Obedience: Jonah and the Whale

Obedience.

It's so hard to obey.

We have to die to our wants and desires and do what God wants us to do.

A heart that desires obedience is what I want for my kids.

What parent doesn't want their child to obey them?

However obedience stems from love, and in order to obey, you must know that the person you are obeying loves you and is looking out for your best interests.

Experience God's study this month is all about OBEDIENCE 

through the story of Jonah and the whale.

Our Experience God pack from Mother Goose Time came with all the supplies to make a boat and Jonah puppet, a whale, an obedience banner and a Jonah and the Whale coloring book.  Not to mention all the teacher supplies, like 4 story cards and a memory verse  (Ephesians 6:1)

Here's what we did:

First I read the story of Jonah and the Whale that is printed on the back of the 4 story cards.

There were parts we acted out, like when Jonah was thrown off the ship and into the sea, we made a throwing motion with our arms.

After reading our story, we took each story card and just focused on that part of Jonah's adventure.  

I placed the story card in front of my girl and let her color the coloring sheet the goes along with it.  While she colored, I asked questions or retold that part of the story.

 

After coloring her sheet, it was time to do the craft that went with that part of the story.

We made the Jonah and the boat puppet, the whale, and the obedience banner.

The craft pack also came with games you can play at home.  My girl is way into playing matching games lately so we played Match Jonah to the Whale at least 3 times.  

We will play more tonight when daddy comes home...I'm sure. :)

I wanted to see how much she actually retained and remembered, so I had her tell me about Jonah and the boat using her puppets.  Here's her take on it (1 minute long):

I love hearing her retell stories.

With her coloring book, we went page by page and I dictated what she said about that part of the story on that particular coloring page.  At times, I asked her questions like, "How do you think Jonah felt in the whale's stomach?" or "How long was Jonah in the body of the whale?"

  But she used some words that she heard when I told her the story, like "expelled" when describing how the whale threw Jonah up.  I was impressed.

We spent about an hour and a half doing all of this this morning.

I usually space out our Experience God stuff throughout the month, but we've been so captivated with all our Ocean Commotion activities, that our Experience God stuff has been put to the side.  

However, yesterday at church, she learned the same Ephesians 6:1 verse and made a flower with petals describing how to obey.

Today was quite the perfect day to do our Jonah study.

And there are still 16 more activities and 3 home games we haven't even touched yet! 

Want to learn more about our Experience God adventures? Click here.

Follow us on Facebook for more adventures and how to incorporate more reading with your littles.

And if your are looking for some Pinterest inspiration, follow me :)

Live Unboxing of February's Small World and Experience God

I decided to try to go live on Facebook this past week and show the awesomeness that is Mother Goose Time.  In the video below, I show you an up close look at the 20 daily bags that come in this February's Small World Unit.  We are jet-setters this month yall!

I can't wait to dig in with my girl!

Below is another video showing you the Experience God curriculum pack. 

During the month of February we will be studying how 

"God Asks Me to Love My Neighbor."
A perfect lesson for everyday, but especially during the month all about spreading love <3

Interested in seeing more?

Check out Mother Goose Time- a top notch preschool program here.

Click here to see more lessons offered in the Experience God curriculum... so great!

And be sure to follow our adventures by 

liking us on Facebook

and subscribe to my YouTube Channel.

Happy Learning!

S is for Serpent

We've been battling sickness around here...

stuffy noses, hacking coughs, and constant snuggle time make for long days.

However even during the struggle of these days, it is so nice to break open a Mother Goose Time bag and explore the new items that make learning so much fun.

Snake day was just what both my girl and this momma needed, and it was perfect to tie in a lesson from our Experience God pack (Eve tempted by the serpent).

We started our day with a table top activity to build a snake. 

The pieces resembled dominoes, except they had stripes or dots. Sweet Pea and I took turns build our snake.  I love how this activity allows the snake to look different each time you build it.  We must've rebuilt this snake at least 10 different times throughout the day.  It was also the first thing she showed Daddy when he came home.  Here's a quick video of us building it together...

