Friday, October 28, 2011

Character Building {Patience}


Character Building Title
 

We are on a new adventure!

Won’t you come along and join us? This fall we are learning how to have strong character. We are using the book, A Child's Book of Character Building, book 1, along with a bunch of other activities to round out our experience.
 
Character Building Patience
PATIENCE: Waiting with a happy heart.
"Be patient then brothers and sisters, until the Lord's coming, like the farmer who waits until the autumn for his precious harvest to ripen, you too be patient and stand firm because the Lord's coming is near."
-James 5:7-8

This week the kids and I learned about being patient. Unfortunately, as I am not an expert on the subject,  we were all tested to our max with many opportunities to practice our new skills!


First, we learned how Jesus patiently waited for Peter to become a great preacher, even though Peter would deny knowing Christ three times. There are so many other examples of patience in the bible that I had planned to go over with the kids, but I was busy unpacking from a recent move (again!) and just stuck with what the book had planned.


The kids colored their coloring pages for the week on patience in the Bible, at home, at school, and at play.
 
237235236

They also learned a new (but old to me) song about being patient and of course, our memory verse.

Patience1Patience2
(Click here for a FREE printable of the song and the Bible verse.)



 
We did a fun activity called "Patience Please".  I made a little tent in the school room, and placed a basket of candy inside it.  When the kids got downstairs, they all wanted to see what was in the tent.  I gave them instructions, that if they would like to go in and see what was in the tent, they were welcome to, however it would be better if they waited.
 
I was surprised that none of them wanted to go in after my warning! So Saul went in (as an example) and came out with a candy bar.  They all wanted to go in after that!  But I reminded them that it would be better if they waited.

We read through our bible story, and colored the page, and after that, I gave permission for the kids to go into the tent and take 3 of whatever they saw!  But since Saul hadn't waited, he couldn't have anymore.  (So he made a big deal over it, and pouted and had a big fit, saying that it wasn't fair.)
The point was that sometimes a bigger reward waits for those who wait patiently, and the kids all understood it well!

233

Then at the end of the week, they all got to watch our  Character Builder Movie on patience.

Character Builders54948

Next:
Character Building Contentment

Friday, October 14, 2011

Character Building {Diligence}


Character Building Title

We are on a new adventure!

Won’t you come along and join us? This fall we are learning how to have strong character. We are using the book, A Child’s Book of Character Building, along with a bunch of other activities to round out our experience.
 
Character Building Diligence
DILIGENCE: Working hard to accomplish a task.
“Do you know a hard working man? 
He shall be successful and stand before Kings.”
-Proverbs 22:29

So we are about a third of our way through our Character Building Bible Study, and I must say...
 
Each week presents itself with plenty of challenges!
 
After spending a week talking to the kids about being attentive, the following week seemed to be full of me asking them, "Are you being Attentive?" and "Please! Pay Attention!"  Needless to say, I was a little worried about this week's lesson, Diligence:  working hard to accomplish a task.
 
This is an issue that seems to keep coming 'round here over and over again.  I know I am not the only parent who may have "motivationaly challenged" kids.  I was just left wondering how to move my kids towards valuing hard work, and the rewards of sticking with something all the way through to completion.  This weeks lesson was a great start to the kids' understanding how Jesus was diligent, and how we can be diligent at home, at school, and at play!
 
After reading the devotionals each day,  the kids colored the pictures from their books.
 
016017018

The story from the bible that we talked about was when Jesus was praying in the garden, just before being arrested.  He diligently prayed, while his disciples fell asleep.  The kids were amazed that Jesus was so diligent with his prayer, that he sweat blood from his brow! As we read and talked each day, we looked around for ways we could be more diligent:

With our daily chores.
With our school work.
With family projects.

And with our attitudes, that we must have the mindset to work hard at all that we do.

We learned our new song Diligence and practiced our memory verse too.

Diligence1Diligence2
 
(Click here for a FREE printable of the song and Bible verse.)


Towards the end of the week, they got to watch our  Character Builders movie and also A Veggie Tales: Pirates Who Don't Do Anything movie.  It was a great week of study!

 
pirates veggie talesCharacter Builders54948


Next:
Character Building Patience

Sunday, October 9, 2011

Posh Princess Preschool {Letter Ee}

We are cruising right along with our letter of the week! 
Here is a look at what The Diva was up to this week...

Letter E for: Elephant and Egg

First she learned what the letter Ee sounded like.
We used our Leap Frog Word Whammer for this.

Then she learned how to write the letter Ee.
She used the worksheet from Confessions of a Homeschooler.
Then she did her Play-doh page and cut out the
 letter E with this set...

And stamped the letter E with this set.


She did the Ee card from our
which went along perfectly with our Elephant theme week.


I set out the E for Elephant magnet sheet from

She colored an Elephant page...


And did her letter Ee hunt...

And then circled the smallest E object.

We finally got out our Inchimals.  All of the kids have
been so excited to use these!  Each animal has a
different measurement from 1-12 inches. 
There is a wipe-clean booklet that comes with them.
 There are simple math problems in it, and I wasn't sure the Diva
would be ready for it.  But she totally surprised me!  She did great!

One Frog + One Penguin = One Bear

What a fun way to do math and measurement!

We got out our Elephant costume for play this week.
I think she makes an adorable elephant!


A new learning toy we have is this
Magnetic Designer from Lakeshore Learning.
She has been practicing her letters on it and drawing pictures too.


Here's another fun activity I came up with:  I
 got out some of our plastic Easter Eggs, and filled them with small objects from 1-10. 
I hid them all throughout the school room, and sent her on a hunt to find them. 
Once she found all 10 eggs, she opened each of them and
matched them to our number flashcards from 1+1+1=1.




She had so much fun with this activity, and did very well with her number recognition!

We are still using our Gear Builders a lot, and this week the Diva
did some letter practice with them.

Another fun review activity is watching Leap Frog: Letter Factory.
She gets to watch it towards the end of each week.


One of her chores this week was kitchen helper,
though it never feels like a chore to her since she loves to help cook!
Here she is helping make "Sloppy Saul's" (or Sloppy Joe's).
We used my grandmom's recipe and I told her it was a special one.
It was so cute when her brothers asked her how she made them, she grinned and
told them, "It's an ancient secret!"


It is so fun to watch her confidence grow
each week as she learns new things!


Great job my l'il Diva!