Customer Reviews

Herein Is Love, Vol. 2: Exodus

5 star:		(4)
4 star:		(0)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

This set of Old Testament 'commentaries' for children is going to take the world by storm once the word gets out. Nancy Ganz has taken the details of Gods great work of creation and redeeming a people for himself and told it in a way that is engrossing for kids (and adults). We use it for family devotions; we're up to "lesson" 46 in Genesis. It doesn't dumb anything down or just make it a bunch of unconnected Bible stories. Like the title says the emphasis is showing Gods great love in all he does. The books are so creative; check out Noahs 'journal' while on the ark (yes, she puts in appropriate disclaimers). Nancy Ganz doesn't make things up, (she holds Gods word in such high regard it comes through on every page) she applies a magnifying glass to the text that showed my wife and I things we'd never noticed before. What a wonderful and exciting treat. Get these books, they are the next classic in childrens Bible literature. I don't even have time to talk about the full teaching guide at the back of each book: suggestions for visual aids, memory work, review questions, songs to sing, outdoor activities all on lightly tinted pages to stand out from the rest of the book. This stuff is great!

My son is 6y/o and loves to read. I bought this book to read to him for our literature during homeschool. It's definitely not written for children (as it says). There are many words that are way over his head, i have to spend too much time explaining certain verbage rather than getting the meaning across. It has great information in it and does break Exodus down in a way that you get great meaning... but not for small children.

This is such a great book. I am using this in our homeschool studies with my current 8 yr old and 5 yr old. I love it. And I love the questions and activity ideas that it gives. Such a great resource to use in our studies. I am going to buy them all! You will not regret buying this for your children.

I purchased this book to use with my nearly 8-year-old home-schooled daughter. What a delight! I was immediately impressed with several things. First, Nancy stays true to scripture. And she cross-references many times throughout a lesson - quoting from other books of the Bible. Second, her insights are so refreshing. She just as a way of pointing out how everything God does or allows is a demonstration of His love for us. Nothing happens outside of His plan. Third, I loved the "introduction" into spiritual warfare. We are dealing with this in a very personal way right now, and many adults in our lives have no idea of how Satan works in the world. To see this approached in a way that children can understand - to begin weaving these truths into a child's learning - is so refreshing and exciting. Nancy shows the reader that while there is a physical realm in which people make choices for better or worse, there is also a spiritual realm in which Satan is working to accomplish his end. And he uses people any way they'll allow themselves to be used to do his work. Knowledge is power, and knowing how Satan uses people is a powerful beginning to resisting him.

As I mentioned, my daughter is nearly 8 years old. She LOVES this book. Regularly, she asks if we can read another chapter. Sometimes our lesson plan calls for us to read one chapter and she asks if we can keep going. I agree with one of the other reviews that reading the Bible and her book can be redundant - and sometimes we skip parts of her book so we don't have too many repeats. But in this redundancy, I've found that my daughter's retention of the information - and just the depth to which she understands it - is greatly increased. She's really grasping not just the facts of the stories, but the meaning behind them. (And as a bonus, I myself am coming to a deeper understanding of God, His word, His plan, His love for us all!)

As for age appropriateness, there are some words and concepts that are just beyond my daughter's level right now. We take time and explain, and I believe these are opportunities to stretch her vocabulary and expand her abilities. As the one reader mentioned, six may be too young, but even so, Mom could read the book and share the insights with the child in a more age appropriate way. (Our intent is to actually use this book again in the future - maybe when she's a young teen. I'm sure she will glean even more insights then.)

I began using the lessons in the back of the book after each chapter, but I don't always use them. I'm glad they're there - we sometimes use the review questions, but not everything else is appropriate for our use. All in all, its nice to have the option.

I am so excited about this book and can't wait to get to work on the others! Keep 'em coming, Nancy!

This book gave me such a clear pic of our God in the Old Testament!! Made a PERFECT addition to our unit study on Egypt!!