After building the snakes, I pulled out our Experience God pack. Before we did anything, I read the story from Sweet Pea's Bible. Of all the Bibles I have seen for little kids, this one is my absolute favorite!  The pictures are perfect, and the truths are spot on.  Daddy reads it each night and this is our 3rd time to go through it. 

After reading about the story in the Bible, I then used our Experience God pictures to retell the story and asked Sweet Pea to point and tell me about what she saw in the pictures.  

MGT does a superb job in their graphics.  I just love all these pictures.

Afterwards, she worked on her cutting skills by crafting a serpent from the materials in our Experience God pack.

Later that afternoon after the glue had dried, Sweet Pea told me different ways Adam and Eve sinned (didn't obey God; did not listen; hid...),

 and we wrote them on some of the orange squares she placed on her snake. 

Then, it was glorious nap time.

While she napped, I prepped our next snake activity:

an uppercase and lowercase matching activity using snakes and trees.

    

When she woke up she was ready to play.  It's amazing how a little rest rejuvenates the body.

We discussed how many snakes live in trees especially in the rainforest.  She slithered her snakes along the pink lines in our carpet and matched the uppercase snake pictures to the lowercase trees.

I thought I would stump her with "d" and "b," but matching those two did not phase her one bit!

So today is Thanksgiving, and I couldn't be more thankful to be able to spend time having fun with my girl even on sick days.  

What's in the Experience God Pack? God is Just

Every month Sweet Pea and I learn another attribute about God with our Experience God pack from Mother Goose Time.  This month we are learning that 

GOD IS JUST 

as we study Genesis 2-3.

There are 2 packages we receive; a Teacher Guide and a Child Craft pack.

You only need one teacher guide pack, but you will need a child craft pack for each child. 

What's in the packages?

Let me show you.

Teacher Pack:

The Teacher Guide comes packed with 20 different lessons and activities to help preschoolers grasp the concept being taught about God... in this case, the fact that GOD IS JUST.  These activities can easily be adapted to being done once a day, or you could use it for your preschool Sunday School class! Along with the guide, comes a memory verse poster, in this case it is Revelation 15:3, and 4 posters with the Bible story on the back.  This makes it very easy to hold up the poster and tell the kids the Biblical story. 

In every corner of the 20 activities in the Teacher Guide, is an EXPLAIN section to help you stay focused on what the child really needs to understand through the lesson.  This helps me keep our discussion on track during the activity and battle the millions of thoughts and questions my preschooler might have.  

Child Craft and Family Activity Pack

The Child Craft and Family Activity Pack comes with 4 crafts the kids can make that summarize what was covered each week.  For example, during week 1, we will study mostly on how God created Adam and what He asked Adam to do and be in charge of (name the animals and tend to the Garden of Eden).  So our craft is a turtle planter with seeds to make our own little garden! 

Also included in the Child Craft and Family Pack, are Family Newsletters with games that can easily be taken home to retell what was learned during the week.  On the back of these newsletters, is a coloring sheet.  I just make a copy of the coloring sheet using my scanner/printer, so that I can cut the games out and Sweet Pea and I can play and have her coloring sheet as well.  The newsletter gives great discussion starters to help at home and directions on how to play with the game cards that are on the front seen below. 

These lessons, crafts, and game ideas are perfect for preschoolers and Sweet Pea has learned so much!  Last month was all about Esther and how GOD ASK ME TO BE BRAVE which was a great lesson for my cautious girl.

As a Children's Pastor who has looked into tons of different curriculum for kids, 

I have been so impressed with what Experience God has to offer! 

I love how we stay focused on one story for the entire month. (Genesis 2-3)

I love how we study one attribute of God for the whole month (JUST)

I love how my girl memorizes one verse for the month. (Rev 15:3)

And I am so thankful I can just open up the package and teach my girl about the God who loves and created her easily without digging out a million things. 

