Homemade Toddler Gifts

September 28th, 2010

Back when my girl looked like this:

she loved looking at pictures of other babies, princesses, pacis and cartoon characters.  Magazines and catalogs were our friends.  But they got shredded so easily.  So I set out to make her a durable surprise for Christmas that year.

Here’s what I came up with:

I cut out pictures I thought she would like to look at from Christmas toy catalogs and baby pictures from parenting magazines and glued them onto half sheets of colored construction paper.  I glued two pieces of construction paper back to back and arranged it in the order I wanted the book to be in.  Then I used clear contact paper to cover each page, being careful to leave an allowance of contact paper around the page.

I then stacked them and hole punched the edges.  I used ribbon to tie the book together.

Four years and 2 more babies later it’s still a favorite of the smaller kids (and my girl, now 5 years old)!  Another one I’d love to make with (or for) my preschooler is an alphabet one or a number/counting one using the same methods.  Let me know if you make one, I’d love to see it.

Only A Shell

September 24th, 2010

The other day when we skipped church we went to a park to play. We found a Cicada shell. I’m not grossed out by them. I grew up collecting them from trees and playing with them. Bugs don’t bother me. Spiders, that’s another thing. Anyway, we got to talking about this little guy.

The kids were super grossed.  But I explained this wasn’t actually the bug.  The critter was long gone.  “Is it dead?”  They asked.  Nope.  They stay in their former form for a good long while and then they molt this skin.  Leave it behind to go off and live the rest of their lives.  You can see a pretty cool time lapse photography image of one molting and flying off on the Cicada Wiki page.  (Not for the squeamish, just sayin’.)

We’ve had a hard time explaining cemetaries for a while now.  It’s hard to explain to young ones.  When my grandmother passed away a year ago we all went to the graveside service.  We did not “pay our respects” by parading by the body.  It’s just not something we do.  I see no point in it.  In fact, I believe it to be a disturbing warped part of our cultural traditions.  We don’t do it.  But since everyone else there was doing it and we were hanging back by a tree we had to explain to the kids what they were doing and why we were not.  We explained to the kiddos that that’s not our loved ones up there.  They are already gone.  It’s a shell of who they were.  The body.  The real them, the spirit, the whole of who a person really is, is no longer here to be seen.  The real person is now living eternally.  Somewhere.  So we don’t dwell on standing around ogling over a dead body at funerals.  We see it pointless to spend thousands of dollars to cover a box over with dirt.  But the message is for the living.  To seek His face.  While He may be found.

I’m constantly amazed at how God reveals His glory through His creation.

³ And they were calling to one another:
“Holy, holy, holy is the LORD Almighty;
the whole earth is full of his glory.”  Isaiah 6:3

¹⁸The wrath of God is being revealed from heaven against all the godlessness and wickedness of men who suppress the truth by their wickedness, ¹⁹since what may be known about God is plain to them, because God has made it plain to them. ²⁰For since the creation of the world God’s invisible qualities—his eternal power and divine nature—have been clearly seen, being understood from what has been made, so that men are without excuse.  ²¹For although they knew God, they neither glorified him as God nor gave thanks to him, but their thinking became futile and their foolish hearts were darkened. Romans 1:18-21

We’re not afraid of teaching science in our homeschool.  We embrace it.  We teach Truth.  That He created all of nature.  That all of nature will declare His glory.  And we even teach secular thoughts on science.  My kids learn who Darwin is and what he believed.  They learn when dinosaurs really roamed the earth and when scientists say they roamed the earth.  They know the estimated actual age of the earth and the proposed age.

As Bob Deffinbaugh states in his essay “Nature’s Part in God’s Perfect Plan”:

“Our study should have convinced us that God is the Creator, and creation is His handiwork. There can be no contradiction between true science and correct biblical interpretation. Let us therefore not forsake the sciences as though they were contradictory to our faith. Faith opens one’s eyes to the works of God. Unbelief blinds men from the message nature proclaims.”

This weekend may you seek Him.  In all His glory.  In all His creation.  And may you make the invisible seenfor your kids.  Even if it means grossing them out with Cicada shells!

Our Time Line

September 18th, 2010

Several of you asked about the time line we have on the wall in my laundry organization post.  Here is the full time line:

Here is the pack it came in.  With little cards to place on the time line and reproducibles included.

And here is a section of it up close:

I’ve been wanting a time line for several years now, but it just seemed so overwhelming to me.  I had plans to make one when we started Mystery of History this year and then my sweet friend surprised us with one!  She used to sell books for Harcourt and she got samples that she passed onto us.  I know, lucky us!  I tried to go to Harcourt’s site to give you a direct linky so that you could just go order your own, but for some reason that was very difficult to do and I gave up.  Jill, suggestions?  In the meantime, I’d like to say – we love our time line.  It’s colorful and extensive.

