Noah

This semester, Levi is working through a Bible study called Because I Said So: A Study on Obedience. He's doing the junior version, geared towards children ages 4-7. My husband suspects it might be a little over his head by the time we get to the end, but for now (three lessons in), I'm really enjoying it. We read a Bible story together and answer a few discussion questions. As with science, for now I'm writing down his answers so that he's not hung up on the writing part. Then later in the week, he draws a picture of the story and writes down the main part. So far we've covered Jonah (obey without delay), King Saul (obey completely), and Noah (obey without question).

When it works out (yes for Jonah and Noah, not so much for Saul), I'm incorporating related crafts and activities for all three boys. My aunt (the former daycare lady) gave us a stack of watercolor and sticker books that correspond to the Beginner's Bible that we use a lot (come to think of it, she gave us the Bible, too). The Noah book has those pages of perforated stickers of the lick-and-stick variety . . . do you know what I'm talking about? So, for example, in the picture below, the bats are outlined in blue, and that's where Levi stuck on the bat sticker.

It turned out to be an immediate object lesson: I said, "don't color over the blue part," and he said, "why?" A perfect opportunity to remind him of the story we JUST read and discussed and how Noah obeyed without question even though he didn't understand why! It's a good tool to have in my pocket at this stage, too, since "why" is most definitely the reaction of choice to any given instruction.

We completed the craft outlined here (scroll down a little bit) with popsicle sticks and glue. I placed the sticks in the shape I wanted first, then traced around them with a marker. Owen, my little artist, finished much more quickly (and much, much more orderly) than his big brother! I managed to find some stickers with matching animals in my stash, so that we could have two of each kind.

Frogs and snakes and ducks, oh my!

While cleaning out a huge stack of junk in the den (I'm not exaggerating), I happened upon a 60-piece puzzle of Noah's ark. The boys like to do puzzles while the little boys nap, so I set them to it one afternoon. They're getting much better at puzzles, and also at getting along while working on a puzzle together. I'm most grateful for the latter. ;)

My last plan for the week was to bring up the big cardboard blocks and make an ark in the living room. Something got lost in translation, though, and instead of cleaning up the Duplos so we could bring up the blocks, they ended up just making the ark out of Duplos (with Daddy's help). Whatever works!

Owen spends most of every afternoon building with the Duplos.