Lovely Red Wool Longies (and my babe, too)

One cute baby wearing red wool longies made with love from Mama Bear emo. (I still have the mittens and hats Mama Bear knit for me from high school.)The lighting does not do the longies justice. Must do photo shoot part two tomorrow!

Made with machine washable wool. I didn't even know they sold wool like that.

Knit following this tutorial.

We're very happy with our longies! Thank you emo! Lanolized today and ready for serious wear tomorrow! Mama Bear, can you knit my girls mittens next?

Advent Devotions (Week 2)

Last week's devotions focused on Luke's account. This week's passages are from Matthew and Isaiah. Again, a lot of these ideas were inspired and taken from Melanie's great Advent devotions. Please check hers out! If you have any ideas on activities to go with these passages, please write a comment!

Day 8: Matthew 1: 21,22 The Lord Saves

Without going too deeply on Mary's virgin birth, I am going to mention how an angel visited Joseph and told him to name the baby Jesus and explain how Jesus is a Greek form of Joshua which means "the Lord Saves." And then I am going to talk about how the reason the Jesus came as a baby was to die on the cross to save us from our sins.

Talking about salvation is an ongoing conversation we have in our house. One tract that I recently shared with Koko is One Way. I do have to admit that I don't agree with all of Chick Publication's tracts, but this one is a great way to explain salvation to children and adults!

Activity: Read the tract and if I have energy, find branches outside and use some twine to make a homemade cross ornament. I was inspired by this snowflake ornament. Cute, aye? Or, you could just make a body cross. Have a child lie down with his hands on his sides vertically and the other child on top horizontally. This only works if you have one very lightweight child. Otherwise, you could be the vertical pillar and have two kids on each side as the horizontal line.

We also made homemade Christmas cards. What a humbling experience!

Day 9: Matthew 1:23 God with Us

My kids know how the baby will cry when he's not near his mama and as they also value being with me, they understand the importance of being connected and together. So today, we will talk about how Isaiah from long ago said that someday God would send a baby and call him "Immanuel"--which means, "God with us." We will talk about what it means that God is with us mainly how God chose to become human so he could be our friend and died for us so we could be with him forever in heaven.

Activity: Paper doll chain of two to symbolize Jesus and us. Or just hold hands and say how Jesus always with us in our hearts. Sometimes I am too tired from doing an advent celebratory activity and devotion activity, so I am trying to make these very, very simple and uncrafty!

Song: "Immanuel" by Michael Card and "What a Friend We Have in Jesus."

We felted a fleece ball for the baby.

Day 10: Matthew 1: 24 Joseph's Obedience

I am going to talk about how Joseph obeyed God's commandment right away and how hard it is for my children and me to obey God.

Activity: Show a hammer, explaining how Joseph was a carpenter and how carpenters use hammers to do their job and then play with the hammering activity set we have and if I have time, to set up the Montessori activity with craft foam and golf tees!

Day 11: Isaiah 9:1,2 The Great Light

I am going to talk about how Jesus is the great light who shows us where to go. I am also going to share how darkness is associated with sadness and how light here also refers to hope.

Activity: At night turn off the lights and then turn on a flashlight or light a candle.

Song: "Light of the World' and "This Little Light of mine."

Day 12: Isaiah 9: 3 Rejoice Before You

Isaiah compares the joy of Jesus' birth to the joy of a successful harvest and war. I imagine both are celebrated by a party. I am thinking I will talk about how we were so excited that our garden produced so many tomatoes and cucumbers and how were so happy every morning when we saw another ripe fruit. For older kids, you could discuss the joy of doing well on an exam, etc.

Activity: Do a "happy dance" celebrating Jesus' birth. Jump up and down like David praising God after a battle.

Song: "Joy to the World"

Day 13: Isaiah 9: 4 Shattered the Yoke

Koko is really into prisons and policemen these days so she will be able to understand how the Israel suffered in captivity. I will talk about how Jesus frees us from prison and burdens because he forgive us.

Activity: Have the children carry something heavy (to them) and keep on adding objects until they complain. Then take all the "burdens" away and explain that's how sin is heavy and how God takes it away. Also, for additional fun, use a wooden chopstick (the take out variety) and put on two books. Explain how this is similar to a yoke and then break the chopstick for a visual aid.

Day 14: Isaiah 9:7 The Forever King

Talk about how Jesus is the forever king whose reign never end.

Activity: Make a construction crown and say how Jesus is our forever king and if we believe in him, we are also princes and princesses who will live with him forever and ever.

I'm laughing

because otherwise, I would be crying!

Today, we found out that my oldest, despite my toothbrushing fanaticism has a cavity.

My husband also announced that he has a strong aversion to our Christmas tree's scent. The tree that we so lovingly chose and watched as he chopped it down. The tree that even as a kid I always wanted. Unfortunately, he recently suffered from the 24 hour flu and claims that the evergreen scent exasperated it more. Even the sight of the tree disturbs him!

