From Rising to Rising...

As you may remember, I like to take time to meditate on and build up to Easter with my family.  But we don't stop there.  It just seemed to be a natural progression to continue on and celebrate the Ascension (that occured 40 days after the Resurrection) and then Pentecost (10 days after Jesus ascended)...

Gary Thomas in his amazing book, The Beautiful Fight: Surrendering to the Transforming Presence of God Every Day of Your Life writes: 

" Celebrating Christmas gives us faith; it affirms that our beliefs have roots in the historical fact of the incarnation.

Celebrating Easter gives us assurance; it affirms that Christ wiped away our sin by his great sacrifice and triumphed over death.

Celebrating the ascension gives us hope and points us toward transformation; it affirms that we can become more and more like Jesus is right now….Without the ascension, we might look around and forget that Christ is the ruling Lord of this fallen, broken world….not just that he will reign when he comes again or that he did reign over death, but that he is reigning right now."

Jesus conquered sin and death at the cross and resurrection and He will come again and reign.  But He also reigns here and now.  As Gary Thomas continues, we can participate in the spread of his reign now by "surrendering to his dynamic, life-transforming presence within us, by letting him change the way we see, think, feel, hear, speak, and serve.  It's the life of Christ in us, continuing his work, exercising his reign, manifesting his presence.

Focusing on the ascension of Jesus can help us to recapture the dynamic reality of Christ manifesting himself through us!

With that in mind, I've been thinking about how to communicate the glorious nature of the ascension and cultivate in my children and appreciation and understanding of the ascension.

Because of their young age, to start with I'm focusing on an understanding.  Although with Xander I'm going to venture into some of the application of Christ's reign here and now!

Here are a few of the things we plan on doing this Thursday.

• Read Acts 1:1-11.  Review how Jesus spent 40 days with his disciples instructing them and opening up the scriptures to them in light of his death and Resurrection.
• Read correlating accounts in The Big Picture Story Bible and The Jesus Storybook Bible.
• Count out 40 days on our calendar to the ascension. 
• Read Revelation 1:7 in addition to reviewing Acts 1:10-11.  Discuss how Jesus will return again the same way he ascended.
• Go look at and admire the clouds.  Talk about heaven.  Talk about the return of the KING!
  
• Possibly make this jello clouds in the sky creation.  I'm usually pretty anti-sugar and food dye with my kids, so I'm not quite sure on this.  But it sure is cute, isn't it?!?!? (ETA: we ended up making this with juice sweetened jello and a bit of food-dye.  Super yummy!) 
• Do the below presented craft again that we did last year.  Last year, we made it from supplies I had around here and creative energy I had available.  This year is a little different (pregnancy has a way of doing that.) and I ordered a set from Oriental Trading Company that first gave me the inspiration for this craft.  Isn't it nice to have options!?!?!

Ascension Craft Tutorial

To mark the ascension which occurred 40 days after Easter (that would be Thursday, June 2nd this year), we made this craft so they can re-enact that wonderful event.  We had so many beautiful conversations about Jesus, the ascension, His return and Heaven in the weeks following this craft last year!

 Supplies you'll need:

• Blue cups or cups covered with blue construction paper (or possibly painted).  We went the construction paper route.
• Cotton balls and glue.
• Jesus paper figurine.  I did a google image search and pick an image like this, this or this.  (I can't remember where I found mine last year.)
• ribbon, yarn or thin strip of white tulle or whatever you have on hand.

Start by letting your kids play with the cotton balls and gently pull them apart to make fluffy clouds.

Next let them spread glue on their cups. 

(This is the favorite part of the craft in our home...  Glue is almost as cool as fire.)

Poke a hole through the top of your cup.  Depending on your children's ages/temperaments and your mood this might be a mommy job.

Thread the tulle/ribbon/yarn through the hole-punch and then poke it through the hole in the cup. 

The idea is that you can pull the string and 'lift' the Jesus figuring up into the clouds.  Let them play and dramatize the story for you over and over and over again!

