A Generous Heart

"Each of you should give what you have decided in your heart to give, not reluctantly or under compulsion, for God loves a cheerful giver."

2 Corinthians 9:7

 

  This month we are trying to teach the boys about about generosity, which we defined as "giving graciously." Sometimes that means giving our time, sometimes it's giving our money, our toys, our help, there are all kinds of ways we can be generous. Our first week we studied the Bible story of the widow's mite in Mark 12:41-44.

 

                                     

Of course, we started out reviewing our Warrior Way

 Then, using Little People, and Jayce and Josiah's big crayon banks, we "acted" out the Widow's mite story. Still not sure that Jayce quite understood, but he listened very closely and loved putting the crayon "banks" in the offering.

 

Second Warrior Wednesday

 This week we learned that generosity can also be helping others. We learned about the penguin and how they all take turns warming each other from the cold. Jayce absolutely LOVED this!!

 He took the little webkinz penguin and warmed EVERY animal out on the table.

 Our little warriors!

 

 

  Sometimes the character traits that we choose to teach our little guys about can be a little difficult to get the idea across to them, but we have seen God faithfully guide our hearts to teach them in creative ways that helps them understand in small ways. Just this morning, Jayce cleaned up a mess that Josiah made and I told him that he was being very generous in helping Josiah clean up, and he understood, he could connect his actions with what we had been learning about and it made him feel so good about what he was doing.

 

  Thank you Lord for the opportunity to teach these sweet little guys! May these moments bless your heart and train them to love and obey Your ways!

Finding Courage

  Our whole purpose of teaching our children about Godly characteristics is, of course, because we want to see those characteristics in them. The more they understand about each one, the better they can choose how to act in every situation life puts them in. I was so excited when Jayce was able to demonstrate COURAGE during the very month we were talking about it. He had his first dental check up! New situations can be scary for our little warrior and he didn't like the sound of going to the dentist one bit! As we discussed what would happen, we told him that it was okay to be a little nervous, but, this was a time he could show courage! With a few tears in his eyes, he climbed into the big blue chair. :)

 The hygienist was AMAZING and made little Jayce feel right at home. He loved being able to wear the cool glasses they gave him and when she let him feel her special tooth cleaning brush, he forgot that Mommy was even in the room. He followed every direction she gave him and he had a great check up! It may be a little step, but, it helped our little guy understand a little more about courage, and we were so proud to see him display it so well!

 

 

  For our fourth and final week of learning about COURAGE, we were blessed to be able to get a personal tour of a FIRESTATION!! I wasn't sure how Jayce was going to do when we went and I wanted him to understand as much as possible, so I started prepping him a few days before. We talked about fire safety and what firemen do and why they drive the special trucks they do.

 

 Our good friend Troy Fox from our beloved church was happy to give Jayce a one-on-one tour and show him the how and why of the whole station!

 Haha, when the lights and siren went off, it got really loud and Jayce wasn't too sure what to think about that!

 We all got to sit inside of an ambulance, Siah got to ride on the stretcher!

 We also got to look at, and touch, some of the special tools the firemen have to use sometimes to get into the houses. The tools were VERY heavy.

 More tools!

 This is what goes on the end of the hoses they use.

 The hat was too heavy for Jayce to wear, so Mr. Troy held it up for him.

 Both of the boys got to sit in the front of the firetruck and learn about all the special switches and buttons.

 Daddy got to try on one of their special coats.

 Mommy too!

We learned that when fully dressed to go to a fire, the fireman's equipment weighs about 100 pounds! They need to make sure they are ready and fit ALL of the time!

 

 

  We had a great time learning about all the big and little details that go into protecting others. Troy also told us some of the scary situations he's been in and how he truly puts his life on the line everyday! WHAT COURAGE! After our trip, I talked to Jayce about how Jesus was also courageous and that is the number one reason we want to have courage, is because we want to be like Christ. Courage is a big word and holds a lot of meaning and we hope to see it more and more in each of us as we grow. Thank you Father for this opportunity to learn more about who YOU are!



The Courage of George Muller

  So, I made the comment on a post last week or the week before about how it can be difficult doing these Bible teaching times because we don't always know if they're listening or learning, but after learning about Togo, Jayce, a couple days later, saw a picture of a sled dog and asked Daddy, "Is that Togo?" He remembered! He listened!! Praise the Lord!! Just a little encouragement for all of you out there trying to instill valuable lessons into your little one's hearts and minds :)

  For Warrior Wednesday this week we learned about the courage of George Muller. Muller was the founder of five homes that accommodated  over 1,722 orphans. Muller never made any requests for financial support. Many times, he received unsolicited food donations only hours before they were needed to feed the children, further strengthening his faith in God. So often, faith in God takes great courage. Even when it's hard to see the good, or the answer, we need to have courage and faith that our God will provide.

