Detour from the plan

Jenny

Today was a lot of fun. And totally spontaneous, which I actually kinda loved.
(gasp, shock, and disbelief)

The morning started out slow, me with my coffee and the kids playing in the living room. Natalie had it in her mind she wanted to bake “Cookies Ovaila” (pronounced o-vay-la), and so began gathering her ingredients (plastic fruits and veggies) and some paper in order to write out her ingredients.

This became a great exercise in practicing her writing and sounding out her letters, and I loved seeing how it just unraveled out of something she had chosen to do herself. And thankfully Peter was quite content playing on the floor with me, counting out animal-shaped erasers that Natalie got for Christmas.

“12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 18, 20, 18, 20”

It was a pretty windy day, so the large elm tree branches by our window in the living room caught their attention, swaying back and forth. Natalie noticed that a few leaves where brown and wilting, and asked why that was.

This was a perfect, unplanned review from earlier this month as we talked about how leaves get what they need from the water and the nutrients in the soil, which they take up through their roots to the branches, and so those leaves must not have a good connection to the branch like the other green, thriving ones next to them. And what a beautiful picture of the truth of John 15:5, which was on our mantle for so many months last year.

In the same way that these leaves need to stay connected to the branch in order to live and flourish, we also need to stay connected to God in order to do the same.

Pretty soon after I had slipped away for my breakfast and to finish my coffee, Peter starts asking me for ‘circle time.’ I just cannot believe how much he loves circle time?! I never would have guessed.

For those unfamiliar, which was me about a month ago, this is the time we gather around my pretty little display board (which you can see here), listen to a song called none other than “circle time” and dance around.
(Seriously – cutest thing ever. Them, not me.)
And then we go over a little mini-focus for the day.

Today was moles, so we talked about where moles live, what they eat, and sang a little song to the tune of “Skip to my Lou”.

Dig, dig, dig, little mole,
Dig, dig, dig, little mole,
Dig, dig, dig, little mole,
Jump around the circle hole.
(change the shape name to review shapes)

The kids pretended to be little moles, crawling and tunneling around. I wish I had a picture to capture the moment. Cutest moles ever.

We then moved into the kitchen for the first Mole Lesson. I honestly hadn’t prepared for today, but instead have just been enjoying the time with my kids this week. Let me say, for those of you that may not know me very well, this is rare. I’m usually all about a good plan and prep.

Type A, all the way.
Type A, all the way.
Type A, all the way.
Stressed, but I have my to-do list done.

BUT for whatever reason, I was more interested in winging it and just enjoying them this week.
(I think I am catching some of the summer fever going around.)

Anyways, so I get to looking over the first lesson and popping out the already perforated game pieces for the first activity.
(I LOVE how Mother Goose Time provides so much of the needed supplies and really takes a lot of the work out of it. It’s been really great to put more time and energy into my kids than worrying about the supplies.)

The first game is similiar to an activity Natalie and I did yesterday from her More Math workbook, so it was pretty easy to jump right into the game.
Simple Concept – the four game pieces are animals that are harmful for a garden. You roll the color block and move your piece to whatever veggie along the path matches the color.

So, we went through naming the game piece animals.
First one – mole.

Me: Why is it harmful for a garden? (This one was easy because we just talked about it during circle time.)
Natalie: Because moles eat the roots of the plants.
Me: Great! What about the crow? Why it is harmful for the garden?
Nat: Because it eats the carrots.
Me: Well, I guess it might possibly eat the carrots, but usually it goes after the seeds that are planted and produced in the garden. That is why there are scarecrows in large gardens and fields.
Nat: Oh! Let’s make scarecrows for our garden!!

(This is where I will admit that normally, either out of laziness or being the rule-follower that I am, I would normally say no. We need to stick to our lesson and keep going. Focus, focus, focus. Type A all the way.)
But today, I figured, why not? We’re just going with it.

So the next 30 minutes or so, we designed and created our scarecrows.

My favorite parts:
Peter calling his scarecrow ‘daddy’ because it had a hat. (My husband wears a hat 90% of the time.)
Peter’s laugh when he saw the face on his scarecrow.