Becky at Daye by Daye celebrated the ascension with her family and I just love how she specialized and tailored it to her family.  Check it out! 

If anyone else celebrates this, I'd love to hear how/what you did.  Be sure to leave a comment and/or link!

Just Practicing...

Since a girl is a novel and new concept around here, we decided to try and get an idea of what she might look like!

And of course, I need the practice with doing hair...

Trey-Trey decided that he is quite glad he's a boy.  He kept telling me, "Ouch mommy, that's my hair." as I fumbled around with getting the bands out of his hair.  He is tickled with the pictures and quite resolute on  NEVER letting me do that again.

That was our bit of silliness this beautiful Saturday!  I hope you all have a fabulous Memorial Day weekend!

Cultivating Character: It Takes Time

One of the benefits of having my children home with me is that it affords the time to train them. These early years are times of heavy character training.  Charlotte Mason writes about how laying down the rails of good habits that will make for smooth days ahead… That is so true. Obedience, patience, self-control, responsibility, attentiveness, honor, cooperation etc will help them so much throughout the rest of their lives.

But I’ve found that the busier I am running to and from activities, the fewer opportunities we have  for character development.

Why?

…because character training takes TIME. When opportunities arise, we need to be ready and willing to make time for it.

I firmly believe in doing this, but sometimes it is often easier spoken of than lived out…

Case in point: last Friday morning.

It started better than the average morning. Lesson plans had been reviewed the night before. I had a plan and was ready for the day. After a sweet time with the Lord that morning, I was confident, excited and expectant. It was going to be a wonderful, peaceful day. I just knew it!

After reading a few books about bakers and baking during our Circle Time, we embarked on our KONOS activity of having the kids design their own baker’s hats. I was freshly inspired on the importance of discovery learning and warned of the time it might take, but I still found myself painfully trying to refrain from telling them how to do it and instead encourage my children to figure it out on their own.

This is what my oldest (detail oriented,perfectionist) thought of the activity:

Lessons in patience for me and a discussion on perseverance for him.

Next up on the docket was donning the newly created hats (that still ended up with more of mommy’s help than I had hoped) and making cookies.

...with 3 very eager cooks.

...who were having a hard time being patient and waiting turns to participate.

Our curriculum is character based and the trait we’ve been focusing on for the last two months has been patience.

This was a huge exercise in patience for everyone – myself included. (Have I mentioned that by this point we were almost an hour into the baking process and still didn’t have the dough quite ready?

What was taking so long, you might ask?

X - “It’s my turn now.” “No, Keegan, put that down.” {followed by shrieks}

K – {jaw clenched and fist holding tightly to the measuring spoon}

T - :wailing: “No. Me next, me next.”

…and so on and so forth.

I’m starting to wonder where my wonderful day is going when I realize that we need to step back and pow-wow. We huddle in the living room and review the character trait we are working on. I ask them how they might exhibit patience in this situation. We brainstorm, pray and head back to the cookie dough making process all a lot calmer.

By this time it is almost 11.

After lunch and a couple of cookies everyone heads up for rest time/naps. I just sit and wonder about my day. Doubts creep in about the time ‘wasted’ baking cookies and making hats that will be thrown out the next week when the math book and spelling words were untouched for the day.

My neat and tidy plans for the day were turned upside down. Before I let discouragement drag me down too far, the Lord reminded me that these important and often impromptu lessons in character are vital and deserve recognition as an accomplishment for the day, even if some of my other lesson plans don’t get completed.

They learned the importance of perseverance, patience and cooperation. They learned that we all need God’s help in our day to day activities and to cry out for His help.  Even mommy. And then they experienced the benefits of His direction in our day.

…and all of this took TIME. Thankfully, it was time I had to give.

Branching Out to Facebook

I finally caved and set up a facebook page for Cultivated Lives.  I think it is going to be a lot of fun, actually.  I'm hesitant to branch out any further into the online world, because time is such a precious commodity.  But there are fun little snippets that I can share there quickly, that I just don't take the time to do here.  I'm also excited about the prospect of interacting more informally with you all!

