Where Have I Been?

I apologize for the long delay in my posts lately. One day I sat down at my computer and everything went black. The screen was shot and everything on my hard drive was locked away until I could get it fixed. I finally got my computer back but truly missed posted about our Christmas Advent Study - God's Names as well as all of the other activities and printables that I had planned.

It seemed as if God was telling me to slow down and enjoy my family. My computer is back online (I hope - it was shaky there for awhile) and I hope to get back on track. I missed writing and sharing. Thanks for understanding.

Character Training - Diligence with free printable

This year in addition to our bible studies, we are doing character training. To do this, we are using The Virtue Training Bible. Each week, we focus on one virtue, work on an interactive notebook, and find/highlight verses in the bible. This week's virtue was diligence.

J began the study on diligence by coloring the sheet that came from Character First (link below).

She looked up the definition of diligence in her dictionary and added it under the heading in her notebook.

She colored her Diligence ring card and practiced her bible verse for the week.

She worked on her notebook pages. We discussed several people from the Bible who were diligent in their lives. We read about Thomas Edison and how he was diligent in making the light bulb.

She created a poster of quotes from Thomas Edison that is part of my free printable pack on diligence. We created a light bulb from yellow paper and added all of the quotes.

J finished poster of Thomas Edison quotes - very inspirational:)

She looked up and highlighted every verse in the Bible about diligence. She enjoys finding each verse and marking it. Then, we discussed each of the verses. Her virtue bible is coming along. I love seeing the tabs that mark all of the virtues we have learned.

J's notebook pages and word rings. As we study more diligent people of the bible, we will add them to our list.

If you would like the Diligence notebook printable for your own character notebook, download below. I would love to hear about how you are using these notebook printables for your own studies. If you have any questions, please feel free to ask. Have an awesome day.

Download Diligence Notebook Printable HERE.

Links

Character First - has free printables and several videos on diligence.

Homeschool Share - has a free printable lap book on the virtue of diligence.

Danielle's Place - has a few ideas of teaching diligence using the ant.

Meaningful Mama - has a great book list in teaching about diligence as well as lots of ideas.

His Sunflower - has a free printable coloring sheet as well as a mini bible study on the virtue diligence.

iMom - has another bible study on diligence with some great ideas.

Confessions of a Homeschooler - has a free printable bible study on diligence.

Tot Tuesday

I absolutely love wooden toys and I truly love wooden toys at a reasonable price! I found this great wood toy for Riley at a thrift store. It had all its pieces and I love that the pieces go from large to small. Riley loved it too. I pulled it out when I needed a quiet moment for J's school.

Checking them out....

thinking about it....

photo bomb:) Have a great one.

Jesus' Birth

We are working through Telling God's Story Book 1 right now in our bible curriculum. This week's lesson was about Jesus' birth. Typically, this is usually taught during the Christmas holidays but we are following the book and this was our next lesson. We are also planning a different study for bible for the Advent season.

We started our lesson by J coloring her sheet while I read from the bible. We discussed it as well from the lesson notes.

One of the activities was to have a scavenger hunt with clues from the lesson. This was an easy prep activity as they had ideas for where to hide each slip. I just had to time it so J wouldn't notice what I was doing.

We looked at The Annunciation painting and discussed how Mary might have been feeling when the angel came to her.

We studied the words of O Come, O Come, Emmanuel. This was interesting as it discussed the meaning behind each verse of the song. Then, we listened to several versions of the song but we could not find one that had all of the verses as printed on our sheet. It was somewhat early for Christmas songs but we managed:)

Lastly, we tried the cute printable star craft from Jesus Without Language (link below). There is no picture because it did not turn out for us. Not sure what we did wrong but it just didn't work out. Oh, well, you can't win them all. Hope you are having a great week.

Links

Jesus Without Language - has a free printable star craft that depicts Jesus' birth.

Tot Tuesday

If you know anything about my tot, you know that he hates to sleep. He loves people and loves to fall asleep in your arms. But if you try to move him to the crib, forget it. He will wake up at any slightest movement. So, imagine my surprise when, during school, I found this...

He was so tired, he just fell asleep while he was playing.

What a sweetie! He is getting so big. There is a first time for everything:)

Character Training - Devotion to the Word with free printable

This year, we are working through Telling God's Story as well as The Virtue Training Bible. I felt like character training was important this year and we have truly enjoyed this program. To go along with the Virtue Training Bible, I have created a few note booking pages. This week's virtue was Devotion to the Word.

We started our week out with J coloring her Devotion word ring page. She practices the key verse that I have on the back each day.

