The Lent Tent

You can involve your young children in the liturgical season of Lent by setting aside a space for reflection.  No really!  You can do this by designating a "Lent Tent"

We have a great play tent that a friend gave us, but we could have used a sun shade, a small tent, a box or even a special corner of the house with blankets, pillows and beanbags.   And, the other important supply to make this a place of reflection is to pile all the books that you have on spirituality, God, Jesus, etc. into one place.  Let your child read whatever they want whenever they want in their special space.  They don't have to follow any other special rules - kids have a great way of changing your best laid plans into their version, but let them.  That's where we get to learn from them.  Let your child know that this is a place that will always have a quiet space for them as long as they want it to be quiet (that's up to them) and books galore.  I loved seeing my complete library of spiritual kids books in one place (I have many that are Mustard Seeds books and a few library books that I plan to return to the church library soon). 

My oldest daughter is writing in her journal in this picture and following a modified version of my Lenten Writing Project at www.spirit2spiritwriters.blogspot.com.  She is getting some extra writing practice by committing to write each of the 40 days of Lent.  Today's prompt is a little grownup, so I have given her the prompt: how would you describe God to someone.  If God was a character in a book, what would the description be like?

Now my 7-year-old is reading a book to the 4-year-old that I've been trying to get them to read for months now.  Somehow, sister-to-sister reading is better suited to that book I guess.

Blessings to you as we journey though Lent!

Remembering Baptismal Anniversaries With Joy, Not Guilt

ALLELUIA!!

Did you celebrate your children’s baptismal anniversary this year?  What about your own?  Families are busier than ever and even though baptismal anniversaries may be an important part of your personal theology, it’s easy to miss the *exact date* every year for each of your kids and/or yourself, your spouse, godchildren…the list goes on.  One way to find a solution is to celebrate baptismal anniversaries within everyday experiences or pick a date and have a ‘family baptismal anniversary day’ for everyone together.  Either way offers the time to be thankful and honor the baptisms of yourself and others that are in your life.

Celebrate your baptismal anniversary with water:

1.  Drink those 8 glasses of water you always hear about in order to celebrate the healthy body that God gave you.  Say a prayer of thankfulness with each one.
2. Take time when washing the dishes to think about and pray for others.  Remember the baptisms you’ve seen or been a part of.  Be conscious of the water and how it moves and works in its gentle way with the mess on these dishes and the skin on your hands, and remember how the spirit can move us in its gentle way as well.
3. Visit a local waterfall or if you are on a camping vacation, make sure to visit a waterfall on your trip.  Get as close as you safely can to the falls to feel the mist on your skin (of course, make sure you’re following the rules of the park).  Take some time to write, take or draw pictures and think about the water cascading over the falls and God’s creation.  Marvel at the power of the water to shape the rock underneath.
4.  Go to a waterpark with your kids.  Instead of screaming “Cannonball”, you can scream “Alleluia” before barreling down the slides.  Why not?
5. Go out in the rain on a rainy day and let yourself splash in puddles – put on your raingear and go crazy.  Be thankful for all the gifts that the rain bestows upon the earth and the animals and people that depend on it. 
6. Go to a children’s museum with kids where there is a water sensory area.  Frolic with them.
7. Think or write about or photograph animals that use water as part of their lives.  Ducks, worms, bugs, frogs, beavers etc.  Say a prayer of thanks for them.
8. Take a long, hot shower or bath and be conscious of the healing properties of the water, for both body and mind.
9. Start with water for a meal to make something wonderful: pasta, iced tea, soup, rice, beans, etc..  Say a prayer of thanks for the nourishment that can be built up with it.
10. 3 words: family Jacuzzi soak!

Celebrating your baptismal anniversary with light

1. Say a prayer of thanks for the sun and its presence.  Think about, how the sun is always overhead in the daytime – even on the cloudiest day.  Even though we may not see it above the clouds its life-giving properties are still there for us.
2. Conserve electricity for the day and turn off lights.  Be thankful that their luminescence is still available at the flip of a switch.  Use candles to light up the dark instead.
3. Notice and appreciate the light you see within others that day – notice and appreciate the light you see within yourself.
4. Buy one of the inexpensive candles from the grocery store in the Mexican food aisle of Mary, Jesus and/or one of the saints and light it to focus your meditation and prayer that day/night.  Use it to symbolize the spirit of God’s presence when you write, read, meditate or pray.
5. Do a flashlight prayer labyrinth with kids – lay down a spiral shape on the floor with painter’s tape and let the kids use a flashlight to follow the pattern in a dark room.  Typically a simple labyrinth can be a spiral in and then back out with a pause at the middle for reflection and meditation.

Don’t make celebrating baptismal anniversaries a to-do list item that you feel guilty about trying to find time for.  Intead, find what resonates and fits in with what you are already doing as a family.  You can always celebrate in the way that you pictured when you or your child first felt the splash if that fits with your family, but it’s not the only way.  God knows and calls each of us by name and it’s up to us how we want to reflect that love and that call in a way that resonates with us and with our families.  There are as many ways to celebrate baptism as there children of God!

First Sunday of Epiphany: 3 Kings Day

Here is a crown that one of our Mustard Seeds made,
along with the gift that they "delivered" to baby Jesus.

On the first Sunday in the liturgical season of Epiphany, we celebrated 3 Kings Day!  On this day and throughout the season of Epiphany we remember the Magi that God called to seek Jesus.  We celebrate that God's love extends beyond any Earthly boundaries that we may create.

