The Problem and The Promise: First Week of Advent

As I started thinking about advent activities for my kids this year, I initially planned to jump right into the nativity story.  However, as I read a bit about traditional advent celebrations, I noticed that the first candle in an advent wreath represents the prophets who predicted the coming of Jesus.

The more I thought about it, the more I realized that there is really not way to teach kids the significance of a savior being born unless they understand why it is they need saving.  Therefore, the focus of our first week of advent activities will be sin and prophecy.  (Doesn't that sound festive?)   I'm entitling it The Problem and The Promise Week, and working on how to convey the key ideas at an age-appropriate level through activities that we'll all enjoy together.

Here's what I'm planning:

Day 1:  Creation (laying the foundation that all was good until sin entered as a problem)
Day 2:  The fall of Adam and Eve (focus on the problem of sin and the promise of an offspring who would crush the serpents head)
Day 3:  The flood (focus on the problem of sin and the promise that God would never flood the earth again)
Day 4:  Abraham (focus on the promise that he would be the father of a great nation and that through him all nations would be blessed)
Day 5:  The prophecy of Isaiah (focus on the problem of Israel sinning and the promise of a coming savior)

Matchbox Advent Calendar: Easy, Cute, Custom, Cheap

During the middle of Christmas season last year, I realized that Big Brother was old enough to understand the true significance of Christmas, but that I was totally failing to communicate it.  I resolved to do better this year.  The first step in my plan to help convey the significance of Christ's birth is an advent calendar.  I wanted something that would be able to hold a little note for each day with each note directing the kids to an activity, building their understanding of the events of Christmas over the weeks.

My talented friend  at lovejoypaper, kindly helped me (the crafting-incompetent one) by creating this amazing advent calendar, buying all the supplies, and then coming over to help me and a few other friends construct them.

Here's a picture of her finished project:


These were quite simple to make.  We started by emptying 25 match boxes and cutting Christmas-themed scrapbooking paper to wrap each box.  We used her punches to punch out printed numbers 1-25 and the contrasting circle to back each number.   A small magnet attached to the back of each box allows  them to be displayed on either a cookie sheet (as pictured above) or on the refrigerator.

The matchboxes slide open, making a perfect hiding spot for a small candy, sticker, piece of gum, or a little note.   None of my cookie sheets are magnetic, so, for the moment, mine is on my refrigerator:

It really is nearly as lovely as the prototype; it is my photography that suffers in comparison.  I love how it turned out and Big Brother is already itching to start opening boxes.

Christmas Joy

Tonight Big Brother discovered that we'd brought the Christmas tree (yes, artificial: ick, yuck, bleh) down from the attic.  Eavesdropping on him from the bedroom, I heard him tell Sis, "We're going to put it up and decorate the whole house and it will be beautiful.  Let's say our verse!"  Then they both started shouting Psalm 100:1-2 and dancing around the living room:  "Shout for joy to the LORD all the earth!  Worship the Lord with gladness!"  I love that they own this verse!

Four Ways to Make Thanksgiving More Than a Mere Culinary Event

I confess that in previous years, I've not given much thought to Thanksgiving beyond menu-planning.  This year, my goal has been to move beyond a single day culinary event to make Thanksgiving the focus of our entire month.  Here's a summary of what we did this year:

1.  Learn about the historical and spiritual heritage of the pilgrims together.
Mid-October, I hit the library and requested nearly every Thanksgiving title I could find in their catalog.  As the books started arriving from various branches in early November, I get a wee little raised eyebrow from the librarian requesting that I return at least some of them sooner than my one month due date!   Next year, after reading books about Thanksgiving with the kids, I plan to make Thanksgiving story bracelets, to make sure my kids have internalized some of  the details.  Following is a list of resources which I found helpful:

Thanksgiving:  A Time to Remember by Barbara Rainey--Geared toward an audience older than preschoolers, this was a great jumping off point for me to think about ways to make God a focus of our celebration.

