Is That Poison

Our little girl is 5 years old and her new obsession is asking if something is poison.  She ask it about everything.  "Are crayons poison?"  "Is my shoe poison?" "What if you put medicine on my itch and I scratch it and then scratch my mouth; is that poison?"  "Is the silver thing on the door poison?"  Then for about 2 days the obsession became about mosquitoes.  We were staying at a place that has tons of them and every time you walked outside you got bit.  One day she said, "Mom are mosquitoes poison, because I think I swallowed one?"  I assured her that she would know if she swallowed one and no they are not.
We finally told her that if she doesn't put her hands in her mouth and she only eats food/drinks, then she doesn't have to worry if it is poison or not. We told her this after she came out of the bathroom and asked if lotion was poison.  Her dad assured her it was not, only to hear her say she ate some.  You know you always here or know about the kid in kindergarten who eats glue, but you never think it could be your child one day.
Ok, so you know the joke that goes.... I one a trash can.  Well just encase you don't, let me tell it to you.  If your children hasn't heard it, you can get them on it.
Person one says - I one a trash can and tells the other person to say I two a trash can.
So here it goes the whole joke:
Person 1- I one a trash can
Person 2- I two a trash can
Person 1- I three a trash can
Person 2- I four a trash can
etc...
Person 1- I seven a trash can
Person 2 - I eight a trash can
Person 1 - ew you ate a trash can!! 
hahahaha

Well we were all in the car and our little girls says, "The baby doesn't have any mosquitoes bites and I know why."  I jokingly said, "Is it because you ate them?  hahaha  Hey, I one a mosquito."  My little girl replies, "I two a mosquito."  You know where this is going.  So, after she said I ate a mosquito, I replied, "OHHH you ate a mosquito."   Everyone starts laughing and without missing a beat our oldest son says, Hey I one lotion.......

Teaching Scripture - The Fruit of The Spirit

"All Scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness, so that the servant of God may be thoroughly equipped for every good work."
 2 Timothy 3:16
Teaching scripture to our children is a great thing.  Teaching them how scripture applies to their lives is priceless.  It is easier to learn something if you know how it applies to life and why you need to know it. 
We were learning the Fruit of the Spirit and I got a bright idea.  How can I make the scripture verse about The Fruit of the Spirit come alive and help them apply it.

                               Light bulb

Let's make a fruit tree, but not just any fruit tree.  So we made a Fruit of the Spirit tree.  We used old oatmeal boxes for the base, because they are a cylinder shaped.  We cut a circle out of the top and shoved a paper towel roll down in it.  This was the trunk of our tree.   For branches we used throw away forks and for leaves we cut them out of green paper.  This was the start of our tree.  Now to add the Fruit of the Spirit. 

Here are some examples of what we did:
One of the fruit is Gentleness.  So we printed little pictures of the kids faces when they were babies and cut them out into circles.  We then glued them on purple paper and cut the paper to look like a cluster of grapes.   Then we hung it from the branches (forks).  Our kids were able to relate gentleness to a baby. 
You also do not have to just put fruit on your tree.  Take for example The Fruit of the Spirit, self control.  At the time we did this, our oldest was having problems keeping his hands to himself.  So we let him trace his hand and wrote on it Self Control.  We hung it from another branch.  He learned that Self Control meant he needed to control his hands and use them for good and not bad.   

With each Fruit of the Spirit we added to our tree, we told why it is important, how it applies to them, and what each meant.  Each thing we added to the tree represented a way our kids could apply this to their life or it was a way to show them the meaning/example of the Fruit of the Spirit.  Here are some pictures below.  We had so much fun doing the tree, that we invited our homeschool friends over for a craft day on learning the Fruit of the Spirit.  The kids and mothers had a great time being creative and working together. 
If you have any idea's on how to teach scripture or you have taught a verse in a unique way, I would love to hear about it.

Thinking Outside The Box

When our oldest was 3 years old, we bought him the Big Kindergarten Book at Walmart or Target.  We were very excited to get started.  One day we were doing the worksheet "What goes together."  The worksheet had three pictures and the child is suppose to circle the two that go together.  So here are the pictures.

 

                    

                                                OK, so what goes together? 

The answer according to our son was the watch and the money.  Instead of telling him he was wrong, I decided to ask him why he circled those two things.  Here is his answer:
                              
 "When you get ready to go, you have to put your watch on and put your money in your pocket.  You can't leave home without them"

I learned that day that not everyone thinks the same.  You know, our son wasn't wrong, he was just thinking for himself.  He was thinking outside the box. 

