These Early Days of Advent

 We are enjoying the Jesse tree this year and are using Unwrapping the Greatest Gift: A Family Celebration of Christmas for the scripture and illustrations.  However, we are talking through the stories and not reading the lengthy devotionals.  I posted more thoughts on this book last year here.  More photos of the tree are here.

The little clay advent wreath is one of many advent crafts that Isaac has brought home from preschool.  I am so delighted to have him at our church for preschool especially because they are teaching the children to tell time by the church year.  I'm so very grateful for the reinforcement of what we are doing at home.

The older three boys and I have been enjoying some Christmas chapter books.  We finished The Best Christmas Pageant Ever, which the boys now look forward to each year.  We also read I Saw Three Ships
for the first time and that is a delightful book!  We actually read the whole book in an evening, it is so hard to say no when they ask for another chapter and I'm just as eager as they are to see what happens next.

We are now onto The Christmas Surprise and I'm hopeful we'll make it through this stack by Epiphany.  It has been working well to read after our advent devotionals while the boys color in Christmas coloring books.  Mr. 4 has trouble listening to some of the longer books if his hands aren't busy, and yet he so wants to be part of what I'm doing with the older boys, so this works well.

Note: I've never read the Swindoll book in the stack above, it was a gift.  I think Jonah might enjoy it, but I can't recommend what I haven't read.  The others in the stack I can heartily recommend as excellent read alouds.


The Best Christmas Pageant Ever

The Christmas Surprise

The Twenty-four Days Before Christmas

The Life and Adventures of Santa Clause

The Thirteen Days of Christmas (We read this over the twelve days of Christmas each year.)

I Saw Three Ships

Here is a photo I took of some of the chapter books we read last year at Christmas time.  In this group I really love The Family Under the Bridge which didn't make it into this years stack.  At least not yet...
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What are your favorite Chapter books for Christmas?  Please Share!

Summer is for Literary Teas

When I was little we had literary teas in the summer.  Which basically meant that mom made something yummy and we all sat and read our own books.  Because this is such a delightful childhood memory, I try to have literary teas from time to time with my boys.  So far, that means I'm reading out loud, but I'm looking forward to days when we all read our own book (give it six years).

One challenge is finding something that everyone is interested in.  The first week of Summer we read a stack of Cinderella stories from around the world I found at the library.  Jonah was off to read another book (he had already read the Cinderella stories when we brought them home from the library) but the younger boys finished tea and then did ink and watercolor paintings of Cinderella with me.  

We read The Littles a couple weeks ago.  Rowan is the perfect age for these books and Isaac enjoyed them too.  I loved them when I was young and always went scampering off to make mini shoe box houses afterward reading them.  The books are about small people (with tails) who live in the walls of the Biggs' house and use all sorts of everyday items to furnish their miniature house and supply them on their adventures.  They are very similar to the Borrowers, but a much lower reading level.
After finishing the first book I bought the boys some baking clay as I've been saving bottle caps for awhile with visions of Little sized pies in my head.  They had a lot of fun rolling and shaping mini pies.  

This week we are reading The People of Sparks over tea and after dinner this week, which Jonah and Rowan are loving.  We listened to the Audio book of City of Ember in the spring and just found this second book in the series.   The books are really imaginative distopian novels; I'm really enjoying them too.  Isaac often plays somewhere in the room.  It is beyond his interest, but every now and then he'll ask a question, so he's listening at least some of the time.  

We still have a few more books to check off the summer reading lists, so that is probably where the literary teas are headed over the next month.  

Easter Books: Sacred

Eastertide :: 45/50

I have tried the past couple years to get the Easter books out on or just before Easter and leave them in 'circulation' through all fifty days of Easter.  I thought I would share a few here.  I've been trying to build our collection, we have a small stack of Easter books.  There isn't nearly the selection of Easter books as there are Christmas books, so I'd love any suggestions of favorites you might share! 

I'm pretty sure I've mentioned these before in this space so I won't go on, but they are the two sacred books that we read the most.  I started reading these to the boys just before Holy Week to prepare them to journey though the week.   Peter's First Easter follows Peter through the events of Holy Week and Easter. It is divided into chapters and would be great to read through Holy Week or throughout Lent.  The Easter Story is told from the donkey's perspective.  I always love the details in Brian Wildsmith's illustrations.  Both of these books invite a child to enter a full and difficult story, but they do it in a way that is imaginative and grace filled, allowing the child to enter however far they are ready, but not forcing them into the darkness.

Easter Books: Eggs!

Eastertide :: 44/50

I have tried the past couple years to get the Easter books out on or just before Easter and leave them in 'circulation' through all fifty days of Easter.  I thought I would share a few here .  I've been trying to build our collection; we have a small stack of Easter books.  There isn't nearly the selection of Easter books as there are Christmas books, so I'd love any suggestions of favorites you might share! 

These are two books that have been added to our collection over the past couple years.  I'm enjoying them both immensely.  

The Easter Egg is filled with classic Jan Brett illustrations packed with lots to see and adding so much depth to the story.  The boys adore this book and ask for it again and again.  A small bunny watches in awe as all the other bunnies decorate beautiful eggs in all sorts of ways.  He ends up taking care of a fallen robin's egg instead of finishing an egg of his own.  I'll let you guess who wins the contest.

The Egg Tree is precious and an inspiring story.  Cousins go on an egg hunt and one finds some beautiful old eggs in the attic (they weren't part of the hunt) which they hang on a tree.  This book leaves me ready to run to the craft shelves to paint some eggs to hang.  Perhaps next year...

