December: A Month of Service, Songs, Waiting and Celebrating!

December was such a roller coaster of travel, beauty, a tragedy and hope & light.  I had the opportunity to share the Christmas story through play and senses with our little ones at Mustard Seeds, pray for all our travelling families and we even got to do a service project! 

We had two sensory activities this month: I brought our light table back out so that the kids could play with it and have a symbol of light during this season.  Here's a picture of the kids playing with it:

 I also made a felt tree with felt Chrismons to decorate it.  Some of the Chrismons went on the tree and some went into their mouth.  Either way, it was fun to share it with them! 

What are Chrismons?  They are religious ornaments – usually made of white Styrofoam with gold glitter details that hang on the "church tree" in the sanctuary.  Each ornament is a symbol (dove, baptismal shell, crown, etc.).  We have a felt version that I made for the kids to play with during Sunday School.  I made it by using a template from here.  It is a great link for templates as well as the information for each symbol.  I made our class tree by getting a big piece of cardboard, covering it with wrapping paper, attaching a simple tree cut out of felt with hot glue.  I made the Chrismons by tracing the patterns and adding detail with glitter glue.

First Sunday of Advent: Waiting and Watching

The first Sunday of Advent, we talked about ways that we waited for Christmas – Advent Calendars, Advent chains, etc. In class, one thing that we made was an Advent Spiral to count down the days before Christmas Eve. 

 

 If you are interested in making one at home, here is the recipe for salt dough: 1 cup salt, 1 cup flour, ½ cup lukewarm water.  Mix and work with your hands until desired consistency (helpful to remove any rings you may have, but now I can’t get mine back on!!).  The dough firms up a little more when in an airtight container in the fridge.  Also, here is a great link on what an advent spiral is and the history.  It is really fascinating!  You can either light one birthday candle and move it along the holes to the 24^th, or you can light a new candle each night until you have 24 candles lighting up the room (though personally that’s too much fire with my girls, 2 cats and piles of chaos everywhere – I’m going to stick with one candle ; )

Our parent topic this Sunday was based on one of the tenets of the Advent Conspiracy.  If you haven’t already read about this, our church follows along with this during Advent.  It’s a great way to keep everything in perspective during this busy season by worshipping fully, buying less, giving more time and loving all.  The topic was ‘what is an example of something that you can or had to give up to make room in your life to worship more fully at this time?’ Responses ranged from buying less presents to keeping plans and traveling more simple this year.

In class, we read Who is Comingto Our House by Joseph Slate.  This book has great examples, through the animals’ actions of waiting in their own humble ways for the coming of the Christ child.  Plus, it’s a really fun book to read in voices!

There are so many fun and creative ways to wait and watch with your little ones!

We Thank God by Sharing

In November, we will be talking about ways that we can thank God.  There are many ways, of course, but we will be focusing this month on thanking God by sharing, thanking God by helping and thanking God by loving and spending time with God (praying). 

Another way we can thank God, share and help is by donating food to those that have less.  In particular, this month we are focusing on donating food to other babies and toddlers.  We are having a baby food drive during the month of November!  You can bring your donation in to class or to the Hopelink box in the Fellowship Hall.

Our church has partnered with Hopelink on other donation projects and Hopelink has a food bank in our area, as well as others around the eastside that helps homeless and low-income families, children, seniors and those with disabilities.  Next time you are at the store, whether you are a local mustard seed or not, you can buy some baby food - whatever's on sale or if you have a toddler, let THEM pick the kinds and flavors.  Talk to your infant or toddler about what you're doing - even if they seem like they don't understand - and keep it simple.  Then, you can either donate your baby food (or diapers, or wipes, or formula - if you get the formula samples in the mail and don't use them) when you come to church next or if you aren't able to make it to church, there is a food bank bin at the front of almost every grocery store and you can put it in there.  The point is that you're helping and your little one is watching you or helping too and gets to participate in helping others. 

In class, we talked about thanking God by sharing!  One story from the bible that talks about this is the boy who shared his lunch with all the thousands of people that came to hear Jesus.  We read This is the Lunch that Jesus Served, which followed the same pattern as the story "the House that Jack Built", so it was fun to read and have everyone chime in on "Jesus Served" each time.

Our parent question was 'what are some ways that you have shared with others that your child has been able to witness"  There are a ton of ways that we share, but some of the answers focused on bringing meals to those that are homebound, giving offering, and giving to food drives.

Our sensory bin this month doesn't have to do with out theme.  My girls and I collected leaves (and we had two mini-pumpkins on hand) and since we collected them from the side of the road (but a clean area : )  I had my two year old and I wash them (my 6 year old was busy at the art table with her leaf-bounty).  Even though it seems silly and over-protective, I remember when I was a parent for the first time and some of my friends and I would have felt it was unnecessary, but appreciated.  The point in telling you this, really, was that as my two-year old washed each of God's leaves in our silver baking bowl, it got me thinking about taking care of the earth and in the minutiae of washing each leaf I remembered how God cares for even the smallest sparrow and how Jesus washed the feet of his disciples.  