My face is also on fire. After my hairdresser chopped away my lustrous locks, my ears started itching. And then my cheeks, and my neck. Now, my cheeks are inflamed and bright red. Could it be that I'm allergic to my new hair cut? Or that her scissors were not sanitized?

But I am still laughing. The baby and I are the only family members who didn't catch the stomach flu and my friend comforted me to say that when her child was Koko's age, he had six cavities. So, I guess I should be thankful that it's only one. I am praying for some inspiration so that my husband can have some positive association with the tree's scent...other than puking. And I believe that my face won't look like a clown forever. Ah, God is faithful. In both pleasant and not-so-pleasant times.

Advent Devotions (Week 1)

Melanie's 24 devotions based on the Christmas carol, "Hark the herald" has inspired me to use her devotions as a springboard to write my own personalized version for my kids (geared for 2-4 year olds).

Day 1. Luke 2: 8-10

Good news versus bad news

Find an example of good and bad news. I am going to talk about losing our dog Buku which was bad news to us and how when we found him, that was good news and relate that to Jesus who is good news for all people.

Activity: My kids are young so we are going to look at a hand mirror and make happy and sad faces and then draw on their easels happy and sad faces.

Day 2: Luke 2:11

We cut our first Christmas tree!

The Long Awaited Savior

Discuss "waiting." For my kids, I will talk about how long it felt for us to wait for my baby to be born and how often the kids told my baby via my belly to "come out!" Explain how many people from long time ago waited for Jesus to be born and how exciting it must have been that he finally arrived.

Activity: Make something that you need to wait for. I'm thinking of a cake, jello, or bread with yeast that you need to wait to rise several times, or maybe even that homemade butter.

Song: O Come, O Come, Immanuel

We made butter!

Day 3. Luke 2:12

A sign

Explain how a baby wrapped in cloths will be a sign to the disciples so that they would know who Jesus was. Discuss Jesus' humble birth. Compare his manger to a cradle, crib, etc.

Activity: Swaddle dolls with receiving blankets. Or for boys who might not like to swaddle dolls, wrapping with toilet paper some stuffed animal or action figure.

Song: Away in the Manger

We made jello.

Day4. Luke 2:13

Angelic Messengers

Ask kids to imagine a bunch of angels telling everyone the good news of Jesus' birth.

Activity: Paint hands and imprint two hands in a "v" to look like angels' wings and cover the whole big sheet of paper. I would use black paper because it was night and the white paint will come out better. Older kids can draw angel faces as well as bodies.

Song: Hark the Herald

First day of snow! And it was a lot. We went sledding on our backyard "hill" and also bought lights for the tree and house.

Day5. Luke 2:14

Peace

Discuss when their hearts can be not peaceful (anger, anxiety, etc.) Explain how the definition of peace is salvation and how when Jesus saves you from your sins, you can experience true peace.

Activity: Explain how the dove is a symbol for peace. Color, paint, or glue white tissue paper on this dove coloring page. I would print it on blue construction paper so there's contrast.

Song: "Peace like a River"and "My Peace I Give Unto You"

Day 6. Luke 2: 15, 16

Rushing to see the good news

Discuss how the shepherds rushed to see Jesus.

Activity: Grab a mop or whatever make-believe staff you can make, and have a race from one room to another "rushing" to see Jesus.

We didn't do an advent activity yesterday, so we made it up by doing two today: making a snowman and Mexican hot cocoa with almond milk.

Day7. Luke 2:17-20

Spreading the news

Talk about how the shepherds shared the news and praised God.

Activity: This might be a good time to make some homemade Christmas cards sharing the good news to other people.

Song: Go, Tell it on the Mountain!

Advent Celebratory Activities

To celebrate Jesus' birth, we will be having 25 celebratory activities, one for each day until and on Christmas. This is NOT a Korean tradition, but my receptacle of choice to put the little piece of paper with that day's activity will be a Tukbaegee (A Korean earthenware pot).

Here's the tukbaegee. I am going with having one receptacle versus 24 different ones because then I am not committed to any activity. I plan to just pick one the night before that's most convenient. But it has occurred to me that parents who have 24 ones don't have to have all the activities in there at once. And, of course, paper can be shifted. Instructions on how to make the number cards below*

1. Cut the Christmas tree
2. Felt a wool ball
3. Make butter out of cream
4. Make salt dough ornaments
5. Decorate Christmas cards
6. Bake Christmas cookies
7. Make paper chains
8. Go caroling in a nursing home
9. Build a snowman
10. Drink Mexican hot cocoa
11. Make homemade popcorn
12. Make jello
13. Design our Christmas stockings
14. Wrap presents
15. Make smores in the fireplace
16. Assemble a gingerbread house at the library
17. "Flying" on mom's feet
18. Go sledding
19. Cut paper snowflakes
20. Reindeer Roll and Color
21. Go on a night walk
22. Write letter/card to our Compassion child
23. Continue on our clay nativity scene from last year
24. Attend Christmas service
25. Bake a cake and sing "Happy Birthday" to Jesus

I got a lot of my ideas from Muses of Megret, Uncommon Grace, and Shannon's Sharings. As you can see, I picked very simple activities that wouldn't stress me out.

