Advent 2014

We will spend December focusing on Advent. We'll continue MFW and ABCJLM in January. 

Our Advent Activities include daily Christ  centered Christmas books , the Jesse Tree, The Journey of the Magi, The Sparkle Box and Christmas Around the World. 

Week 15 ABCJLM

So, we did actually skip week 14 and for Thanksgiving week we focused on character, gratitude, family time and mommy has a baby growing in her tummy which requires breaks this year :-) Since little doodblebug is doing his letters, numbers, starting his shapes and introducing colors, we feel able to relax. Munchkin at 4 is starting to sound out words, asks lots of daily why questions and counts items up to 20 with one to one correspondence.

We spent two weeks on week 15 since we were getting Advent activities up and running, had some ice days with daddy home and our schedule gets fun interrupted :-)

If blogger will let me, I'll come back later to organize the photos in to groups of areas of study, i e, Christmas , letter of the week etc,. For the most part, Christmas does take over for the month of December focusing on the birth of Jesus.

Christmas Movies 2012

Here are our favorites this year :

Christmas Eve staple:

Becoming a parent really does change everything.  Since having children we've becomes more intentional, focused and purposeful. We are defining Christmas movies not by the winter season or the symbols but if it points back to and includes the birth of Christ. There is enough in our media, music, tv and stores that are a distraction. We aren't adding anything else in our home during an already busy time of year. 

While I support the heart and historical origin of Saint Nicholas, I think the current rendition of him and his elves, reindeer and location steal too much time, focus and attention. The heart of giving, sacrifice, charity, love and forgiveness is at the heart of our celebrations. As unpopular in mainstream culture as this is, we have chosen as a family to not lie to our children in any way, not even in fun. We simply can't reconcile giving a fictional character credit for real life activities. We can have fun with him on December 6th which is observed as St Nicholas day remembering he was a Christian and gave purposefully out of the love Christ had for him. The Advent season including December 25th is for preparing for and celebrating the birth of Christ. We pray the heart is what our children will carry with them through out the rest of the year, not just a gift they will outgrow but of the sacrifice God made for us by sending Christ to become human flesh so we would know we weren't alone. He know we needed a role model to look up to and emulate. I pray our children know God as our creator is our only source of true unconditional love, forgiveness, and acceptance. He is the ultimate teacher, protector, guide and parent.

Advent Ideas

I have to admit a fascination with Advent activities, numbers, organization etc. With my picture uploading issue still going on, all of these photographs are from the corresponding websites. This site HERE has lots of free ideas linked up on their post.

I'll fully blame Pinterest. I was brand new to the whole site last fall and there were so many stinkin cute ideas, I started 4 this year :-) My name is Lori and someone should change my pinterest password and not tell me what it is. So, I thought I'd share my finds here so I can pace myself and not feel like I have to do every one of them this year. Here is the link to the Advent board where I've pinned resources.

Last year, we did the Names of Jesus ornaments and coloring pages from Bible Story Printables. It was a little stressful sewing 25 ornaments in a week but worth it knowing we'll have these ornaments with the scriptures for years to come!



In the last year we've acquired:

Truth in the Tinsel does a daily scripture reading with a ornament craft.



What does God want for Christmas from Family Life. We got it half off on Cyber Monday :-) It highlights the 7 parts of the Nativity.



The day after Thanksgiving we started our daily new Christmas book reading. Munchkin is super excited now that he understands there is a new book in the Christmas box every morning :-) I've pinned all the books we bought here. Also on that board are several other lists for older kids as our books are all toddler/ preschool focused. Our favorite from this week is:



All of our Christmas books this year:

We'll start The Jesse Tree Advent Saturday that I blogged about the other day. I was very glad to have started the ornament making process in May and also to share the process with dear friends.

Another great one on my radar is:

Everyday Emmanuel from What's in the Bible




I've seen Advent activities ranging from acts of service to daily crafts and activities.

There are ideas on the Promises of God, Christmas Around the World, Symbols of Christmas and the 12 days of Christmas.

There are TONS of free preschool Nativity theme packs online that I pinned on my Happy Birthday Jesus board.

I was very excited to see so many options to have fun and learn while keeping our focus on the birth of Christ.