His Treasure Seekers

 Last night I got to spend the evening with a group of fellow homeschool moms, so I missed our Bible time and got home too late to write, so I’m covering two days tonight.

Books:

My Christmas Gift by Crystal Bowman (for Arianna)

Mortimer’s Christmas Manger by Karma Wilson (for Elijah yesterday)

Angela and the Baby Jesus by Frank McCourt (for Elijah today)

The Year of the Perfect Christmas Tree by Gloria Houston (for Ian)

I missed seeing the boys’ creations for the Jesse Tree LEGO Challenge last night, but they took pictures of their roses and prophets for me.

Tonight the built wolves and lambs, which proved to be rather challenging!

We had to replace our first Advent candle today, since Jotham’s Journey is taking us a little longer to read than our devotions last year.  We closed our evening with “Joy to the World.”

Books:

Oh Come Little Children by Anita Reith Stohs (for Arianna)

Penny’s Christmas Jar Miracle by Jason F. Wright (for Ian)

Tonight’s Jesse Tree LEGO Challenge was really tough.  The boys were supposed to build a crown and a scepter, but it’s hard to make circles with LEGO bricks.  Elijah was finished in about 30 seconds with a very simple crown and scepter.  Ian took a little longer and (as usual) created a more elaborate scene, with a crown resting on a pillow next to the scepter.

  

 Books:

Who is Coming to Our House? by Joseph Slate (for Arianna)

The Crippled Lamb by Max Lucado (for Elijah)

We skipped last night’s Jesse Tree LEGO Challenge, but we let Arianna hang the ornament for David’s anointing on the tree tonight when Ian hung the one about Elijah.  The story of Elijah and the showdown on Mt. Carmel is one of my favorite parts of the Old Testament, so I enjoyed telling this one to the kids again.  Ian built an elaborate altar with a trench full of water as I read through both nights’ readings in Jotham’s Journey.

 

Books:

The 12 Days of Christmas illustrated by Laurel Long (for Elijah)

Mary’s First Christmas by Walter Wangerin Jr.The 12 Days of Christmas has beautiful illustrations and each page shows not only the items featured on that particular day, but also those already mentioned, so it becomes almost like an “I Spy” book with lots to look for.  Elijah loves this type of book, and I know he’ll spend hours searching for everything over and over again.

Mary’s First Christmas is one of Ian’s favorites, but it’s pretty long, so it will take us a couple days to get through.

We attended a beautiful carol service tonight and got home late, so we didn’t do our Jesse Tree LEGO Challenge or read from Jotham’s Journey.  I guess we’ll just double up tomorrow.

Books:

We Three Kings traditional carol illustrated by Gennady Spirin (for Arianna)

The Last Straw by Paula Palangi McDonald (for Ian)

After reading the story of Ruth, the boys built baskets of wheat for the Jesse Tree LEGO Challenge.

We closed with “O Little Town of Bethlehem,” but it’s not the kids’ favorite.  They keep begging for “O Come, O Come Emmanuel.”  I think they like having a repeating refrain to sing over and over again

 

Books:

Away in a Manger illustrated by Thomas Kinkade

Great Joy by Kate DiCamillo

Our story today in the Jesse Tree LEGO Challenge was about Rahab.  Elijah built a rope like the one used to lower the two Israelite spies from Rahab’s window.

Ian built Rahab’s room, complete Rahab helping the two men climbing down from the window on a rope.

We have been enjoying the story of Jotham’s Journey so much.  I’m not sure the Elijah is able to follow the story (I know Arianna’s not), but he’s content building with LEGOs while we read.  However, Ian, Eric and I look forward to finding out what happens each night.  We closed tonight with all four verses of “O Little Town of Bethlehem.”

 Books:

The Little Drummer Boy illustrated by Ezra Jack Keats (for Elijah)Silent Night: The Song and Its Story by Margaret Hodges (for Ian)Tonight’s Jesse Tree LEGO Challenge was about the Law, and the boys came up with very different, but both very clever interpretations of tablets and a mountain.  (They were so into it tonight, I’m not sure how much they caught of Jotham’s Journey, but hopefully enough that they won’t feel too last tomorrow.)