This is the Feast by Diane Z. Shore--This picture book is my favorite for conveying to a preschool child both the history and faith of the Pilgrims who celebrated the first Thanksgiving feast, perfect for my 4 year old.

Off to Plymouth Rock! by Dandi Daley Mackall--This picture book is simple, but focuses on the history and faith of the Pilgrims.  Ideal for my 2 year old, but also enjoyable for my 4 year old.

On the Mayflower:  Voyage of the Ship's Apprentice & a Passenger Girl by Kate Waters
Sarah Morton's Day:  A Day in the Life of a Pilgrim Girl by Kate Waters
Samuel Eaton's Day:  A Day in the Life of a Pilgrim Boy by Kate Waters--These three books filled with real photos are great to help create context.

Scholastic's Thanksgiving webpage:  Scholastic's site contains many diagrams and photographs also from Plimouth Plantation and would be a good resource for an interested slightly older child.  The pages seem to load slowly for me, and I don't love letting my kids look at web pages, so I have focused more on the books than this web source.



2.  Celebrate God's sovereignty.
Squanto and the Miracle of Thanksgiving by Eric Metaxas  This book conveys the history of Thanksgiving by following Squanto's life with a decidedly Christian perspective and highlights God's sovereignty.

3.  Cultivate a spirit of thankfulness.
Below are a few of the activities I tried with my kids:

• Make Gratitude Chains--Make paper chains, writing something for which you are grateful on each link.  Next year I want to makes these lovely gratitude garlands instead.
• Spontaneous Thank You Cards--Send just-because thank you cards throughout the month.  We made fall leaf cards and Veterans Day cards to send.  
• Memorize a Thankful Psalm--We decided to work on Psalm 100. 
• Guest-specific Gratitude Place Cards--I heard this suggestion on call-in radio show.  We didn't get to it, but I want to preserve it on this list for next year.  Create a place card for each guest invited to Thanksgiving, listing five reasons for which you are grateful for that person.  What a great way to bless each of guest.  

4.  Pray for the persecuted church.
Each year, a Sunday early in November is the International Day of Prayer for the Persecuted Church.  As I've read and researched the story of Thanksgiving and the Pilgrims, I've come to realize it is the story of God's faithfulness to the persecuted church.  I have not figured out how to appropriately include my kids in this yet, but this month I have focused on praying for the persecuted church around the world.  After discussing this with a friend, she mentioned that she and her family were going to begin Thanksgiving day with a special breakfast and time of pray.  I may try that next year.

Thank You Note Thursday Round Two

For this Thank You Note Thursday, we started by making potato stamps using fall leaf and acorn cookie cutters.

We used Crayola washable paints to stamp on white card stock.

Big Brother started out a bit too systematically and Sis was a little more into smearing than stamping.

But Big Brother got the hang of making it random.  Great thing about fall leaf stamps--the inevitable color-mixing added to the effect.

 After they had dried, I trimmed them down and had the kids glue them to precut cards made of brown card stock.

Then we brainstormed people to whom we should send them.  Sis picked Grandma; Big Brother picked his preschool teachers, a helper from church, and Grandpa; I sent one to a friend who let us pick from her fruit trees this summer.

The kids dictated text to me and then added a picture on the inside and Big Brother signed his name.  The cards were lovely and the kids enjoyed every step of the process.

When You Walk by the Way

Morning came much earlier today than I would have hoped.  As I was starting breakfast, Big Brother was in the throes of an energetic monologue about his herd of imaginary friends, "the kids."  Sis was standing by the sliding glass door and started pointing and shouting something and calling to me.  Frustrated with all the noise and distraction, I managed to break away from Big Brother's tale to see what Sis' issue was.

As I came along side her, chiding her for shouting, I saw what she was pointing to:  the eastern sky was brilliant  as the sun was just beginning to rise from behind the mountains.  The sky was filled with clouds, glowing pink like spectacular cotton candy.

