In this episode we visit with author Mindy Baker. She offers many resources for families, has a mini magazine available, and enjoys doing school visits to talk about her beautiful picture book. For show notes and links, go to terriehellardbrown.com
Our Guest: Mindy Baker
Mindy Baker, author of Mouse’s Christmas Gift, Zonderkidz 2018, resides in Indiana with her family where she is a high school Spanish teacher. Through her writing, she hopes to plant seeds of truth in the hearts of her readers. You can connect with Mindy at www.mindybakerbooks.com
She is also a contributor at the new Read, Discuss, Do! website. www.readdiscussdo.com. Sign up for our Summer Reading Challenges.
She also has a free bi-monthly mini-magazine that has a featured book, book activity, quotable quote, seed of truth, and links to craft and extension activities. Opt in today at her website’s homepage.
Mindy’s Book Discussed in This Episode:
Transcript with Links:
Terrie:
Welcome to “Books That Spark,” a podcast for parents and caregivers, celebrating books that help us with everyday discipleship every day, sparking important conversations with our children. Today we have a very special guest with us. This is her first time on the podcast and her name is Mindy Baker. We’re so glad for her to be here today, I can’t wait for her to share with you. Well Mindy, thank you for being with us today.
Mindy:
Great. I’m so happy to be here Terrie. Thanks for having me.
Terrie:
I know you are a very busy person, so I appreciate you taking the time out of your busy schedule of teaching high school and doing ministry. So thank you, I really appreciate you taking the time.
Mindy:
Yeah, you’re welcome. It’s a pleasure to be here.
Terrie:
So I want to start by talking about your mini magazine because I know that’s available on your website and I want everyone to know about that. Can you tell us a little bit about that?
Mindy:
Sure. I started creating the mini magazine just as an outlet for my own creativity, honestly. It’s kind of a passion of mine, getting parents and other caregivers to connect with their children with quality time, but also using literacy and picture books as a springboard into spending just fun time and also learning time with our child.
Terrie:
I noticed on your website your catchphrase or motto, whatever you want to call that, is planting seeds of truth in little hearts. Can you tell us how you came up with that and why that is the center of what you do?
Mindy:
Yes. Well, I am a Christian, and I love the Lord Jesus Christ, and above all I would love to influence children to know the Savior, and I believe that all of us are called to teach children, love on children, and anytime we can plant those little seeds in their heart of God’s truth, that can grow and blossom in time. And I know for me coming to know the Lord at an early age was as a result of my own parents and also other people in my church giving their time to teach me about the Bible and about the Savior.
Terrie:
I love that. I love your book Mouse’s Christmas Gift. I know it’s not Christmas right now, but it is such a special book. Tell us about your book.
Mindy:
Thank you so much. My book is about a little mouse who makes a big difference, and that’s one of the main themes that runs throughout the book, that the Christmas Eve service is canceled and he wants to do something about it, but he’s so small, how can he possibly make a difference? But in faith, he lights a candle in the window and sure enough, a little villager sees it, little boy Alexander, and that sets off a chain reaction in the village and sure enough, the Christmas Eve service happens and the person who is sick, that was the original reason that the service was canceled. The person can’t figure out how everyone knew to still come. The book has a lot of different themes. One is that all of us in the body of Christ can use our gifts because as the chain reaction goes along, the widow bakes the bread, and the children put the wreath on the door, and everyone decorates a tree with their hair ribbons, and the metal worker puts the star on top of the tree. So the idea is to show that show unity and show how we all play a part in the body of Christ.
Terrie:
Yeah, I think that’s wonderful, and I always love stories like that that show just the smallest act, like you said, sets things in motion and they make a big difference, and I think that’s so cute, and I love seeing the pictures on your website of your different visits you’ve made. It looks like you have a lot of fun. When you go to talk about the book with different churches and schools, do you enjoy doing those kinds of events?
Mindy:
Oh yes, I love it, and it has, that’s been one of the benefits of having a book, is being able to use it in a setting such as children’s church or at a school setting, anywhere really where you can gather a group of children and tell a story and have some fun together.
Terrie:
Every year I do an advent calendar and I do a picture book a day on the Advent calendar, and your book is on that calendar.
Mindy:
Aw, that’s awesome. That’s a wonderful idea, so fun. I’m sure children love it.
