With our current “Growing Gardens” Theme from MGT, the kids and I have talked a lot lately about how creative God is. Take the seed, for example. How incredible to know that within the little shell contains the ability and potential for so much more. Just add water.
We’ve thrown a few seeds into zip-locks with a wet paper towel and have been examining how they respond to these conditions, and watching how the water starts to initiate and unlock this process that is already inside of them. Such creative design.
And to think that we are made in God’s image?!
As a rule-following, give-me-an-example-of-how-it-should-look-and-I-will-try-to-duplicate kind of girl, I appreciate abstract creativity from an outsider perspective. I like order and balance, so all of the houses I drew as a little girl all had the same number of windows on each side, the only thing that could be considered off balance was the one chimney on the roof, but I added that because all the other images I saw had chimneys. So, you know. Gotta follow the example.
But my daughter – man, oh, man. She is all about abstract. She is not only great at free-designing pictures and creations out of blocks/shapes, etc., she is also great at identifying things within abstractions, naming them so that I can then see what she sees. She is going to be a great leader some day.
Today, though, took it to a whole ‘nother level.
This is her tree.
And when asked to explain it, she went into full detail, telling me what was the trunk, what parts “helped hold it up” (as though she recognized that it didn’t quite have structural integrity), what were the leaves, and even added that it had a ‘bad white thing’ on top that if you touch it, it can make you sick. On further investigation, I deduced that she was referring to mold that she had recently seen on an orange at the grocery store that I had told her ‘not to touch because it could make her sick.’
I love how she gets so engaged in her art, personalizing it from her own experiences. And I’m so thankful I thought to ask her to explain it to me, that I didn’t immediately brush it off as a 4 yr olds’ silliness, but really it’s a glimpse into her little world. And I love it.
I love being able to see into her little world and learn more about her.
In the same way, I can look at God’s creation and learn more about Him and His Story, the One who created everything out of nothing – no blueprints or examples to go off of.
His own design.
Natalie calls God ‘original.’ I think she nailed it.
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.
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.
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.