Natalie designing her necklace for her mommy scarecrow, and deciding the hair needed to have beads as well.
Natalie drawing a ‘scary’ face on the scarecrow so that it would be more effective.

Needless to say, we veered off the lesson plan a good bit this morning, and gasp….it was still a really great day!
Natalie ended up playing around like she was a crow, and would have me hold up her scarecrow towards her so she could fly off, scared.
And Peter just had fun exploring all the different craft supplies that were strewn all over the kitchen table.

(yay for math manipulatives!)

A few more highlights from this morning:
Peter’s sorting factory! Peter’s sorting factory!

I was so excited to see him finally identifying his colors better. My husband and I were concerned for a while that he may possibly be colorblind because of the ways that he incorrectly identified colors, didn’t seem interested in sorting by color (only shape or size), etc. But apparently something has clicked over the past couple of weeks, and I was really quite impressed with how well he did.

I didn’t realize when we started that there were so many colors, so we didn’t get out enough containers. When he ran across a color we hadn’t accounted for, he would ask “where is blue” and I would grab another tub. I was really excited to see that he was not only able to sort, but also figure out if there wasn’t a place for the color he was holding.

And then Peter also used Dot-to-Dot markers for the first time today!

They have been hidden away in my craft box (the beautiful detergent box in the background of the pictures). I loved these things with Natalie when we first started doing more things at home together last year, and so we already had a fair amount of printables saved on my computer. So I just printed out some letters and we worked a little bit with colors and letters.

Natalie, all the while, worked on labeling her life-cycle.

These were some cute printables that I found for free recently that went along great with the Growing Gardens theme this month, so we threw those into the mix.

I’m so thankful for fun mornings like this that remind me that the possibilities are endless! Not just with homeschooling, but that each day, the Lord’s mercies are new.

There is HOPE that today doesn’t have to be like yesterday and that, even though planning is great and preparation often necessary, sometimes the Lord just gives you what you need when you rest in Him, and really take time to enjoy Him and receive His gifts. I really took the time to ‘be’ with my kids today – to enjoy them and laugh at their silliness and have fun. And that was awesome. I want to do that more, and I’m sad to say that I often am more about the ‘doing’ than the ‘being.’ However, I am thankful to see new patterns and responses in me, evidence of His work and His commitment to finish what He has started.

As an official Mother Goose Time Blog Ambassador,
I receive curriculum in exchange for posting about our honest and authentic experiences with the curriculum.

Parable of the Sower

Jenny

For May, Jordan and I have decided to focus on The Parable of the Sower from Luke 8 for our family devo time. We have these really cute little picture cards (as I posted earlier here) we got through our current homeschool curriculum, Mother Goose Time, as well as some fun activity suggestions that go along with the lessons.

A couple days after we started, I realized I wanted more of a visual to help the kids understand the importance of being planted in good soil, and how that will affect growth. Being completely clueless as to where to start, I scoured Pinterest, asked for suggestions on Facebook, and honestly didn’t come up with much that I felt was feasible for us (and my lack of a green thumb).

Well, it just so happens, as God often works in my life, He has already given me what I needed before I even thought about this idea (which was really His in the first place…I just thought it was mine. Thank you, Holy Spirit inspiration).

You see, on Day 1 of our Growing Gardens study, the kids and I planted grass seeds in 3 little containers.

(Day 1: Natalie’s was on the far left, and then Peter’s, and then mine)

Natalie had decided she wanted to cover hers with soil, to make sure the seeds were buried, and that it was really planted. For Peter, I let him just scatter the seeds on top of the little soil container. And we ended up having some seeds leftover, so I pulled out a third container (much more shallow than the other two) and just put whatever soil and seed was left over. The idea was to watch over the next few days and weeks, and to record any changes they identified.

It wasn’t until Day 5, when we noticed that Nat’s container had a few little grass sprouts coming up, that I realized that we already had our visual aid.

(Day 5: Nat’s tiny little sprouts)

I’m explaining to Natalie that her seeds, unlike the other two, were actually planted. They were in the ideal environment for the little seedlings to grow, in good soil. And as we looked at the other two containers, there were no signs of life.