Parents helping their little ones make crowns for 3  Kings Day.

In Mustard Seeds, we celebrated Epiphany by decorating crowns to celebrate 3 kings day as you can see above.  The kids had fun choosing stickers to stick on the paper towel tubes that I cut into crowns.

We have a sign on the door to bless the room and all who enter and also to welcome Magi  mentioned by name in the Bible (Caspar, Melchior and Balthazar) and all modern-day seekers of light and truth.  20+C+M+B+13 can be written in chalk over the door of or on the lintel of homes as a blessing on that home (the date, 2013 with the initials of the 3 wise men, C, M & B in the middle, which can also be translated as a blessing on the home.)  Some churches even do a blessing on the chalk that is used to inscribe this.  I used a modified chalk blessing on the sign that we have on our Sunday school door and it welcomes all who seek and serve. 

This is a printout of the sign that hangs on the door.
I made a simple one with quotes and clip art on Ppt.  Easy!

In class, we played a game of following a flashlight star over a baby doll to give that doll a gift.  The gift that we used was a gold box with a heart ornament inside it.  Some of our Mustard Seeds wanted to carry only the heart.  Others wanted to carry only the box.  Others just wanted to hold the flashlight.  Each had their own way of searching for the Baby Jesus and each of them found him, laying beneath the "star".  We, as parents are also searching and questioning and journeying.  This is part of God's plan and we can choose to love the search and be strengthened by it, knowing that God is already as close as our very breath.

I had to recreate this game for the picture without the kiddos, because they move fast!  

Our parent question was parallel to our Epiphany topic: What are your experiences, travelling with your little ones?  Some parents had traveled during the Christmas season and others had travel stories from summer vacations.  Children add a dimension of ultra-preparation to our travels and each had stories of how unexpected people had been helpful or understanding if things got rocky. 

Our sensory bin this month is a big box of bows.  The little ones love to spill them out of the box, place them around the room or try to put them in their mouths.  After Christmas, bows are marked for clearance because the gifting season is over, but according to the liturgical calendar, our season of celebrating gifts has just begun because we are celebrating the gift of God's son into the world. As caretakers of children, we have a dimension of appreciation for how a child can be like our very hearts walking about in this world - connected to us by a cord of love so strong that nothing can sever it.  Meditate this season on how Jesus was an earthly and Godly son, even beyond what we can humanly understand of love.  Know that we are children of God - of a love that is almost too magnificent to comprehend.

4th Sunday in Advent: Songs & Service

This Sunday, we talked about songs and service.   We talked about songs in our parent discussion topic and sang ‘Away in the Manger’ together so that it would be familiar to the little ones on Christmas Eve.  We sang some fun Christmas action songs as well.  We also talked about  service by making a service project!  I am so proud of all the parents that were able to participate in this service project, as well as all the parents that may get an idea to do this on their own: we made Blessing Bags.

Blessing Bags are bags of necessities – food, hygiene supplies, etc. to give out to the needy and homeless among us.  I requested at the beginning of the month that each family bring in 10 of an item from a list below (10 pairs of gloves or 10 packets of hot cocoa in one box or 10 granola bars, etc.).  Most of these items can be found at the dollar store and/or in a multi-pack.  I brought in extras as well because the point of this project was that we all pack 1 of each item into 10 Ziploc bags and each person gives their bag away sometime when they encounter a person that may need it.  Some ideas of supplies are: granola bars, cereal bars or snack crackers, peanut butter packets, beef jerky, little boxes of raisins, peanuts, applesauce cups or squeezers, fruit cups, juice boxes, trail mix, gum, mints, bottled water, hot cocoa mix, instant coffee packets, hand sanitizer, baby wipes, tooth brush, toothpaste, washcloth, hand towel, soap, comb, nail clippers, socks, gloves, hand warmers, chap stick and travel sized tissues. 

Everyone brought in an amazing amount of supplies and we each took turns making a bag while our young ones played on the floor or colored together.  This week, I didn’t get a chance to take any pictures and THEN, when I got home, I realized that even though everyone got a blessing bag and one of our Mustard Seed moms kindly took all the extras to The Seattle Church of Mary Magdalene , I FORGOT to take one myself to give out!!  Gaah!!  However, you will be happy to know that I did not let me off the hook.  I made a blessing bag from items I had at home and plan to add a few more and give it away as well.  I am glad that I got an additional opportunity to prove that it is easy to make these bags by all the blessings that we have ourselves already.  Here’s a picture of the one that I made:

The parent topic this week was to share our favorite Christmas carol and the significance of that carol.  Also, the story for this week was SilentNight (Sing and Read Storybook) , illustrated by Darcy May, which we all sang together as I turned the pages for the pictures.  The last thing I did was to read a storybook to the grownups as well as the kids.  I read a beautifully illustrated and written book called Great Joy by Kate DiCamillo, a Newberry Medal winner and illustrated by Bagram Ibatoulline.  It tells the story of a little girl who sees a man and his performing monkey living on the street and she invites him to her Christmas Pageant at her church.  I highly recommend this beautiful, thoughtful book about giving.

Lastly, as a gift to the Mustard Seeds families, I gave everyone this:

 

We as Mustard Seeds are truly blessed.  We are blessed to see our children grow in faith, body and mind and we see our own faith grow and develop as well.  Thanks be to God!

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!