Advent 2012 – The Jesse Tree

 

Advent is almost upon us!  How did that happen?!  I hope you are all more on top of your holiday planning and gift buying/making than I am… oh my.  I’d forgotten just how much time caring for a newborn takes.  Totally worth it of course (but I do miss blogging)!

I’ve had about a dozen emails in the past few days asking about this year’s Jesse Tree packet.  Thank you all so much for reminding me to get this together!  I needed that little push and it is nice to know many of you use it.

Thankfully it was super-easy to put together this year.  Last year Advent had 27 days – the maximum number of days possible for any year.  So this year I am re-publishing the pack of ornaments, prayer cards, and Scripture references we used last year.  You will have 4 extra ornaments, etc. because Advent is only 23 days this year (it begins on Dec. 2nd).

I’ve included a schedule specific for this year (click on the image to download it):

This is the schedule my family will be using.  We have taken out the ornaments for the second, third, and fourth Sundays as well as the ornament for the prophet Daniel.  All the other ornaments will be used in order, showing the lineage of Jesus and the history of his plan of salvation (from the creation of the world to his birth).

However, if taking out 4 different ornaments/cards makes more sense for your family, feel free to make up your own schedule!  I feel it’s important to keep in all the people that were Jesus’ ancestors, so I take out the Sunday ornaments and then begin taking out prophets until we’ve reached the correct amount of ornaments for the particular year we are in.

Click the image below to download the pack of ornaments, prayer cards, and Scripture references.

Have questions about the Jesse Tree?  Please feel free to leave them in the comments.  I will do my very best to answer them!

Enjoy!

Nicole

Holy Week 3-part or sequencing Cards

I created these cards for use during Lent, especially Holy Week (the week between Palm Sunday and Easter).  I wanted to share them early in Lent so you can use them however you want.  They would go nicely with the Jesus Loves Me, This I Know e-book that was released earlier this week!  This was actually something that Erin and I wanted to include in the e-book, but just couldn’t get it completed in time.  The pictures used on these cards are vintage illustrations, and beautiful, I think. :)

There are a total of 8 cards illustrating everything from Jesus’ triumphant entry into Jerusalem to his resurrection and appearance to the two disciples on the road to Emmaus. 

Each card has a label, like traditional 3-part cards, as well as a scripture reference.  To use these as 3-part cards, you will need to print 2 copies.  Leave the label attached to the illustrations in one set, and separate the labels from the illustrations in the other set.  Have your child match up the pictures and the labels.  These would also make wonderful sequencing cards for telling the Easter story!

Download here, or click on the image above!  Enjoy!

This post is linked to the Celebrating Lent Link-Up Party at Explore and Express and Wonderful in an Easter Kind of Way.

Have a beautiful day! :)
Nicole

Ideas for Making Lent Meaningful

Lent has officially begun!  I thought I’d share some links for you to check out… these are what we did for Lent last year, and what we plan to do again this year.   You can see our crafts/artwork:
our Lenten Basket:
and our Lenten Countdown Cross:  

I hope these inspire you to create some Lenten traditions in your own homes!

I mentioned in those posts, rather presumptuously, that I was planning on making a second set of the Countdown Cross to give away; and that I planned to offer everything as a printable this Lent.  It seemed like I had so much time to get all this done!  Silly girl.  With two computer crashes to deal with in the past year all of my saved items for the printables were lost, and while I did plan to re-do everything in time for this year’s Lent… well, I ended up pregnant and in some sort of pregnancy-fog, and that’s my excuse these days for every single failing I might be accused of.  An excuse I’m sticking to until I can claim the new baby as one. After that gets old I’m sure I’ll come up with something else.  ;)

Of course there is still the new Lent / Easter e-book!  Go check it out if you haven’t yet!

This post is linked to the Celebrating Lent Link-Up Party at Explore and Express and Wonderful in an Easter Kind of Way, as well as:

Have a beautiful Day! :)
Nicole

Jesus Loves Me Lenten activities E-Book!!

Well, it’s up and ready to go!  There was a bit of a delay; thank you all so much for your patience!