Terrie:
I hope so, I really enjoy creating it. I always have a basket of picture books out, even though my children are older, I still make them sit and let me read to them, but they love books and they.
Mindy:
Oh yeah, picture books are for all ages, right?
Terrie:
Yeah, they really are. My kids love them.
Mindy:
Yeah. The thing about Mouse’s Christmas Gift that’s been interesting is that it does seem to draw people in of all ages. A lot of times older people will say that it reminds them of simpler times or just kind of the heart of it, that what Christmas is really all about is Christ. And that He, you know, He is the one that meets our every need. It’s not about all the fancy presents and stuff that you get, but it’s about Him.
Terrie:
That’s awesome. Yeah, I love that. I wanted to also talk about some of the resources you have available. I notice you do on your social media what I do through this podcast, and that’s review and share about wonderful books that you’ve found and wonderful authors who write them. And so if you want to talk about that and then also some of the resources available on your website.
Mindy:
Ah yes. On my Instagram I review all different types of books that I love, and also I’m really trying to highlight books with a Christian theme and a strong moral message. So I go to the library and look on the shelves and see what catches my eye, and then as I find books that I fall in love with, I share those on my Instagram. And I also at times will offer book giveaways. Different publishers may contact me or authors and ask me to promote their book or I, on my own, contact a certain author and ask them if I can promote their book, and so it’s just grown into something that is kind of a hobby and a lot of fun. But I really enjoy the Instagram and interacting with all these wonderful people. I’m a part of a group called Read, Discuss, Do!, and that has just grown from friends that I’ve made over the years and we decided to form together. Rebecca Gomez is the author who had the original idea for Read, Discuss, Do!. And so we collaborate and it’s the same type of idea, reading a picture book, discussing it with questions, and then doing a fun activity, whether it’s a craft or just a simple game, something that would kind of accompany the theme of the picture book that we’re recommending. So I have a LinkTree and it links to Read, Discuss, Do!. I’m also in another group called Talking Story with an author named Carol Baldwin. So I’ve just sort of become linked with different groups. Another one is Right to Ignite, and that is more for Christian authors that are trying to write children’s literature, there’s many resources, they have events for authors, so I promote for them, I’m on their blogging team and on their social media team. And then on my own website I have a resource that goes with Mouse’s Christmas Gift. It’s a teaching guide, it shows different ways you could use Mouse’s Christmas Gift in a children’s church, Sunday school, family devotional, homeschool setting. It provides two different ways to tell the Christmas story, one using the book and then one using only the Bible, and also it has crafts and the ability to make it into centers with worksheets and that kind of thing. And then also on my websites, I have a lot of resources for parents of just thinking about how they can interact with their children using books, and so I have a tab that talks about that different ideas for telling stories, what types of books you want to put in your home library, how to use different techniques in storytelling to make the storytelling time more engaging. Sometimes parents are worried that their toddler’s just running off and they don’t really want to listen to a story. So what should I do then? So I offer a lot of, just, practical advice for parents.
Terrie:
I love that, that’s really great. I love too that you made a lot of them into graphics, so if they want to just even download something and print it out, they could stick it on their wall or whatever and just to remind themselves of the different listed items.
Mindy:
Yeah, I think graphics helps all of us because of when we are in a hurry and it’s like, just tell me what I really need to know. Makes it quick.
Terrie:
Yeah, it’s really good. Well, thank you so much Mindy for joining us today. I really enjoyed getting to know you and talking with you.
Mindy:
Alright, well thanks Terrie. I appreciate it. Keep in touch.
