Good Friday with toddlers, preschoolers and elementary kids

This is the second year we've gotten the opportunity to celebrate Good Friday (yes, I know it was in MARCH....I'm a little behind with posting!) with friends.  We invited several families with little ones and for the past two years it has been my family and one other that has been able to make it--and it's been perfect.  Our friends always bring some neighborhood kids along, too, which is awesome!  This year they brought a little girl that doesn't go to church or know much about Jesus, so I spent some time thinking of how we could participate (in a child-appropriate way) in Good Friday--some of us not knowing much about Jesus.

To begin with, we held our festivities at a park near our house.  We lined the entryway with some palm branches (from our previous "Hosanna" activities) and the wooden cross my kids had made with Daddy--covered in a purple fabric.  I spent a little time talking with the children about these emblems and what they represent and remind us of.  ay wt

I decided we needed to move around a lot.  So we started the day with a hunt.  We had kids from 0-8 years in the group.  Of course the babies just kinda hung out and participated how they could....the 3-4-7-8 year olds were very excited by the hunt.  I had already hidden (or put in plain view) glass canning jars filled with objects.  I assigned each child a jar of certain objects to find and hid the jar with a difficulty relating to their age.  For example, I told the 3 year old to find the jar filled with red feet beads and I put hers right in the middle of the path.

The 4 year old had to find the cross beads, and hers was on this bench.  The older kids each had something to find, too, and theirs were a little more hidden.  

Everyone brought their unopened jar back to the table.  We talked for a bit about kings--I asked things like "What do kings wear?  Who does everything kings want? (servants), Do kings go to war a lot?  Where do kings sit?  What do kings have a lot of? (treasure)  Who do kings care most about?  (themselves) "  Then we talked about how Jesus was the King of Kings, but he was so different from other kings, and he calls us to live like him.  I told them we'd be making a bracelet to see how Jesus was a different kind of king.

To start with the kids could each put some of these beads on their bracelet--we talked about why they are purple, black and red (royalty, blood and darkness (when Jesus died))

Then we added other symbolic beads (or items) and talked about each one.

 I had already twisted some closures on a piece of wire that would be used for stringing the beads.  The stiff wire meant we didn't need to use needles.  

 
Dove bead--Jesus came to bring peace.

 
Jesus didn't have a throne--instead he died upon a cross for our sins.

Jesus wore a crown of thorns--the soldiers and the people made fun of him and he endured that because of his love for us, and to show us how we ought to act.

I had picked out several different styles of each kids' initial and put it in the jar--so they got to find their letter and choose which one they wanted to use.  We talked about how Jesus died for each one of us--he knew we'd sin and we'd need him and he went to the cross because he loves each of us.

We put a heart next to the initial to remind us he loves us.

We put a little foot on the bracelet to remind us that Jesus came to serve others, not be served.  He washed his disciples feet then called us to be servants, too.

Gold coins--to remind us that our treasure is in Heaven, where we'll get to be with Jesus--and not on earth.

So here's the finished bracelet--and using the beads the children could tell the "story" of Good Friday--the VERY good news!

 I bought a few of the beads at Walmart (Hobby Lobby would totally have a better selection but I didn't have time to get by there that week) but I really tried to use what I already had in my bead stash.  So you could change the particular items to match what you have, if necessary.  The crown of thorns was made using a piece of wired twine and I just made a circle shape with it.
The kids did great with this project--they listened very intently and were answering questions as we talked.  My Q was very proud of hers and could tell her Daddy what each thing meant later that night.  I love projects (crafts) that leave the maker with a symbolic item that can drawn them into a time of remembrance and worship with God--not just something cute.  I know we'll get ours out next Lent and go through the beads again.  I hope this will be a valuable meditation tool for the kids.  

After the bracelets we had a footwashing time.  We read the story of Jesus washing the disciples' feet from a children's Bible.  Then the moms washed their kids' feet.  I think this was almost more powerful for me as a mom than it was for the kids.  And I watched my good friend wash her baby daughter's feet--her daughter who had been adopted from Ethiopia this last year--and I thought about the trail they had been on to be together....what a beautiful thing to watch this Mama wash her little ones' feet.  