Easter Books: Old Favorites

Eastertide :: 43/50

I have tried the past couple years to get the Easter books out on or just before Easter and leave them in 'circulation' through all fifty days of Easter.  I thought I would share a few here over the next couple days.  I've been trying to build our collection, we have a small stack of Easter books.  There isn't nearly the selection of Easter books as there are Christmas books, so I'd love any suggestions of favorites you might share! 

These were my two favorite Easter books as a child.  I read them over and over.  I have so enjoyed sharing them with my boys, who also ask to read them over and over again.  Both are sweet magical stories.

The Country Bunny and the Little Gold Shoes is the story of a mama rabbit who is chosen to be an Easter Bunny.  Her well trained children are quite able to carry on without her while she brings joy to children and one sick child in particular.   My favorite part of the story has always been when the 21 children (heavens!) are all assigned tasks - two to paint pictures, two to sing and dance, two to set the table...  The illustrations are precious and I love how the family works together to care for their home.

Grandpa Bunny is a tale of how a rabbit family paints eggs, leaves, birds and bugs, making them all very beautiful.  It is a fun and imaginative story.  When I was growing up my family called any beautiful sunset a Grandpa Bunny Bunny Sky.   The other day my middle boys were inspired to be painting bunnies themselves.  I have a pair of stained shorts to prove it (isn't tempera paint supposed to be washable?) as well as a nature table full of painted pieces from our garden.

Our Favorite Advent Traditions

Looking for a new advent tradition?  Here are some of our favorites.

I am so excited to be living in the same home as we were last Advent.  Everything is so much more organized than in years past.  I've been thinking about advent the past couple weeks and am getting a few things ready for our preparation.  We are trying to simplify and do without all the sweets and extras before Christmas so that the twelve days are really special.  This is always a challenge and we certainly make exceptions for parties with friends and a few cultural events in the city, but our longing is for advent to be a time of preparation, fasting and waiting.  We are planning on just having lights on our tree when we put it up in a week or two and then slowly decorate it through the season.

Light in a Lantern  - This is my favorite advent tradition.  I love that This book engages our imaginations and sends us into nature to forge for items to make Mary and Joseph's journey as we travel through advent.  The stories are so whimsical and engaging I love them more each year we read them.
 




Jesse Tree - While Light in the Lantern is my favorite tradition I think the Jesse tree may be the most important.  I love that the Jesse tree reminds us that the birth of Christ was part of God's great story.  Having this as the central focus in our time of Advent is so very important.  I would love to add leaves with each of our boys symbols to represent their small part in this great story and something representing the forever kingdom to remind us that this story isn't over yet.  I've been reading about the history of Advent recently (primarily in this book) and am really wanting add more eschatological emphasis to our advent celebrations.

I was just given Ann Vorskamp's book Unwrapping the Greatest Gift: A Family Celebration of Christmas and have really enjoyed the bits I've read so far.  It has a reading for each day of the Jesse tree.  I think with the littles it will be wonderful to have an illustrated book to go along with the biblical readings and it will simplify things for me.  In the past we've used this website to guide us (though we mostly read the scripture from the bible or children's bibles and didn't use the devotional part much).

You can see all of the felt leaves we use in these posts, but there are printables at this website if you want to get started without all the stitching.


Advent Chain:  I don't know if we'll make one of these this year, but Jonah really enjoyed this study of Jesus' names when his class made it last year at their Christmas party.  We may do something with it on the Feast of the Name during the twelve days of Christmas.  Because it is a free printable it is an easy advent tradition to add.  It pairs very well with Sally Lloyd Jones' book Song of the Stars: A Christmas Story because she weaves the names of Christ through the book.

It is designed to hang and have one loop removed each day till Christmas.  You can then talk about that name of Christ and read the scripture listed on the loop.

I would do this in purple if making for an advent chain.  They made it for a Christmas decoration so it was gold and silver.

Christmas Books: Getting out our collection of Christmas books has always been a big part of our Advent celebration.  We've collected lots of books, some have been gifts and many have been finds at thrift stores.  There are so many wonderful stories that I wan to share, that last year I realized at the end of the season we hadn't read a few of them (though we had read others over and over and over).  So this year I wrapped up a package of books for each day of advent.  Every day has at least one book about the nativity story and then a couple books that range from traditional Christmas stories (The Gift of the Magi, The Nutcracker, The Night before Christmas...) to more modern children's literature (Olivia Helps with Christmas, Olive, the Other Reindeer, Madeline's Christmas...)  I'm excited about this and the boys are already eagerly eyeing the two baskets of books wrapped in brown paper bags.  I also sorted our Christmas tree ornaments last year, so when we read stories about birds we can add a birds to the tree, etc.

















On the Godly Play Shelves: Our banner will turn from the green of ordinary time to the purple of advent.  Our nativity and risen Christ are out all year, but I do find that they are played with more through advent and Christmas.

Playing with the Annunciation and going to Bethlehem Story:


Memory Work:  Our Sunday School finished with Psalm 23 and began memorizing Luke 2: 8-14.  I will try to post on this soon and have a copy of the memory card to share.

Traditional Wreath and Godly Play Advent:  We'll probably light our advent wreath and use our felt Godly play cards and scripts (from this book) each Sunday.
 
Family Candle: I think we'll simply use a purple candle on our dinner table this year.  We light a candle most nights through the year at dinner to remind us that God is with us in this place and at this time.  This is such a simple way of marking the church season.
 

Feast Days in the Fast of Advent: I'm also looking forward to St. Nick Night and St. Lucia Breakfast.

More Ideas:
My favorite books to use in planning advent are Festivals Family and Food; All Year Round: Christian Calendar of  Celebrations; Celebrating the Christian Year: Building Family Traditions Around All the Major Christian Holiday; Let Us Keep the Feast: Living the Church Year at Home; and Celebrating the Church Year with Young Children