Be sure to check out Experience God through Mother Goose Time!

Happy Learning! 

Creating a Preschool Homeschool Space

Do you ever feel like your kid's stuff has just overtaken every room of the house?

Last year, I set up most of Sweet Pea's preschool items in our breakfast room next to the kitchen, which you can see here.  It worked great!

However, I had also turned our front formal family room into her playroom, which she hardly used unless to get a book.  I really hated the fact that she hardly played in there. Then she had stuff in the living room and I was going nuts with just stuff everywhere.

So on a Saturday, as my husband watched over our girl, I combined everything into one room- her playroom, thus creating a Preschool Homeschool space perfect for us.

Here's how I organized her space:

Reading Area:

Tepee: handmade by my friend Julie for Sweet Pea's 2nd birthday, adorned with paper flowers I    

            made for different baby showers.

Shelves: rain gutters from Lowe's attached to 2x4 mounted to studs in the wall.  My husband built 

              these last year.

Mirror: reflective play with blocks (see end of post for links)

Artwork: created by Sweet Pea

She absolutely loves hiding out in her teepee with her books. Sometimes when she needs a time-out, 

she'll go hide in here as well :) 

Display Wall:

Art Display: twine, pushpins, and mini clothespin hold Sweet Pea's work.
Map: provided by Mother Goose Time
Magnetic Dry Erase Board: Theme poster is sticky tacked to it.  Can't wait to use our story magnets
                on this board!

Trunk: I've had since college.  Building manipulatives in clear containers from Dollar Tree.  Above 

            the trunk, our Experience God posters for the month are displayed.

Bookshelf: from Walmart.  Houses counting manipulatives, stickers, puzzles, trays with activities set 

                   up on them, and a few books.  The puzzles and manipulatives come each month in our 

                   Mother Goose Time kit and I have combined them together here.

Window Wall:

Table: handmade by my husband.  It has a chalkboard painted top which is useful to draw on.  This 

           table gets a ton of use and is probably one of my most favorite things.  The chairs were 

           donated by by neighbor, a pediatrician, who was moving offices and couldn't use these chairs 

           anymore. 

Measurement Board: handmade by my friend Julie for Sweet Pea's 1st birthday. Julie is the best!

Window: displays our Mother Goose Time Circle Time numbers, weather, shapes, and day of the 

                week cloud

Cabinet: Inside are our paints, Mother Goose Time box, and scrap paper.  On the middle shelf is a CD                player Sweet Pea can work that holds all our Dance and Beats music CD's that come with   

               our monthly curriculum.  On top of the cabinet is our book of the day/invitation to create 

               display, a Sterilite container holding letter cookie cutters, stamps, and scrap paper; a 

               magazine file holding all my teacher guides; and a smaller Sterilite container holding 

               manipulative and calendar supplies.  The front of the cabinet has our topic of the day, and on                the left side of the cabinet is our calendar and day of the week clouds.

Kitchen Play Area:

Kitchen: donated by one of my husband's co-workers whose kids outgrew. We surprised Sweet Pea
              with it for her 3rd birthday.
White cabinet: from my public school teaching days.  Turned on it's side, it becomes the perfect
                         height for Sweet Pea to cook on and houses her play food and things in the little
                         square areas.  A little lamp makes the perfect accessory that Sweet Pea can turn on
                         and off when she wants.

Well my friends, that's it.  

It took me all day long, but I am so pleased with the outcome.

Sweet Pea loves to spend time in here now which was one of my main goals when combining everything into this space.

And this school teacher at heart can not wait for the first day of our Preschool Homeschool!

If you are a homeschooling momma and tired of spending hours digging through Pinterest, take a minute to look at what Mother Goose Time has to offer!  It truly is a life (and time) saver!

Now to decide when to start the school year... before or after Labor Day?

John the Baptist for Preschoolers

Trying to teach about God to preschoolers is a tough job, but our Experience God pack makes it so easy for us at home. This month we are studying that God is Light through the story of John the Baptist.

