Here’s a quick alphabetical list of the composers we’ve studied:
Also, here are two posts I wrote with lots of ideas for music to listen to with children:
And finally, here’s a post about Christmas Music for the Whole Family.
We still have a couple months’ worth of Bible lessons to get through for the ABC Jesus Loves Me 3-Year Old Curriculum, but I know the end is going to sneak up up on me more quickly than I would like. So for the past few weeks I’ve been searching and praying for the right path for our family to take when it comes to Bible teaching once that time is here. A few thoughts:
We don’t use the majority of the material in the lessons from ABC Jesus Loves Me. It’s not that they’re not wonderful. On the contrary, I think they are amazing, and I’m so blessed by Heidi’s willingness to share all her hours and hours of hard with us for free! I just choose to focus on Bible and let most of the other stuff happen in its own time. The main thing I utilize the curriculum for is the suggested activities to enhance our time with each Bible story. Those suggestions have led me to many wonderful resources which have made it easier to plan lessons around stories not in the ABCJLM-3YO scope and sequence.
That leads me to ask myself, if I can plan my own lessons, do I really need someone else’s curriculum? Well, no. I tend to tweak any curriculum I get to suit our needs (one reason I’m not willing to pay big bucks for something all laid out). Still, it’s helpful to have something there to provide a basic framework and provide ideas. So then I start thinking about the big picture.
I think eventually I’d like to help my kids develop habits of both reading the Bible daily (maybe going through it once a year) and devoting time to in-depth study of the Bible at a slower pace. But that’s still a few years off, so I find myself torn between reading something new every day or taking our time and spending a whole week on a story as we’ve been doing. I see positives to both approaches. I want to try to include Elijah more so a slower, focused approach (like we’ve been doing) might be better. I started doing Bible lessons when Ian turned 3, and Elijah will be 3 in the fall.
My next dilemma is what sort of framework I want: chronological or topical? I tend to lean towards the former, both in my personal devotions and with my lessons for the kids. But that means spending a long time on all those fabulous Old Testament stories, which leaves me missing Jesus for a big chunk of the year. And I’ve found a number of programs I like that are more topical that I don’t want to just dismiss without due consideration. Broaden your mind, Deanna! Think outside your little box!
Here are some of the ideas I’m tossing around for where to go from here (all would just be spines; I plan to pretty much do my own thing no matter what I choose):
So why am I processing all this “out loud” with you? Well, for one, it just helps me clarify my thoughts to put them down in writing. But my main reason for sharing my thought process is because I’d love feedback. What have you used? What have you considered? What factors have I NOT considered but should? My oldest child is only four, so I’ve still got a lot to figure out (and thankfully a lot of time in which to do so!) Input! I need input!
We missed a week due to sickness, but now we’re back in the swing of things, just finishing up Week 28 of the Bible lessons from the ABC Jesus Loves Me 3-Year Old Curriculum. I chose to use the story as it is told in John 6:1-13 instead of the suggested passage in Matthew because John mentions the little boy who shared his food and I thought Ian would appreciate that detail. Our memory verse was “Nothing is impossible with God” Luke 1:37.
To introduce the story, I told it to the boys using our flannel board set while I read out of Ian’s ESV Seek and Find Bible. The story was in several of our story Bibles, but I just had a lot of trouble getting into it this week. We listened to the ESV story several times on our playlist and enjoyed watching a video, “Bread from Heaven,” together. It took some artistic license, creating a back story for the boy with the fish and loaves, but it definitely helped Ian understand the story better. There’s also a a game on the Charlie Church Mouse Preschool CD-ROM that goes along with it.
I have to admit, I was feeling very uninspired this week. There wasn’t much I could find to go with this lesson from my usual favorite resources. Then I stumbled upon whenyourise.com. Basically it’s a blog by two moms doing a fantastic job at what I’m attempting to do here. After perusing their site, I realized I haven’t been tapping into my own creativity very much (something I hope will change!) I also borrowed one fun idea from them. We set up all the bears and dolls we could find to be our “crowd.”
Then I showed the boys our basket with 2 “fish” and 5 “loaves” (goldfish crackers and croutons), though I’d really hidden more of each under the napkin. (Yes, I miscounted my “loaves.” We fixed it when we started reading from the Bible.)
The food just kept coming! It was a fun way to have our snack, and Ian enjoyed acting it out so much we had to do it all over again. Thankfully I had a big carton on goldfish, because it would have been hard to explain that we’d run out of food!
I printed out a basket and some fish and loaves (I set my printer to print 2 pages on 1 sheet so they’d be smaller) to put in it. I just let Ian color, cut, and paste them onto a page for our Bible notebook. This was the first time I’ve had him try to cut things out himself. It was definitely a learning experience!