I snuggled her to me and agreed, "Yes, Sis, the sky is beautiful!"  Two days ago I would have stopped there and just enjoyed the view, but yesterday I heard some one make the point that conveying our spiritual values to our children isn't about well-planned family devotions, it's about expressing our faith every day in every little situation as Deuteronomy 6:5-9 describes:


You shall love the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your might. ⁶ These words, which I am commanding you today, shall be on your heart. ⁷You shall teach them diligently to your sons and shall talk of them when you sit in your house and when you walk by the way and when you lie down and when you rise up. ⁸ You shall bind them as a sign on your hand and they shall be as frontals on your forehead.⁹You shall write them on the doorposts of your house and on your gates.


And so I called Big Brother over  and said something like, "Isn't this beautiful?  Isn't it amazing what beautiful things God makes for us to enjoy looking at?  This just makes me want to say thank you to God.  Let's say our verses together to God."

And so we quoted the first two verses of Psalm 100 with our motions:

Shout for joy to the LORD, all the earth.
 Worship the LORD with gladness;
   come before him with joyful songs. 


It was so beautiful!  Sis really knows the verses and I  loved to see her wave her hands when we said "Worship the Lord"  as we were enjoying God's beautiful creation together.  I wish I'd snapped a picture of the morning sky to share, but I suspect it would not have done it justice anyhow.

Edited to add:  My friend posted a picture of this very sunrise on her blog.  Click through to see more of her great photography and scrapping.

Thanksgiving Anticipation and Decorations

Big Brother has been brimming with excitement about Thanksgiving for the past week or so.  His anticipation has  been building ever since we let it slip that Grandma would be here for Thanksgiving.  Tired of repeatedly helping him find the current day on the calendar ("Mama, which square are we on today?"), I crossed off all the days that have passed with a red marker and put a blue star on Thanksgiving.  Now he's eagerly and frequently counting down the days himself.  This morning when I dropped him off at the nursery for Bible study I overheard him invite the nursery attendant to our home for Thanksgiving (concluding with, "Let me know when you decide if you can make it").

He came home from preschool today and announced, "We need to get this house decorated for Thanksgiving!"   He has been obsessed with paper chains ever since Aunty K introduced him to the idea a few months ago.  I'd been planning to have him make one to decorate for Thanksgiving, so we jumped on it.  I wanted to make it a gratitude chain, so after we cut the strips, I had Big Brother dictate to me people and things for which he was thankful (my favorites on the list:  snuggles, that baby came out of your tummy, Jesus loves us).

Then he glued them into a chain.  He has become very aware of patterns lately, so was careful to keep the three colors in sequence.

We hung the finished chain across the curtain rod of one of our living room windows.  My intention with this chain was to start at the beginning of November and add to it daily.   Then life happened and I refilled a bunch of sippy cups . . . maybe next year . . .

Squanto and the Miracle of Thanksgiving

Squanto and the Miracle of Thanksgiving by Eric Metaxas--

Eric Metaxas recently published a serious (huge!) biography of Dietrich Bonohoffer and has been interviewed extensively on various programs on the Christian radio station to which I listen.  Metaxas was both engaging and intellectual in these interviews, so when I saw at Amazon that he had a picture book about Thanksgiving, I was aching to buy it.  I try to be frugal, but book-buying is a serious week spot of mine; nevertheless, I resisted.  Our library didn't have a copy, but did have tons of of other Thanksgiving books, including several about Squanto, so I restrained myself.

Then--also on Christian radio--I heard a Chris Fabry Live program about making God the focal point of our Thanksgiving celebration.  I sent an email asking if he could ask his guest for any book recommendations about Thanksgiving for preschoolers.  When Chris Fabry responded personally to my email suggesting this book by Eric Metaxas, well, that clinched it:  I couldn't resist buying it.

