St. Nicholas on the Move!

We all love the story of St. Nicolas and the way he blessed the poor. Why not play St. Nicholas and call a local school in a poor area, nursing home, soup kitchen, women’s shelter or fire department and add those to your holiday baking deliveries? 

Can you image someone in need or difficult situation receiving a delightful homemade treat to cheer them? It’s like wrapping them up in a warm blanket and setting them next to a fire-the fire of Christ’s love.

Sometimes it’s that one act of random kindness that brings hope to a helpless situation and gives a person a reason to believe again. A warm hand shake. A smiling face. A Christmas song. 

Christmas Advent is the perfect time to think about others. I loved giving my children an opportunity to keep the spiritual focus during the holiday season. What better way to reach out to a lonely neighbor or new family than to make up a batch of fun Christmas treats to share?

One of our favorite holiday treats to share is

Frosty White-Chocolate Pretzel Snowman.

You will need:

• 1 bag of long pretzel rods
•  Mini chocolate chips for eyes
• Mini multi-colored candies for buttons and nose
•  Red fruit roll ups for scarves
•  Jelly fruit rings for hat brims
• Ju ju  gummy candy for hat tops
• White almond bark-1 ½ packages

Dip the pretzel rods into the melted chocolate 2/3 of the way up.

Apply the jelly ring around the top of the pretzel for the hat brim

Add extra chocolate to a ju ju and put it on top of the head making the top of the hat.       

Work your way down using the chocolate mini chips for eyes and a mini -colored chip for a nose.

Apply the scarf by going around the snowman in the back like you are going to wrap a present with ribbon and crossing it in front. This works best with two people, one holding the pretzel snowman and one applying it.

Add the buttons at the end below the scarf.  

Place the finished snowmen on a wax paper covered cookie sheet and put into the freezer for quick drying.

We spruce them up by wrapping them in festive bags, boxes and Tupperware. We even put some in a snowman mug! They say Your Special and Loved.

Christmas Advent Fun 

I love that it all started with God. It was His idea to celebrate the birth of his son. He set a bright star in the sky like birthday candles and sent gifts through three kings. The heavenly hosts sang songs to lonely shepherds and a tired mother and father found room in an inn.

Let’s keep our hearts yearning for what’s important this holiday season. Take the Nativity out first, let it be the first thing you decorate with. Take it out piece by piece one each day and read the correlating Bible verses and reflect on its meaning.

I will be posting fun foods to make with the family as well as craft and Advent ideas weekly, so subscribe to stay informed and receive my Holiday eBook for free!

The first craft I want to post is how to up-cycle Christmas cards into beautiful ornaments.  So many tell the Nativity story in a beautifully illustrated way. We use gold trim, glitter glue, red and green ribbons.

Each year we save the prettiest cards to make into ornaments for the next year. It’s also fun to do it with friends and trade cards- have a Trading Christmas Cards Party! Its also a great idea to glue a magnet on the back and let little hands tell the story by putting each magnet on the refrigerator in sequence. Here is one of my favorites we have made over the years.

For Full FREE download of instructions Click on the Picture.

More Advent Activities for Kids 

Thriving Family has a terrific FREE Advent resource for families! It has games and puzzles for kids for each day along with a poster and some great verses to read. Build lasting strength in your family by learning the Bible and celebrating these things together.

http://www.thrivingfamily.com/advent

Squanto and Making Sense of Adversity I love the story of Squanto. It helps us to make sense of adversity. How can God worked EVERYTHING together for good in our lives, especially the struggles that make no sense? I think it all boils down to one thing: Our world view- do we struggled to fit God into our plans or do we fit into His? God has a plan for all of humanity: The rise and fall of nations. The birth of babies who will become world changers. The preaching of the good news to all men. Squanto’s story poignantly reveals this. When English traders landed in what was to become Plymouth, Massachusetts a decade before the pilgrims arrived, Wampanoag Indians came out to trade.  The traders sadly took them prisoner to Spain, and sold them into slavery. Even in the midst of this tragic circumstance God kept a young Indian boy named Squanto safe and appointed a kind Spanish monk to buy him. He was treated well and taught the Christian faith. In 1618 he happily sailed back to America. But when he arrived there, an epidemic had wiped out Squanto’s entire village. It was as if God’s hand plucked him out and spared him! God had a plan for Squanto’s life that was bigger than himself. He would be an important part in birthing a new nation. One that God could use for good in the entire earth! (Yes, I still believe we are a great nation in the midst of everything!) A year later the pilgrims arrived in America and Squanto greeted them in English! According to the diary of Governor William Bradford, Squanto became a special instrument sent from God of good. He showed them how to plant  corn and practically how to survive in the new land. He stayed with the pilgrims for his entire life. So, in honor of the redeeming love of God in Squanto’s life and the first Thanksgiving so many years ago, I am posting Chocolate Marshmallow Pilgrim Hats. What a fun way to teach your children about God’s faithfulness in building our nation! Chocolate Marshmallow Pilgrim Hats Four Easy Ingredients 1 12 oz bag of chocolate chips 1 package chocolate striped cookies 1 bag of marshmallows 1 tube of yellow decorator’s frosting This is great for kids of all ages-preschoolers to middle graders!

