3rd Sunday in Advent: Light

This Sunday had a different energy to it because some very dark news events had just happened the week before class.  I felt it was an amazing coincidence that we got to talk about light this week - not just because this is a time of year when the days are shorter and the nights are longer - but also because this is also a time where we get to witness some amazing brilliance.  The light beaming from our children’s faces during this time is one of the clearest but we also get to see light from Advent candles, Christmas trees lit up in houses along many streets, and of course the light that Jesus is in this world, which can be seen in all the kindness, hospitality and miracles that are here for the noticing.  Even though sometimes it may be difficult or even seem impossible to see the light when things are at their darkest for you, the light is still there, waiting to be noticed when you are ready.

This week, our book was one that I wrote, called “The Lights We See at Christmas”.  I wrote about the different lights that we can see in this season of darkness, light and wonder.

Our craft was to make snow globes out of some little squat-sized water bottles I found at the store.  They already had water in them but we added different combinations of colored glitter and shiny beads into it and when you hold it up to the light, it is a beautiful sight to see all the colors swirling together. 

 

 I instructed the parents to tape the top closed when they got home to make sure the glitter snow globes stayed shut and could get chewed on.

Our parent topic this week was about finding the light in our everyday lives - our kid's faces, antics or sayings, perhaps a new job opportunity or the anticipation of seeing family.  Sometimes the tiniest spark can light the most impactful, spiritual fire inside of us.

Second Sunday in Advent - The Christmas Story 101

Even though we are still in the Advent season, I wanted to share the Christmas story with the kids a little early so that they would have at least a sensory familiarity with it. 
One way to do this is through a child-friendly nativity scene.   In the middle of the room, in addition to the light table and Chrismons tree, we had Fisher Price Little People nativity characters to play with and chew on. Nativity characters are a wonderful tool that kids can use to understand elements of the Christmas story in their own language – the language of play and exploration. The older kids (18 months - 3 years) can explore by using rudimentary forms of pretend-play and the younger ones explore through looking at the pieces and also inevitably chewing on them. Their mouths are just another way they learn about things, which is all the more reason to give them items that they can use and still be safe.

Our parent topic was about if we have a Nativity scene at home or remember playing with one when we were little and the significance of it in your family. 

We also made lift the flap books with brown paper lunchbags. 

When they are folded, the bottom folds over to make a ‘flap’.  We glued pictures inside so that they are partially covered by the flap and we stapled them together like a book.   The books included pictures of: a star, a sheep, an angel and the baby Jesus. 

The older kids colored it (or of course the parents could for the babies, to add a little pizazz) and it’s a simple book that you can read with your little one by saying “What’s this? – A star!  What’s this?  A sheep!” etc. 

What are some ways that you share the Christmas story in "kidlanguage" or "Babylanguage"?  Another way that we did this was to learn the sign language for the Bible verse: "For a child has been born for us" Isaiah 9:6, which involves the signs for 'child', 'born' and 'us'.  I never expect the little ones to actually do the signs, but since many parents do signing with their children already and the toddlers like to try hand motions with songs, it can be a fun way to share a Bible verse with them and then it will be more familiar later.  Kinesthetic memory can be very powerful.

 

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!