Piney Woods Homeschool

For the last two years, during Advent we've read daily from The Jesse Tree , a beautifully illustrated book that follows a traditional sequence of daily Jesse Tree readings from the Old Testament.  The frame story used in this version by Geraldine McCaughrean involves a curmudgeonly man carving Jesse Tree figures in a church and a little boy who asks constant questions about the figures.  In response, the carver tells each Bible story, explaining why it is included on the tree.  We enjoyed these daily Advent readings and will read them again. This year we're reading from The Christmas Mystery as a change.  This book also has one chapter to be read each day, but the chapters are significantly longer than those in The Jesse Tree.  The Christmas Mystery does tell the story of the nativity, but not directly.  The frame story hinges on an unusual Advent calendar, the story the calendar tells, and what that story means for the "real" world.  The calendar...

I haven't put a lot of thought into Advent this year.  However, I did pull out the resources I have. (Not candles, though; I'm not sure I have candles yet.  Oops.) One I haven't used before, although we've done a Jesse tree in various forms for many years, is the Jesse Tree book.  I need to go through it and match it with the sheets I printed to supply us with inspiration (and tracing patterns if needed) for the pictures for each story.  (We've done lots of different types of images in the past; this year I thought we'd draw or trace pictures onto plastic cut from milk or vinegar jugs, then color them.)  Since I'm using our tabletop tree for a baby shower the first week in December, it won't do for our Jesse tree this year, but it isn't big enough to handle four daily ornaments for 25 days anyway.  We usually use it for our weekly ornaments.  (See next paragraph for more on that.)  We have a larger tree that is still small that we rescued fr...

Our reading assignments came from Volume 5 and the Parents Review , but in contrarian fashion I'm drawing inspiration from the end of Volume 2 : "The old, old story has all its first freshness as we tell it to the eager listeners; as we listen to it ourselves with their vivid interest it becomes as real and fresh to us as it is to them. Hard thoughts drop away like scales from our eyes; we are young once more with the children's young life, which, we are mysteriously made aware, is the life eternal. What a mystery it is! Does not every mother, made wise unto salvation, who holds a babe in her arms, feel with tremulous awe that, that deep saying is true for her also, 'The same is my mother'?"    Volume 2, p. 281 Our piney woods, in a rare snowy moment. Holidays provide an opportunity to rethink our treasured values and beliefs as we help our children experience them through family and community observances.  We also have the opportunity to encourage true h...

Updated :  Recently (this is in November 2011) our small group at church has been studying Gospel in Life by Timothy Keller .  One session focused on worldviews, and one of the worldviews listed was the "religious" worldview, as opposed to the Christian worldview.  I realized that many of my attitudes truly reflected more of a religious worldview than a grace-centered Christian one, and the activities in this post reflect that.  We may still use some variant of this during Advent this year, but I will frame it as our practicing kindness just like God showed kindness to us, showing our gratitude to Him by emulating Him in our own small way, practicing during this season so we can develop habits to last all year.  Since our family focuses on Jesus as the Light of the World during Advent, we can think of these activities as encouragement to let the light of Christ shine through us.  We should *not* in any way think of good deeds as preparing ourselves for anyt...

Our family Advent plan hasn't been significantly revised in several years at least, so this year we're revising it.  My first order of business has been the "ceremony" surrounding the Advent wreath.  Each evening during Advent we light the candle(s) for the week and read a scripture, talk about the theme for the week, and usually sing a carol related to that theme.  Each week we hang an ornament on a small Christmas tree, to reflect the theme for that week.  This year I think I want to have a theme song or chorus for all of Advent, if I can find something suitable.  I have changed the scriptures we're using and the theme for each week, and I may even ditch the pink and purple candles in favor of natural ones--I'm not sure about that yet.  I am still not sure about the symbol we'll use for each week, partly because I don't have my ornaments accessible right now and I'm not sure I have suitable ornaments for the symbols I've tentatively chosen. ...

Many years ago dh and I started observing Advent as a season of preparing for Christmas, much as Lent is a season of preparing for Easter. Every day during Advent and the twelve days of Christmas (spanning the period from Christmas to Epiphany), I read from Watch for the Light, a book of readings by various authors. Yesterday’s reading from Brennan Manning was really long, but one passage particularly struck me: The shipwrecked at the stable are captivated by joy and wonder. They have found the treasure in the field of Bethlehem. The pearl of great price is wrapped in swaddling clothes and lying in a manger. Everything else is cheap, fake, painted fragments of glass. The question for all of us is what we will really aim at next Christmas. If all we are going for is a placid decency, routine prayer, well-behaved worship and comfortable compassion, then we have effectively parted company with the shipwrecked and have no fellowship with the pearl-finder. I wonder, i...

With Christmas right around the corner, I’m pondering the purpose of gift giving and how to teach that to my children.  It seems to me that as much as the gifts we give are intended to please the recipient, they are more importantly intended to convey our love and affection.  Surely that’s the primary purpose?  Without thinking it through, that’s how I’ve always approached the issue of having the kids give gifts to family members, and so the gifts have always been something the child has made or purchased with her own money.  Always the gift has been the child’s choice, although I provide suggestions.  Sometimes they’ve been ugly because the taste of small children differs greatly from mine; mostly they’ve been useful because I encourage that.  This year my two oldest (7 and 5) took it upon themselves to start Christmas shopping early in the fall, when I was thinking of Christmas shopping, and so with their own money they bought gifts for gra...

