Yesterday was a b-u-s-y day! Between a 15-month checkup with shots (ouch!) for little one and his first haircut, we really put Eli through the ringer. I’d been waiting until we got the new camera before taking him for his first haircut and this picture shows just how badly he needed it.
You’ll see the haircut started out without a care in the world. Eli had a sucker (and no idea what was coming.) I’ve spared your the worst of it, but needless to say, the sucker didn’t distract him from the strange man tugging at his head. The last picture shows him escaping to the other side of the shop when it was all over.
The barber used a vacuum attached to his shears and I didn’t get a little tuft of hair to save! I didn’t even think about it until I came home, when I almost broke out in tears!!
Later in the afternoon, our Keepers At Home group visited a local greenhouse for a tour and a class in flower arranging. It really put us all in the mood to start planting!
All this fun doesn’t even include the THIRD trip we took into town for ball practice. So much for trying to save gas now that we’re paying $3.45 a gallon!
Even with almost half of our club missing due to a funeral/illness/traveling, the first ever meeting of our Creation Club was a BLAST! This month’s theme focused on why we study God’s creation and how God has perfectly designed plant and animal interdependency through food chains and predator/prey relationships.
The meeting started with a reading of Psalm 95: 3-6 as we talked about enjoying nature as a form of worship. Then we talked about the importance of Christians being wise about nature and creation in order to be able to “give an answer” (1 Peter 3:15) when approached with questions – especially questions concerning creation vs. evolution.
Then the fun really began! We recently had a flood in our area, so we headed on a hike to find evidence of flooding. After a nice walk, the kids pulled out their nature journals to draw and write about some of the evidence they found.
Then, they went on a “mini-hike”. With a piece of string in hand, they were allowed to find any spot of land, place the string in a circle and very closely observe everything within the circle. They journaled all their findings.
After a picnic lunch, we talked about how God has created all of nature to be connected in some form or fashion. In other words, plants get their energy from the sun, while rabbits get their energy from plants, and a snakes can get their energy from rabbits. However, if all the plants died, for instance, the snakes eventually would, too, since they feed on animals that feed on plants. We used terms like food chains, food webs, herbivores, carnivores, omnivores, producers, consumers, and population.
We played a few games to cement the new terms and concepts. First was a simple food chain game. I gave the kids notecards and they had to put themselves in correct order in the food chains.
Then we played a food chain simulation game. “Grasshoppers” had to get energy from the plants (popcorn) by placing the plant in their body (baggie). Lizards chased the grasshoppers. When tagged, the grasshoppers had to give their energy to the lizards and die. The lizards had to be careful, though, because hawks were busily hunting them!
Then we played a quick game of population survival. Snakes (colored cards) were in a field. Hawks (cardboard squares) tried to land on a snake. If they did, the snake disappeared and the hawk survived. If they didn’t, the hawk died and more snakes were born (added to the field.) As the hawks ate up snakes, the population of snakes got so low that it was harder and harder for the hawk to survive. As the hawks died, the snake population could quickly grow to be too big.
And to end the afternoon, I gave the kids a “test”. As a group, they had to match words and definitions of all the many concepts we had learned about.
Oh yeah, after lunch we did a quick little craft. The kids used a wood burning tool and made a little paper wieght with their name on it.
I’m so glad we decided to keep the group small and limit it to children in 3rd-6th grade. Too many more children, or too many more age groups would have been very tough to teach. I’m looking so forward to many more months of our Creation Club!
Kids and Money – Teaching Biblical Stewardship and Allowances
This topic can go so many different ways based on the preferences of parents. I’m offering just a brief overview of how we handle kids and money in our house. I’d love to hear some of your ideas and thoughts about raising money-wise, generous children.
God tells us to give – to Him and to others. Biblical stewardship can come in the form of money, things and time. That’s something we try to teach our children early, so when they were little we bought My Giving Bank. They would put their little bits of money in the tithe, save and spend sections and it gave them a good picture of one Biblically sound way to organize their money. We would transfer the same idea over to time, for instance, too. “Make sure your time is being spent on God, others and yourself – not necessarily in the same percentages as the money bank, though.”
As time has gone on, chores and allowance have been added to the mix. We, personally, use allowance as “pay” for chores. The amount is set. Chores aren’t an option, so they get paid the full amount each week. The older you are, the more you make. (You also do a few more chores.) Our children are expected to tithe and save part of their allowance. They are responsible for purchasing all their “wants”. Of course “wants” can be placed on a birthday or Christmas list, but the rest of the year, the “wants” are their responsibility. No money may be removed from tithing or savings to purchase a “want”.
We do not give loans. Brother or sister may choose to make a loan to the other, but nothing else can be purchased by the borrower until the original loan has been paid off. A fair interest on the loan is acceptable if the loaner wants to charge the borrower.
If a big-ticket item is on the “want” list, our children may offer to do extra big-time chores and negotiate a fair wage for the chores. They are also free to offer house cleaning, baking, pet-sitting, etc. to grandparents and neighbors if they’d like to try to earn even more money.
That’s our plan.
Here are some helpful resources. Some of which we have used, while others have been recommended by friends.
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