Recognize the opposition's slogan..."Tippicanoe and Tyler, too"? How about, "Keep the ball rolling"?

Here we are in process of a presidential campaign with hard hitting commercials, disinformation all around and the voters being led by the nose? Where did all this campaign hype begin in our country? Yes, there were speeches made…lots of speeches by all the presidents and their campaign opponents.  But what about all the advertising, drawing of attention, etc.? 

Did you ever hear the expression, “to keep the ball rolling“? In the election of 1840, President Martin Van Buren ran for relection against”Tippecanoe and Tyer, too“….General William Henry Harrison.  The General was a legendary hero having fought againt the Indians at Tippecanoe. This began the first modern political campaign.  

It’s believed that the election gave us the expression keep the ball rolling. Ten foot victory-balls made of tin and leather were imprinted with the candidate Martin Van Buren’s  name,  thenrolled from city to city as far as 300 miles.  This was an effective and weird advertising stunt. The victory balls did popularize the expression, keep the ball rolling.  It also kept interest from waning. 

The saying can also have dated back to the late 18th century.  Of British origin, it alludes either to the game of bandy which is a form of hockey and the puck is a small ball.  Or it can refer to the game of rugby.  Either sport still proves thare is no interest in the game if the ball is not rolling. The first formof the expression was…keep the ball up. 

Zach's Note for Miss Donna Perugini. He loves his books!

Look At This Child’s Thank You Note!

I’m excited! Children’s authors love to get thank you notes from little children…none more than me! Meet Zachary McCormack, the great grandson of Rallene Almendarez. Rallene loves to share her faith as a teacher/missionary to the nations.  She prepares her notes, writes her books and is always ready to share the ‘Good News’ with students in overseas bible schools.  Rallene has been doing this for over 30 years. 

But she calls her greatest success her children, grandchildren and great grandchildren. Rallene shares her faith to all the generations produced through her marriage to Angel Almendarez.  Angel has since had his ‘moving day’ to heaven while Rallene is actively ministering to her extended family. 

Zachary Said My Children’s Books Helped Him

Zack loves his puppies and reading!

Rallene has a set of my books that she sat down with Zach to read.  Zach has been reading a long time…his favorite thing to do as a 7 year old! Rallene is Zach’s great grandmother..what a faith legacy she is passing on down. 

Thought About What You’re Leaving With Your Grandchildren and Great Grandchildren?

Are you sharing what you believe…your faith? You might ask, how would I share my faith with the children? I’d like to offer you help. The Christian children’s books I’ve authored are useful tools in your hands.  Yes, you can send the kids the books, but wouldn’t it be great to sit with them and read a story that explains many aspects of our faith? What about the dream in their heart..prayer…angels…being born again…friendship…overcoming fear…how to deal with frightening thoughts and forgiving those that hurt you? These are just a few of the subjects in all four books. 

Thank You, Zach for Your Note!  Your Great Grandmother Rallene Has Helped Me!

What a great example by Rallene. She lives what she believes and believes what she shares. Take a page out of her book and think about how you can leave a legacy and share your faith with your little seedlings… while they are still young. 

What have you shared with your little ones lately…whether children, grandchildren or great grandchildren? Leave your tips for our readers…comment on the blog!  

Books can be ordered through Amazon or www.DonnaPerugini.com

The Flight of Orville Wright Caterpillar by Donna Perugini

Second book in the series...Orville's friend Amelia Airheart Butterfly

Do Angels Go Camping? by Donna Perugini

English and Spanish for ages 8 even to adult!

GIVEAWAY IS CLOSED, WE HAVE WINNERS!

STARBUCK’s Pick of the Week Giveaway

Enter To Win This Educational Giveaway!

I have three Starbucks Pick of the Week BBC America’s Planet Earth.  It’s covers from Pole to Pole and is shown in HDTV.  Since I have three codes I can giveaway, please leave your comment and you could be the winner! 

This ends next Saturday May 5. Homeschoolers, this would be excellent teaching material for your children! 

Just leave your short comment and you’ll be on your way to owning this episode!

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He once was lost, but now he's found!

Where Did Our Fun Stick Man Go?