I have previously posted our plan or schedule for observing Advent and then Christmas.  This year, since our kids are older, we’re adding in a true Jesse Tree observance.  We use the devotions in The Advent Jesse Tree during breakfast each day, then sometime later in the day the kids use assorted craft supplies to make a symbol related to that day’s story to hang on their "tree".  (The trees are construction paper creations taped to the shutters in the kitchen.)  I don’t provide a lot of input into how the symbols should be constructed, although for my 3yo I do sometimes cut out a shape for him if he asks me to.  I also sometimes provide general suggestions for ways a symbol might be constructed, but mostly the project is theirs.  I’ll try to post a picture later in the season, since the "trees’ are turning out to be quite interesting. UPDATE:

We don't really observe Lent in our house.  Neither of us comes from a liturgical church tradition, so my dh and I do not have any history to draw from.  We have decided to include some of the liturgical church year in our home, though, to provide a framework for some of our spiritual training.  Lent provides an excellent introduction to Easter (which is of course its intent), but we don't "do Lent" in any traditional sense. This year, starting on Ash Wednesday or shortly thereafter, we began exploring the story of the Good Shepherd .  The girls each had a set of paper figures--one shepherd and several sheep--and a shoebox sheepfold, left from last year.  DS got a tissue box sheepfold, a clothespin doll shepherd , and some cotton ball sheep.  We explored a different aspect of the story each week. Older dd needed a bit more, so we also read the Gospel reading from lectionary cycle A each week (although we missed a few weeks because I fo...

This year I decided to prepare for Easter, much as we prepare for Christmas by doing Advent activities.  Lent is the official season of preparation for Easter, but since our church doesn’t observe Lent, and we’ve never really observed Lent in our home, I wasn’t prepared for a full-blown observance of Lent this year.  My favorite church seasons book, Celebrating the Christian Church Year with Young Children, suggested using the story of the Good Shepherd throughout Lent to help small children prepare for Easter.  This seemed doable for us, so I used the book’s template to make paper Good Shepherd and sheep figures for each of the girls, and then gave them each a sheepfold made from a shoebox.  The girls are enjoying playing with their sets.  I have told them the story of the Good Shepherd, quite casually, a few times, and we’ve sung some hymns/choruses about Jesus-as-Shepherd.  I think for the 3yo especially, this approach will work much bette...

This year, the CEO and I decided to change our Advent approach.  We wanted to follow the traditional formula of using Advent to prepare for the coming of the Saviour, not as an infant but as a King.  We wanted to put the focus more on preparing our hearts for Christ when He returns.  We used a couple of resources to help us with this. Celebrating the Church Year With Young Children The Advent Jesse Tree: Devotions for Children and Adults to Prepare for the Coming of the Christ Child at Christmas Based on the recommendations in the Celebrating the Church Year book, but then also trying to follow a more traditional Advent schedule (such as described here ), we created a schedule for the Advent and Christmas season.  Week 1 , Week 2 , Week 3 , Week 4 , and then the 12 days of Christmas each had a separate scripture reading, hymn, thought to ponder, ornament for the tree, and art.  We also listened to Part I of Handel’s Messiah . We may rearrange the h...

Christmas lasts from Christmas Day through January 6.  We’ll continue to light all the Advent candles, including the Christ candle, every night during this period. Luke 2:1-20 Christ Candle We celebrate because Jesus was born. We celebrate because Jesus is our King. Hark, the Herald Angels Sing Nativity ornament Handel’s Messiah, Part I, 13-17 Art:  Adoration of the Magi

Week 4 this year consists solely of Christmas Eve. Isaiah 9:6  For unto us a child is born, unto us a son is given: and the government shall be upon his shoulder: and his name shall be called Wonderful, Counsellor, The mighty God, The everlasting Father, The Prince of Peace. Peace candle Jesus brought peace to our hearts. When He returns He will bring peace to the world. O Come, O Come, Emmanuel Dove ornament Handel’s Messiah, Part I, 12 Art:   Nativity

Isaiah 12:2-6  2 Surely God is my salvation;        I will trust and not be afraid.        The LORD, the LORD, is my strength and my song;        he has become my salvation."   3 With joy you will draw water        from the wells of salvation.   4 In that day you will say:        "Give thanks to the LORD, call on his name;         make known among the nations what he has done,        and proclaim that his name is exalted.   5 Sing to the LORD, for he has done glorious things;        let this be known to all the world.   6 Shout aloud and sing for joy, people of Zion,        for great is the Holy One of Israel among you." Joy candle Jesus saved us from our sins, which gives us joy. Joy t...

1 John 4:9-12  9 This is how God showed his love among us: He sent his one and only Son into the world that we might live through him. 10 This is love: not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins. 11 Dear friends, since God so loved us, we also ought to love one another. 12 No one has ever seen God; but if we love one another, God lives in us and his love is made complete in us. Love candle God sent Jesus because He loves us. Jesus came because He loves us. We show love to God by loving other people. O Holy Night   Heart ornament Handel’s Messiah, Part I, 5-7 Art:   Chancel Cross [Update:  Alternatively, use van Eyck's Adoration of the Lamb, which you can find at the Web Gallery of Art .]

This is our current plan for Advent, Week 1: Jeremiah 33:14-16 14 " ‘The days are coming,’ declares the LORD, ‘when I will fulfill the gracious promise I made to the house of Israel and to the house of Judah.   15 " ‘In those days and at that time        I will make a righteous Branch sprout from David’s line;        he will do what is just and right in the land.   16 In those days Judah will be saved        and Jerusalem will live in safety.        This is the name by which it will be called:        The LORD Our Righteousness. Hope (prophecy) candle God keeps His promises God promised to send a savior Jesus promised to return Come, Thou Long Expected Jesus   Noah’s Ark ornament Handel’s Messiah, Part I, 1-4 Art:   Jesus, Light of the World