Pilgrim's Progess - part a

As a child, my mother read Little Pilgrim's Progress to my brother and me.  That was the best book I had heard as a child.  There was so much truth in it, and it also helped me understand my Christian walk more deeply.

My mother later gave me the book of which I looked forward to reading to my children.  When my oldest was about three years old, he went through a destructive stage and that book got in his way :(  I did buy another one wanting to read it to him and his sisters.  However, the level was still too difficult for such small children to understand.  But, alas, when at the AFHE convention, I found another treasure the Pictorial Pilgrim's Progress.  This I could read to my children at this young age :)

One of the things I like so much about the book is that the people and places are named after their attitudes/behaviors.  Examples:  Christian, the pilgrim, comes from the City of Destruction and is on a journey to the Celestial City.  He meets men/women by the names of Obstinence, Pliable, Faithful, Talkative, Hopeful, Evangelist, Talkative, Charity, Prudence, etc.   There were some names I did not know how to define in words, so we broke out the dictionary.  Now we keep the dictionary with the book.

I have been reading this book during devotions for five or less weeks now.  We should finish it up a week from today.  It has been a great read for my kids and myself.  While reading, I let my children draw what I'm reading.  Once I find a stopping point, I draw pictures about the main parts just read.  We also revisit the pictorial timeline before each reading to help jog our memories as to what has happened.  The timeline refresher became quite long after 40 or so pages into the book.  So I started putting a yellow 'circle' around the story changer pictures.  From that point on, we just refreshed the main points before each read. 

When we are all done, I will cut the scenes apart and with my children helping reformat this so it looks more like a Flow Map.  The final version will be 'part b'.  It should be ready within two weeks time.

While looking for the links to Pilgrim's Progress, I came across a movie about the book.  I know movies are rarely as good as the book, but I still plan on seeing it :) :) :)