(And All My) Work Be Praise

Scripture: Luke 2:1-7 Focus: manger, swaddling cloths Craft: manger, sleeping baby Jesus This was actually two days' work: first the manger, then the baby. I realized after  making the manger that next time we're doing a letter-themed preschool year, "M is for Manger" might make a good December theme! popsicle sticks, twigs, felt, small gold ornament, hot glue, Sharpie-drawn closed eyes Scripture: Matthew 2:1-12 Focus: star, sweet-smelling gifts Craft: sparkly star, cinnamon ornaments cardstock, tinsel "thread" This looks really cool when you wrap it in a logical pattern. Not quite as cool at random, but that's okay. We also made cinnamon-applesauce ornaments (1 cup of each, bake at 200 degrees for 2 hours), using star cookie cutters, but I did not get any pictures. I did manage to put an initial on three of them (one for each boy), so next year if we actually get a tree put up, I'll have personalized ornaments f...

I really wanted to do a big shebang for my husband's birthday this year. 35 just seems like a big important number somehow -- or maybe it's just that I still can hardly believe I'll be there myself in just a few years. At any rate, with his dearest friends spread far and wide, and myself rather enormous and exhausted with child, I knew a big party would be next to impossible. Instead, I stole this idea from the Dating Divas and planned a balloon-themed birthday celebration. Several weeks ago, I mailed a letter and a balloon to about 30 of Isaac's friends (the plan, of course, was to get 35 balloons, but I never even got that many sent out, so the fact that I ended up with nearly 25 seemed pretty good to me!). They each blew up the balloon, wrote a note on it in Sharpie, let the air out, and sent it back to me. I collected them in a jar, and when we celebrated, Isaac got to blow them all back up and read the messages. It was an inflatable-guitar-playing day f...

Scripture: Luke 1:5-25 Focus: Zechariah's unbelief Craft: Zechariah face Zechariah's face: yogurt lid, yarn hair, googly eyes, pasta nose, bubble-wrap mouth Scripture: Luke 1:26-38 Focus: Mary's belief Craft: clothespin Mary (picture below) Scripture: Luke 1:39-45 Focus: Mary and Elizabeth Craft: pregnant ladies Watercolors, paper doll template, pop-dot stickers (those 3D scrapbooking double-stick dots) Levi's pastel ladies. Owen's blue-green ladies.  Cracks me up how all four of them are so obviously carrying boys  (given their extremely low baby bellies). Scripture: Luke 1:57-80 Focus: Jesus as the rising sun  Craft: mosaic sun sun template, black construction paper, sticky glitter foam (cut into pieces by me) Scripture: Matthew 1:18-24 Focus: Joseph Craft: clothespin Joseph slotted clothespins, felt, hot glue . . . and then rubber band "belts", when the glue wouldn't h...

(Yes, okay, it's Monday. I didn't get to this yesterday, but it was still on my mind.) Deep in the trenches of mothering little people, I understand the concept of bending down to help those who cannot help themselves more than I ever could have pre-parenthood. This line, from Keith Getty's Holy Child , struck me in a new way yesterday: Glory kneels to mend all that is torn. Glory. King of kings, Lord of lords, robed in splendor and majesty. Kneeling, like I do every day, every hour, to change diapers and wipe tears and re-attach Duplo pieces and guide little hands full of puzzle pieces. To cleanse our sinfulness. To wipe tears and repair hearts and guide little sheep wandering far. It's quite something.

Read about past St. Nicholas Days: 2011  and 2012 . Baby has a stocking, just in case. I don't know whether it's three years of practice or the fact that my kids are getting old enough to understand, but this was our best St. Nicholas Day celebration yet, in my opinion. We have two picture books that tell the story of Nicholas -- My Christmas Stocking  and The Legend of the Christmas Stocking  -- that we've been reading frequently this week, and Levi especially is really grasping the concept of giving to people who don't have as much as we do. In holding to the traditions, we dropped gold coins into the boys' shoes for them to find first thing this morning. I don't even know why I still had a little bag of gold-wrapped chocolate coins in my cupboard, leftover from some holiday last year, but old, cheap chocolate is just fine for little people. Lined up under the felt Christmas tree. Littlest man is digging the chocolate coin. They...

Scripture: Isaiah 9:2-7 Focus: light, kingdom Crafts: tissue paper candle, toilet paper tube crown Since this curriculum is one I paid for, I'm not going to go into a lot of detail on how to do the crafts, what we talked about, etc. But it should be pretty self-explanatory, and will give you a feel for what we're doing. It's $7.99 for the curriculum (plus schedules and craft templates), and you really could jump in at any point if you wanted to! First day after dinner: light. I have no idea why Owen is holding the masking tape, but the candle craft (template included in the ebook) is in his hands. Second day after dinner: kingdom. I cut and painted the toilet paper tube to save time. The "jewels" are cut out of sticky glitter foam, which I purchased at Walmart for another project coming up. See? I told you the crafts were easy. :)

I know I already started posting about Christmas activities, but I'm going to take a quick jump back to sum up our Thanksgiving activities (beyond the  thankful leaves ). Very proud of his coloring skills.  Books: Over the River and Through the Wood   illustrated by David Catrow. This humorous (and a bit wacky) version is set in the middle of the Macy's parade. My kids had never seen it, so we made sure to watch a bit while at my parents' house for Thanksgiving! Three Young Pilgrims   by Cheryl Harness. A little serious for the preschool crowd, but with tons of extra information about the journey across the Atlantic and the first Thanksgiving feast that Levi found interesting. One Terrific Thanksgiving , a silly book about food and friends that both boys enjoyed. Craft:  Stained Glass Turkey Food: turkey pancakes, turkey quesadillas  (the shape, not the meat) Printable packets available: Oopsey Daisey , 123homeschool4me , 3dinosaurs , theRoadto3...

See the 2012 version here. This afternoon, while the littles napped, Levi and I made our Christmas paper chain. Once again, he did pretty much all the work! This year for Advent, we're working through a preschool curriculum called Truth in the Tinsel . It was part of a bundle of e-books I bought a while back, and is all the rage among several of the blogs I read semi-regularly. There is an ornament craft for every day of the week, with accompanying Scripture passage and extra activities. I do NOT expect, in any way, to actually complete an ornament every day, even though they are at the super-simple preschool level! But we're going to do what we can. Also, I'm not putting up a tree this year (see yesterday's post about the destructive 18-month-old in my house, and then remember I'll be nursing a newborn sometime in the next 4 weeks), so I'm not quite sure where I'm going to display the ornaments. To help keep us on track, I had Levi write the Scriptur...

Last year, I made a big tree out of paper bags and taped it to the wall.  Every night after dinner we wrote things we're thankful for on leaves and added them to the tree. This year, I have an almost-eighteen-month-old who is the very description of destruction. Puzzles we've had for two years are missing pieces for the first time. Board books we've had since before my oldest was even born now have broken spines. As of last week, the computer gets locked every time I stand up, in preparation for the beating the keyboard is likely to take the second I look away. (We're in full-on training mode here.) As such, the idea of taping anything to the wall and having it last more than an hour was totally preposterous. I weighed some options and finally decided still to make leaves, but to tape them to the bulkhead above my kitchen cupboards. It made for a fun fall decoration! Back at the beginning of November, I covered the dining room table in paper and gave the boys...