So I'd love to have you hop over, take a look and 'like' the new page!   You can click on the link above, or visit via the box in the sidebar.   I'll be posting quotes I enjoy, little thoughts or tidbits on homeschooling, parenting, spiritual discipleship, etc as well as links to blog posts and articles that I've found encouraging.

I'm on twitter too (@cultivatedlives), but for the life of me I just can't figure it out and don't spend too much time there other than the occasional post.  (Does this make me old?)   I probably need a 'twitter for dummies' lesson, except I'm not sure I have the time for it.  Do any of you twitter?

Mulling Over 11 Years...

There is something so special about anniversary's... I always get nostalgic each May and find my thoughts turning towards love, marriage and our relationship.

This year is no different. I've found myself marveling at all we've lived through together and how our love has deepened and grown through it all. The last 11 years certainly haven't been all that easy, but they have been good.

We've had time to love each other in sickness and in health, for richer and for poorer and through all the changes that a growing family brings. And I find myself looking back, thankful for how God has used every circumstance in our lives to shape us, change us and deepen our love.

Today I'm thanking God for...

784. a husband who loves me no matter what.
785. a husband who puts up with my absent-mindedness.
786. a husband with strength of convictions.
787. a husband who loves the pregnant shape and regularly tells me so!
788. a husband who loves that I'm a dreamer and yet helps me be realistic too!
789. a husband who knows when to help me say no to things and when to say yes.  (He gets full credit for my two published articles this year. I almost said no both times...)
790. a partner in parenting who takes joys in raising the children God has given us!
791. years that have taught us that while there may be moments when we don't 'like' the other person, we still love them.  Nothing can change that!
792. trials that give opportunity to grow in our trust in the Lord and love for each other.
793. husband looks that still make me weak in the knees.
794. my parents encouraging me so many years ago to look closer at character than at one's chosen profession. (I wanted to go into full-time ministry.)
795. God revealing to me the joys in ministry wherever I'm at and in whatever I'm doing. 

The Picture Chore Chart Tutorial

Here is the tutorial for the awesome chore chart that I had as a young girl. I'm just so in-love with the late 70's/early 80's artwork! It makes me feel nostalgic every time I look at it!  Of course, we've included a page of blank cards for you to personalize it and add your own chores!  (A big shout-out to my sister who really helped me with this project and prodded me to stop procrastinating and get it done!)

What You Will Need:
• 1 wood board, ¾ inch thick (12x8 board for 1 child) (12x12 for 2 kids) (12x16 board for 3 kids)
• piece of batting (12x8) (12x12) (12x16)
• 1 piece of fabric (16x12) (16x16) (16x20)
• 1 piece of felt (12x8) (12x12) (12x16)
• Sticky letters or fabric paint
• 3 lg cup hooks per child
• 2 sm sawtooth picture hangers
• Hammer and small nail
• Paper punch
• Scissors
• Glue (I used wood glue)
• 1 roll of clear contact paper
• 4 sheets of white card stock/child
• Printer to print the JOB CARDS (includes both girl and boy cards as well as blanks)

Instructions:

Step 1: Prepare job cards. Print PDF onto white card stock, three pages for each child. Color code at the bottom of each card (a different color per child), and write the child’s name on the blank card. Carefully cover over both sides of card stock with clear contact paper (or if you prefer have them laminated). Cut out. Punch a hole in the top of each card. 

Step 2: Place padding on front side of board. Spot glue it in place. Allow glue to dry before next step.

Step 3: Cover padding with material right side up. When material is in place, carefully turn board over. Glue all four back edges securely down.  Allow glue to dry. If desired, hide material edges with felt square, cut to same proportions as board, glue in place. 

Step 4: Using a pencil and a ruler, figure out where you want to place each hood and mark.  I placed cards in desired places to confirm desired placement.