Terrie:
Thank you for joining us for “Books That Spark,” where we encourage each other to live out everyday discipleship, helping to equip our children to follow Christ with their whole hearts. If you enjoyed this episode, please like and share on social media so people know we’re here and we truly appreciate your help in that. If you would like to connect with Mindy, you can reach her at MindyBakerBooks.com, and there remember, you’ll find all kinds of great resources for parents and teachers and kids and families, so take a look, sign up for her mini magazine, it’s really great. She has lots of great activities and ideas for families to do together for homeschoolers to do and to use in the classroom. She has a lot of information on her website as well as on her social media, so be sure to check it out. She has lots of good recommendations that we can all enjoy. If you would like to connect with me, you can reach me at TerrieHellardBrown.com. You can also comment on this podcast from my website on the show notes for each episode. We love to hear from you and we respond to every question, every comment, so please take your time if you can and come by and say hello. We also wanted to let you know that we are going to be doing our small kids small talk texting, starting again on Mother’s Day. We’re going to go from Mother’s Day to Father’s Day. The reason we do it this time of year is because we’re finishing up the school year, we’re getting ready for Summer, it’s a real transition time and a real busy time for families, and I don’t know about you, but I realize we wind up in information sharing mode and not really connecting with the members of our family. It’s like we’re all running in different directions, and so we wanted to do these texts to just remind us to stop and take some time during this busy time to really connect, and also to give us a prompt so we don’t even have to work that hard to think about what to pray about or what to talk about. Maybe it will spark some important conversations with your kids. I feel like sometimes kids are really concerned about, you know, if some of their friends are moving away and how they feel about that, and they don’t really talk with us about it because everything’s just going crazy. Hopefully God will use these texts to bless your family, to help your family connect during this time, and to give us a moment to just step away from the insanity of our schedule to take a moment of time and rest together and to connect. So those are free to sign up for. We do not charge for those, it’s just something we do a couple times a year to bless your family, and we choose the busiest times because that’s when we need those reminders. So the way it works is, we’ll have the link on my social media, we’ll also have it on a post on my website, and you can click on the link from there. If you’re on my mailing list, you’ll also get the link in your email where you can sign up, but you click on the link and let us know you want to be a part of the texting, and once it starts on Mother’s Day, you will get a text in the morning with a prayer prompt, and then you’ll get a text in the afternoon or evening with a conversation starter. A fun question to discuss with your family on Sundays, you’ll get a note that tells you the Bible verses for that week, cause we memorize Bible verses each week, and in that text is the link straight to Bible Gateway where you can just read it off from the Bible right there. And I do use the easy-to-read version of the Bible for these texts, so you can easily change it to another version of that Bible verse if you’d rather use NIV or KJV or whatever, so those are on Sunday. In the Summertime, we always memorize a whole section of scripture together, and this Summer we’re going to be memorizing John Chapter 15. I think it’s such an important chapter and has so much wonderful theology and imagery for us to understand the Christian walk and discipleship. And so we’re going to be working our way through John 15 during the months of June and July. On Saturdays, the text is a reminder to pray for your church, for your pastor, for your Sunday school teachers because they really need our prayers each week and hopefully we’re praying for them throughout the week, but at least we’ll remember on Saturdays to take that time to pray together. And these texts are made short and sweet so that you can, as you’re driving to school or driving to ballet lessons or whatever, that you can take that moment in the car or maybe around the breakfast table or dinner table to just take a few minutes to connect, and I hope that God will really use these in your life. So when you see that link, sign up, we’d love to have you join us. And one more quick announcement, if you’re going to be attending the homeschool convention in Ontario, California in June, I will be speaking there and I also have a booth there, and that’s from June 15th to 17th in Ontario, California. I’ll also be at the Texas Convention in July, July 6th through 8th, and so if you listen to the podcast and you happen to be there, come by and say hello. I will be at those two events plus An Affair of the Heart in Tulsa, and then I will also be at MOMcon in September, and this is the 50th anniversary of MOPS, and it’s their 50th celebration at their convention of MOMcon in Chicago, and I can’t wait to be there. We went last year in San Diego, what a blessing to connect with so many wonderful moms. So please come by the booth, say hello and check out the items we’ll have for you there. We pray you feel empowered as a parent or caregiver to walk by faith and to embrace everyday discipleship every day with the children in your life.
Your Host: Terrie Hellard-Brown
Terrie Hellard-Brown writes and speaks to help children and adults find God’s purpose and plan for their lives. She teaches workshops and writes devotional books, children’s stories, and Christian education materials.
Her podcast, Books that Spark, reviews children’s books that spark imagination, emotion, questions, and discussion leading to teachable moments with our kids. Her podcast posts each Tuesday morning.
Her blog posts discuss living as a disciple of Christ while parenting our children. She challenges us to step out of our comfort zones to walk by faith in obedience to Christ and to use the nooks and crannies of our lives to disciple our children.
Terrie uses her experiences as a mother of four (three on “the spectrum”), 37 years in ministry (15 in Taiwan), and 32 years teaching to speak to the hearts of readers.
Her motto is “Life doesn’t have to be perfect to be WONDERFUL” and keeps her childlike joy by writing children’s stories, delighting over pink dolphins, and frequently laughing till it hurts.