 

Then we had the Lord's Supper together, like Jesus did with his disciples.  We read that story, as well.

I had the table set with a cross draped in purple, a crown of thorns (made from some thorny vine found near our house),  some purple flowers, and some candles.

I had brought glass, metal and ceramic mugs of all different types so each child could choose the one they wanted.  Someday I hope to get some ceramic or wooden goblets made for my kids to use each lenten season.  Wouldn't that be so cool?  In the meantime, I wanted to use something beautiful and that would add a sense of "this is important" to the ceremony.

I had baked some homemade unleavened bread.  This is the second year in a row I planned to do this activity with Q and it just didn't work out, so I made it myself.  Might have to be my own tradition from now on!

 
We ate the bread and drank the juice--the kids all used chalk to draw a heart around the items--we talked about the fact that communion is God's way of reminding us every week of His great love for us.  

 

We had some simple "favors" in brown paper bags for taking home--the Mommas got:

And the kids got:

Extra piece of communion bread (they all love that stuff!), a palm branch that says "Hosanna  Save Now" on it and a piece of black fabric--we talked about this, saying they could go home and put it over a cross in their house.  When Jesus died many people thought it was over....but on Sunday he rose from the dead and triumphed over sin and death--and this is when we remove the cloth just as Jesus removed the graveclothes.  A good visual and tactile way for children to connect with the Bible story.  

Then the kids had a great time playing together for a little while.

I love the tradition this has become for our little family and our friends.  I love seeing the serious, reverent looks on the faces of the kids as they listen and absorb.  I love having a table full of all different-aged kids who are learning a little more about Jesus all at the same time.  Such a neat experience!

Bunny Song

Little bunny Hop goes through the clover top, looking for a breakfast in the morning.  Nibbly, Nibbly, Nibbly! 

Groundhog Day flashback

Candlemas and Groundhog day are on the same day.  This year they were on a Saturday, so we didn't actually celebrate either on the correct day.  But the following week I decided to teach Q a little bit about the tradition of Groundhog day.  I needlefelted a little groundhog.  Sorta.  I am still not happy with it looking "groundhoggy" enough, but I fussed with it for several days and finally decided it would have to do.  We kept it on our table for the week and the kids enjoyed holding and playing with it.  It went into our box of Valentine decorations to re-emmerge next year!

We read these two books this year:

 

Note--this book has a Halloween Witch and Santa in the story, so if you are not fans of these two you may want to forego this book.  Though it is a fun read!

We didn't get any more involved than just reading the books and talking a little bit about shadows.  I saved the titles of several more "shadow" and "groundhog" books to my "February" teaching folder on my computer, so next year we may choose to delve deeper!

Advent. We're giving it a go.

**be warned....I go off on lots of tangents and sidenotes in this post.....  I warned ya!

We're Advent newbies.

I've never celebrated the Advent season before. I didn't even really know what it was before.

 I knew that some denominations have a special service on Advent (which was some time before Christmas) and they brought home poinsettias.

I knew my faith community stayed away from it, not really sure why. Probably because, "We don't REALLY know Jesus was born on Christmas and besides, we celebrate Jesus every Sunday." (read with with just a LITTLE sarcasm in your voice, okay?)

 Last year I felt a strong calling in my heart to change the way our little family operated in December. Past Decembers had been filled with mad-dash shopping, parties, get-togethers, cookie-making, crafting, photosessions for the mama, and just BUSYNESS that left us strung-out and TIRED by the time Christmas came around. To be honest, I'd happily hibernate through the month of December because all of that craziness does nothing but drain me. And to top all of that off, my parents come for their bi-yearly visit the last two weeks of December, so all I really want to do is just do nothing but enjoy being with them.

 So, back to last year. We took a little bit of a down-shift and cleared off all of the things we could from our calendar. And that's hard in December. There are so many GOOD things to do....parties with friends, nativity scenes to visit, Christmas programs to attend, cookie parties to enjoy....but we went ahead and said no. We made a list of family things we wanted to do together--string cranberries, dance to Christmas music, make wassail, ect., and each night we spent some time together after dinner as a family. We purposefully slowed down and cleared time for ourselves. It went great and we enjoyed it tremendously.