Our first story card has a picture of John living in the wilderness.  Perfect timing since last month we talked about camping with our Camping Unit from Mother Goose Time.  I told Sweet Pea about John living alone in the desert and how he would eat bugs!  

My teacher guide had this little game (pic below) as a suggestion, but I tweaked it a little bit with the help of some of our manipulative from our unit on Bugs and Crawly things.  

She couldn't wait to get started!

Instead of paper pieces, I grabbed our bug manipulatives from that unit of study, and placed them on our purple tray with a foam die we had from a previous month.  When I told Sweet Pea we were going to make John some bug dinner, she ran and grabbed the green plates from her play kitchen.

She practiced rolling the die, counting the dots, counting bugs, and then placing them on her plate. 

"Here you go, John," she said as she pushed the plate towards the picture.

My heart melted. 

 

Tomorrow we will talk about how John baptized those who turned towards God.  I'll use tons of her Little People and our water table outside to demonstrate baptism.

Watching your child grow in the knowledge of the Lord is one of the most rewarding sights I have been blessed with.  I pray she comes to know Him sooner rather than later. 

Check out more of our adventures through Facebook and Pinterest!

The Fiery Furnace for Preschoolers

First of all, I must apologize for the simply AWFUL pictures in this post.

My Bible fell on top of my phone and shattered the camera lens. No amount of filtering can fully restore these images.  (my nice camera was borrowed over this week)

I am in love with the Experience God pack from Mother Goose Time.

Reasons why:

1. It spends the entire month studying one truth about God.         (This month is on FAITH.)
2. Each truth focus' on a particular Bible Scripture.                      (This month is Daniel 3.)
3. One memory verse for the entire month for kids to memorize. (This month is Proverbs 3:5)
4. There are 20 Daily activities that could be used as devotions, 4 main crafts for kids to create, and 4 coloring sheets that match the story cards.
5. This can easily be used as a weekly Sunday School lesson or use at home.

Let me share what it looked like for us one day this week.

Daniel 3 is one of my favorite narratives about how to have faith and stand for God even when no one else around you is.  In Daniel 3, King Nebuchadnezzar decreed a law that everyone should bow down to a golden statue. Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego refuse to bow even when threatened to be thrown into a fiery furnace. One of my most favorite verses in the Bible comes from their response to the King when he threatens to throw them in the fire:

Daniel 3: 16-18

“King Nebuchadnezzar, we do not need to defend ourselves before you in this matter. 17 If we are thrown into the blazing furnace, the God we serve is able to deliver us from it, and he will deliver us from Your Majesty’s hand. 18 But even if he does not, we want you to know, Your Majesty, that we will not serve your gods or worship the image of gold you have set up.” 

Such faith!

As I told Sweet Pea that the 3 friends were placed into the fire, she immediately noticed there were 4 people in the fire!

"Who else is in the fire with Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego?" I asked.

She actually responded with "Jesus."

Oh, how I love His blessings!  

I told her that Jesus always meets us in our scary situations if we believe in Him.  He might not save us from them, but He is right there with us.

We have read this several times prior to doing this lesson.  

Her daddy reads her a chapter from her Bible each night.

Mother Goose Time sent us the supplies to create a fiery headband to complete during our first week studying this Scripture.

Sweet Pea worked on creating triangles by cutting and tearing the yellow and orange cardstock MGT supplied for us.  She then glued all the orange triangles on a red strip of cardstock that would later become her headband.   After attaching all the orange pieces, she then glued all the yellow pieces.

This double sided stick tape is perfect for making these headbands!  You can adjust them easily and when you get the right fit, then you can easily add a drop of glue to make sure it all sticks together. 

Sweet Pea and her fiery headband!

She wore this for quite a while after making it and danced around to our Truth and Tunes CD.

I pray she has faith in the Lord like Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego. 

Keep the faith, friends!