging on the bed until he saw a gymnast come on, at which point he stood up on the bed and lifted his hands straight up in the air, high above his head. He tumbled forward in his best effort at a somersault.

The four-year-old, on the other hand, seeing volleyball on TV, said, “I don’t want to watch any more ball sports… I want to watch a BOAT sport.”

Son, I’m sorry you didn’t get to watch it yesterday, but you’ll be glad to know that the women’s eight rowing team has won the gold.

Tonight’s theological questions at dinner from the 4-year-old

There were two:

Does Jesus make people do stuff?

and

What does “crucified” mean?

My answer to the first question (after a long pause): “Jesus can make people do stuff. Jesus can do anything he wants to. But he usually doesn’t make people do stuff. He lets them decide.” Some will disagree with this. But I think it has pretty good Scriptural warrant. I’m sure this question will come up again. And I thought the sex question was hard!

The second question I answered as specifically and succinctly as I could. I actually got a little teary-eyed as I described crucifixion to him. His response to my answer was appropriate, I thought: “Why did they do that?”