Then we laid the leaves out to dry for the next day's sensory bin...

...where they were promptly put into little mouths, so I am glad I washed them after all! : )

Lastly, our art project was coloring "baskets" to put our "loaves" and "fishes" into.  That's a lot of quotation marks, but here's what I mean:

A fun time was had by all! 

See you next Sunday where we will talk about thanking God by helping and the story of Miriam and Moses!  Thanks to all of you who have already donated to the baby food drive!
 - Ruth

Planting the Seeds of Promise

Today we talked about Noah, after the flood.  The Bible, doesn't only talk about saving the animals and Noah's family, The story also mentions saving the plants of the earth by taking seeds with them as well, though it doesn't necessarily mention who does that work.  (foreshadowing for our story of the week) 

It's also Reformation Sunday - the Sunday that Lutherans celebrate Martin Luther posting the 95 theses to the church door and inspiring change.  Likewise, our parent topic was about things that you would like to do differently raising your kids from the experiences you had growing up. Some people didn't have anything they would change and that is great!  Sometimes, with a loving understanding of the choices your parents made, you may have some ideas, as well as the benefit of hindsight and experience, on how you would approach things differently with raising your children.  Great answers from everyone.

Back to Noah!

Today, we did a bunch of singing about rainbows and animals (I don't post all of the songs here because I don't always have the original source handy to cite) and then read a great board book called: Naamah Noah's Wife by Sandy Eisenberg Sasso.  There is a longer, hardback storybook version of this for older kids, but we read the board book, which is shorter, but still well-written and appropriate for our class.  This story imagines Noah's wife, Naamah doing the work of saving all the seeds of the earth - storing them in an apron full of pockets and then planting them after the flood. 

Then, we made playdough mandalas and planted seeds, sticks, moss, leaves and other found objects into some homemade playdough, which was scented with essential oil (the oil was an Aveda peppermint stress oil that I had left over from my days in the paid work force.  To me, it smells like work.  To everyone else, just a nice minty-smell ; )  Here's my 2-year-old with hers and one other student's:

 

The playdough recipe was a no-cook version, which you can find Here.  There are also probably every other playdough recipe you can think of on that site.  I like the no-cook recipe (instead of cooking it in a saucepan, you pour boiling water into it, which "cooks" it) but it seems a bit crumbly at first.  Once you work it in your hands a bit, it is just fine - just like regular playdough.  Perfect for our mandalas.  The kiddos stuck nature pieces into their dough, after molding it to the shape they want and I provided wax paper to take it home and let it dry.  The 'under 1-year-olds' were happy just feeling and smelling the dough, assisted closely by their parents. 

Here are a few of our finished mandalas:

It's kind of funny to talk about planting in the fall, but so far in Mustard Seeds, we've planted some great ideas, stories and experiences in the kiddos minds and hearts.  I think we've also planted a community for the parents and that's something that is good for everyone.  



Still Talking about Noah: Rainbow Party!

October's topic at Mustard Seeds is Noah and one thing I've been waiting to do is a Rainbow Party!! 

Since we've been talking about 'trusting in God's rainbows', our parent discussion topic was: 'Talk about a situation where you had to trust, but it was hard'.  All our parents had great input on this question. 

Since this was a bit more of an involved topic, I let the kids have fun with paint while we talked about our topic.  That's right.  We had fun with paint.  On a Sunday morning at church.  Here's how:  I took paper, glopped two colors of paint on the paper, put it in a Ziploc bag (letting the air mostly out), zipped it and then taped the zipped opening shut.  the kids had fun using their hands to mix the two colors into three and playing with paint.  Of course this mess-free project isn't foolproof.  Kids are so smart and you never know who will figure out how to open the tape, but the parents were right there with the kids and *this* year, we had no problems (I've done this a few times and each time has ended well).  The sensory elements of painting with real paint (painting with a brush, finger painting with pudding or paint, etc.) is awesome.  Just...not necessarily on a Sunday morning when they're all dressed up : D 
Here are some of the masterpieces:

 

Then, when you're at home, you can take the painting out of the bag, throw the bag away and let it dry.  I think the kids loved making their rainbow paintings!

The kids also got to eat rainbow goldfish

 And ended the class with dancing and rainbow wrist ribbons.  I "lead" them in a few easy motions that the parents followed or helped their little ones' arms follow or the toddlers followed along (each with their own style) as we listened to a CD from Augsburg's Splash! resources.  I really like their choice of songs and the way the music is played and sung. 

After the kids left, my 2-year-old put one wrist ribbon of each color on her wrists (they are wrist ribbons from Lakeshore) and danced while I cleaned up.  We'll have to use them again soon! 

 

Animals & Building

Last Sunday, we talked about Noah through the topics of animals and building!  I brought in some wood blocks from home for the kiddos to build with (or just put in their mouth : )  and we continued to play with the animal sensory bin - which is comprised of tons of Fisher Price's Little People animals, a few animal finger puppets and a Noah stuffed plushie I had on hand.

