August 2012- Armor of God

I have to say in light or some national issues going on right now, God is amazing to have this planned since November to look at the full armor of God this month.

Books, craft and activity

Talking about heroes with their armor as we watch Auto B Good

Printables of songs, lessons, scripture, flash cards and a game

Munchkin and I playing the game. We spin the game piece and talk as
we find the right piece of armor to dress our people

Wearing the belt of truth

I put together one craft to use as a visual from Oriental Trading Company.
He'll do one himself later in the month with friends.

Armor of God battles with the guys! I did something a little different with playtime this month, because of the nature of the theme, I kept it to boys ( little sisters could tag along....)

I also have some knight academic fun planned to go along with the faith theme.

A friend lent us a castle so we could talk about knights and their armor

July -2012- Fruit of the Spirit

For July we are learning about the Fruit of the Spirit. Here's the link to my Pinterest board for Fruit of the Spirit

Here are several books that have come in so far. We are waiting on a few more. 

"9 Fruits Alive" is the shortest and is great for a simple introduction

"Jesus in Me" goes more in depth and I really like the emphasis of Jesus being in them

"A Little Boy After God's Own Heart" is a gorgeous book with trains, scripture and rhyming that Munchkin repeatedly requests.

The "Beary Batch Bears" series talks about asking God for that Fruit which I think is a great point

This book provides some great crafts, lessons and songs. We did the 9 songs for each and the basket idea I got from here.

Fruit smoothies talking about how eating fruit is great for strong bodies and how the fruits from God are best for our soul, mind, heart, faith and family.

Daddy reading "Jesus in Me" a FOTS book, to the boys

Song we learned off YouTube. You can find the one pictured here. We ended up liking this one even more though and play or sing if often

All our new books for the month

We read our books through out the day. It's much easier to have rapt attention from
 two wiggly boys to read when they are eating 

Sang our song while asking if that fruit was a Fruit of the Spirit.

Coloring pages from Ministry-to-Children, one for each of the 9 fruits to share with our friends

Crafts were baskets made from construction paper with a verse I found online.
I used fruits I found at Hobby Lobby with the Fruit of the Spirit name on them.

Coloring

Printed, laminated and cut book marks, hole punched with some ribbon
from Bible Story Printables site

Sharing faith time with friends doing our craft

Coloring and sharing fruit to eat

Thumbing through the book on his own

Visuals in our play room

Coloring Page from Ministry-to-children.com

Verse from 1+1+1=1

Scripture strips from 1+1+1=1



An example of morning reading time....

We are also talking about America's birthday this first week in July and how God gave us this nation to live in.

Watching Ruthie sing the National Anthem on 7th Heaven

June 2012- The Bible

Everyone has a different take on Summer breaks regardless of your education approach. This year we have decided to do a fun preschool pack that's geared towards Munckin's interests once a month academically just so we aren't spending the month of September on review alone. The one thing that won't change in it's pace or organization is our monthly faith focuses. Growing in the grace and knowledge of our Lord never ends. Character building, reading the bible, going to church, experiencing hard times, praise and talking to God never takes a break. Also, my two little ones are too young for any camps or VBS so this is a way to continue to build spiritual truths in their young hearts and minds. 

For June, we will be talking about the most important book they will ever read. Yet, it's not just a book to read or to be thought of once, or even once a month, week. It's a daily experience to spend time with the Lord. We talked about prayer last month which is our hearts talking to God, so it made sense to to then talk about the Bible which is God's heart talking to us. My prayer is that Munchkin will understand, it's not just about heroes, characters and laws, it's about God, Jesus and the Holy Spirit.  The Bible is His love letter to each one of us. It is life's manual. The bible is what builds us back up, filling us when life is discouraging, hurtful and disappointing. The bible reminds us of our place in this universe and our purpose. The bible is our standard for our own behavior and encourages us in how to love and forgive others. It's the only absolutely true book we don't have to use a filter to apply to our own lives. There is none of it that we are exempt. I don't understand or have full knowledge of everything in it and that's the journey of walking with the Lord with His words in our hands. He meets us where we are at with love and matures us with insight in to His word.

Our other favored way to hide God's word in our hearts is through scripture music. Our favorites are Hidden in My Heart and Seeds Family Worship CDs.

Some existing books and bible versions

New DVD series from What's in the Bible.

I've ordered some crafts and visuals from Oriental Trading Company

  

For example, we read the story of Jesus feeding the 5,000 at breakfast this last week.

Pray and Play Bible

The Jesus Storybook Bible

Hands On Bible

100 Bible Heroes

Jesus figure who speaks the parable of feeding the 5,000

We counted the seven loaves and two fish. We talked about sharing. We
talked about how powerful and loving our God is to care for His children
this way.

Bible time with friends including reading, singing, crafts, coloring and a video.

Our ABC bible verses. Ways to hide God's word in our hearts.

New books and bibles this month

A few of our new bibles have great creative ways to bring the stories to life in a relative way to preschoolers like The Pray & Play Bible and the Hands On Bible.

 Here is my June -Bible Pinterest Board for some other ideas I've come across on the web. Also, our summer play group kiddos are coming over once each month during the summer to join in our fun :-) 

I can't wait!