Kinder Days....: September 2010

Wednesday, September 29, 2010

Mommy, Why Don't We Celebrate Halloween?

It's that time of the year, when many families around the world and families in our church, and groups start decorating and planning for Halloween.

They start planning on what their kids will wear, what they will be this year. etc....

This; sometimes has been a touchy subject for me when discussing it with my friends. Why? Because I am very passionate when it comes to Halloween. And sometimes my conviction is much stronger than other believers, and I don't know how to best share with them. And who isn't afraid of rejection? Or the fear that you friends think you are judging them? Yikes! (which I am NOT, I am praying for the Lord to reveal his word regarding Halloween to them for THEIR family)

Halloween is not celebrated in our home.

In our home; we do not believe as christians we should celebrate or participate in this holiday. AT ALL.

Several verses come to mind when I begin to share my heart with others,

3 John 1:11 ("do not imitate what is evil")

1 Thessalonians 5:21-22 ("Test everything. Hold on to the good. Avoid every kind of evil.")

Ephesians 5:11-12 ("Have nothing to do with the fruitless deeds of darkness" / "live as children of light")

2 Corinthians 6:14-17 ("what fellowship can light have with darkness?")

Philippians 4:8 (think about pure, lovely, noble things)

Deuteronomy 18:9-14 (do not learn to imitate detestable ways, including spiritists, sorcerers and witchcraft)

My children have always been very sensitive to any kind of evil. From their begining we have taught them " Above all else guard your hearts, for it is the wellspring of life." Proverbs 4:23. This means that when we walk into the comissary , they shield their eyes, and they say "Mommy, I am guarding my heart..." when they see the witches and goblins hanging in the entry way to the store. When they are watching a show or a preview comes on, and I am not there, they still choose to shield their little hearts again, and again. They are taught that evil is all around us, and that God is bigger than anything, and we are protected from it all through Jesus. But that we should "Test everything. Hold on to the good. Avoid every kind of evil."1 Thessalonians 5:21-22

My children are only 4 and 6. They are still very young. So we do not go into great detail on the evil that lurks in movies, books etc... as they grow we will discuss it more.

There are a few articles written on this subject explaining why Christians shouldn't participate in Halloween I have included them in here should you like to read more.

Christian Answers.Net has one here Should Christians Celebrate Halloween?

There is also a great DVD called Halloween Trick or Treat (if you want to borrow it local gals, it's a great show! NOT for kids) This video features Chuck Smith, researcher Caryl Matrisciana and Hal Lindsey, as well as a number of Witches, Satanists and law enforcement officials.

And finally, I wanted to share a great book on explaining to our children Why we don't celebrate Halloween.

Mommy, why don't we celebrate halloween? by Linda Hacon Winwood

amazon says:
Children ask the toughest questions! As a parent, you want to give them the best answers. This amazing children's book will help dedicated parents answer tough questions simply, biblically, and lovingly. Christ- centered and sensitively written, this book will help satisfy the curiosity of even the most inquisitive children.

Book Description

Halloween! Do you know the truth behind the dressing up and trick-or-treating that are important parts of this holiday? If not, you and your parents need to read this book.

Mommy, Why Don't We Celebrate Halloween? helps children understand why Christians shouldn't celebrate Halloween. It reveals, in story form, the truth behind the activities that have become such an accepted part of Halloween traditions. Children who read this book and talk about it with their parents will learn how the "fun" of Halloween harms them. They will also learn what to say to others who do not understand the true meaning of Halloween.

Crafts and bible fun for the kinders

Jesus - o - lantern

Pumpkin parable craft from little blots of faith

Pumpkin alphabet file folder games

Another great book....

the pumpkin patch parable

This charming story for children illustrates how a loving farmer can turn a simple pumpkin into a simply glorious sight. In the same way, God's transforming love can fill each of our hearts with joy and light. Liz Curtis Higgs created this parable as a way to share the Good News with her own precious children each harvest season. . .and now with children everywhere.

October 31st is the day our LORD, has made. It is His beauty and light that we celebrate!

Have a wonderful week!

Love,

Monday, September 27, 2010

How to make an apple pie and see the world FIAR Study

Hi!

I know it's been a few weeks since my last post. I had some serious back problems, and was unable to do school or anything for a week. It was terrible. But I am doing so much better! So, we spent 2 weeks doing our latest FIAR book, and continued on with our regular schedule and other subjects when I was able.

This book is so simple, yet so much fun! How to make an apple pie and see the world by, Marjorie Freeman.

The story begins with a young girl, that is about to bake an apple pie. 1st she needs the ingredients....

So she begins a trip around the world searching for each ingredient.

We traveled to England, Italy, France, Sri Lanka, Jamaica, Vermont USA, and back home!

We used these story sequence cards, I laminated, and we played a game looking for all the countries on our new yard sale find! This is a quantum leap globe, it tells you all kinds of cool facts, and plays the country theme songs etc... This globe is a ton of fun for us! Jamaica was Jt's Favorite...

Since there were so many countries to visit, and previously this year we have covered France and England, we focused mainly on Sri Lanka this time... where the cinnamon came from. We colored the country flag, located it on the map, I bought some cinnamon sticks, and we had tea... ( KT doesn't care for tea) and saved one for their lapbook.

Then after I read the story I had them try to tell the story using these cards... it was really fun! And it was hard for them too!

KT also colored the seasons of the Apple Tree...

KT also practiced her numbers this week. I used these Kumon cards, and some fall manipulatives for her to do. we did match to the number on the front, and the dots on the back.

JT did some apple number fun from enchanted learning.

And I finally got to read a story from Sri Lanka from our stories from around the world book. yeah!