This e-book is the brainchild of Erin over at Royal Baloo.  Erin organized it, edited it, put the actual book together… and put a lot of hard work into each part.  I simply helped with some ideas, a handful of printables, and photographing and writing up a few of the crafts.  It was a pleasure to work with Erin and I’m so glad she offered me the chance to do this with her!!  You can read more about the e-book in her post.  It’s our hope that this will be a help to you as you teach your child about how much Jesus loves them, as shown through the story of Easter.

You have the option of downloading the e-book from Scribd or 4Shared.  Click on either link to go to the download page.  This e-book is totally free!

This post is linked to the Celebrating Lent Link-Up Party at Explore and Express and Wonderful in an Easter Kind of Way.

If you’re going to do the activities and blog about it, please add your blog to the linky list below!

Have a beautiful day! :)
Nicole

 

Coming Soon! Easter E-Book

I was honored and excited when Erin over at Royal Baloo asked if I’d like to work with her on an Easter e-book for children.  We’ve been coming up with crafts, activities, discussion tips, and printables to help little ones get a hands-on understanding of what Easter is all about.  The activities span the 7 weeks prior to Easter, so it’s perfect for doing during Lent (or pick and choose what you like and create your own schedule!).

Visit Erin’s post about the e-book here!

Have a beautiful day! :)

Free Printable jesse Tree ornaments and devotions for advent 2011

Jesse Tree Packet 2011
“But a shoot shall sprout from the stump of Jesse, and
from his roots a bud shall blossom.” – Isaiah 11:1

Since we’ve started having a Jesse Tree during Advent, I can’t imagine not having one.  It has added such focus, and a sense of peace to what can be the most chaotic time of year. 

The Jesse Tree is a small tree (we use a tree cut out of felt, but many families use a miniature tree, or a branch tucked into a pot) that is decorated throughout Advent with ornaments that trace the lineage of Jesus all the way from creation to His birth.  It shows, in a simple way, God’s plan of salvation throughout history.

This tradition has blessed us in ways we never imagined.  And there’s the added bonus of M really getting it.  The cuddled up story time, the hands-on  ornaments, the little Advent box we open each evening (it contains the ornament for the day and the devotional card)… all of this appeals to a child’s heart.  I am amazed when M knows these stories at other times of the year, and realize what an impact the Jesse Tree has had on him.

Sometimes, after a particularly trying day, we light a little votive candle to help set a reflective mood as we prepare ourselves to focus on the “reason for the season”.  As this time for the Jesse Tree is set aside every single evening during Advent, we find that our focus throughout the day is changed too… all the superfluous stuff is more easily set aside because our hearts are in tune with what truly matters.  (Knowing how special this time can be really motivates me to have all my gift shopping done before Advent begins.  Some years I’m better at this than others, but having even some of it done makes for a more peaceful Advent.)

This year, Advent begins on Sunday, November 27th.  There are 4 full weeks – 28 days - of Advent this year.  That’s the maximum number of days Advent can have. 

Because the number of days during Advent changes from year to year, some years all of the ornaments and readings will be used, and other years some will be skipped.  In our family we use the ornaments and readings for the 2nd, 3rd, and 4th Sundays as our “optional” ornaments… these are extra ornaments that relate to the season of Advent (Light, Joy and Hope, Peace) but aren’t directly related to the ancestral line from which Jesus came.  There are some prophets included in the Jesse Tree also, and in years where we need to skip more than the three ornaments mentioned above, we start picking these guys off. :)  For those years, we are most likely to skip Ezekiel, Daniel, or Elijah… we like to include Isaiah each year.  I have nothing against the other guys… we love them too! :)  But someone’s gotta go when there’s more ornaments than days, right? ;)

To avoid all of this change from year to year, some families pick only 24 ornaments and use these same 24 ornaments every year, beginning their Jesse Tree on December 1st and ending it on Christmas Eve.  That is a perfectly fine way of doing it too!  There really is no right or wrong way to do this, and if you search online you will see there are many versions of the Jesse Tree.  The main thing is to show how God’s plan of salvation was unveiled throughout history and how each person in Jesus’ lineage played an important role in this plan.

Take a look at the packet I’ve put together for this year.  You can find it here, or by clicking on the controls in the image at the top of this post.  There is a schedule (specific to this year) for the ornaments and Scripture readings, as well as a word or phrase for each day to reflect on (these lead to some wonderful conversations!) and a short prayer for each day. 