When the stick man that comes alive first came out, I loved it!  Then I went to my post that had the video embedded and found stick man had been removed from being embedded. I appreciate having been able to use the video, so I looked through YouTube, Google, other blogs that had posted the video, etc. to try and find stick man’s final resting place. Did stickman leave a trail of bread crumbs for me to follow?

Stick man is alive and well! 

I’m putting up the url for stick man, episode one and letting you know that he has progressed to the next level, episode two for stick man.  Now there is a sequel to his antics and you can respond immediately there also. This is the best stickman that let’s you and your child can draw responses to his antics. I’ve browsed the others online and still like this version over all.  You can now share stick man on Facebook!

So once again, you have found stick man and can draw responses to him online. 

Let me know if you think he/she is as much fun as me. Comments are always welcome here!

Orville Wright Butterfly prays with Amelia Airheart Butterfly in Do Angels Go Camping? www.DonnaPerugini.com

What? Another Thing To Do While Putting My Child To Bed?

It’s the end of the day and your ‘free time‘ is getting closer. The kids are ready for bed and you’re ushering them into their bedroom. A few more steps and ‘free time’! 

Have you thought about praying with your child at night? You know how to pray….it’s a relationship with God where you talk with Him about everything. Does your child know how you pray?

The Old Stand By Night Time Prayer

Many children have been taught the old stand by,

 ”Now I lay me down to sleep, pray the Lord my soul to keep.  If I should die before I wake, I pray the Lord my soul will take.” 

We All Start Somewhere!

We all start somewhere, but I’m sure you’re past that beginning prayer in your personal prayer life by now. Why not show your child how you pray…just a casual conversation with a loving Father God. No thee’s and thous, but lots of thank yous and making your requests known. Try a little singing to God with them, making up their own ‘thank you’ or ‘I love you’ song to God. Keep it simple and you’ll be amazed at how profound those little ones can be.

Grandparents Praying With Grandchildren

Grandparents, when you have the grandchildren overnight, it’s a great time to teach them how you pray to God too. They may even ask you why you do what you do when you pray.  My grandchildren learned from baby on how I talk with God. There were a lot of questions every time.  You won’t see little children getting all ‘religious’ about talking with God. 

Introduce Your Children To God Through Prayer

The first time you pray with your children and grand children, take the time to introduce them to God just like you would introduce your friends to your children. You wouldn’t believe how much you’ll wish you’d have done all this when they are older. You’re establishing their hearts today to keep them when they are older. You’re setting them up for that relationship with an eternal loving God. Some day they will choose who they will serve…you’re getting them ready for that choice. 

Use Cell Phone Recorder to Capture Child’s Prayers

Another thought….when you’re praying with your children, get your cell phone and look for the way to record on it. Some record via video and some have a way to just record. Don’t make a big deal out of it. Lay the cell phone turned on next to the bed where the recorder can pick up those tiny little voices talking with God.  Read your cell phone instructions or ask your cell phone service provider how to send the recording to your computer for saving.  It would make a super gift to send to grandparents!

How did you introduce your child to prayer?  Love your comments! 

Disappointment comes to children of all ages. Are you ready?

Dealing with Your Child’s Disappointments

Do you remember the first time you noticed you were disappointed as a child?  With some children it’s a ‘dark day’ full of sadness when disappointment hits. My first remembered experience with disappointment went like this: 

Life’s First Remembered Disappointment

 

I’m playing with my 7 year old best friend, Dee-Dee, when her older sister wants to have a contest. The contest would be ‘How beautiful can you roller skate?’.  I watched as another friend tried her best at the crown and she was applauded as she whirled on her skates. I went next and threw back my head with a huge smile. I was sure my skates were circling and making me look fabulous. I turned around and no one was clapping….the award was being given to the first girl as I ran to my house, pushed open the front door and buried my face in mom’s apron. Crushed and crying, my mother just stroked my hair and encircled me with her arms. My tears stopped and I went outside to find everyone playing some other game that included me on ‘equal footing’ with everyone. The disappointment had ended and mom had saved the day! 

Why did I crumple so easily? I was a perfectionist and couldn’t take anything less than perfect about myself. I tried hard and then even harder. I really believed I could make it happen I could….that I could do anything. Unrealistic? To be sure! What saved me from my harsh, unrealistic beliefs? Mom was there to walk me through. She encouraged me and spoke to my age level of 7.  She let me cry first and then she said, “You’ll have other chances and besides, you’ll be even better at skating by then. Your friends like you and not being crowned Queen of Skaters doesn’t change their liking you. You’ll see! Now wipe your eyes and go find your friends. They need you to play a game with them.” 