 I knew I wanted to do something similar this year. As fall approached an end, I began to hear lots of buzz about Advent and started going lots of research onto its meaning and practice.  I called in a couple of my friends that are theologians.  Really.  They have advanced degrees in this stuff.  :)  And wow.  What we have missed all these years!  I've decided to take on the midset that Advent (and probably Lent, too) is a blessing God gave me at this point in my faith journey....as an adult.  Something fresh and completely unexperienced before.  I grew up in God's church, going to church from infancy.  I don't know anything other than that.  I don't have a crazy story of how God pulled me out of something horrible and transformed me.  I've had God all along.  And of course I have lots of instances where God has and is transforming my life, but sometimes when people are telling these amazing stories of how God's brought them out of something crazy, I feel a little.....boring.  So to have something to be able to connect with God and my Savior in a way that is novel to me--what a gift I feel like God has saved up for me all along!

I am also on a very exciting journey of teaching my kids to love and obey the Lord.  I am so passionate about education, and I'm having SO MUCH FUN looking for ways to help them connect to the concepts in God's word--concepts that are not concrete and very hard for little minds to understand.  The more I delve into liturgical elements--manmade traditions--like Lent and Advent and even much of the way the Catholic church structures its church year to remember the different aspects of faith--I appreciate them more and more for the way they invite little people to understand big things.

Back to Advent.  After all my readings and research and conversations I KNEW we couldn't go through another Advent season without participating.  Wow--an opportunity to have structured ways to remember Jesus and who he is and what he has done and is still doing.  That is what we are about!  We try really hard to be immersed in Bible study with the kids in an ongoing, year-round fashion, and I love fitting traditions such as Lent and Advent into these.  And I have an extra spark inside of me as we start Advent--I know this year, as newbies, it'll be a little shaky and we'll be learning by trial and error what works for our family, but next year we'll be able to be more directed.  Last year was our first year to practice Lent as a family and I already have so many ideas brewing around in my mind for the months leading up to Lent and the actual 40 days as well.

Sunday we attended worship with a different congregation than where we typically worship on Sundays.  The sermon title was "The Loudest Whisper" and the youth minister, Eric, was speaking.  His thesis was, "We live in a culture that teaches us: If you have the resources to 'go big' all of the time, why would you not?  This is not the way God operates."

He started with the story of Elijah in 1 Kings 19 where all of these "big" things happen and yet God is in the whisper.  He moved on to 2 Kings 5 and Naaman--"I thought that he would surely come out to me and stand and call on the name of the Lord his God, wave his hand over the spot and cure me of my leprosy." (v 11).  Eric's paraphrase of Naaman (I took really good notes because I loved the way he phrased his comments....) "Hey, you're of God--you can go BIG!  Why don't you?"
And then, of course, there's the whole Jesus incident....like his birth....in a stable in the boonies.  And what does Eric paraphrase God saying? "This, ya'll, is how I work."

He challenged me to find God in the whispers in my life....and to really retrain my eyes and my SCHEDULE not to be too full for those whispers to be heard.  Wow.....what I really needed to hear during my season of Advent.  To me this is really what I want this season to be about.  Hearing Him in the noisiest time of the year. 

Here are some of my favorite quotes about Advent:

 As we begin Advent, we light one candle in the midst of all the darkness in our lives and in the world. It symbolizes our longing, our desire, our hope. Three “advents” or “comings” shape our desire. We want to be renewed in a sense that Jesus came to save us from our sin and death. We want to experience his coming to us now, in our everyday lives, to help us live our lives with meaning and purpose. And we want to prepare for his coming to meet us at the end of our lives on this earth.
-Praying Daily Through Advent

We must all ask ourselves if the practice of our faith revolves around our lives or whether our lives are revolving around the practice of our faith.  If we truly believe that there is a God who created us, and that Jesus Christ is the Son of God, Savior of mankind, who truly was conceived by the Holy Spirit, born of a woman, and died on a cross for us, then ought not life revolve around the practice of our faith?
-Te Deum laudamus!

