This new book by Leila Miller and Trent Horn is an answer to Christian parents' prayers. Which of us hasn't wondered how to talk to our kids about these difficult moral issues or felt overwhelmed at the thought of figuring out how to do it lovingly and without fear? Especially since these issues weren't even on the radar when we were growing up. As the back cover notes:

A generation ago, Christian parents didn’t have to worry about how to explain transgenderism to their nine-year-old, or help their teenager deal with mockery at school for believing in traditional marriage.

After they cover what the Church teaches on each topic and why, Leila Miller (mom of 8) explains how to approach the topic with your kids. One thing that's unique to this book is that the advice for what to tell kids is broken into two separate sections: what to tell little kids and what to tell big kids. This makes so much sense since the young child is clearly not ready for some of the details of these potentially disturbing topics, yet a simplistic answer won't satisfy a high-school teen. Some topics even include additional suggestions for in-between ages.

The book begins with an intro on the point of parenting (to help our kids get to heaven!) and some basic advice on parenting with that goal in mind. The next chapter explains natural law, providing a firm objective foundation that is both in line with the Church's teaching and a great way to discuss the morality of these issues with non-Catholics or even non-Christians. The authors also share relevant Bible verses, scientific research, and personal experience to provide a nicely-rounded discussion.I also love that there's lots of practical advice on not only what to say but how to say it, plus responses to common arguments that kids might hear. The sample dialogues are very helpful, too.

The book is well-organized into chapters covering each issue separately. Topics covered include:

• Sex Outside of Marriage
• Same-Sex Marriage
• Divorce
• Contraception
• Abortion
• Reproductive Technologies
• Modesty
• Pornography
• Transgender Identity
• Homosexuality

Brandon Vogt did a helpful interview with the authors, which I encourage you to watch as it'll give you a good idea of what the book is all about and how the authors approach the issues.

This 23" x 23" laminated poster is made by Nasco.

I have used homemade hundreds charts for years - they've been a great help for Math in preschool, kindergarten and early grade school. I was so excited when I saw this item in a catalog because it is advertised as a "double-sided wipe-off white board with sheet magnet-receptive surfaces." I immediately dreamed up all sorts of fun things my little ones could do on this board with skip-counting, covering numbers, etc.

I was immediately disappointed in the quality of the board. It really is more of a thick poster than a board. It seems to be made of two cardstock poster-sized sheets with a thin metallic sheet in between. The three sheets are laminated together with a rather thin laminate (I honestly couldn't tell at first if this was the packaging to be removed - it wasn't!). Nevertheless, I decided to give it a try and hung it on the wall. My first grade daughter very happily proceeded to draw x's over all of the even numbers (this was fun!). We discovered soon afterwards that our markers (Expo2 dry erase markers) would not erase from this board. We tried two different kinds of dry-erasers, a special dry-erase board spray and finally windex and paper towels.

I want to make clear that Customer Service at Nasco was very easy to deal with in getting my money refunded. But this is a product I recommend avoiding.