Elijah took the assignment very literally.  He carefully counted out 10 tablets to represent the 10 commandments, and made a nice symmetrical mountain.

Ian was more into the story and ended up making two scenes: one of “God” giving Moses the 10 commandments on the mountain, and another of Aaron and the other Israelites making the Golden Calf while Moses was gone.

We closed by singing “O Come O Come Emmanuel,” ending with the verse about the Law:

O come, o come, Thou Lord of might,

Who to thy tribes on Sinai’s height

In ancient times did give the law

In cloud, and majesty, and awe.

Rejoice! Rejoice! Emmanuel

Shall come to thee, O Israel!

 Books:

The Animals’ Christmas Eve by Gale Wiersum (for Arianna)

The Candle in the Window by Grace Johnson (for Ian)

I really enjoyed Ian’s story, though there were a couple spots that made me feel like I’d missed a page.  Based on a story by Leo Tolstoy, it’s about a German cobbler who’s not really celebrating on Christmas Eve because he misses his wife and child.  When special visitors put a candle in his window and tell him the Christ Child will visit homes with the candle, he gets excited and prepares to welcome Him.  As the evening passes, several people in need stumble into his shop, drawn by the candle in the window.  Full of joy in his anticipation of seeing the Christ Child, he generously gives to them, though by the end of the night he wonders if Jesus didn’t come because the cobbler had given away everything intended for Him.  The mysterious visitors return and help put his heart at ease by reading to him from Matthew 25, explaining that whatever he did “unto the least of these,” he did for Christ.

The story lead to a good discussion with Ian about how we can give to Jesus by serving the poor.  I’m thankful that our church has several ways we can be involved as a family in helping those in need.  It makes it easier to talk about “giving gifts to Jesus” when the kids can make this connection.

In the Jesse Tree LEGO Challenge we read the story of Jacob’s dream, and the boys enjoyed building ladders while we read from Jotham’s Journey.

Then we ended the night singing “O Little Town of Bethlehem.”

 

Daily Theme: sacrifice

Books:

J is for Jesus by Crystal Bowman (for Arianna)

The Candy Maker’s Gift: The Inspirational Legend of the Candy Cane by David and Helen Haidle (for Elijah)

The candy cane books seemed like a good way to tie in the idea of sacrifice on the day were were talking about Abraham going to sacrifice his beloved son Isaac, the story in the Jesse Tree LEGO Challenge.  Today they were supposed to build a pile of wood, but we decided to elaborate a little by making altars.  Ian even built a ram to go on his, and Elijah of course had to add a tree for detail.

In Jotham’s Journey, the devotion at the end talked about the Bethlehem candle, which we lit tonight for the first time.  (Our devotions have been longer this year, so our candles are burning down quickly!  I suggested to Eric just lighting them for our song, but he said we could just get out last year’s candles to get us through if we need to.)  Tonight we started learning “O Little Town of Bethlehem.”

 Books:

The Legend of Saint Nicholas: A Story of Christmas Giving by Dandi Daley Mackall (for Elijah)

Saint Nicholas: The Real Story of the Christmas Legend by Julie Stiegemeyer (for Ian)

Today is St. Nicholas Day, so we learned a lot about this Christian saint of long ago, both with our books and by watching the Veggie Tales episode St. Nicholas: A Story of Joyful Giving.

For the Jesse Tree LEGO Challenge we read about Sarah having Isaac, and the boys built cradles while we read from Jotham’s Journey.  I loved Ian’s Abraham and Sarah hovering next to the cradle, as well as Elijah’s roof and door into the room with the cradle.  It’s so much fun seeing their individual creativity each night.

   Then we sang “Thou Didst Leave Thy Throne” and Arianna prayed for us.  She’s been enjoying our songs so much and sings so enthusiastically that we have trouble not breaking into giggles, since she makes no attempt to learn the words and just sings nonsense syllables.