T is Terrific!

We had lots of fun with the letter T! Daddy made us an EXCELLENT tent!

 It had a tunnel and everything!

 We've also been looking for a fun chair for Jayce to sit in while we have Bible time in the morning. We looked for months and didn't really find anything that worked. Then, we found this! A giant turtle pillow. And how perfect, we found it on letter T week!

 Jayce has been really into Toy Story lately. So we were able to print out a Toy Story Tot Book from http://www.1plus1plus1equals1.net/

 He was so proud of his "matching" animal toys and people toys exercise. You can find this tot book at http://www.1plus1plus1equals1.net/2011/05/toy-story-preschool-pack-free/

You can see the tool box in the background. We spent some time working on different furniture throughout the house with our tools.

 We had a GREAT find at a yard sale one day. We got a Vtech VReader for $10! It included a Toy Story 3 game. We spent some time looking through that for our letter T. It has great listening games and spelling games on it, but Jayce particularly likes to read through the story and click on each character to see what special things they say or do.

That's our journey for letter T. Mommy's getting a little anxious about finishing up our school time, so we're going to start doing two letters a week. A little ambitious, but since Jayce is already so familiar with each letter and it's sound, I think we'll do just fine. We're SO close to finishing!!

What's In the Bible?

  As a Christian Mommy, I'm always looking for creative ways to sow the Word into my children's lives. We do daily Bible time together and make sure to memorize Bible verses, doing our best to explain them and teach Jayce how to apply them to his life. So, I was so excited when Jayce took an interest in VeggieTales at a very young age. I don't know if it was Bob's bright red color or Larry's goofy innocence, but Jayce was in love! Whenever we asked him what he'd like to watch, the answer was usually the same..."Bob". Adam and I have also enjoyed the creative little show. It's very quick-witted and had such an intriguing way of presenting each Bible story. We would all find ourselves singing the songs and quoting the characters as we went about our day. So when Phil Vischer (the creator of VeggieTales) came out with a new series called "What's in the Bible?", Adam and I were quick to check it out. We were able to rent a copy of the first DVD in the series from the library, and we were very impressed by what we saw.
  The characters were terrific, no surprise, the humor was ingenious, but most of all, the delivery of the Gospel and the Word, was astounding! The Truth, the hard parts, and the wonderful parts, was presented in a way that is easy for children to understand, but was not watered down. After watching that first DVD, we bought the whole six DVD set (and can hardly wait to buy the rest of them as the come out).
  Here's what I wanted to share with all the parents out there. My son, Jayce is only 2 1/2, so I know there are some things in these movies that he doesn't quite understand. The parts about the church history and the Pentetauch can be a little hard to follow for someone so young, (although Jayce does sing the song about the Pentatauch quite a bit) but I was surprised at how much my little warrior WAS following!
   One night, while getting Jayce tucked into bed, Adam and I were talking to him about some decisions he had made throughout the day. It had been a tough day for Jayce, lots of whining and disobedience, and with that came some unpleasant discipline. I looked at Jayce and said "God allows us to chose everyday Jayce. And we need to choose what is right, not what is wrong." Jayce looked at me and said "Like Adam and Eve." A little surprised at his response, I said, "YES! Just like Adam and Eve." He then replied, "Disobey God." Again, Adam and I were surprised at how much he seemed to be uderstanding what we were trying to explain to him. Although I had told Jayce the story of Adam and Eve, it had been some time ago. We knew his answers were coming from the"What's In the Bible" DVD that he had been watching. In a certain part it explains what "sin" is and when it was introduced into the world and how God has given us the power to choose. So much delight went through me as I realized that God was using these movies to teach Jayce about Him! 
  Of course I understand the importantance and absolute necessity of God's truth being taught through our lives. We know we can't just sit our children down in front of the television and expect it to do all the work and we, by no means, do that. But, like I said, as a Christian Mommy, I'm always looking for ways to confirm what my husband and I are trying to teach my kids about God. In fun ways, practical ways, interesting ways, and exciting ways. And "What's in the Bible" has definitely done this for us. So, I just wanted to send a recommendation out from one Mommy to another, letting you know that this has helped our family and I know it's something that will continue to help encourage our children in the way they should go.
  Now, when asked, "Jayce, what do you want to watch?" He responds with "What's in the Bible? with Buck Denver. Man of neeeeeeewss."

http://whatsinthebible.com/

Better Late Than Never R & S

  This is the first time I've ever tried to be faithful with a blog and I've come to realize that I really dislike being late on my posts. By the time I finally get around to putting everything together, I have forgotten a lot of what we've done and what all I had in mind that I wanted to say with each post. The whole point of having this blog was to help me keep track of Jayce's progress with school and jot down some of my thoughts, successes, and failures along the way, but it's hard to do all of that when you forget what those things were by the time you post them haha. So, after this, I am going to really try to stay on top of our little school blog.

Letter R and Spring Celebrations

We learned about Rusty Rooster, where he lives, what he eats, and what he looks like. This page tested Jayce's listening skills, he listened well and remembered that Rusty Rooster sometimes eats corn.

To celebrate spring time we planted some flowers.

 We planted some sunflowers, daisies, and I forgot what the other ones were, maybe some forget-me-nots, which would be ironic!

And of course no spring celebration is complete without making cupcakes!!

 The Lord is so good! We learned about rainbows and how they are God's promise to us, and lo and behold, He provided us with a sweet surprise...a rainbow right outside our door!!

                  Then, we spent some time playing in the rain! A perfect way to end a spring day!

Letter S

For the letter S, we made a special craft. A sock puppet!

We named him Sammy Sock. Jayce was thrilled! He wanted Sammy to have snack with him, play dinosaurs with him, and he even wanted to take Sammy to the grocery store. For a couple days, Jayce and Sammy were pretty good buddies!

Our special baking proect (which involved no baking at all) was a strawberry shortcake. I was sure that Jayce would love this snack, he LOVES strawberries and cake, so I figured the added whipped cream would be a combination of delight. Instead, he ate the strawberries off the top and left the rest. Oh well!!

Soon to follow will be letters T, U, and V. Almost done! WOOHOO!