This book conveys the history of Thanksgiving by following Squanto's life:  kidnapped and sold into slavery, purchased by and treated kindly by monks, who arrange for him to go to England so that he ultimately can return home to America where he aids the pilgrims by teaching them how to live off the land on which they have settled, ultimately resulting in the first Thanksgiving feast.  This book has a decidedly Christian perspective and highlights God's sovereignty.   The pictures are pleasant, but not as bold or engaging as those in some of the other Thanksgiving books we read.  For a preschool audience, it is quite text-heavy with 6-8 sentences per page.  Nevertheless, my four-year old was patiently engaged with this book and interested in the story.

The climax of the book comes when William Bradford says to Squanto:  "It is like the story of Joseph from our sacred Scriptures . . . Like you, Joseph was also taken from his home and sold as a slave.  But God had a plan for him.  Through Joseph, God was able to save many people from starving.  What man had intended for evil, God intended for good.   . . . Perhaps God has sent you to be our Joseph."    After reading this page, my four-year old asked me, "Who is Joseph?"  What a great opportunity to pull our Bible story book and build on the connection by reading about Joseph's life!


I'm glad that I purchased this book, but I think it is one into which we will grow in the next few years.  

Off to Plymouth Rock!

Off to Plymouth Rock! by Dandi Daley Mackall--

When I first encountered this book on my search for Thanksgiving picture books that would convey both history and faith, it seemed too simple to me.  However, as I read more and more books, I began to realize it is really the perfect Thanksgiving book for a two-year old and is enjoyable for older children as well.  Each page has just 1-2 short, punchy, rhyming sentences accompanying interesting, although highly caricatured illustrations.  It manages to convey the historical journey and even something of the Pilgrim's attitude of thankfulness, despite the limited text.  As a stand-alone it would leave a lot of questions and gaps, but for a parent who had read up on the history elsewhere, it is an engaging tool to introduce the basic events, filling in details as interest and attention-span allow.

Books by Kate Waters about the Pilgrims

On my quest for Thanksgiving books, I found three books by Kate Waters which are not actually about Thanksgiving, but provide fantastic historical context and make a time and culture--that is a whole different world for my children--come alive.  The three books include:

• On the Mayflower:  Voyage of the Ship's Apprentice & a Passenger Girl by Kate Waters
• Sarah Morton's Day:  A Day in the Life of a Pilgrim Girl by Kate Waters
• Samuel Eaton's Day:  A Day in the Life of a Pilgrim Boy by Kate Waters

These three books all feature photos taken at Plimoth Plantation "a living history museum in Plymouth, Massachuestetts."  They are written in first person from the perspective of a child living in the 1600s.  These books do not focus on Thanksgiving at all, but do a lovely job of conveying the setting and life circumstances of the Pilgrims.  both my two-year old and four-year old found the photographs engaging.  Some pages have just 2-3 sentences along with many pictures, but other pages have longer paragraphs of 6-8 sentences.    The story line in these books is secondary to the setting they are trying to establish.  On the pages with more text, both kids lost patience with the text, but were still engaged with and inquiring about the pictures.  While not written with a strong a religious perspective, the author  conveys the role that faith would have played in daily life (prayer, scripture reading and memorization) respectfully and factually.   I won't purchase these, but will plan to check them out again next year.  

This is the Feast by Diane Z. Shore

This is the Feast by Diane Z. Shore--


On my quest to find Thanksgiving picture books that would convey both the historical and spiritual significance of the first Thanksgiving, I found a lot of duds.  Of the twenty-five books I obtained from the library, This is the Feast is my favorite for preschoolers.  It combines bold, engaging illustrations, with simple, but thorough history, and highlights the pilgrim's faith (which many of the picture books actually left out entirely).  Most pages have just one or two sentences, but combined with detailed illustrations, manage to convey a lot.   Every few pages, there is a sentence in quotes as if spoken by the pilgrims collectively thanking God:  "Thanks be to God, our strength and our guide," etc.  My four-year old enjoyed this book, examining the pictures on each page carefully and asking many questions, which allowed me to flesh out the history beyond just the simple details included in the story.   At times I found the rhyming format to be a bit clunky, but overall, this book was a winner and worth purchasing for next year. 

