A question you really shouldn't ask your children

Tonight at dinner I was reading the kids a story out of the Dinner Time Bible by Dr. Mary Manz Simon. A couple of friends recommended this Bible to me and my family loves it. It is great for all four of them. They all participate with the questions and it normally sparks some really good conversation. We started a tradition that whoever is sitting in seat number six gets to pick the prayer for the day. Each evening they talk about who gets to sit in that seat because they look forward to the privilege of picking our prayer so much.

This week Michael has been out of town and dinner time has not been quite normal, meaning I haven't sat down to eat with them but have instead been doing things in the kitchen while they eat. Monday night in the middle of dinner, one of them said, "Mom, where is the Dinner Time Bible? We have to read it!" If that isn't a great recommendation for this Bible I don't know what is.

This Bible has two pages of dinner prayers to pick from at the front of the book. It has some facts about each story and kind of a warm up paragraph, then it has the story followed by questions for the kids and a prayer with blanks for them to fill in.

Anyway back to tonight. We were reading the story of Joseph's brothers coming to Egypt to get food and discovering Joseph. At the end the question section tonight said:

"An adjective is a word that describes someone or something. Words like smart, short and happy are examples of adjectives. In this Bible story, Joseph was described as hard working, honest, and trustworthy. How would you describe the person who is reading with you now? What words describe you?"

Of course I was just reading along with no idea where this was going and was halfway through the sentence "How would you describe the person who is reading with you now?" when I realized what it said and that they were all going to describe me! I had absolutely no idea what any of them were going to say. I was expecting the worst. I was pleasantly surprised. Rehm's answer: nice. Charlotte's answer: nice, beautiful, smart, loving. Eliza Claire: smart. Ruby: big girl! And yes, Ruby's response cracked me up.

Much better than the responses I expected. Guess which girl I'll be extra nice to tomorrow...

I do highly recommend this book. It has been a great addition to our dinner time routine. We have had some really good discussions thanks to this book and obviously the kids like it since they are asking us to read it.

Jenn

PS This book is available through Scholastic. Mine actually came from a book fair at a local public elementary school.