Find 4 Steps to Walking With Your Child Through Disappointments

Kyria’s Parent Connect has a good article on dealing with your child and their disappointments that will help you with your child’s disappointments. Be forewarned and you’ll be forearmed. The article offers 4 steps to walk with your child through disappointment. 

Do you have any techniques you can share with moms and their child’s disappointments?  Leave your comments for all of us…parents and grandparents!

Let Your Child Be Creative!

This video is of a 9 year old boy filled with creativity and dreams. You need to watch the video to the end. It’s longer than 2 minutes but you’ll be glad you saw it. 

This child reminds me of our son who was always recreating games, setting up money making ventures or organizing the guys  in the neighborhood. The boy in the film, Caine, lets nothing stand in his way by creating what he needs. The film maker also set up a scholarship fund for Caine. 

 Click on the posting title to watch the video on my blog:

Remember finding pollywogs out in puddles or ponds?  You’d bring them home, put them in a large glass jar and watch them grow into pollywogs with arms and legs.  I never got to the frog category, or my mother was tired of the marshy water smell in my room.  Whatever happened, is still a mystery to me!  I suspect my mom. 

That brings me to this blog posting about a pollywog habitat thanks to Jennifer Rizzo. I never thought of selling my pollywogs and for $1.99 each!! But an enterprising water/garden business in Illinois has…probably many businesses of like mind have. In the posting it was stated that they were sold to someone who also put koi in the pond. Like they said, “It will hard explaining where Kermie went after running him over with the lawnmower”. 

We live close to what I call a beaver pond. The beaver dammed up the water higher up hill which caused a stagnant body of water downhill…perfect for the frogs. We can sit on our porch at night and hear the loud calls of grown up frogs now. There must be hundreds of thousands of them! But I digress.

According to the blog posting about pollywog’s habitats, you can put little plants in a shallow dish, but keep the roots exposed as pollywogs eat the roots. What? It seems my pollywog’s didn’t really like the bread crumbs or bugs I’d toss in the dish. Looks like mom didn’t do away with the whole mess after all. She probably found them belly up and it was the toilet or yard chosen for their final resting places.

Have you attempted to have a pollywog to frog habitat as a child or for your child? What other nature watches do you do with your children?

Prefer One Another!

An Open Word to Children’s Leaders About Your Volunteers:

Dear Leader,

You may find that you have the volunteers that you need and breath a sigh of relief when the pressure lifts.  There are a few things more that you need to consider. 

You’ve met your goal of ‘getting’ the volunteers, now how will you keep them involved, happy and stress free?  Just running a calendar by people and having them show up will not ‘a great program make’. 

It’s All About the Help

You will need to keep in touch with your peeps…your volunteers.  It’s not all about your happiness and how your program looks to your church.  It’s about being in a body of believers where the bible tells us to ‘prefer one another’.  Have you thought about how you can make the time your volunteers give a rewarding experience?  The volunteers are spirit, soul and body, just like you.  How will you address their needs in all these three areas? 

Volunteers Overworked and Missing Church Services?

Are you overworking them and keeping them out of church services all the time? Those church services keep them connected to the body of believers in your church.  Others in your body of believers are watching how long people in children’s ministry are disconnected from them. You won’t be able to replenish your volunteers if it looks like your volunteers never get a break. Make it mandatory that your volunteers get to services in the morning as well as the mid week services for their own sake.  You can’t police it, but you can highly recommend this along with private talks if they do not.  Some volunteers will purposely miss services feeling they deserve the break. 

Teach Your Volunteers What Jesus Says About Children

Have you given thought to a small teaching  for them as role models for the children…about how they are making a difference in many little lives each time they take their turn in the classroom? 

I’m not talking about a pat on the back, which can do a lot for their feeling accepted by you.  But I’m talking about a specific teaching from you showing them in detail how important the role they’re playing as a children’s minister is right now to the Body of Christ.  Can you show them in the Word of God what Jesus says about children?  This would be ministering to your volunteer’s spirit and soul.  Give a short teaching, along with treats (ministering to your volunteer’s body) for them at a planned time.  Some will make it and some will not.  For those that attend, it will be a real growth period for them. 