Our art project this week was making an ark that can hold animal crackers or vanilla puffs (which look a bit like vague animal shapes - sheep perhaps...) depending on the food stage of the child or preference.  On the one side, it was colored like an ark (see my 2-year-old's version) with an ark-topper-shape glue-sticked to the top.  The boat part is made of a paper plate I cut in half and stapled on the rounded edge.  I prepped this part beforehand and cut out the ark topper shapes.

When you turn the ark upside down (without cookies in it), the other side is a rainbow.  My 2-year-old didn't draw one, but my visiting 6 year old drew one and many of the parents did for their little ones as well, commenting on the different colors.

 

The book we read last week was Drip Drop by Mary Manz Simon.  This book was actually a reading book for beginning readers that I found in our church library.  Easy-reader level books are great for reading to our toddlers as well!  They are usually short with lots of pictures and a fun way to read differently-cadenced books to our little ones.  Drip Drop was fun to read with the kiddos in class because of the “Hurry Noah Hurry” refrain that the parents got to say and pattering our laps during the ‘drip drop’ part.  An extra treat for me, was finding out later that it was written by Mary Manz Simon, who is also the author of Little Visits for Toddlers, an activity devotional, specifically for toddlers that I have used at Mustard Seeds and with my kiddos.

Tomorrow is Sunday and we will be having a Rainbow Party!!  I know a few toddlers who have been looking forward to more dancing and I have our rainbow wrist ribbons all ready to go!  More to come after tomorrow!



Noah: Trusting in God's Rainbows

This week we started our October theme which is the story of Noah.  There are many great stories in the Bible to share with your little one, so we are starting the year off with Noah for a few reasons: 1.) Many of our little ones may have received something Noah-ish or ark-ish when they were born and 2.) Who doesn't love Animals & Rainbows!

We have also added a Bible verse to "memorize" in sign language - which is a language that many of our parents are already communicating with their little ones.  Our Bible verse is "Praise the Lord" from Psalm 150:1.  We sign it by holding our palms out in front of our head and shaking our hands ("praise") and then making an 'L' with our right hand, placing it on our left shoulder and then tracing it across our body to our right hip - sort of like you're putting on a seat belt (the grown-up kind.  Dont' try signing a 5-point harness : )  ("Lord")  We practiced it many times during the class and it was fun to do!

Our craft this week was making a stick puppet of rain clouds on one side and a rainbow on the other, glue-sticked to a foam stick (I used these instead of Popsicle sticks, even though they were floppy, because they seemed a bit safer, but primarily because I saw them in the $1 bin at Target : )

Here is the rain side:

And here is the rainbow side!:

 

We used our 'puppets' when we sang songs today about rainbows and rain and Noah.
Our parent topic was to talk about what our favorite Bibles stories or other stories that have fed us spiritually in our lives.  The responses ranged from Loaves and fishes to Job to Miriam and baby  Moses.  All our parents have their own special way to share their favorite Bible story - and what it means to them - with their little ones.  This parent topic was to get their thoughts flowing on how they want to do it.

We read "The Beginner's Bible: Noah and the Ark" - a board book by Kelly Pulley published by Zonderkidz.  I chose it because it was a simple but well-written retelling of the story with simple illustrations.  The Beginner's Bible publishes many early readers and a toddler bible with a latch and a handle that they can carry around (as you may know, toddlers love to carry things around).  During this month, we will read many more re-tellings of this story from different perspectives, so this is just one of many.

That's is for this week!
Blessings,
Ruth Hanley of Mustard Seeds

This is my Church/Spiritual Family

We wrapped up the month of September talking about what a 'spiritual family' or 'church family' is.  This can be whoever you consider part of your child's spiritual development or influence: pastors, godparents, family, church members, nursery workers, friends at church, a special greeter, even a seeing-eye-dog in training can teach your child much and they can be part of the congregation in a special way during their training. 

We had two crafts this week: One was a candle (battery-operated, from the dollar store, so it...you know...fit in our budget and was safe around the little ones ; ) and all the parents at Mustard Seeds added their name and their chileren's names to the candle on post-it flags.

We also attached circle labels to baby spoons and put names or faces on them (the intent is that if you want, you can attach pictures when you get home) of people in your child's spiritual family.  You can take the spoons out of the paper cup and talk about who that person is and how much they love your child, sing a song about it, pray with your child for that person or even pretend that the person is talking to your child (example that I would do, in a funny muppet voice, "Hi, I'm grandma.  How are you today?"  Just to have fun with it.)

Also, I bought a blank puzzle and all the mustard seeds kiddos (that were able) and parents colored on it.  At the end, we each took a piece away from it and what was left over, I plan to frame and write 'Mustard Seeds 2012-2013' on it for our room.

We had a lot of crafts this week!

We read "Church is a Special Place" by Daphna Flegal, published by Abingdon Press

Our parent question was: What are your favorite ways to spend time as a family?  What are some fun outings that you have gone on or would like to? We got many ideas of places to take our little ones.

A church family is an important part of your child's spiritual development and is made up of many people.  It's good for you as well as you little one to think about and pray for those that are in yours!