Our iPod playlist this week was short and to the point, but we listened to it a lot. This is one of my favorite teaching tools since we can use it in the car or during playtime at home. Here’s what was on this week:
I’m looking forward to the next few weeks as we talk about Palm Sunday and the Resurrection. (I try to keep “Easter” as a fun spring celebration with bunnies and egg hunts, etc., while keeping “Resurrection Day” about Christ’s triumph over death. That way we can still enjoy the fun cultural stuff without diluting the sacred nature of the true holy-day.) Okay, so I got a little ahead of myself! But at least my planning is done for a while–now I just need to plan THIS week!
A post I read this morning, “Counting the Hours” from fiveintow.com really blessed me, and I thought I’d share it with you. I’m so thankful to have really good sleeper this time around (Praise the Lord!) so I don’t feel quite as stressed as I might by three young children. Still, I do sometimes get caught in the trap of “counting the hours”: of sleep, of laundry, of refilling sippy cups… you get the picture. Then I remember a moment from years ago, when I (still single) was chatting with a friend (married with a baby and a toddler) as she folded her laundry. Oh, those precious tiny little socks! Those miniature jeans! For her, they were probably just every day items representing the hours of work she put in as a mom, but to me they were symbols representing dreams I was longing to see fulfilled in my own life. I think of that moment often as I find myself tackling mounds of laundry. I try to be thankful for each filthy little sock from my boys, for those precious onesies stained with spit-up after being worn by three babies, even for the countless prefold diapers that are fraying and starting to fall apart after so many washings over the last four years. How I love my life! How thankful I am to be a mom, to be able to stay home with my children, and to spend my time caring for them and my husband! And so instead of counting the hours, I hope I’ll remember to devote my mental energy to counting my blessings.
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Jesus’ parable of the Good Samaritan in Luke 10:25-37 is such a beautiful (and rather convicting) picture of compassion. It was also our Bible story for the ABC Jesus Loves Me 3-Year Old Curriculum Week 27. Once again, I chose a different memory verse (mostly because we just did the suggested verse with a different story). So we memorized, “Love your neighbor as yourself.” I didn’t include a reference because this phrase is found several times throughout the Bible (in Leviticus, 3 gospels, and even a few of the epistles). In other words, this is a really important concept for us to grasp!
To be honest, I felt like I was barely keeping my head above water this week. Our calendar suddenly got crazy last week, and between multiple birthday celebrations, multiple doctors’ and dentists’ appointments, a marriage seminar this weekend, and a few other “extras” this week, I’m surprised we did anything at all! (And I’m considering taking next week off, since I’m writing this Sunday night and haven’t even started getting things ready for the next lesson.)
This week we took break from our usual school routine in honor of Ian’s birthday. Instead, we spent the week focusing on one of his favorites subjects: knights! It seemed like a good tie-in to the armor of God, so I combined the two, anachronistic as that might be. Our memory verse was “Put on the full armor of God so that you can take your stand against the devil’s schemes.” Ephesians 6:11 (I just focused on the bold part, but Ian picked up a lot of the rest due to the memory songs on our playlist (see below).
Rather than focusing on one book this week, I kept out a whole basket of books (both fiction and non-fiction) related to our theme. Some I purchased; some were from the library. Here’s my booklist:
For his workbook I printed off mazes, dot-to-dots, and some of the printables from Homeschool Creations. Included in those were some pattern cards (Ian surprised me with how well he did–something has clicked since the last time I tried patterns with him) and Ian’s favorite item: the game. I guess you’d call it a folder game, but I didn’t put it in a folder. I just laminated each side separately and then used packing tape to connect them. The first time we played we used jelly beans for markers, but I decided I didn’t really like handling them so much before we inevitably ate them so we switched to different coins. So it was a great math lesson all around as we identified the coins, counted the dots on the die, and counted the spaces as we moved.
I also printed and laminated the Armor of God cards from 1+1+1=1‘s Raising Rock Stars page. Elijah played with these for 20 minutes the first time! Sometimes he would hold them up one by one for me to read, then he’d go through them himself for a while, then come back to me and so on. I think he really wanted to memorize them. Totally unprompted. (To be honest, I hadn’t included him in my objective for the week. I usually just plan for Ian and count on Elijah coming along for the ride when he’s interested.)
I had planned on making a set of “full armor” as described at Danielle’s Place, but we were so busy all week we never got around to it. We did have fun making our own shield and sword. For the sword, I folded a piece of of cardboard around a stick, added the handle from a milk jug, and bound it all together with lots of duct tape. Ian loves blue, so I used some blue painter’s tape on his so we could easily differentiate between the boys’ sets.
