Teaching the First Christmas…

Its here! The first Christmas that I think the boys really “get it”. I am trying to be extremely careful to emphasize the true meaning of Christmas and not to overemphasize some of the traditions of Christmas. I feel like this is a crucial year to teach the kids the TRUTH of Christmas.

This week is a busy week of “Christmas Activities”, so I felt it very important to start the week by reading to them “The First Christmas”

So I called the children over to the “Reading Rug” and began to read to them about the First Christmas.

After reading the story to the kids, we set our Little People Nativity Scene up…..

Ava is accommodating the guest at the Inn.

Levi is making sure the feed stays on the back of the donkey.

And Zachariah is putting Baby Jesus in place:)

Here is a final view of our interpretation of that special night at Bethlehem.

After we finished putting our Nativity Scene in place the boys noticed some lights across the street, so we piled in the van to go look at Christmas lights. One of the boys noticed Santa right away in a neighbor’s yard. I don’t want to over emphasize the traditions, but I am not going to ignore them either. I just said…yeah, you are right that is Santa…but I sure wish they had Jesus in their front yard..because HE is the Reason for this Christmas Season!

The Wonder of Christmas!

I am so excited to start celebrating Christmas! I took the kids out early Thanksgiving morning to try to get some Christmas Card Shots. We went to a small town close by where the town square was decorated for their Christmas Celebration to begin!

Below are a few of my favorite shots.

The weekend after Thanksgiving we attended the event and got a few more fun shots of the kids so excited for the season of Christmas to begin!

A note on the darling little outfits….a friend “twisted my arm” to purchase Ava’s dress from www.OrientExpressed.com (use Bristow Dallas) if you have to have one too:)

After choosing her dress, she casually says…”Did you see the matching brother outfits?”

Well, since the 3 outfits would require my entire 2010 clothing budget, my sweet mama came to rescue with the understanding they would be passed down to their cousin in a few year. (Colton’s mama is happy about that too) So thanks again Mama!

We have a busy few weeks ahead of us, but I will try to blog as much as possible because I am planning on turning my blog into a scrapbook at the end of the year!

Peace in Desk Time

Well, this is really part 2 of my last entry. Another way that I have found peace is making each child their own space for some quiet activity time during the day. A sweet lady in my church closed down a school and gave me a desk for each of the boys.

As moms…we NEED time to put the dishes in the dishwasher without the kids making another mess for us to clean up while we are cleaning up the dishes.

If you watch 18 kids and Counting Michelle Duggar uses a method called “Chair Time” I think. In this time, she sends her children to a chair to be quiet or do an activity. This is not a punishment.

So, I placed the two desks in different areas in my kitchen/family room. I gave each boy a box of books for the week. I don’t have a rigid schedule, but desk time will be used when they are having a difficult moment playing with one another, or when I just need them to be still and quiet. Scripture says “Be Still and Know I am God” We can teach them to be still…even at an early age.

Be creative, keep great “desk time” activities handy so they want to go to their desks.

Here are some of our Desk Time Activities from the past few days…

These are actually crayons, he started off coloring, but then stacked his crayons.

Reading his Bible….Precious!

Spinning a spinner and choosing the correct shape the spinner lands on…

Sorting plastic dinosaurs by color

(I got the whole dishwasher unloaded and re-loaded during this activity.)

Interesting, Levi is doing the same activity..but his sorting method is totally different! Love it!

This really has been the most peaceful week…in a long long time!

Happy Thanksgiving to All!

Peace

Peace in a house with a 3,2 and 1 year old? I wondered if it could be found. We had an extremely difficult week a few weeks ago. It seemed like the children were not content with anything or anyone. Then I heard it….NOISE!!! Where is that annoying sound coming from? I quickly went over and turned off the television. Ahhh…silence….peace. What if I don’t turn it back on? So thus started the “Music Only” Experiment in my house. Instead of waking up first thing in the morning and turning on their favorite shows, I am going to play music…All day…everyday for 7 days. After the 7th day, I found the children played better together, they played with their toys happily, and were just more calm! This should not be rocket science. A friend ask me “Do you really think you got all those results from just not having the television on?” Well, yes and no. No being….I became a much calmer person., making me a better person to deal with toddlerisms throughout the day.  Again, why am I shocked? I filled my home with praise music instead of annoying toddler shows all day long? No, being it made me come up with other things for them to do all day. This was not hard, but it did take thought.

 

Another friend ask….

What did you do all day?

Here are few clips.

We worked on the Letters J & K

LOTS and LOTS of puzzles!

We cracked eggs that I accidently left

out overnight! They loved this!

We wrapped up in sheets and pretended to be a caterpillar! (I kept telling them to turn into a butterfly and fly away!)

 

We played soccer!

We had fun!!! So much fun!!!

We are now on day…..oh I don’t even know. I have let them watch a few things….but not much! We were never watching anything bad…but even good shows have noise!

I do want to add that I don’t mean this post to be judgmental in any way. This was just a positive change I needed to make in my home! If it encourages you in anyway, I am glad!

Finger Food Feast

Today is “Thursday Church” Let me explain…I have a very very very part time job at my church coordinating a wonderful ministry for new and expectant families called “Great Expectations” I spend about 4-5 hours on Thursdays making contacts with new baby families, matching each expectant mom with an encourager,recruiting encouragers and my favorite is making baby visits after the baby has been born. So….what are my kids doing during this 4-5 hours??? They love playing with their friends at “Kids Day Out at the Cove”. Today their classes had a Finger Food Feast in Celebration of Thanksgiving Holidays. The fun thing for me…was that all 3 kids were able to celebrate together and so I didn’t have to go to multiple classrooms!

Soccer Tots

“If it had gone in…..it would have been a goal”

Today the boys started soccer! Which makes me an official “soccer mom” They had a blast. There are only 4 players on their team, but a great beginning for me to see if this is a sport they will be interested in. From the looks of things today, they are interested! The coach had them moving for almost a whole hour.

Levi and Zachariah take their first dribble with “little kicks”

Coach is the showing the kids how to pass the ball. Zachariah is listening! Levi, not so much!

“Team” is lined up ready to dribble again.

Remember, No Hands Levi!

Great Form Levi!