I’ve changed some things this year to make them better suited for us, and I hope they will work well for your family too.  The ornaments can be printed and colored, or use them as templates for felt ornaments, or in any other way you can think of. 

Some of the Scripture references on the cards are different this year – I used some that just made more sense to me, and the Annunciation (when Gabriel appeared to Mary) is included this year.  I know it really happened about 9 months prior to the birth of Jesus, but it’s an important part of the whole story, I think. 

I’m hoping this helps simplify the process of making the Jesse Tree a tradition in your family, and that you will be as richly blessed by it as we have.

As always, feel free to share this link with others (please do!), but do not post it on your own site, sell it, etc.  Thank you!

Have a beautiful day! :)

Craft Time – Ascension of the Lord

Today is the 40th day of Easter (which is a 50 day season), and marks the end of the 40 days that Jesus spent on Earth after His resurrection.  This is the day He ascended into heaven! 
This morning M and I read the Bible story about the ascension and then did a quick craft to make it more memorable.  The craft was inspired by this post at Catholic Icing – I just changed it up a little bit.

Supplies:

 Look at the supplies, not the messy art table!

Paper or styrofoam cup, yarn, needle, hole punch, markers, cotton balls, glue, cardstock sun shape, and a small picture of Jesus.  You could use a magazine cutting of Jesus glued to cardstock or find a picture online.  We shrunk a coloring book picture on our scanner and printed it out on cardstock.  You want your Jesus picture to be small enough to “hide” inside the cup.
Steps:
1. Color your cup blue, and color your sun and picture of Jesus.
2. Glue cotton balls around the top and bottom of your cup. 
3. Punch a hole at the top and bottom of your sun, and a hole above Jesus’ head (we glued on an extra strip of cardstock to the back of Jesus so there was room for a hole above his head).
4. Thread your yarn through the holes in the sun, down through the bottom of the cup (we used an embroidery needle to thread the yarn through the cup), and through the hole above Jesus’ head.   
5. Tie a loop above the sun, large enough to hand on a door knob, if you wish.
6. Tie a knot where the yarn goes through the cup, so it rests on the outside of the cup.
7. Tie a knot through the hole above Jesus.
There you go!  You can pull the sun to make Jesus “rise” into the sky and be hidden behind the clouds:
 
Cute, simple, and fun to play with! :)

Have a beautiful day! :)

Learning by Heart – May 13, 2011

“The mother’s heart is the child’s schoolroom”
– Henry Ward Beecher

  Mother’s Day 2011
This was taken at the end of the day – I look worn out and
M looks ready to go. :)  That is usually how it is around here! 
I normally wouldn’t post a picture of myself with glasses on (I so dislike how I look in them), but I have to be in SOME pictures on here!  It’s my blog! :)

~M is 4.5 years old~

Literacy

M continues to love poems and these sequencing cards are a great activity.  He can do these all on his own, as long as I separate them into groups for him (one paperclip of cards for each poem): 

His homemade puppet theater (a tension rod in a doorway with a blanket thrown over the top) has been seeing more action lately, and we made these great little stick puppets for The Three Bears.  This is a fun way of doing more story sequencing and mom and dad get a cute little show to watch. ;) 

And M wants to learn to read.  You can read more about that in this post.

 

Science – Dinosaurs!

M loves the little dinosaur fossil eggs you chisel apart in order to find the bones.  He’s done many, many of these over the winter and early spring.  You can find them at Michael’s as well as Dollar Tree. See the little hammer lying on the table?  That quickly got set aside, and M began using his “real”, big hammer.  This kid is all about action, not patience.

     This particular one is an Ankylosaurus.  For each dino he’s unearthed and put together, we’ve looked for a book to learn a bit more about it.  I can’t remember the names of the books, but there are a ton of dino books out there (on the odd chance you haven’t noticed)!

 

Fine Motor Skills, Practical Life, and Misc.

After seeing this post over at My Montessori Journey, I thought it would be fun to set something similar out for M.  I found simple step-by-step tutorials for drawing a bird and a dog (look towards the bottom of the web page for the dog), and made instruction cards for M.  He wasn’t as eager to do this as I imagined he would be, and that was fine.  I don’t want to inhibit his own imaginative drawings by making him think things have to be drawn in a certain way.  However, I did enjoy seeing how he was able to go from step to step in order.  Here are the cards (I had each set on a ring):
And here are M’s finished drawings: Are these not absolutely adorable?!  :)  He said, “look at my chicken!” – I think he surprised himself, haha.  I have to say I like his chicken better than the bird he was trying to draw. :)

 

M loves to watch me use my sewing machine.  It is an event, let me tell you.  He anticipates it, watches every move, tries to figure out exactly how it works, and begs for more when I’m finished.  Sometimes I think he’s going to break into applause.  Part of it is his inclination towards all things mechanical, but part of it is just a love of the idea that something new can be created.  So I set out a simple embroidery hoop, some muslin, and a little yarn for him.  He wanted to sew a picture, so we started with a smiley face.  He learned to backstitch in order to create a line of stitches (although not perfectly, as you can see!), and overall really enjoyed this.

 

 

May Day meant a little flower crown for the statue of Mary in our garden.  I used some leftover flowers from a lei, cut a crown shape out, and let M staple the flowers on.  He LOVES the stapler (totally supervised, don’t worry!). 

 Ok, I guess the garden needs a little work.

It’s a little big.

We read two beautifully written and illustrated books about Mary:

 

 

Art

Here’s a look at M’s Art Box for spring (which has recently changed into an Art Cart – more on that later).  It was full of things to make flowers and butterflies: 

Here’s a bit of his artwork: 

 
And, my favorite, a ribbon and flower collage on contact paper for Mother’s Day. :) 

I’m linking this post up to Preschool Corner and Weekly Wrap-Up; be sure to check them out!

Have a beautiful day! :)

 

 

How Lent Went (3)

:) 1. artwork    2. lenten tray    3. countdown cross

The Jesse Tree has been such a meaningful part of Advent in our home that I thought perhaps we could do something similar during Lent.  I searched and searched and searched some more, but couldn’t find anything that seemed just right for us.  So, of course, I ended up making something of my own.  By the time I had everything figured out and ready to go we were well into Lent.  But it has turned out great, and we’ll use it for years to come, I’m sure.

I decided to use a flannel board as our background; it just works so nicely, and I like having the softness of felt pieces to place on it.  A simple flannel board is super easy to make!  Ours is about 30” high and 20” wide.

I cut a large cross from brown felt and tacked it onto the board.

All of the pieces we put on this were made by printing pictures and images onto transfer paper (like for t-shirts), which I then ironed onto white felt. 

We began with this little piece, made for Ash Wednesday (although, as I mentioned, we were a bit late): 

Then we had tiny little flower bulbs, numbered from 1 to 40 for the days of lent, and we placed the correct one on the cross each day: At this time we’d also read the Bible reading for the day, or, if the story seemed a little too much for M’s understanding, we would read from our Little Acts of Grace book. 

Each Sunday we read two of the Sunday readings - one Old Testament story and one New Testament story - and placed small pictures illustrating the stories on the flannel board.  Here are the ones for the second Sunday – Moses striking a rock in the desert and water coming out for the thirsty people, and Jesus at the well with the Samaritan woman:

 

Sundays are not part of the 40 days of Lent, so no flower bulbs those days.  This is how it looked about one-half of the way through:

We also had some special pictures for Holy Thursday (The Last Supper), and Good Friday (a crucifix):

Then Easter morning came and…

Alleluia was freed from it’s little tomb and placed high on our board:

And…

All the flower bulbs had burst into bloom!

A picture of the empty tomb was in the center of the cross:

It was really beautiful, and such a nice way to really make Lent this year a more meaningful part of our life.

This went over pretty well with M, although he does like the Jesse Tree more, because he gets “a yummy piece of candy” every day. :)  I felt like something was missing each day with just putting a flower bulb on the cross.  I think it would be nice to add something else – perhaps a list of little things to do, letting M pick one per day at the same time he places the bulb on the cross…. I’ll have to think about this some more! 

Just a little feather to put in your cap and think about… I am planning on making this available as a printable eventually, with more detailed instructions, daily readings, etc., and I plan on making a complete second set and holding a giveaway for it on my blog sometime early next year. :)  So if you are interested, make sure to check in around early February in 2012, if you can remember! :)

Have a beautiful day! :)