Dec. 12, 2008
The Grinch, Max the Dog and Cindy Lou Who~ Hooray!
Posted in ideas in action
Lately I've been entering a bunch of contests on blogs because it's fun and I'd love to win something (and since funds are tighter than tight here, it's a great way to get "extras"). Well I actually won something! TC Moms was giving away a Dr. Seuss Grinch ornament and we won! Yay! I say "we" because the kids and I studied Dr. Seuss this fall, which is why I wanted to win it in the first place. So I wrote 2008 on the bottom so we will always remember the year we learned about Ted Geisel. This got me to thinking about making ornaments for the different studies we complete throughout the year. My husband and I used to collect ornaments from trips we went on, but we haven't gone on many trips that haven't been Renaissance faire-related in recent years. This will be a good way to celebrate our learning. This past year we studied The Iditarod, The Summer Olympics, Greek mythology, and Plants (among other things). Ana and I met a sled dog racer at the library this summer, so I could take a picture from that and put it on an ornament. We could make some rings for the Olympics. Greek mythology may be tougher, as we don't want to glorify any of their false gods. Maybe a pegasus or something from the Odyssey. Oh, and we studied dinosaurs too! I remember that Dinosaur World was just this spring. I think my daughter has a cute dinosaur toy we could hang on a ribbon and use as an ornament. The wheels are turning now... LOL! An ornament for plants is easy-- we collected acorns, pinecones, leaves... I can turn them into some kind of ornament. Now I just have to DO it! That's always the hard part for me. I always have LOTS of ideas.... One idea that I DID manage to put into action was to create a homemade advent countdown. I got the idea from dltk-kids.com. I just LOVE that site! If you haven't checked it out yet, what are you waiting for?  Additionally, we use the Adornaments from Family Life, which appear to no longer be available for purchase. That is sad because I think every Christian family should have something like these. Each ornament is a nicely drawn name of Jesus, complete with the Bible reference on it. The ornaments depict the following: a baby in a manager with Matt. 1:23, a door with John 10:9, a candle with John 8:12, a lamb with John 1:29, a lion with Rev. 5:5, a star with Rev. 22:16, a vine and grapes with John 15:5, a loaf of bread with John 6:35, a crown with I Tim. 6:15, a cross with I John 4:14-15, a pitcher of water with John 4:10, and a shepherd's staff with John 10:11.  Jesse looks up verses in the Bible to read aloud. Some of the verses the kids realized they knew from AWANA. That was exciting for them!  Ana puts the baby Jesus ornament on the tree, which we later moved up toward the middle so it wouldn't be knocked off so easily! I did end up getting a litte frustrated because they kept putting the ornaments on the same branches, close to the ends and if someone bumped the tree, three things fell off. However, I hope I was able to teach them better for next year...We enjoyed looking at ornaments we created last year at our homeschool group or at library events. There are photos of them as babies, as toddlers, and from last year. It was a nice trip down memory lane. And here they are with the finished tree.  |