The Pilgrims and Homeschooling

With Thanksgiving around the corner, it’s a great time to incorporate art with writing! My kids love bean mosaics and we made a cool one of the Mayflower. We chatted as we worked about the First Thanksgiving. How brave the Pilgrims were, how devout their faith in God was and their desire to raise godly children. Then they wrote the account as if they were one of the Pilgrims.

It almost feels like homeschooling! We look at the public school system with shaking knees and pounding chests and think, there’s got to be a better way than this! We embark  on the Home Education ship to take us to a good land, free land only to find that there are challenges and hardships there too! 

BUT if we stick it out, like the pilgrims did, teach self-government so our children begin to take responsibility of their things and actions, we learn that what we have embarked on is a life changing experience! One that could possibly change the world with godly adults with leadership qualities and moral character that will shine in the darkness of this world.

Keep at it dear friend! Your harvest is greater than you know! Pull back if you need rest. Regroup and get creative! Join a co-op, talk with a friend, get your nails done! You’ll be glad you did. The Pilgrims had an opportunity to go back after that first year. But they didn’t take it. They pressed on to build the New World.

Making Bean Mosaic is easy!

·         Draw a picture of a the Mayflower  and the ocean on orange construction   paper

·         Using Elmer’s Glue, make a puddle and let children fill in with beans

·         Embellish with glitter glue

·         Let dry for about 4 hours

Look for My Fun and Easy to Use Writing Curriculum for Kids! Even the most reluctant writer will dive in!

Enjoy Refreshing Times with Jesus in Your Homeschool

Posted on Thursday, July 31, 2014 7:52

Teaching children to have a daily quiet time yields so many benefits! This year build some solace into your homeschool day where everyone reaps rewards. Allow children to rest for an hour a day in their rooms or a special nook (regardless of age!) Using it for  Bible reading, reflection or quiet play teaches them to slow down and builds into them a habit our Savior had of retreating from the noise and crowds of the day. It's in this time we hear His voice of guidance, creativity or affirmation.  It's a daily discipline that yields the same for busy moms. Restrain from doing the laundry or answering emails! Let the Lord whisper to your heart the answers you've been asking. It's not only good for your spirit but for your blood pressure too! A rested homeschool mom is a better homeschool mom. After all it's in Him we live and move and have our being. All success in this life flows from Him. Help your children learn how to cultivate it with quiet time! You'll be glad you did! A precious mom of eight, wrote me that she visits a new state park each week with her homeschool. They explore, take photos, find frogs! She feels the refreshment of nature is heaven sent. "It has restored a part of me and the kids love the fresh air and hiking." Rested moms respond with more patience and joy. Give yourself permission to enjoy this season. You don't have to be super mom. We all need rest. Jesus did!

Lead your Child on 

An Adventure of Faith and Literature!

Find Trust, Hope, and the Power of Prayer in Callie's Contest of Courage!

"I'm always on the lookout for positive, adventurous books for my kids - especially ones with characters who possess a strong and growing faith.  Unfortunately, those are not very easy to find.

But recently I hit the jackpot. Callie is the kind of character whom your daughter will want to befriend and you'll be happy to have her imitate.  She's strong, smart, and kind, and she obviously is a kid with a strong faith of her own.  She reads scripture, knows scripture, and thinks about scripture - which is not to say that she's perfect.  She has her typical dramatic episodes and selfish moments, but she deals with the aftermath of her emotions in a wise, mature way."