However, there are a couple of important things to know.  Since it’s made for public schools and not blank they have it starting around 14,000 B.C.  We don’t believe that, so we marked through it and wrote in when we believe God created the Earth.  In addition, the time line mentions Confucious, Buddha, and even says “Muhammad receives the messages of Islam, which make up the Qur’an” however, the only mention of Christians or Christ is about 1900 B.C. “The Hebrews, ancestors of today’s Jewish people, settle in southwestern Asia.”  With those issues, I would not buy this time line if I were looking for one.  Since I got it free and since I believe in teaching our children what the world is taught in addition and alongside Truth (for instance, my children already know who Darwin was) I love it!

If you did not want to have to buy one I think you could easily stick regular white copy paper all along your wall and fill in with what you want, when you want.  We’re doing that anyway with each of the things we’re studying in Mystery of History (I love that the book suggests we put a yellow cross on the people that are in the line of Jesus – what a neat visual way to see His lineage once we get all the characters on there!

Whatever you decide I’d love to see your time line and how you incorporate it into your school time – just leave me a link in the comments!

9-11

September 11th, 2010

…means something different in our house. It’s the day before our first child’s birthday. Three years ago, I wrote this post and tonight as I sat thinking of tomorrow and the events that unfolded 9 years ago, I searched my archives to see what all I had said about MyOldest on his birthday. And I was struck by my own words. That day came back to me with such clarity. Every.single.moment. Here is my recollection of that day in our history and my account of our future unfolding. And here’s to MyOldest turning 9 tomorrow.

Written 9-12-07 to MyOldest on his 6th birthday.  Rededicated to him on his 9th birthday.

today you turn six.

and i fall more in love with you every day.  still.

you were my one surprise.  the one that God knew we needed even before we did.

you are the one that teaches me how to be a mama.

you were born on september 12, 2001.  at the end of a long hot summer full of swollen feet and pre-eclampsia.  you were induced.  you were born into this world with much effort.

you were born into a country in the midst of turmoil.  the morning before you made your arrival your daddy called me to say that i should watch the tv.  i’ve never seen anything like it and i hope to never see anything again of it’s magnitude.  and i thought of you all day.  i held my belly as i cried for the future of our country.  the future i held in my womb.  what would you face?  would you know a world as carefree as i had known?  as innocent?

as we had our final check-up that day my doctor’s eyes were red and swollen from tears.  and he wore a shirt with the american flag on it.  on the way home i was overwhelmed with contrasts – i couldn’t understand how it could be such a beautiful day.  i kept thinking that somehow God’s world would go on.  you were proof.  and i kept seeing little yellow butterflies all along the roadside -and still, when they begin to come around i’m reminded that it’s your birthday soon and that God still has plans for the world.  the sky was a beautiful clear blue and the cooler winds had just begun to blow.  we stopped to get gas and the station was overflowing with people that were panicking.  we knew so little at that point.  i went home and sat on the couch rubbing my belly, glued to the tv and crying continuously.  i couldn’t understand it.  and i couldn’t reconcile the world that swirled around me and the one that was contained within me.

your daddy and i tried to nap that afternoon.  we knew we had a long road ahead of us, but we just couldn’t let our minds rest.  so at 10:30pm on 9/11/01 we drove to the hospital to begin our journey with you.  and as we drove into little rock, the eeriness of the empty sky near the airport was so palpable.

once there, i worked so hard for you.  and your daddy worried.  my blood pressure reached unreal heights.  and then you were with us.  and before i could even see you they whisked you to the other side of the room.  “he’s a little floppy” our doctor said with a worried tone as the nurses bagged you.  they breathed for you for the longest time.  and while they worked so hard your daddy and i held hands and our breath.  we prayed.  we begged God for you.  and i asked God why He would allow you to come into my life only to be taken away.  and then you breathed your first.  and away you went.

for the longest 5 hours of my life i didn’t get to see you.  the hospital staff was worried about you.  they wanted to monitor you.  and they couldn’t get my blood-pressure down.  i begged them.  i knew if i could just hold you the world would be put right.

and it was.  you nursed just like you had been waiting for me.  you knew just what to do.  and you were beautiful.  your eyelashes were so dark and so long.  you were so tiny at 6 pounds 5 1/2 ounces.  the onsies we brought didn’t fit you.  we went home and bought you preemies.  and did i mention that you were so amazingly beautiful?

and the country?  faded into the background.  i find myself now so wanting to see more of that time because once you came into my life nothing else mattered.  i knew that God would work it all out.  and i no longer needed to monitor it all.  i only needed you.

i remember the first night at home with you right beside our bed – i couldn’t sleep.  i kept putting my hand on your tiny chest.  were you breathing?  i was terrified.  and your father told me that i had to trust in my Father.  that He had you no matter what.  that i couldn’t worry like this.  and so i gave you to Him.  but sometimes i find myself trying to steal you back from Him.

the first year with you was absolutely wonderful.  we couldn’t get enough of you.  and then you and i had several tumultuous years together.  and i doubted everything i did.  and i sent you off to start kindergarten and i mourned that it was over.  before it had even begun.  i had spent your babyhood having more babies and then you were gone.  and when i brought you home to teach you myself i felt such peace.  i knew it wasn’t over.  i breathed a sigh of relief.

because i knew it had actually just begun.