Thursday, February 21, 2013

Bernie Bear CDs and Books for Catholic Children: A Giveaway

As part of our Fabulous February, we are introducing another quality product to our readers and loyal customers. Read my bookshop partner Sanne's review of this latest discovery and get a chance to win a wonderful CD for your child.


Mariel and I love serendipitous discoveries especially when it comes to materials that will make our homeschooling journey with our kids fun and interesting. So, when we heard about Bernie Bear, we immediately got copies of the CDs and books. Upon browsing and listening, we knew we had found a winner. 




Who is Bernie Bear?

Bernie Bear is not your run-of-the-mill Religion teacher. The brainchild of a Filipino family, he teaches children to live in faith and good moral character. Think of him as the Barney of the Catholic faith?


Let's Pray with Bernie Bear

While scanning through the books that we got, my Energizer Bunny was instantly drawn to the book “Let’s Pray With Bernie Bear.” It is a book of prayers for different situations - from the traditional Lord’s Prayer, Hail Mary and Glory Be, to interesting prayers such as Prayer For My Yaya (my daughter’s favorite!) and Prayer to Help Me Obey. I love how the Morning and Evening Prayers were shortened and simplified for better appreciation of even the youngest kids. 



Let's Sing and Pray with Bernie Bear

“Singing is praying twice,” said the great Saint Augustine. And pray, sing, and dance we did as we listened to this wonderful, upbeat CD that literally teaches kids how to pray!

All throughout the CD, Bernie Bear tells the story of how to pray and when to pray. It begins by teaching The Sign of the Cross:

“My right hand to my forehead/then down towards my tummy 

Then to my shoulder at the left, then to the right just slowly 

Bring both my hands together as a lovely prayer can 

In the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit Amen.” 


Are you in love with it yet?! It goes on to teach the how of praying (A-C-T-S) followed  by a catchy tune for each of the elements in a prayer. My three-year-old and I sang and danced and “xylophoned” (X is our letter for the week!) our way through the upbeat prayers - Yipee Alleluia, Thank You - and swayed and cuddled while listening to the slow, graceful tunes of This I Pray and It’s Jesus’ Turn.


Perfect Timing

How opportune that we happen upon Bernie Bear at the time that we are reading Prayer for a Child! My preschooler appreciates it more now than when we first read it a year ago as Bernie Bear is a perfect “go-along” with the book. We learned about different kinds of prayer, when to pray, and how to pray. One song spoke about praying for others, which we related to this week's virtue - kindness. Talk about perfect timing!

It is discoveries like these and sharing and enjoying it with our children that affirm our belief that when it comes to faith and character-building, we are our children’s first and best teacher.


And Because It’s Fabulous February

… we have another giveaway! Springs Foundation, Inc. of the Elim Community, publisher of these wonderful Bernie Bear materials for children, has graciously granted our request to give a free copy of one Bernie Bear CD to one lucky, or shall I say blessed, reader of The Learning Basket. The winner can get to pick the title of the CD!




Help Us Spread The Word

We hope that you can help us spread the word that there are good quality CDs and books for Catholic children here in the Philippines. Bernie Bear also has VCDs but they’re still in production, so do watch out for that too! 




Have fun!
sanne
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4 comments:

Mich Nicolas said...

Thanks for featuring this, Mariel! I'm so glad you like Bernie Bear!

Mariel @ The Learning Basket said...

It's really nice Mich! I'm amazed we didn't discover it earlier. Another friend, who's very choosy with materials and who bought from us, was also raving about it :D Thanks again for connecting us with Springs!

Barbie N. Dumlao said...

Many thanks to The Learning Basket! Blessings to you and yours! :o)

Mariel @ The Learning Basket said...

Hi Barbie! Are you Mich's talented sister? :) We're happy to have discovered Bernie and to share him with our readers and customers :)