Give the Volunteer’s Body a Break!

That brings us to more about your volunteer’s  ’body’.  How do you prefer them regarding their bodily needs?  Do you make an effort to visit each volunteer’s room and relieve them in case of their personal bathroom needs?  How about after they’re done for the day and flat out exhausted.  Do you make sure they have help to clean up even if it means you are the help?  One last thing about the body area…who brings them coffee or tea after the kids are dismissed?  I remember giving my all and one wish I had that was never fulfilled was for someone to bring me a cold ice tea, no sugar or lemon and a straw.  It would have been such a treat for me after doing a 2 hour program constantly talking with the kids.  Maybe even pick up a cookie for them or bake some kind of goodies you could share amongst the teachers after the lessons and church is dismissed.  It’s the little things!

We’ve lightly covered spirit, soul and body of the volunteer. How can you best attend to your volunteers needs on an every Sunday basis?  Ideas to share…please leave a comment!!

Church Nursery/Toddler Rooms Need You!

Stats Show Churches Need Nursery/Toddlers Room Volunteers

On one day alone, my blog stats showed over 12 hits for people trying to understand how to get volunteers for the church nursery. That’s just the tip of the iceberg! Those people were just a drop in the bucket showing a church’s needs for nursery/toddler helpers. Are you hoping for steps 1,2, and 3 to get your volunteers?

Check Out This List of What Not to Do

Let’s start a list of what not to do to get church nursery volunteers:

• Use a crammed space because babies are tiny and can fit in small spaces…they’re just kids after all
• Chaos with no plan for a small teaching (with helpers for that time)
• Leave the nursery a mess of unkempt and broken toy pieces lying all around
• Ignore all safety precautions you put into place at your home like electrical outlet covers and toys to choke on
• Use guilt to pressure people into becoming workers
• Have young children (ages under 12) help that end up playing and not helping
• Don’t put a time limit on length of weeks/months serving in nursery
• Promise 1 time every 6 weeks and then keep begging the worker to come more often
• No planning for a rotation of workers, thereby keeping the same worker in every Sunday
• Have no rules posted for mothers who bring babies with fevers, who changes a baby’s poopy diaper (should be the mother), mothers will get their babies back if it can’t be consoled and parents who need to pick up their child immediately after service (Even the workers want to enjoy other church members before they go home)

Use the Preteens, Teens and Young Adults to Help

It will take the help of a child age 12 (preteen) to be a runner that gets the parent from the service, that helps with a teaching (for toddlers), that helps keep an eye out when your back is turned. If you have someone alone in the nursery/toddler room, you’re inviting chaos and an overwhelmed worker.

Did Your Church Nursery Come Up to Snuff?

I could go on, but you get the idea.  Check through the list and see if your church nursery can ‘come up to snuff. It really isn’t fair to the workers to not have the leader of children’s ministries fully back them with well thought out rules for the parents and scheduling. It also is not right to let just a few people watch the babies/toddlers while the other mothers (or fathers) ignore helping. 

The Resentful and The  Martyrs

Church is a community of believers who come together as a family. Some family members just don’t understand that we all work together. Church is many workers, not just a few workers that carry the load…some like martyrs and others doing so resenting every moment. And the church leader for these positions may not have listened to the thoughts verbalized by the workers in the nursery/toddler area. Maybe they’ve been ‘burned’ before in other churches and don’t trust any leader’s promises anymore.

They Said You Would Work One Time Every Six Weeks and Didn’t Keep Their Word

Is it so bad to volunteer for one Sunday out of six? I know, you’ve said you would volunteer for that but you might end up being the only one that works in the nursery…forever! Could that really happen in a church?  Well, yes! When leaders have access to a responsible volunteer, they hate to let them go. They don’t want to be begging for help all the time, barely keeping the nursery doors open due to lack of response. Leaders need more than just themselves to make it all happen for the parents. They won’t be able to do that without the body of believers helping.

Next posting let’s cover how to set up the nursery/toddler areas. 

Comments on what your church does for the nursery/toddler area?  We’d love to hear and share it, so leave your comments on this posting!