Posted by Cindy on August 31, 2008
After VBS at church, our Sunday evening Kidz Group (1st-5th grades) started working on a Kid’s Cookbook to use as a tool to minister to the new children who visited our church during VBS.
We used a Bible concordance to search for verses about food and drink relating to God and Jesus. After deciding on four verses, they were typed up (by me) and illustrated by the children.
Next, the children each shared one to three recipes they are able to make by themselves. Again, I typed them up and the children illustrated the recipes.
All the kids signed the final page of the book to personalize it. And we were sure to include an invite to the various children’s programs we have at church in hopes that some of the new children (and parents) will make our church a home for themselves. In trying to share Jesus with people in a practical and fun way, our prayer is that the children will come to know the Lord loves them and we do, too.
Posted by Cindy on August 29, 2008
Do you ever feel like a cruise director in your home? Me too. I don’t know about you, but with three kiddos in the house now, among various other home and church duties, I don’t have time to stand on “deck” with my clip board in hand passing out brochures of the latest and greatest activities that will be taking place on the ”ship” this afternoon. In fact, it’s about all I can do anymore to get school lessons planned, prepared and taught each day!
So, one of the habits I’m diligently trying to train into my children is the ability to occupy themselves. It’s partly my fault they aren’t very good at it because I *did* direct most of their activities for years. “Let’s play this.” “Let’s make that.” “Let’s go here.” “Let’s read this.” Yep, when my children were younger and I didn’t have quite the amount of responsibility I have now, I enjoyed being the cruise director of the house. That and the fact that all my children are naturally very active and inquisitive make for kids who expect mom to keep them busy.
Truth be told, I’ve been working on training the habit of occupying self for quite a while now, but habits are hard to break. I suppose I shouldn’t be so hard on myself. Mahayla, who is eleven, is very capable of keeping herself busy during the down times of the day – finally. And Caleb, who is eight, can keep himself busy if the t.v. stays off! He much prefers to have someone to do something with (aka mom, dad or sister), but will play by himself if given no other option. 
)
Some things I’ve done in the past and/or am doing now to train them to occupy themselves are:
- learning centers
- quiet, alone times during the afternoon
- mandatory outside time for an hour or two in the afternoons
- I’m Bored lists
- What Can I Do Indoors and Outdoors? lists (see the outdoor list below)
- and I always have a long list of chores waiting if someone really can’t find something to do
Posted by Cindy on August 28, 2008
I’m having a hard time justifying blogging in light of what Marsha and her family are going through. I have several posts ready to go, but just don’t see them as important right now when I know how much a blogging friend is hurting. I’ll be back to post again sometime soon, hopefully in time for the next CM Carnival. Please keep Marsha’s family in your prayers.
In the midst of sadness, the Lord sent some little friends to lift my spirits today. This is a day old tomato that was bumped out of the bucket on its way to the compost pile. Butterflies and moths made it their home all morning.
Posted by Cindy on August 27, 2008
Please pray for Marsha and her family. They lost their sweet three year old son yesterday in a drowning accident. My heart is breaking for them.
Posted by Cindy on August 26, 2008
In our quest to learn Early American History this year, we began by studying early American explorers. I used a book from Evan-Moor titled Who Discovered America? as the spine for information, notebooking pages and activity ideas. It seems as if this book might no longer be in print, however. When searching Evan-Moor’s site, I found Explorers of North America History Pockets that looks to be similar - and possibly even better.
Because my main goal was to help the kiddos understand that the famous Christopher Columbus wasn’t the first or only person to “discover” America, we didn’t spend too much time delving into particular explorers. A brief history of how natives were already in the Americas, a look into the Vikings, and short spurts of Columbus, Cabot, Vespucci, Balboa and Magellan were all we covered.
Two of our favorite books from the unit were:
Leif the Lucky
and
Encounter (this book gives an unusual view of Columbus from the native’s view point)
Even though Mahayla is a voracious reader, I didn’t do a very good job of finding good literature that went along with our units last year. She would find plenty of unrelated books to keep her busy, but I wanted to be sure to assign her at least one book to go along with each history unit this year. Her assigned book for this unit was Morning Girl. Besides simply reading her assigned book, she will be responsible for at least one project or writing assignment to show her understanding. This book’s assignment was to draw a picture from something she read in the book, and then put herself in the shoes of one of the main characters as she wrote about what was going on in the picture.
Now we’re on to a study of Native Americans. I’ll be sure to post notes from that unit when it’s finished!