 

Grammie and PopPop were able to join us this week. It was hard to get Jayce to fully focus with two of his favorite people there, but we are focusing on consistency and small portions of information each week. This way it's easier for Josiah to be a part of this time too, and as time goes by, we can do more together as we grow in age and patience :)

 

We ended the night by watching the Veggie Tales movie "Gideon" which has a portion about George Muller in it. Since this video is familiar to the boys, it was a very easy way to make the lesson stick a little more.

Next Wednesday will be our last Wednesday studying courage and we are hoping to make a trip to a firehouse to learn about the courage of firefighters. We are so excited to start this new tradition with our family, and although not every night has been perfect, we know God is faithful and we are looking forward to the new lessons He is going to teach us each Wednesday.

 

Celebrating Love and Courage

  For our Warrior Wednesday, we are still learning about COURAGE and we chose to focus on an animal that showed courage. This was GREAT because both of our boys LOVE animals! The animal we chose was Togo, a Siberian Husky who played an instrumental role in saving many lives in an Alaskan village. Togo's sled team ran the longest and most dangerous leg of the relay (91 miles) to bring medicine to help a potentially deadly diphtheria epidemic.

 

 

 It was so neat watching Jayce pay such close attention to the story.

 We looked up videos of actual sled dogs racing through the snow to show the boys what it was like for Togo.

 Josiah loved the videos of the "gogs" (dogs).

 Then we colored pictures of sled dogs together.

 

  We enjoyed our time together learning more about courage and what it means to God and for us. Warrior time is still very much a work in progress as we learn what works best, the best time frame, and how we can get the MOST out of every time we have it. It can be hard sometimes after you put so much effort into something because you're not really sure how much they're actually retaining. We trust that the Lord will take these moments and sow them into the hearts of our little warriors and it will some day bring forth a harvest!

 

A Little Valentine's Fun







 Jayce LOVES to bake! So, we made cookies for all of our family and friends for Valentine's Day to let them know how much we love them and God loves them.

For our Valentine's breakfast, we had heart-shaped pancakes, Jayce mixed up the batter for us!

Josiah's Cat in the Hat Valentine, his favorite!

 

And here's Jayce's little Calliou Valentine, it's a paper doll, or as Daddy prefers, a paper friend.

 

We're spending today learning about God's love for us and how He demonstrates it EVERYDAY and how we can show our love for others as well. We hope you all have a Valentine's Day full of the love of Christ, it's the best kind of Valentine to have!!



Warrior Wednesday

  For a while we have tried to focus on one Godly character trait a month so that the boys are not just learning their ABCs and 123s, but learning the importance of having Godly character through all stages of life. For God's Word says "Train a child in the way he should go, and when he is old he will not turn from it." Proverbs 22:6
  It has proved to be a challenge as we've tried to find the "right" way to approach this time. It is something that's very important to us, but we just couldn't seem to find the right time or be consistent with our approach. So, we've started a new experiment called "Warrior Wednesdays". Every Wednesday we spend focused time after dinner, as a family, learning about the character of the month in creative ways.

 We start off our warrior nights by reciting the warrior way. Just a little spoken reminder of how we should be living everyday. Pray. Read the Bible. Obey our parents. Put others first. Just a few simple statements that they can be reminded of during the day while playing, cleaning up, eating dinner, and so on.


 

Here's Daddy and Mike the Knight reading the Warrior Way

 

 

  We decided this Wednesday to "act out" the story of Joshua and the Wall of Jericho using Little People. (We really thought David and Goliath would have been a little more appropriate but Jayce is a little scared of the giant in the story and tends to freak out whenever we even mention it, so we decided this story would work too.)

 

 

We used blocks to make the "wall" of Jericho.

Jayce and Daddy making Joshua and the Israelites march around the wall.



After the wall fell down, Josiah thought it looked like fun so he got down out of my lap to help.

 

Then we colored pictures of Jericho from www.whatsinthebible.com

 

 

  The definition of COURAGE that we chose from Character Sketches is "following difficult instructions in the face of danger." We talked about how Joshua did that and how God honored and rewarded his courage and obedience. We finished up our night with an ice cream treat and look forward to next Wednesday. We know there is so much more to learn and hope that this just becomes an exciting routine to look forward to and build upon. 

Adding Another One

So throughout the holidays we did very little actual planned out "school" time. Between being incredibly sick with our third baby and all the Christmas festivities, I figured we had enough going on. I found it very exciting to start the new year with school and new ideas for BOTH of my little warriors.

All this time Jayce has been doing school while Josiah naps, but Josiah is moving closer and closer to not needing a morning nap. Some days he does, some days he doesn't. So, I was challenged to see how school time would go with little Josiah joining us! LOL it was not easy to say the least but it was definitely entertaining!

I also realized how easy the K-3 curriculum from A beka was for Jayce so I decided to try a little of the K-4 curriculum which focuses a little more on tracing letters and writing and reading. I wasn't sure how he would do, but I was pleasantly surprised :)

This is Jayce stamping his name. I also had him trace his name everyday of the week and then try to write it on his own.