       

Making a Creation Book with a Preschooler

When our oldest was three, I wanted to tell him the story of creation and make a craft to go along with it.  However, all the crafts I found for him were not crafts he could do and I ended up doing all the work.  I wanted something he could do with just a little help.  That's when we came up with our Creation Book.  We needed something sturdy for the pages of our book, so we used cardboard.  I cut out the front and backs of our cereal boxes.  After I had 7 of them, I put them together and cut them all the same size.  We used construction paper and glue to cover the cardboard.  We needed 7 pieces of cardboard, because we wanted to have a cover page.  Since he was only three and could not write yet, I bought peel and stick letters.  We used these on the cover page to put a title and our son's name.  We used tissue paper, buttons, macaroni, animal crackers, stickers and other household items to complete the book.  Then after all the pages dried, we punched holes in them and connected them with pipe cleaners.  Our son had a blast doing this project and I enjoyed spending time with him.  I posted pictures of the book we did together.     

First Day

Second Day 

Third Day

Fourth Day

Fifth Day

Sixth Day

Teaching Character Traits to Children in a Positive Way

How does a parent teach a child to tell the truth before the child lies?  How does a parent teach a child how to be kind before he takes away his siblings toy?  These are character traits we want our children to learn, but how do you teach it to them in a positive way?  I read a book that gave a list of character traits with the meaning and scripture that goes along with it.  After reading this book, I got an idea.  I went to the local school supply shop and bought a tree with no leaves.  I laminated it and put it on our wall in the kitchen.  Then I bought cut out leafs.  On the front of the leaf I wrote the character trait and on the back I wrote the meaning and the verse.  I also laminated these.  When my kids did that trait during the day, they were able to put the leaf on the tree. 
At the beginning of the day we would go over a couple of the character traits, tell what they mean, and then the bible verse.  We would add a new traits every few days. 

It really worked. My 5 year would take initiative and then ask to put that leaf on the tree.  When my kids were honest with me before they got caught or in trouble, I would let them put up the honestly leaf. 

Ax - A funny story

Our two oldest were playing one day and this was the conversation that took place.

"Get the ax and chop down the witch."
"I can't do that.  Axes are for bears and special occasions!"

The Truth about "What Goes Around Comes Around."

Do not be deceived, God is not mocked. A man reaps what he sows. The one who sows to please his sinful nature, from that nature will reap destruction; the one who sows to please the Spirit from the Spirit will reap eternal life. Let us not become weary in doing good, for at the proper time we will reap a harvest if we do not give up. Galatians 6:7-9

The saying what goes around comes around is true. Let me first say all sin is sin!! When we do what is displeasing to God we reap the consequences and some consequences are worse than others.

I am reading a book called "David" by Charles Swindoll. He says, "If there is anything we have been duped into believing in our era of erroneous teachings on grace, it is the thinking that if we will simply confess our sins and claim God's forgiveness, than all the consequences of what we have done will be quickly washed away."

You know people say that all the time "What goes around comes around." But we say it to people who have done us wrong, because we want them to go through what they put us through. When something happens to us, do we ever think... now I wonder if I have ever hurt someone that way or did that to someone?? Am I reaping what I have sown??

Am I making sense here?!!

I think of my oldest son, when I read about consequences. He will do something wrong and say I am sorry, but he still has to take a punishment. He needs to understand, even at a young age, that what he does has consequences. If he is kind and good, he gets rewarded, but if he is ugly or bad he gets in trouble. If I never punished him for his behavior, what's to keep him from doing it again. He understands, even now, that if he does something wrong after being told not to do it, he gets punished.

It works!! There are things he used to do and now he doesn't do them. Even at the age of two, he would  tell you "that's a no no." Beth Moore once said that God is into A's. He is not content with C's. So until you understand that some things are "no no's" you will keep getting punished/consequences. Charles Swindoll says that we can accept this physically. Like a broken arm, because we jumped out of a tree. But it is hard for us to accept consequences spiritually.

We think as adults that if we did something wrong and ask for forgives, everything is now better. But that is not always the case.

In the book "David," Charles says "Grace means that God, in forgiving you, does not kill you. Grace means that God in forgiving you, gives you the strength to endure the consequences. Grace frees us so that we can obey our Lord. It does not mean sin's consequences are automatically removed.

The sooner we learn this the better off we will be. We need to get in our heads that our actions good and bad reap consequences. Sometimes when we have something bad happen to us, it could be a result of something we did.

So the truth...NOT EVERYTHING IS POOR, PITIFUL ME!! We need to wake up and realize that we cause a lot of our own problems! And like Charles Swindoll says, once you have been forgiven by God's grace, He will then give you the strength to endure. Remember not to give up in doing what is right, even when it is hard. God into A's not C's.