Breathe: A Child's Guide to Ascension, Pentecost, and the Growing Time by Laura Alary

Breathe: A Child's Guide to Ascension, Pentecost, and the Growing Time, a new book for children written by Laura Alary and illustrated by Cathrin Peterslund is due out in April of this year.

Breathe retells the biblical account of the Ascension of Jesus and the Day of Pentecost in a lyrical and practical way for children. 

'The season after Pentecost lasts for a long time...

In church we call it Ordinary Time...

There are no big holidays during Ordinary Time,

But life in the Spirit is not ordinary.

Amazing things are happening.'

Breathe looks at the natural growing time of the Northern Hemisphere’s spring and summer that coincides with Ordinary Time in the church calendar and connects it with the movement of the Holy Spirit. Seeds that had been buried in the earth have come to life and flowers are blooming. Everything is growing and changing in the natural world which makes it a good time to reflect on what the Spirit is doing in our lives. 

'Am I growing the fruit of kindness?'

'I wonder what kind of fruit I will bring to the world?'

I like the practical aspects of this book. The author puts them alongside the retelling of the biblical account to show us how we may apply them to our lives. 

Breathe is a lovely book to be shared with a child and I think an adult who does this will be refreshed too. It’s always good to examine ourselves to see if we are growing the fruit of kindness and children help to give us a fresh perspective as they see things we often don’t.

If you are, like me, in the Southern Hemisphere, the book is still applicable but like the Christmas books we read that depict snow, we have to use our imaginations a little more.

Laura Alary also wrote two other children's books I've previously highlighted - Make Room: A Child's Guide to Lent and Easter and Look! A Child's Guide to Advent and Christmas. They have a similar format to Breathe but a different illustrator. I think Breathe is pitched a little more to a wider age range with more textual depth but they are all well done.

All three books are published by Paraclete Press.

Homeschooling Help During Lockdown

The Australian Homeschooling Summit, (which is not just for Australians, by the way) was originally scheduled for April but due to the coronavirus it was postponed and will now be held in May from the 4th to the 15th.
This has actually worked out well because some of the presenters have had time to run additional sessions adding to the originally 30 workshops that were planned.

Some Details

•  It's online, so you don't have to leave home - how convenient, especially now we have to stay home!

• This will be Summit's 4th year and it's had attendees from all over the world in that time.

•  About half the workshops are live, and half are pre-recorded, however, when each workshop is released the presenter will be available to answer questions, either verbally if live, or in chat if pre-recorded.

•  All workshops are recorded and added to the website for you to access whenever it’s convenient.

• If you don't have Facebook you'll be able to watch the live workshops and ask questions within Zoom, so you’ll have complete access to everything except the chat in the FB community.

• All the mp3 files are split from the workshop and uploaded to the website, so you can listen whenever you like. Plus, the mp4 and mp3 files are available to download.

• The total cost is only $25 and that's for lifetime access to everything.


My Thoughts

I was in two minds about presenting at this Summit. I've spoken at a couple of homeschooling conferences and enjoyed doing it but this one is online via video so I wasn't keen about that! However, my husband encouraged me to do it and Kelly George, the Summit organiser, makes herself available to help with the technology side of things.
In the last couple of weeks Kelly asked if anyone wanted to do some FB Live workshops and I surprised myself by putting up my hand for that. I presented one on 'Encouraging Kids to Write,' and there were others who presented a whole range of topics such as having a healthy relationship with screen time, self-care, and journaling. These will be available as part of the Summit package.
If you need to refresh your homeschool, whether you're an old hand or brand new to all of this, I think you will find the Homeschooling Summit helpful & encouraging.
If you're feeling a little isolated, come and join in with some kindred spirits from all over the place and meet some new people.

See here for details & ticket sales. Hope to see you there!