(Day 5:Peter’s scattering of seeds, no sprouts)

Well, as it would happen, as we continued to check on our little plants each day, on Day 8 we found that Peter’s container had started to sprout.

(Day 8: Growth!)

But, as you can see, it is yielding a lot less sprouts than Natalie’s. So we talked about how his, like the seeds tossed in the rocky soil, they were able to sprout up quickly, too, but don’t have as much opportunity to put down roots to get the water and nutrients they need. They were obviously not flourishing like Natalie’s plant.

We then went on to talk about how a few, that had sunk down into the soil, were trying to grow, but the rest were still just laying on the top. And we talked about how if the cups were outside, we could imagine birds possibly wanting to come and nibble on the exposed seeds (like those thrown along the path).

(And for me, the Holy Spirit took it even further, speaking to me about how Peter’s plant had sprouted. Yes, there was life, and it may even appear that it’s going to do well after all, that it just got a slow start. But if I were to take those plants outside, in more direct sunlight, it would be apparent pretty soon that it doesn’t have what it needs to sustain the growth. In the same ways, in the seasons where I choose to not intentionally set aside time to be with the Lord, to get into His Word and spend time in prayer – where it’s just a little here or there, whenever I can squeeze it in, and not a priority – I can be easily deceived that that is all I need. But when the ‘heat’ comes, it’s apparently pretty quickly the condition of my heart and how much I need to rely on the Lord each and every day for life and breath, because He is the One that sustains me and allows me to not only survive, but thrive.)

And lastly, my little ole container, well, it didn’t bear anything.
(Day 8: My plant, like the seeds scattered along the path)

The seeds were still laying on top of the soil, with no opportunity for growth or progress.

The whole thing has been such a great picture of some very true principles laid out in scripture, and I love that each morning she asks to see her grass sprouts, and surveys the differences between the plants.

(Day 11: A great picture of the difference in amount of growth and flourishing)

(Fun addition by Natalie that I found here on Pinterest)

As an official Mother Goose Time Blog Ambassador,
I receive curriculum in exchange for posting about our honest and authentic experiences with the curriculum.

Leaves & Love

Jenny

One of the passages that was really impressed on my heart while I was pregnant with Natalie was Ephesians 3:16-21.

“I pray that out of His glorious riches God may strengthen you with power through His Spirit in your inner being, so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith. And I pray that you, being rooted and established in love, may have power, together with all the Lord’s holy people, to grasp how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ, and to know this love that surpasses knowledge—that you may be filled to the measure of all the fullness of God. Now to Him who is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine, according to His power that is at work within us, to Him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, for ever and ever! Amen.”

We had already planned on painting a tree in her room, and I just loved the imagery of her being rooted in the Lord’s love, secure and finding her life in Him.

Well, today we spent some time picking leaves for a lesson plan in our backyard. (I just love our new curriculum by Mother Goose Time, and the chance that I get to go through these fun lessons with them!)

They were so cute with their little buckets, exploring.

We found some great heart-shaped ones.

And with all these recent lessons on what it takes for plants to grow, being rooted, and how plants drink water, this passage came to mind.

As I was reading and discussing the verses with Nat this afternoon, we were talking about how in the same way that plants get water through their roots so that they can grow and live, when we are rooted in God, His love can fill us and help us produce spiritual fruit. And Natalie says, “But mom, I don’t feel God’s love filling me up.”

(Oh, how I get that statement more than she knows. I want to feel it. I want to lay eyes on it. I want to grasp it with my hands and examine it. I want to understand).

I explained to her that we don’t have to feel it, that we just need to ask God to fill us up with His love.

And the sweetest little prayer came next. “Dear God, please fill me up with your love. in Jesus’ Name. Amen.”

And there you have it. Such a sweet picture of child-like faith. She understands in a way that I am still trying to grasp that I just have to ask God for what I need, and then go on about my day, knowing that He promises to give me not only what I need, but so often showers above and beyond in His goodness and grace.

And that I don’t always have to feel it.
I don’t have to see or understand.
I can just know because His Word promises.

She is teaching me so much.

As an official Mother Goose Time Blog Ambassador,
I receive free curriculum in exchange for posting about our honest and authentic experiences.