The boys enjoyed watching “Knights are Brave and Strong” from The Backyardigans Season 1 (streaming on Netflix and Amazon). For our Bible notebook we dressed up a paper doll in the “Armor of God.” (Yes, we lost a shoe.)
Most of our memory work came through our iPod playlist (which also had several poems this week):
Most of those activities came to a screeching halt on Thursday, when Ian opened his birthday present. This Playmobil Lion Knights Castle (thank you, credit card rewards points!) became our sole focus for the next day or two. The boys had lots of fun acting out everything we’d been reading about. (It has now taken up semi-permanent residence in the boys’ room on their train table.)
We finished out the week with two birthday celebrations. First, we went to Medieval Times to see a jousting tournament and lots of other things we had read about this week like falcons, various weapons, etc.
Then tomorrow we’re having a small party at home with our extended family. There were lots of fancy castle cake ideas online, but I get easily frustrated when it comes to frosting cakes, so I decided to keep it simple. Well, fairly simple. I really liked the idea of using ice cream cones for towers, but I wish I’d doubled the cake recipe so the main part of the castle was taller. Oh well. He’s four. And he thinks it looks great. And it’s not like it’s going to stick around that long anyway.
Whew! I’m tired just writing about our busy week! It will definitely be one of our more memorable “preschool” experiences!
Additional note: The Armor of God notebook page was a hit, and we did it again a couple years later, only this time we used pictures of the kids themselves:
“The season of young children is a time to refrain. Refrain from most outside activities, even some church activities. Now is a time to be faithful in discipline…it’s the springtime of mothering. Redeem the time, don’t waste it.” -Sono Harris
I just came across this quote today, but this is the way I’ve been living for about the last year (since we moved farther away from church and I couldn’t find it in me to drag the kids along for the 35 minutes drive each way for midweek Bible studies, etc.) However, lately I’ve felt nagging doubts, like maybe I was DEPRIVING them somehow. So I found it reassuring that someone else felt the same way.
The truth is our priorities are revealed by our schedules. There are a lot of “good” things out there that could fill up our days, but I try to use discernment to only commit to what is “best.” My children will only be little for a short time. I believe my most important job as a mother of little ones is to be laying a strong foundation for the years of discipleship ahead of us. Right now the best way I know how to do that is disciplining them (and teaching them self-discipline), helping them become familiar with the Bible (and praying they develop a lifelong love for God’s Word), encouraging a hunger for learning, and sharing God’s truth with them through literature. All those things are easiest to accomplish at home.
If I were to go out and do all the things I might like to do (Bible study, bookclubs, playdates, etc.) it would be hard to find time to do our “schoolwork.” That’s not to say we never go out. And it’s not to say that our way is the right way for everyone. But I know it’s right for us. I honestly don’t relate (at least not yet) to moms who say it’s normal to feel “overwhelmed.” I get tired, yes, but for the most part I just feel content. And joyful. And oh so blessed. I don’t think I’d feel that way if we were running around town. So for now, we pretty much only go out for church (Sunday and Wednesday), one shopping day a week (often combined with a trip to the library), and an occasional doctor’s appointment or playdate (usually about once a month). I see this season as “a time to refrain,” trusting that God will bring abundant fruit as a result of these early years of sowing.
“It has been said that guardian spirits watch over and protect small children, and that may be so. But there are also stories of children who find the courage to protect themselves. Such is the story of Hansel and Gretel.” Cynthia Rylant
We took a break from Five in a Row (FIAR) this week in order to spend some time with another classic fairy tale: Hansel and Gretel. I chose to use this book by Cynthia Rylant as our main source, though we used a number of other resources as well. I really enjoyed Rylant’s writing style and her focus on the children’s bravery.
In addition to reading that book several times, we listened to the classic version by the Brothers Grimm from Listen to Genius, as well as enjoying the beautiful illustrations from Paul O. Zelinsky in Hansel and Gretel retold by Rika Lesser. Ian had fun with an Android App from StoryChimes that he played with on my Kindle Fire. Other than that, we took it pretty easy this week as far as “school” because of a busy schedule. If we do this story again in a few years with my younger children, I hope to do more, like build a gingerbread house, make patterns with candy, or take a walk and try to follow a trail of stones.
The one big thing we did do was go to see a children’s concert version of the opera by Engelbert Humperdinck (1854-1921), featuring selected songs, sung in English, with a narrator. Ian was already familiar with most of the music because we listen to a recording of it quite often. It was his first time at a major orchestral performance and he was slightly overwhelmed at first, but ended up enjoying it. We also watched a video (available streaming on Netflix) that uses a lot of the opera’s music and its storyline (which is slightly different from the more familiar Grimm’s version).