 ~Amy Bradsher, homeschool parent and educator

Eleven-year-old Callie Fleming is a passionate animal lover! She’s been waiting all year to enter photos in the I Love Nature Photo Contest. Her dad, who is the coolest dad in the world, is an award winning photographer and Marine Corp Reserves Sergeant. She is leaning on his help to win. But when her father is untimely deployed overseas and becomes strangely silent to her emails, she finds her whole world crashing down on her. Can she muster up the faith and courage to step out on a journey that whisks her away from all the things she loves?

"Callie is a great role model for mid-grade girls. Her character qualities paint a picture of a realistic character that makes mistakes and learns from them. It is a wonderful book about family, friendship, adventure, joy, faith, hope, love, and honesty. Children’s literature book clubs, co-op groups, and Christian school literature circle classes can safely add this book to their reading lists. ~Tracey Masters, Educator

http://www.newmillenniumgirlbooks.com/Bookstore.html

This 74 page literature study guide is filled with fun activities from the mid-grade novel Callie’s Contest of Courage, vocabulary building skills, discussion questions and a literature awareness section. Build a butterfly box, map out Callie's travels , play a car game, bake a special treat and so much more! Perfect for the single student or as a book club. Girls won’t be able to put it down! Callie’s Contest of Courage is young girl’s journey of faith

 http://www.newmillenniumgirlbooks.com/Bookstore.html

These are my favorite Non-Gluten

Paleo Modified Sweet Treat!

Heavenly Almond Flour Chocolate Chip Cookies

 

 

1 ¼ cup almond meal flour and a teaspoon

 

1/4 teaspoon salt

 

1/3 to 2/3 cup Stevia (I like somewhere in the middle!)

 

½ teaspoon baking soda

 

Mix altogether

 

Add in one egg

 

3 tablespoons melted butter      

 

3 teaspoons vanilla Or 3 capfuls

 

Mix altogether-Add in a little more Almond flour if the dough is sticky-1

teaspoon at a time

 

And in 4 tablespoons Hershey Sugar Free Chocolate Chips

 

½ cup chopped walnuts

 

Bake 350 for 11-13 minutes

 

Cookies are done when they feel firm to the tough. When you take them out-Let them sit for a few minutes before taking them off

 

Cultivate your Young Writers

Martin Luther said, “If you want to change the world, pick up your pen!”He was spot on.  Harriet Beecher Stowe was hailed as the little woman who started this great Civil War by President Abraham Lincoln through the influence of her novel Uncle Tom’s Cabin. If the written word is paramount in influencing the world around us, howcan we as educators develop it in our homeschools?

 

Creative Writing is far more than leading your children to make up fanciful stories. It offers a multitude of educational opportunities building skills your children will use throughout their lifetimes.

 

·        It teaches strategic thought and problem solving through learning how to write a plot

 

·        It teaches close observation through learning to develop sensory writing which will overflow into science class!

 

·        It teaches characterization, producing self expression and empathy 

 

·        It teaches sentence structure and format in a fun way

 

·        It teaches how to unleash creativity, how to think outside the box, invent and practice imagination

 

·        It helps children succeed and grow in confidence. They may not feel brave enough to tackle a new skill, or process a current life experience but through speaking through the eyes of the characters they can write about it.

Teaching Kids Spiritual Themes through Nature

Exploring Nature teaches children about who God is and how He provides for all the earth. There is a reason why people feel close to the Creator when they walk in a forest or enjoy the song of a bird. In this hectic fast paced world we live in teach your children to slow down and enjoy nature. It will serve them as a peaceful haven for the rest of their lives!

 

Catch frogs or toads and make a special habitat for them. Read books from the library to find out how. Talk about how creating a natural environment is important in keeping them alive and healthy. Talk about how God wants us to live in a healthy spiritual environment so we will be healthy and alive, too. 

Write down the things that create a healthy spiritual environment with colorful markers together, decorate the page and post it on the refrigerator. (2 Corinthians 6:17-18) These might include:

• Bible reading 
• Bible memory
• Good attitudes of love and kindness
•  Forgiveness 
• Wholesome music and movies 

 

Catch fireflies and put them in recycled plastic containers. Let them light up your patio like little lanterns. Talk about how you can be Christ’s light to a dark world.  (Matthew 5:16)

Make a weather watch calendar with a piece of white poster board. Each day draw what kind of weather is outside. Talk about how even though it may be cloudy sometimes, the sun is still shining above them. Talk about how we can always count on God’s goodness even when we can’t feel it. 

Visit the Zoo and talk about how each animal’s difference is pleasing to God and how each one demonstrates a truth about who He is. Talk about how each one of us, no matter how different we may feel or look, is pleasing to God and He loves us.