Daddy got a little time to do some learning time with Josiah. They focused on the letter A and the color red. We got these pages from http://www.1plus1plus1equals1.net/

As we started learning how to write letters, we learned that letters live in houses. Here's Jayce doing the "upstairs" motion.

LOL, downstairs...

And basement! He loved doing the motions everyday before we started our writing time.

I wondered how Jayce would do learning to hold his pencil correctly as we started to learn writing, but he has done VERY well learning this.

Here's little Bug doing his school time all by himself in his high chair.

 Whatever activity I gave Siah to do, Jayce was eager to watch and help him.

Especially when it came to putting stickers on a piece of paper, one of Jayce's favorite things to do.

Jayce has learned LOTS of sight words and we pulled out his TAG reader and I had him tap on any of his sight words that he could find on each page. He did GREAT!

Josiah didn't always stay nicely in his high chair. He threw his "learning" toys all over the floor and climbed on the table while Bubba was writing. But Jayce did very well and kept working :)

 

 

It has definitely been a challenge trying to teach two at once, especially when Josiah is SO wiggly and still needs so much help and Jayce is not big enough to do all his work without supervision and help as well. But it is such a delight to watch both of them learn and grow! I think my favorite thing is watching Jayce teach Josiah, he is very eager to help and wants Josiah to know all kinds of things. He is also very patient with him. A scene from one of our school days...Josiah throws his shape sorting cupcakes all over the floor. Me:"Josiah, why did you do that?" Jayce:"Because he's a baby Mommy, that's what babies do." LOL, a good reminder that we're ALL still learning! Thank you Lord for my sweet boys and all the things you are teaching us everyday!

Catching up



   Okay, so obviously I'm just not that good at keeping up on a week to week basis on this blog thing. I'd really like to, but chasing after two little boys doesn't always give me the extra time I need to sit on the computer. (I know some of you mommys know what I'm talking about.) So, here's my attempt to catch up on all the highlights. Currently we are on letter G, so I'm posting about letters "C" through "F" and a few Bible Stories. Here we go...

 

 

Letter C



 

Of course, we made sugar cookies for the letter "C"

 

They both thoroughly enjoyed them! :)

 Auntie Googie brought over a belated birthday gift, camping sticks with hot dogs and marshmallows. How fun! And appropriate for "C" week!

 

Letter D

We put lots of different things inside his Snoopy house that start with the letter D. He pulls each one out and then tries to guess what our letter of the week is.

 Tracing letter D. He thought it was so fun because we'd say "Big letter D has a stick and then a BIG belly." He loved drawing the BIG belly.

 One of their favorite D books from the library was "How does a Dinosaur Get Well Soon". We read that book so many times we all had it memorized.

 Here's his Letter D writing. He did these all on his own (except the first one on each line). I found that he did MUCH better trying to write the letters on a paper rather than on a white board. He also enjoyed it much more. Thanks Kara for the writing pad! Jayce LOVES it!

 

My sister found these folder games at a yard sale and we gave them a try. Jayce did AWESOME! The first one, we would look at the picture, say it, and then figure out which letter it started with.

This one was matching the Capital Letter with the little letter, again, he did GREAT!

 

 

Letter E

Jayce learned about England, and Big Ben, and soccer!

 We made Ellie Elephant

 We circled the pictures that started with the same sounds.

 Here's his "E" tracing! (We get these practice sheets from http://www.1plus1plus1equals1.net/ They have them for every letter, and after we print them off, we laminate them so we can use them over and over again.)

 We found this really neat Leap Imagination Desk that talks, sings, makes animal noises, and lots of other stuff when you color. Jayce really enjoyed this. It also has games that helps with counting and letter sounds and stuff. Very fun!

 

 

Letter F

We made a fish aquarium!

With little Jayce fingerprint fish!

 

 We talked about all kind of different forest animals.

 And we made a squirrel headband!

 And daddy made a fire!

 Enjoying the fire together.

 And we decorated the school room for fall and Thanksgiving!

 

 

Bible Time

I just wanted to share something new that has really put a lot of excitement into Bible time for us. We act out the Bible stories with toys and little people characters. Jayce remembers so much more when we do it this way. I think it helps him to visualize what happened. Here's a picture of us talking about the tower of Babel.

And, I know you can't see this one that well, but we learned about David being chosen as King and how all his other brothers were NOT chosen. Jayce remembered SO much about this story, simply because we pulled out characters and acted it out. We also use the Jesus Storybook Bible which is easy to understand and repeatedly points EVERYTHING to Jesus.

 

Sorry it took me so long to get this up, hopefully it won't be this long again between my next posts! ANOTHER UPDATE...I almost forgot, Jayce received Lumpy in the mail yesterday afternoon. He had been working on not throwing fits, saying Yes Ma'am and Yes Sir and obeying right away, and after he earned enough stickers, we ordered Lumpy from the Internet. You should have seen his face when he opened the package. It was priceless! I asked him, "Did Jesus answer your prayers?" And he said "Yes He did!" Hopefully Darby will be on her way soon! ;)