Advent Calendar – JW1

Advent Calendar – December
           
Top Line : Theme for each day.
Sing songs, read Bible passages, read stories, do activities. For set times with your family or as you go about your day.         
1 Angel -
Make angel or cut from card for tree
2 Baby Jesus            -
Talk about a baby being born (play with dolls)
3 Bethlehem -
Luke 2:1-5 [...]

Sinai Covenant and Marriage Covenant

Sinai Covenant and Marriage Covenant
It is an enlightening exercise to compare the Sinai covenant with the marriage covenant by interpreting the Ten Commandments as ten principles of conduct for married people.
Paul Stevens has produced a most perceptive comparison between the two covenants by means of the following table:
Covenant Between                           Covenant Between
Israel and Yahweh                          Wife and [...]

It Makes Sense

For MUMSense Magazine, NZ, (c) April 2009
Living Each Day of Your Life
“What a wonderful world!”
“Life is for living.”
It’s a great day, a beautiful day;
The kind of day that makes you want to say
“I’m glad that I’m alive”,
I’m happy to be me,
and that’s the way to be … (thanks, Barney).
As much as I liked my children [...]

Distracted 9yo

My 9yo boy gets distracted doing workbooks, cleaning his room, doing all sorts of chores and tasks around home, but sit him in the middle of his lego or brainbox circuitry and he’s focussed for ages! So, I know he can focus in. (He’s a dreamer. I love him dearly.)
I set the stove timer beeper [...]

Remember Your Old People

All Saints Day is 1 November

Opportunity to remember your grandparents and those that went before you.
What is your family’s Christian heritage?
Chance to retell the family stories and oral traditions of your family (whanau).
Better than Halloween!

http://livinglessons.files.wordpress.com/2008/10/thespiritoftiofernando.pdf - The Spirit of Tio Fernando by Janice Levy, picture book
- pdf includes lapbooking ideas, suitable for mini-unit study, for homeschoolers – [...]

WW : Parts of Me

Here are the various parts of my life:
www.lapbooking.wordpress.com – Lapbooking – presentation folders for school projects or unit studies. Also www.lapbooking.tumblr.com resources and webquests.
www.nzhomeed.wordpress.com – general homeschooling info for NZ
http://health.groups.yahoo.com/group/MigraineHealth/ - forum for women who have migraines
My Husband’s site:
www.2restore.wordpress.com
My children’s (neglected) blogsite:
www.kiwikids.tumblr.com
I’m president of MOPS NZ:
www.mops.org.nz
mother organisation’s huge website: www.mops.org
MUM-e-Mail – free twice-a-month encouragement for mothers [...]

ThTh : Rejection + Parenting

It is common to be parenting from a place of inadequacy – all because of our frailty as humans.
Because of our undealt-with rejection from days gone by, we become a ‘wallflower’, hide behind the newspaper, or studiously watch TV in order to protect ourselves from more rejection. We isolate ourselves from others. Withdraw. Try to minimise our hurt [...]

MM : Scissor Trails + Screwdriver Puddles

Let me tell you a bit about my family:Scissor Trails is my 10.5 yo girl and Screwdriver Puddles is my 8.5 yo boy. I don’t call them by these names usually.
Scissor Trails (T) is not a “tidy kiwi” and leaves evidence of her Being all around the house – clothes, books, papers, tissues. This is [...]

ThTh : Shame + Parenting

Parent styles 
will respond differently in typical childhood situations. Consider a 4-year-old child spilling juice.
Sergeant Major
“You clumsy child! How many times have I told you not to help yourself to the juice – but no, you never listen? Get out of here because your poor old mother is going to have to clean up after you again.”
We see [...]

ThTh : Fear + Parenting

Fear is not overcome by dealing with the fear; it is overcome by DOING the fearful thing. You overcome fear by facing the tiger with your fear and discovering that you can walk away alive. In time you laugh at the tiger, for it was only paper. But if your child flees from the tiger, [...]

WW : Object Lessons

At 8+10 years old, my children still like object lessons.
Object lessons are Bible stories and deeper concepts taught by something real they can see. Jesus used parables or stories with several layers of meanings. And so realia, or real tangible objects, help to express ideas and character qualities to everyone – not just the younger [...]