While I love Rylant’s description of the children’s bravery, I think Humperdinck completes the picture with his repeated mentions of God’s providence and protection of children in a scary situation. His beautiful “Evening Prayer” is one song I don’t mind being stuck in my head.
When at night I go to sleep Fourteen angels watch do keep Two my head are guarding’ Two my feet are guiding Two are on my right hand Two are on my left hand Two who warmly cover Two who o’er me hover Two to whom ’tis given To guide my steps to heaven
I had never heard of the book If Jesus Came to My House by Joan G. Thomas until we started Before Five in a Row, but it’s become a favorite of mine. It seemed like a fitting choice to go along with our Bible story this week, since Jesus really did go to Zacchaeus’ house. We didn’t do a lot of activities, but the book did trigger a lot of good conversations.
We talked about shadows and enjoyed listening to a poem, “My Shadow,” from A Child’s Garden of Verses by Robert Louis Stevenson. We also discussed how the dark can be scary sometimes, which led to talking about Ian’s favorite Scripture song: “When I am Afraid” from Hide ’em in Your Heart Vol. 1 by Steve Green. The Before Five in a Row manual had another song suggestion, but I also used this discussion as an opportunity to introduce Ian to Rodgers and Hammerstein with “I Whistle a Happy Tune” from The King and I. I put all three of these on our iPod playlist, along with other things related to our Bible story. (The full playlist is in my post on our week with Zacchaeus.)
I love the part of the story where the little boy lets Jesus play with his nicest toys, and even lets him pick the best to take with him when he leaves. I asked Ian which of his toys he thought was the nicest. He decided it was his monster truck. “If Jesus came to visit, would you let him play with your monster truck?” I’m not sure he was quite ready to answer that question. He definitely seemed torn!
I put some pages from Homeschool Creations in Ian’s workbook, which he always enjoys. I also created and laminated some cards with rhyming pairs from the story. Ian has gotten much better with rhymes than he was when we first started talking about them (about a year ago), but sometimes he still comes up with the craziest answers when I ask him, “What word rhymes with [blank]?” It makes me wonder: does he really not understand the whole concept or is he just being silly? I figure it never hurts to have a little more practice.
This story didn’t “click” with Ian as much as some of the others we’ve done, but I love it because it’s so sweet. I’m looking forward to re-rowing it with Elijah and Arianna down the road!
Poor Zacchaeus. I don’t think I’d be too thrilled if the first thing people remembered about me was that I was “small in stature.” Zacchaeus was the star of our Bible lesson from the ABC Jesus Loves Me 3-Year Old Curriculum (Week 26). As we read Luke 19:1-10 I realized that Zacchaeus was much more than a “wee little man,” as the old song calls him. He is a great example of repentance, transforming from a greedy tax collector who thought only of himself into a generous benefactor who recognized how his actions affected had others and tried to make amends. Because of this, I chose to focus on the Golden Rule for our memory verse: “Do to others as you would have them do to you.” Matthew 7:12 It’s a lesson I think Zacchaeus took to heart, and as Jesus said, “This sums up the Law and the Prophets.” In other words, this is the key to walking in God’s ways. I want to start planting these seeds of truth in my children’s hearts now while they’re so young.
As usual, we told the story in numerous ways. On Monday I introduced the story by explaining what a tax collector was and why people didn’t like Zacchaeus. Then I told the story while using our flannel board set, which the boys still really look forward to every week. After that we read it Ian’s ESV Seek and Find Bible. Throughout the rest of the week we reinforced the story by reading it in The Beginner’s Bible (by Karyn Henley), The Rhyme Bible Storybook, and Classic Bible Stories: A Family Treasury. (We try to read/listen to the ESV passage every day as well.)
We spent time with Zacchaeus in a few other ways this week as well. I printed and laminated a series of picture cards and had Ian put them in the right order to retell the story. He really enjoyed this activity and pulled them out on his own several times. He also remembered the story was on the Charlie Church Mouse Kindergarten CD-ROM and entertained Elijah with it on the computer. (Elijah still can’t figure out how to use the mouse, but he loves watching Ian play games.) Both boys enjoyed watching the “Treasures in Heaven” video from Nest Entertainment.
For Ian’s Bible notebook, we made a picture of Zacchaeus in the tree. I painted Ian’s hand and forearm brown to make the trunk and branches, and then he sponge painted the green leaves. “Zacchaeus” was a print-out from mssscrafts.com (one of my favorite resources when planning Bible lessons).
As alsways, our iPod playlist was one of my most valuable teaching tolds. Our playlist this week contained a few items that related to our Before Five in a Row book, If Jesus Came to My House by Joan G. Thomas, which seemed like a good complement to Zacchaeus, so here’s our complete list. Items related to this Bible lesson are in bold: