Lately

I have not blogged much this month mostly because I can't use my camera. The battery died and I can't for the life of me find the charger. I am so upset! Here are a few of the activities we have done in the last couple of weeks.

I printed out these ornament alphabets and put them on magnetic trays (cookie trays). The boys worked together to match magnetic letters to the ornaments. Jax only worked for a little while, but Sawyer kept with it until he had matched every letter.

Sawyer worked on his color words with this candy cane color match game. He doesn't read, but he was able to figure out most of them on his own by looking at the letters and sounding out the words.

Jax had fun playing with his Curious George blocks.

I got this map puzzle down. It had been a while since Sawyer had worked this one, but it didn't take him long. He is a whiz at puzzles. He did not get this ability from me.

I put out this magnetic alphabet book for Jax, but Sawyer ended up playing with it. He matched all the letters to the object that began with that letter.

We love blocks around here. Sawyer was building a wall like the one in Jericho. Then we pretended to be Joshua and his army and walked around the wall 7 times and then blew our trumpets and knocked the wall down. Jax loved this!!!!

Today we did a little open ended art. I put out red and green paint at the easel. Jax painted for a long time. He told me he was painting dinosaurs and fish. I asked him if the dinosaurs would eat the fish and he said, "no, they eat cheese." Then he said he painted sharks and alligators. What an imagination he has.
His big brother on the other handed painted for about a minute and did not elaborate on what he was drawing. I didn't ask since that would be breaking one of the rules of open ended art. When we do open ended art I don't ask them what they are making or drawing I just let them create. Of course if they want to tell me about their picture I encourage them to do so.

Raising Rock Stars-The Jesse Tree Days 2-8

From now until Christmas we are reading a Bible story and decorating our Jesse tree for our family Bible time. The boys are really enjoying this. Sawyer asks me almost every day what story we will learn about that night. I am glad I decided not to go with already made ornaments. The boys are making the ornaments and they are so proud of their tree. They show it to everyone who comes over. The biblical references that I am using came from a lady who first told me about the Jesse tree. Since then I have see other stories and ways to do it. I probably won't do it the exact same way every year.
Day 2 we talked about Adam and Eve.

Jax colored a picture of Adam and Eve and Sawyer hung it on the tree.

Day 3: We talked about the fall of man. My husband and I talked to the boys about sin and how the penalty of sin is death. We also told them that Jesus came to die for our sins. Jax hung an apple on the tree this day. We also wrapped a red ribbon around the tree to represent the blood that had to be shed because of sin.

Day 4: We read about Noah's arc. This is one of the boys favorite stories! They played with their animals and ark and colored a picture to hang on the tree.

Day 5: We talked about the rainbow that God sent as a promise that He would never flood the Earth again. The boys and I glued sequins onto a rainbow.
Day 6: We read about the tower of babel and colored a picture of the tower. Sawyer kept calling it the Babel castle.
Day 7: We read about the promise God made to Abraham. They colored a picture of Abraham and put star stickers on it, because God told Abraham that his descendants would be more than the stars in the sky. We also sang Father Abraham.
Day 8: We read about Isaac and colored a picture of a ram.

Today we talked about two of the symbols of Christmas. Jax colored a picture of a star. I told them that the star represents the star the wise men saw that lead them to Jesus. Sawyer colored a picture of a candle. I explained to them that a candle represents the way we should be lights in this world for Jesus. I love this time of year. It is the perfect time to reflect on the best gift of all-Jesus!
Go here to see more Raising Rock Stars posts.

Open Ended Art: Blue and Silver

The theme for this week's open ended art is blue and silver.

I put out blue foam, silver tissue paper, aluminum foil, and glue.

Jax REALLY enjoyed having total control of the glue.

Sawyer used a little bit of glue and a whole lot of silver paper.
Here are their masterpieces.


Go to Mommy's Little Artists to see other open ended art projects.

Tot School: Short and Sweet

This is probably the shortest tot school post I have ever written. We were gone for a week and it has taken me about a week to get caught up around here, so we haven't done as much as we usually do. I also haven't taken many pictures lately.

We talked about the letter M this week. I had the boys sort Christmas marshmallows into these little ice trays I got from the dollar tree.

Then they glued the marshmallows onto the letter Mm. I did this with my class as well and they all loved it. I let them eat a couple too.


Sawyer made this shape tree. He did it really quickly, but I think he enjoyed it and I was able to review shapes with him.

We have been doing our Jesse Tree every night. I will post more about this in my Raising Rock Stars post. Go here to see what happened in Tot School this week.

Raising Rock Stars-The Jesse Tree

Last year around the holidays I attended a wonderful Women's Ministry Event at our church. It was an all day event for women of all ages and there were various classes available that were all focused on the holidays. I went to one about holiday entertaining and easy holiday desserts among others. One of the classes I went to was all about the Jesse tree. I had never heard of a Jesse tree, so I was interested to learn more about it. Basically, it is a special tree that may be set up during the Advent Season. Each day you read a Bible Story from the old testament and add a new ornament to the tree. The tree is name after David's Father, Jesse, and is based on the verse "There shall come forth a shoot from the stump of Jesse, and a branch shall grow out of his roots," Basically it is a family tree for Jesus. I thought it was such a good idea and something I would love to do with our family. Last year the boys were a little young, but this year I decided to go ahead and start this new tradition.
I searched the internet and found a lot of resources. You can order ornaments, devotions, etc. What I discovered is that there is really no wrong way to do it. I saw beautiful homemade ornaments and at first I was quite intimidated. I am not crafty at all and really don't have the time to make elaborate ornaments. I almost chose to just skip it, but then it hit me that the look of the tree is not what matters. What matters is that I am teaching my children about what this season is truly about. I am so excited to teach them about the family of Jesse and all the people through history who helped prepare the world for the coming of Jesus, our Lord and Savior.

We decided to do our Jesse tree every night before the boys go to bed. Last night we read about creation. We actually didn't read the first 2 chapters of Genesis. We pretty much looked at a story in their children's Bible and discussed creation. The boys are pretty familiar with the story, so they helped tell it. I was surprised at how much Jax got into this part. He kept saying, "God made clouds. God made animals. God made trees."

Next, I let Jax put the first ornament on the tree. I just bought a little tree at Hobby Lobby, but you can do any kind of tree or branch. Sawyer colored a creation picture. I decided that every night we will alternate with one boy coloring and the other hanging the ornament.

Here is our tree with one little ornament. I just printed these little pictures of an earth for our first ornament. Tonight I will let them hang the picture of Adam and Eve that they color. There really is no uniform idea as to how we will do our ornaments. We are just going to do the best we can to make it personal and special for the boys.

Sawyer asked me today why our tree only had one ornament and I told him that we will add one every night until Christmas. I told him that tonight we would learn about Adam and Eve. He said, "Adam and Eve didn't listen. We shouldn't learn about them, because they made bad choices." I told him that we can learn from people's bad choices so it will be ok. He is too funny sometimes.
For some reason I am having trouble posting the raising rock stars icon, but you can go here to see more Raising Rock Stars posts.