Thanksgiving: A Time to Remember

  Thanksgiving:  A Time to Remember by Barbara Rainey--
This book launched my thinking about the deeper significance of the Thanksgiving holiday.  It is written from a decidedly Christian perspective, so highlights the thankful spirit of the pilgrims, their trust in God's sovereignty, and the role that religion played in their desire to flee the persecution of England and to settle where they could worship freely.  It is intended to be read aloud, with each section containing two sizes of print so you may read the brief large-print portion to a young audience, but the entire text to an older audience.  Even reading just the brief large-print portion, however, it is impractical for use with my preschool children as the illustrations are primarily collages of Thanksgiving images, not illustrations of the story, and the text just is not captivating enough to hold their attention alone.  It is definitely a book worth reading, but for now, it's a book I'll check out from the library to obtain background information for myself.  When my children are older, I may consider purchasing it.

Shout for Joy!

According to Barbara Rainey in her book Thanksgiving:  A Time to Remember, upon arriving at Plymouth, the  pilgrims read Psalm 100 in thanks to God for the successful end of their journey.

Psalm 100

A psalm. For giving grateful praise.

 ¹ Shout for joy to the LORD, all the earth.
 ² Worship the LORD with gladness;
   come before him with joyful songs.
³ Know that the LORD is God.
   It is he who made us, and we are his;
   we are his people, the sheep of his pasture.
 ⁴ Enter his gates with thanksgiving
   and his courts with praise;
   give thanks to him and praise his name.
⁵ For the LORD is good and his love endures forever;
   his faithfulness continues through all generations.


Memorizing this psalm with my kids seemed like a beautiful way to both commemorate the history of Thanksgiving and to foster a spirit of thankfulness toward God.  But can a four-year old and two-year old memorize an entire five verse psalm?  Two-year old Sis has the entire text of Fancy Nancy committed to memory, so it didn't seem too unrealistic.

I hatched this plan in October and then November crept up on me and we were a week and half in before we started.  We started working on it while outside doing a fall gardening project.  I find times like this to be perfect for memorization:  when my body is busy, but my mind is not.

Here's the strategy I used:

Repeat:  Starting with a small chunk, we all repeated the text together.  To keep this interesting, I mix it up by instructing the kids to shout it or whisper it or say it while clapping or say it while jumping and so on.  We also added some motions which seemed to help it click:

Shout for joy [cup hands around mouth like a megaphone] to the LORD [point to sky] all the earth [make a loop with arm].

Worship [wave arms like a charismatic] the LORD [point to sky] with gladness [point to the corners of a big smile on face].

Recite:  After doing it together many times, we each recite it independently.

Reinforce:  To make it more than just a memory activity, I talked to the kids about what the words meant and tried to connect the idea from the verses to experiences they have had.  We talked about times we feel joyful and times they shout for joy--like when we hear the garage door open tipping us off that Papa is home from work.

After our gardening was finished I once again slacked off on working on this with the kids, so we've really only tackled the first two verses.  However, I was delighted that when we revisited it today, Big Brother and Sis really had what we had worked on down pat.  I was especially tickled that Sis, at just two-years old, kept spontaneously saying, "Shout for joy to the 'wowrd' all 'de' 'erf.'"  So sweet!

We'll see how much more we can get memorized in the next few days and next year we'll do better.  What they evidenced today made it clear this is an achievable goal and has my mind whirring thinking about what we should work on memorizing for Christmas.

Pumpkin Pie Play Dough

About six months ago, I realized that I am done with commercial play dough: it is expensive; the kids squabble over the different colors; they then turn around and immediately mix the colors, which seems to change the texture and cause it to dry out more quickly, which means it needs to be replaced more frequently, which brings us back around to--expensive.