Advent is such a great time of the liturgical year. While the rest of the world is already celebrating Christmas in full force (from Halloween on!), Christians have an opportunity to purposefully slow down and prepare our hearts and homes for Christ's birth. Much like preparing/nesting for a new baby, Advent gives us the opportunity to reorganize, refocus, and clear out clutter (material and spiritual).  It's so hard to purposefully slow down and focus, especially since there's always so much to do at the end of the year/semester, but it is so worth it.
-Margaret Cronin, M.Th.

While writing this seasonal guide, I’ll confess that I had a niggling fear in the back of my
mind. I worry that already overtaxed mothers would read this and add a whole new list of
“musts” to their already crowded lives.  Please do not see this as another thing on your to do list.  It is not intended to be one more thing to stress you out. More important than any of the doing is the striving to create an atmosphere of peace, light, and anticipation.  If it seems overwhelming, or if the practice of keeping Advent is new to you, I would suggest just choosing one or two things to do each week or each day....centering yourself and understanding the “why” behind keeping Advent is essential if you are to pass the spirit of Advent on to your children.  I’d also like to encourage you not to let perfection be the enemy of the good.  Those expensive wooden Nativity figures are wonderful, but so, too, are little table puppets made from cardboard tubes and scraps of paper.  Most of all, have a gentle Advent. In these days of cold and darkness, strive towards warmth and light, and may it bring joy, hope, peace, and love to you and your family.
-Annette Frontz, from her Ebook Advent: Lighting the Way to Christmas

December Playroom Update

We've had so much fun in our fall farm-y playroom!  With the coming of the Advent season, it's time to prepare our space.  Advent is a time of simplifying in order to fully focus on Jesus as Emanuel--God With Us.  To keep in line with this, I simplified our playroom big time.  I took out a lot of stuff, and it helped that all our doll furniture is being borrowed for an adoption shower, so that was an easy way to clear some space in our play area.  I also took many items off the workshelves. 

To provide a little change, I covered the playroom rug with a pretty quilt my grandma made us as a wedding present.  I have decided to be a person who uses my quilts to pieces, so it makes me so happy to sit on it while I play with my babies! 

I also try to rearrange the set up and furniture of the playroom each couple of months to give a fresh feel and renewed interest in the areas. 

I took the green leaves and bees off our branch and now all that is left are a few yellow and brown leaves.  In January we'll add snowflakes and forest animals.  But for now I want the branch bare. 

As you can see, the animals are a big fan of the floor quilt.  :)

This side of the room just holds a few little chairs, the basket of doll clothing/accessories, and Ms. Mouse and her clothes. 

Our little table holds our lantern from the Lantern walk and lots of candles.  My kids LOVE these fake candles.  They love switching them off and on, singing with them (This Little Light of Mine, Twinkle, Twinkle....), and just generally playing with them!  On the candle tray we've also collected some pretty pinecones and Q and I made some acorn fairies out of felt scraps and acorns. 

New playsilks!  We took a trip to Hobby Lobby this week and Q chose two wintery colors.  She has been playing like crazy with playsilks and clothespins this week!  She is very into clipping the silks to her hair.....

I put several of Beck's cars/trains on the floor. 
As part of Advent, we're not going to go full into Christmas and Christmas decorations quite yet.  We'll take our time focusing on the birth of Jesus first.  As a result we don't have Christmas things out, except this book.  I bumped into it on my bookshelf and knew if I didn't set it out now I would totally forget about it, and Beck would be too big for it next year.  So I am cheating a little bit.  :)
We also have some of our fall items still out.  I LOVE giving myself permission not to go crazy into all things Christmas and allow our family to finish out the fall season and enter into Christmas leisurely.  I've never felt this peaceful during this time of year before.....All of that to say, we still have some pumpkins, acorns and gourds out in the playroom.  :)

Little Man is loving tools.  I got out a few of his pounding items.  I always put these types of toys on their own rug and teach my children that they (and their pieces) live on the rug.  This helps give a good boundary for items that otherwise tend to fly all over the room.  And hammers need a gently reminder and sometimes physical redirection that "hammers are for hitting nails or balls."  I love having some type of hammering work out at all times with toddlers--they have a natural tendency to hit when they are frustrated, and a hammering area provides a good spot for redirection--"We hit on our nailbench." 