She added the Devotion to the Word header to her notebook page as well as the tab. She looked up the definition of devotion in her dictionary. She is definitely getting some practice using a dictionary this year.

Then, we discuss ways she can be devoted to the word and she writes them in her notebook. We add to this each day as we mark the scriptures in the bible.

Each day, she highlights the key scriptures for the virtue using the corresponding color. She also places a color tab on the page for each reference back to the verses.

J adds her word ring pages to her others and we will practice the verses as needed. I usually like to have a craft or such for each virtue but this week proved to be somewhat hard. So, we left it at just the lesson.

Here is J's notebook page. She wrote a few ways that she could be devoted to the word and she added her mini verse book. On the back of the page, she clued the checklist that I created. I love the way this notebook is turning out. She will have this for a while and be able to look back on each virtue as well as add her thoughts and prayers.

 If you would like to download the pages that I have created, the link is below. Let me know if you have any problems. I would also love to hear if you are using these in your bible study as well.

You can download the Devotion to the Word notebook pages HERE.

Great American Artists - Currier & Ives

This week, working through Great American Artists for Kids, our artists were Currier and Ives. An interesting fact about Currier and Ives is that their prints allowed American to own art. Before them, art was generally for the wealthy.

We learned about Currier and Ives by reading about them. J wrote a notebook page for the artists. We also added them to our timeline.

She wrote a notecard for our artist wall. She really liked the fact that they made art affordable for the common American. I thought the assembly line coloring of their prints was rather interesting.

The project suggested in the art book was to set up a coloring assembly line as they colored their prints. But I chose a project from Rainbow Skies and Fireflies(link below). It consisted of coloring a winter tree scene with markers.

Then she wet the bottom part of the paper and folded it over.

This created a neat reflection effect as if the trees were by the water.

The next project was a winter scene from Deep Space Sparkle (link below). J drew the tree using oil pastel and then added snow from white paint.

J's finished painting with her snowman and red person. (This strongly reminds me of Peter from the Snowy Day) Not a bad art day :) Hope you are having an awesome day.

Links

Deep Space Sparkle - has a winter scene art project that would be good for the Currier & Ives lesson.

Rainbow Skies and Fireflies - has a neat idea for a tree landscape using markers and water.

Deep Space Sparkle - has another project that I thought would be good for Currier & Ives, a barn scene to draw and paint.

Tot Tuesday

Riley is getting ready to turn one year old - I can't believe that he is already one! It was finally time to give him a haircut. I couldn't stand to see the hair in his eyes. So my DH took him to a friend of ours for a quick (sort of) haircut.

My poor guy didn't like the clippers!

He sort of looks like an old man :) I fixed it though, as much as you can fix hair on a tot. Have a great day!

You Can Ask God Anything

Our Bible curriculum for the school year is Telling God's Story Book 1. This week's lesson was about being able to ask God anything. It ended up with explaining how we should treat others the way we want to be treated (Golden Rule). This lesson wasn't particularly long and there wasn't much to do. I added what I could.

J practiced her books of the Bible and I added a few more for her to remember.

J listened to the lesson while she colored her sheet.

She looked for words that were in her lesson in the word search. I wrote the words on the board so she could find all of them.

I found this cute Golden Rule craft from Creative Sunday School Crafts (link below). I had some trouble printing but then took a screen shot and was able to print that.

This is her finished Golden Rule project. It turned out cute and we hung it on our wall. It was a simple lesson but good - ask God anything:) Hope you have a wonderful week.

Links

Creative Sunday School Crafts - has free printable Golden Rule project.

Doodle Art Gallery - has a free printable coloring page with the Golden Rule on it with a bunch of other quote pages.

Moomah Magazine - has a cute idea for teaching the Golden Rule and making it real for kids. I love the visual with the hearts.

Science - Week 9

Our Science curriculum for the year is Considering God's Creation. This week, we learned more about plants.

J worked through the vocabulary using the flip books that I made for each lesson.

We discussed the parts of a plant while she worked on her flower notebook page.

The page turned out super cute. I love these notebook pages.

We discussed different parts of a plant that we eat. J worked through a plant sort, deciding if we were eating the root, the stem, the fruit, or the seed. I found this free printable at Corinne St. Angelo's TPT store (link below).

J labeled a piece of bread for a mold experiment and we placed it under or bathroom sink. She will check it every day and draw what she will see.

We planted this cute little grass kit and J loves to check it everyday to see how much it has grown. I think she will have to give it a haircut soon! Have a great weekend.

Links

Corinne St. Angelo TPT store - free printable parts of plants we eat.