Children, Pray Today: Day 46

God of love and passion, soak us in your love of everyone. Help us understand what it means to love unconditionally, so that every person we see knows that someone in this world loves him or her no matter what. In your son's name we pray, amen.

Children, Pray Today: Day 27

Dear God, help us remember that we are created perfect in your image and that you are with us always so we can be sure that we will do great things!

Children, Pray Today: Day 26

Caring God, help us to remember that we are not the only creatures in your world. Help us remember that the world you created is delicate and needs our help and knowledge to protect it. Guide is to be protectors of your Earth. In your son's name, amen.

Children, Pray Today: Day 25

God of infinite talents, help us discover the talents you have blessed us with and help us strengthen those talents so that we may use those talents to make your world better. In your son's name, amen.

Children, Pray Today: Day 24

Precious God, help us realize the value of friends. Helps us treat our friends with kindness and thoughtfulness so that our friends know your love. In Jesus' name, amen!

Children, Pray Today: Day 23

Friendly God, help us to see your face in the people we see, help us hear your voice in the sounds of Earth so that we might know you better. In Jesus' name, amen.

Children, Pray Today: Day 22

I apologize for having a lapse in prayers...sick kids, principal observations, and an art class got the better of me but, life is back on track!

Patient God, forgive us when we don't pay as much attention to you as we should. Your forgiveness helps show us how much you love us which helps us forgive and love others. In Jesus' name, amen.

Children, Pray Today: Day 18

Loving God who cares for all of us, help us use our words to describe our emotions so that others can learn about who we are. In Jesus' name, amen.

Children, Pray Today: Day 16

Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Day

Dear loving God, help us remember to love all people so that our love can change the world. Help us identify our dreams and realize that hard work and determination are the keys to helping those dreams come true. In Jesus' name, amen!

Children, Pray Today: Day 15

Little Man wrote this one (momma's just a bit proud...my heart may be swelling out of my chest as you read this)..it has been slightly edited only to meet a variety of families instead of just our own.

Dear God, thank you for all of the people and pets in my family. Thanks for all the blessings you give to us. Thank you for being in my heart so that I can do good things in your world. In your name I pray, amen.

Children, Pray Today: Day 14

Dear gracious God, help us to be thankful for the things that we have so that we remember what is truly important in life which is helping others. In Jesus' name I pray, amen.

Children, Pray Today: Day 13

Genesis 11

All-loving God, shower us with your love and kindness so that we may understand how we should act towards all people. In Jesus' name we pray, amen.

Reading Above Grade Level

So as a teacher I am always pushing knowledge in my kids and trying to anticipate future problems. Actually my anticipating future problems as nothing to do with my being a teacher and everything to do with me over analyzing and worrying about every possible situation. So, I am beginning to think about the future. My little man is sounding out words in his books that he doesn't know and prefers me to read "big books" instead of the preschool books he has memorized. The problem I am running into is that the topics that he likes most cars, sesame street, toy story and Thomas are all low level books that he loses interest in once he has memorized them which is after reading it maybe four times.

So I got to thinking what will happen in the future and remembered reading Eclipse, the ever popular Edward and Bella story. The next day went to work and one of my students was reading the book also. I remember my cheeks flushing as she told me that in the next book there was an S-E-X part that her mom wasn't going to let her read. I remember thinking I hope her mother doesn't let her watch the movie.

A few weeks later a fourth grader at church was spied with the first house of night book. I caught myself wanting to ask the mother if she had pre-read the book as in the beginning there is a pretty obvious sexual encounter with two of the characters.

All of this put together made me think that parents really need a place to look for age appropriate books on their child's reading level. Sometimes schools have this information but sometimes teachers don't know anything more than that a lot of students read a certain series.

So, if you are a parent that has a question about a book your child wants to read ask me about it. If I haven't read the book I will and give you my honest opinion about it. I believe in protecting the innocence of children and keeping them kids as long as possible so my book reviews and book lists will be based on that.

Keep checking on the blog for some book lists. I am going to try to post some lists for all different ages.