A friend gave me this recipe for homemade play dough:

1 cup flour
1/2 cup salt
1 T cream of tarter
2-3 T cooking oil
1 cup boiling water

--Combine dry ingredients
--Add boiling water and 2 T oil
--Stir, then knead, add flour if too sticky (I find it helpful to walk away and let it cool off before adding flour; it firms up as it cools and I add too much flour if I start too soon)
--Add another splash of oil at the end to help keep it moist
--Add color by coloring the water; use food dye or 2 packs of unsweetened Kool-Aid concentrate (which adds both color and scent)


We made some Thanksgiving inspired play dough last night.  Big Brother and Sis helped me combine the ingredients:

I was inspired by this Chasing Cheerios blog post to make this batch pumpkin pie play dough, so we used orange dye and added pumpkin pie spice and cinnamon.  It required a surprising amount of spice before it started smelling yummy.

The kids had a great time playing with it while Papa made dinner.  We just make one color at a time which leaves them nothing about which to squabble about (except who gets which play dough tool . . .).  They've been loving play dough for about a year now and it's one of the few activities that will hold the attention of both kids for 20-60 minutes.

Operation Christmas Child Shoe Boxes

Each year we strive to make giving a focus of our Christmas celebration and it's my goal to include my children in this.  For the last two years, Big Brother and I have filled a shoe box for   Operation Christmas Child .  He and I make it a date and go shopping to fill a shoe box full of treats, toys, and essentials for a child in need some where in the world.  This year I let him decide whether we were filling the box for a boy or girl, and I was pleasantly surprised when he picked girl--much easier to shop for a girl.

As we shopped, we talked about the little girl who would receive this box, that she probably doesn't have toys and needs many things both fun and practical.   I guide the shopping--going to the tooth brush aisle and letting him pick one out; going to the doll aisle and letting him choose a doll.   He's a good sport and cheerfully picks and chooses for her and never asks for anything for himself.  When we got home, we squished everything into the box.

This year we used the EZ Give feature and donated $7 online to cover the shipping of the box, which allowed us to print a label with a tracking code.  If all goes right, we should get information about where the box ends up, which will foster a lovely geography lesson as Big Brother is very interested in maps at the moment.

2 Corinthians 9:7  Each one must do just as he has purposed in his heart, not grudgingly or under compulsion, for God loves a cheerful giver.  

Thank You Note Thursday

Leading up to Thanksgiving, I want to address three threads with my children:  gratitude, God's sovereignty, and the persecuted church.  Given their age, I suspect that we this year will be primarily about gratitude and a bit about God's sovereignty.

Each Thursday in November I plan to help them make random thank you notes.  That is, thank you notes that are not for some specific gift, favor, etc, but spontaneously sent in appreciation of something someone does that often goes overlooked.  This Thursday was, conveniently, Veteran's day, so we were able to kill two birds with one stone.

First, we talked to Big Brother (age 4) about soldiers.  (We had to do a little clarifying as when we initially asked him what soldiers do, his response was that they are bad and mean because they nailed Jesus to the cross.)  My husband sat with him and looked though some pictures on Facebook of friends and family in military uniform, pointing out to him the American flags displayed on their uniforms and discussing all the ways soldiers help keep us safe.

My husband and I precut and folded blue card stock as the base of the cards, cut strips of red and white card stock, and had a supply of foil stars on hand.   With Papa's help, Big Brother went to work.

We made a card for each Grandpa, my brother currently in the military, and a WWII veteran losing his eyesight.  After making the cards, Big Brother dictated a message (written by Papa) thanking each of them for their service and then signed his name.  The final result looked very much like it was made by a four year old (with which I'm perfectly happy).

This coming Thursday we'll make another round of cards with the added challenge of having him decide to whom the cards should be sent and for whom we are making them.  I also plan to include Sis (2 years old) and myself in the next round of card making.

Ephesians 5:20 always giving thanks for all things in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ to God, even the Father;