* The kids and I experimented with a traditional Waldorf art activity--wet on wet painting. But since we didn't have 140 pound paper, we used 80 pound, and instead of soaking it beforehand, I had the kids mist their paper with their water spray bottles, wipe off the excess water, and paint with water colors (tubed kind). After Koko's dried, I asked her if I could use them for our advent number garland. Then my husband graciously cut them and wrote the numbers with fancy handwriting. If you don't want your paper to mat, you should use the original instructions on wet-on-wet painting, especially the part to soak the paper in water for at least 15 minutes, but I think the colors are more vibrant versus pastel if you try it my way. Since I was too lazy to actually make a garland, I just stuck the cards on top and bottom of our nature shelf and plan to put away one card after each activity.

Passionate Homemaking's Giveaway

Kids' Christian music that teaches scripture and is not annoying! This giveaway is totally up my alley.

Review of Last Month

Has it already been seven weeks since the baby graced us with his presence? I am so thankful that I can move without pain. It's such a joy to be able to lift my older children and go out running with them! It's amazing how God heals our bodies so quickly. Anyway, here's an update on what we have been up to. Maybe now that life is so crazy, I'll be doing monthly updates?

I am terrible at rotating activities. But I finally assembled some activities for the Montessori shelves. Aside from the smelling bottles and sorting nut activity, we've done:


~Zero Work with Trees--instead of punched out holes I wanted to use an apple stamp for my apple trees, but since I couldn't locate the stamp, I had Koko draw apples (circles) which was good practice for her. Of course, Cheeky wanted to do this activity so I made a simple one for her.

~Sequencing--from Montessori for Everybody free downloads (under patterning cards)
I noticed that Koko actually struggles with sequencing. Could that be the reason she struggles with mixing up the order of numbers and letters? Anyway, I plan on creating more sequencing activities for her soon.

~ A lot of peeling! Great practical life activity. But I won't lie, I was nervous! We also juiced all the oranges in the yellow bowl to make orange juice. And that same day, I also made apple sauce and a small batch of apple butter that my kids did not like. :(

~Life Cycle of Pumpkin and Apple--again from Montessori for Everyone

~Spooning corn kernels

~Pushing Pipe Cleaners Work-- from Montessori Mama. We had done toothpicks in the past, so I thought pipe cleaners would be fun for Cheeky. Except she was not happy that the pipe cleaners did not fall inside the salt shaker like the toothpicks, so I cut them until they did!


~Introducing Montessori phonics to Cheeky with the sandpaper letters, phonic bags, songs, and activities like above. There are actual templates of letter that you can find online. I was just lazy.

~The day before I had the baby, I made a huge batch of play dough and for the first time in my life, I used natural Selectta food coloring and peppermint flavor that I got on sale from a health store a long time ago. I was not impressed with that super expensive food coloring. Instead of red, it looked purple, but I love the peppermint! This one had no alcohol, but I picked up some orange, lemon, and other extracts with alcohol in the grocery store the other day that I plan to use in the future. Maybe when I have baby #4.

Other random things:


~Koko has just mastered the USA puzzle sensorially (with the help of the control map) and has picked up on Texas, Michigan, Illinois, and California. Cheeky has figured out the pink tower and can sometimes count to ten accurately.

~Koko and Cheeky are learning to distinguish morning, noon, afternoon, evening, night. I am thinking of making some kind of activity to reinforce this visually.

~I finally cleaned up this shelf and made it into a "nature table." I know some rotate this monthly, but I am going to do it seasonally because I am scatterbrained as it is! I was amused to see Koko wash the rocks and then place each rock on an individual leaf to "dry." I also stuck some baby cards there, but ideally, you would pick cards that match the season.

~The kids went to two pumpkin farms and even on a maze! I love how many pumpkin farms we have in this area.



~We made jack-o-lanterns with the kids for the first time. This was their dad's first, too, because in Korea, they don't do those things. While we were cleaning the pumpkins, I shared when I had learned from another teacher from my old teaching days:

"When we accept Jesus in our hearts, he cleans our inside (while cleaning the innards of the pumpkin) gives us a smile, (carve a smile) and fills us with his light (light a candle).



~Horseback riding with other homeschoolers. Our first field trip with local homeschoolers! Koko learned some basic commands to say to horses. Now that she's experienced the real horse, she's not satisfied with the one cent horse ride at Meijer's.


~ nature center school for homeschoolers (monthly sessions) Yesterday's lesson was on pioneer days and they visited an old school houses of yesteryear, a blacksmith, and a log cabin. Koko was surprised to see so many homeschoolers at once place and very proud of attending "school". Though she did ask where Jenna and Josh (some high school homeschoolers we know) were. I guess she thought all the homeschoolers in our area gathered at nature center that day. I was fascinated with the blacksmith demonstration. She actually was heating metal with blacksmith tools.

That's all folks! I think I need to post more regularly. This monster post is difficult.