I also put out part of our Melissa and Doug tool kit.  Just a couple of each of the screws and nails (one of our nails broke this week...booo) and three of the tools.  You know my constant mantra to only put out the number of items that a child can clean up successfully--you never HAVE to put out full sets. 

We always have fun playing with mixed nuts in their shells at holiday time.  Q chose these out of a big bin at the grocery store.  Putting them in a mini muffin tin encourages counting and one-to-one correspondence as well as fine motor skills when putting them in and out.  A spoon or tongs can be combined, for additional fine motor practice.  Beck likes to dump the tray and put them back (well....some of them back....he's totally a one year old!).  Q engages in LOTS of imaginary play with them.  And we have more than what fits in this tray, so anytime Daddy is home the kids will bring him nuts to crack for eating!  This is also a great science skill!!

In our doll basket I put out some doll coats and some festive dresses.   

My grandma made these dresses for us when we were kids!  Love that Q is now playing with them!

 
Our shelf isn't real exciting right now.  It holds Q's baby from her Rainbow Bridge ceremony on her 4th birthday and also a basket of clothespins.  As a reminder, I keep clothespins accessible at all times.  They end up coming into use for all sorts of things in the playroom--usually combined with playsilks!

On the dressup shelf I put out a little jewelery box of bead necklaces.  It's been out before, but for the past year or so it's been in the closet, so Q has renewed interest in playing with it!  And Little Man loves opening and closing it!

As we enter Advent we'll be adding specific items to our playroom, so stay tuned!

Birthday Party Pretend Play

 We've had a bunch of birthdays in the past month in our family, including both kiddos.  I decided it would be a great time to turn our little kitchen into a birthday party play area.  That way we could keep out some of the birthday items that were used at the celebrations for further play.

I started by hanging up Beck's birthday garland across the area.  I put out a birthday plate and a glass birthday candle that looks like a cupcake.  I wrote a birthday sign on the little chalkboard.  Mimi had given Q the Melissa and Doug birthday cake set, so of course that would be perfect for the area!

 I moved in the little table and chairs from the playroom, covered them in a pretty cloth and got out some butterfly placemats Oma had given Q.  The balloon came from a friend's 1 year birthday party.  It's been a huge hit around here with both kids!

 We have a small basket of birthday cards--Q loves to have me read them to her, and also use them to give to her babies when they have their parties.  Of course we also have the card Oma and Opa gave Q last year with the meowing cats singing "Happy Birthday" in meows.  That's the most popular item.

 There's also a basket with gift bags, tissue, bows and goody bags.  Q wraps up all sorts of things for gifts.  It's so funny to hear her playing because she has the nicest manners with her babies.  "Tiska, thanks for giving Pink Baby a napkin!  She just LOVES it!  Say thank you, Pink Baby!"

 And of course there are party hats!  One from Q's 2nd bday and Beck's from his bday.

 I had this little metal treat tray.  I put our cardstock cakes we'd made a while back, two cupcakes from a cupcake set we have, the serving spatula from the birthday cake set, and two plastic strawberries inside silicon minimuffin liners.

 Q has done some decorating of her own.  These are invitations.  ;)

 And of course festive napkins.....

 There are a few things we keep put up.  The smaller pieces to the birthday cake set are just the right size for Beck to eat, so we keep those on the top shelf. 

 And Q's glass dishes also stay up on a high shelf that she can reach and her brother cannot.  I've talked in previous posts about why I think it's important for Q to play with fragile objects, if you are wondering.  :)

Both kids have had lots of fun playing in the birthday area.  Beck, of course, just explores the objects.  Q actually does wrapping and card writing and cake-decorating and pretend play.  They each work in the area at their own level.  Vocabulary, imagination, manners, and literacy skills are some of the areas of development that are touched by this activity.

Of course I got all the items from stuff I rounded up in the house.  This is an easy dramatic play area to set up because the props are simple and stuff that is always in most homes.