Here are their lapbooks, very simple... I just didn't get to do as much as I wanted... but it's a good intro to the countries!

And lastly our apple pie!! We made from scratch! The recipe was in the back of the book, and it was great!

Tada!!! yum!!!

A few weeks ago, we added a new family member ! A Bunny!!!! (Rox, reminds me of your bunny years ago.) So far his name is Bun Buns.. none of can stop saying that when we talk to him... so I guess that's his name!

The kids love him, and he is alot of fun so far.

We let him hop around the living room during school, and he is fond of hanging out near JT ....

And if a rabbit wasn't enough, a week later.... we inherited a hamster for free! with this adorable cage!

KT LOOOOVES him! Can't you tell?
His name is Super Hammy the Hamster!

........we are officially a homeschooling family now!!! =)

Tuesday, September 7, 2010

The Little Red Lighthouse and the Great Grey Bridge FIAR Study

Hi! What a Fun study we had this past week! We have all been looking forward to this book for a few months now, and we were not dissapointed!

First published in 1942, this well-loved story about a Manhattan lighthouse who's feeling overshadowed by his new "big brother" (the George Washington bridge)

As the bright-red lighthouse watches the gigantic gray bridge go up overhead--equipped with its own fog-penetrating lights, no less!--the spirited little guy starts to feel pretty inadequate. But with some gentle reassurance, the wise steel bridge convinces him that we all have a purpose we can take pride in. ("I call to the airplanes," cried the bridge. "I flash to the ships of the air. But you are still master of the river. Quick, let your light shine again. Each to his own place, little brother!") amazon review.

Our first lesson was about Pride, There were a few great lesson from the Bible charachter book by FIAR, that we did...

I picked up several go alongs from the library this week.

The lighthouse Book
lighthouses a pop up gallery (yard sale find)
Rivers and Lakes
The River Nile
Rivers of the world : The Rhine
It's my state! New York
Lady Liberty A biography (I recomend it for a bit older kids 8 and up)
Timelines Ships Sailors and the Sea
Geography for Fun Rivers and Seas easy geography projects
The Story of the Statue of Liberty

This is a great book! It talked of the earliest Lighthouses,

to some of the first lighthouses,

Egypt.

We also loved the picture below, of what the inside of the lighthouses look like.

For ART we discused how the artist, Lynd Ward, used only 3 colors for the entire book!

We then drew some of our own pictures using just 3 colors...

This was a huge hit!

A beautiful book, with full stories and details of each lighthouse. JT recognized some of these by their names from our new lighthouse bingo!

I think have decided that BINGO is one of my favorite teaching games. It's easy, and each "theme" you get, really helps with memory skills etc. This particular game, has real photographs of famous lighthouses around the world. And on the back of each card it tells you about that lighthouse. On the front is it's name and where it's located. My 4 year old even memorized several of them by the 10th game or so! =) yes, we played this ALOT this week!

We were also amazed to learn that the Statue of Liberty was used as one of the first lighthouses! (homeschool is good for mama too!)

I printed off a GEO-safari card on differant boats from homeschoolshare. We love our Geo-safari ( thanks grandma!) and I was impressed i could even print some out online for free! JT had so much fun naming the differant kinds of boats we learned about all week....

One of the studies we did was on Personification. We drew faces on our lighthouses. this is Kt's but her marker wasn't working very good... they enjoyed re-looking through the book to find the differant face expresions on the lighthouses and the boats...in the story...

Here are a few we drew ourselves!

Part of our science continued on Rivers......

Since the Nile is the largest river, we read about that as well..

And of course since we are living here in Germany, we read about the Famous River Rhine. And We also took a little visit to the Rhine this week!

Sunday we went up to Frankfurt.. and had a great view of the Rhine!

For Geography, off to the East coast again... NEW YORK!

We lightly covered New York... Mostly just the study of the Statue of Liberty, and the Hudson River and the George Washington Bridge....

The library didn't have any books in on bridges, I wish We could have looked at more of those...

Sunday, We took a day trip to Frankfurt to visit the Kindermuseum. While there we stopped to visit the Rhine river, and a small version of a GReat GRey Bridge =)

The kids were thrilled to see this bridge!!

We walked from one side of the river to the other, talking about how big the Great Grey bridge must be, and how much steel, and time went into building it...

(did you know the Rhine is also one of the dirtiest rivers in the world?)

We also studied about all kinds of Ships, Boats, etc...

Name that boat!!! This page was front and back with differant boats we studied.

Kyree was very excited to see this Barge go through the river... She was very Proud of herself for guessing the name. =)

And a Ferry Boat... JT called this one out! they really wanted to ride it, but there wasn't time that day...

Nice view....

some more lapbook fun.

The kindermusuem was nice. It was very small. And the focus this year was on light. Everythign about "light" So it was interesting. The kids of course had a nice time. I personally wouldn't drive that far for just this museum though... but it would make a nice break in the day if you were already in town for the zoo, or the dinosaur museum....

the kids putting on a shadow show for mommy! I sat in my own theatre seats too!

JT loved it!

JT drawing a Silouette of Kyree.... another fun "light" feature

here, they had shapes in the middle of the table. with 4 differant lights you could turn on to get differant shadows of each object. Then you were to draw the shadow shape one object....

KT sat down right away, and didn't stop till she was finished.....

her shape was an egg shape from the blue ball.

As we were leaving they had an old vintage General store that the kids could pretend "shop" in. This was the hit of the day, and one of the reasons i had been wanting to visit this museum. They have all kinds of cool things for the kids to play with. My kids looooove pretend play like this... we spent an hour here. =)

they had a real working vintage cash register, and they gave you bags of coins to pay with...