Step 5: Place the words, “NAME,” “JOB,” and “DONE” at top of board, in that order.  Sticky felt letters can be used or you can use fabric paint.  I did not want to freehand my words, so I made freezer paper stencils for my words.  Directions for freezer-paper stenciling can be found here or here.  It is super easy and so addicting...

Step 6: Gently pound a nail into each pencil mark. Then, screw-in cup hooks, one hook under each word per child. Each child will have three hooks. (Do not pound the cup hooks in with the hammer or the hooks will bend.  We learned this the hard way.)

Step 7: Attach sawtooth picture hangers to the back of the board. (As you can see, in my pregnant state, I totally forgot to attach the felt to finish off the back...)

Step 8: Hang in easy to access place.  Ours hangs right below the calendar, next to our pantry.  As a girl, my mom hung ours on the wall of the counter in the kitchen.  Too out of sight will mean out of mind...

Step 9: Turn your little helpers loose! 

Related Post:

Learning the Value of Work (our chore charts in action)

Learning the Value of Work

There is nothing better for a person than that he should eat and drink and find enjoyment in his toil. This also, I saw, is from the hand of God, for apart from him who can eat or who can have enjoyment?

—Ecclesiastes 2:24-25

Meet the newest addition to our family...  I'm kicking myself for not having made this when it first went on my 'want to make' list a couple of years ago.  My sister and I found my mom's directions and aged copies from our childhood and cleaned everything up to replicate the job board in our homes...

There is so much value and satisfaction in work.   It is such a privilege to be able to train our children to find enjoyment and fulfillment in contributing to the workload that keeps our family going. 

Of course, at this stage, it is more work to train them in helping out than if I would just do the job myself.  I've been guilty more times than I care to count of just doing many things myself because it is faster...    

With the upcoming arrival of a new baby I'm realizing that it is well worth the investment of time to help train the kids to become more self-sufficient and active contributors in our home without me needing to remind them every step of the way.  And not only is it more helpful for me, but it is helpful for them to have a proud sense of belonging and contributing something of high value to the family.

That's where this nifty job chart comes in handy.  We've used 'job sticks' before. My oldest loved moving the sticks around as he completed chores, but it required me to read the assignments to him...  Because this one is completely picture based, even the non-readers in the family can see what they need to do and experience the satisfaction of moving things off their 'to do' list.

I'm a huge lover of to do lists.  This job chart may have had something to do with the start of this love affair.  Each morning I jot down what I need to get done that day and derive great satisfaction from marking things off.  I'm excited to pass that on to my children.

It was fun to watch them pore over each card.  There was excitement at the prospect of getting to help out in so many 'fun' ways!

Obviously, there are a few chores on there that they aren't ready for...  Using a hot iron is one of those.

Each morning it is their responsibility to check out the chore chart and start working on what needs to be done for the day.   We are setting aside time before and after breakfast to work on these.  Some are simple and take place daily such as getting dressed, brushing one's teeth, making their beds, etc and others will be assigned on an 'as-needed' basis like emptying the dishwasher, sorting laundry, putting away clean laundry, etc... 

Now I have to be perfectly honest and let you know that while my oldest is just thrilled with the job board and derives great satisfaction in pleasing us as well as getting his 'to-do' list done, it will take more time with my second born.  He does not have a people pleasing bone in his body (which is both good and bad) and we will need to work on helping him become internally motivated and find personal satisfaction in a job consistently well done. 

It has been incredibly helpful with my youngest as I've come to realize that we haven't expected him to do much at all.  With these new pictures, he has the desire to try.  Now I just need to take the time to train him to do things correctly!

A tutorial for this great tool is in the works...  I'm hoping to share it with you all later this week!  I am also starting a list of cards that I want to add to the pile.

Go to the Tutorial!

Homeschooling --> Family Learning

~ ~ Blogger had some issues over the last few days and erased any changes or posts uploaded during that time.  I apologize for those of you who have subscribed to this blog for the repeat post... ~ ~

One of my favorite perks of homeschooling is that learning becomes a family adventure!

I remember as a girl my mom getting giddy about understanding something we were studying in a fresh way. She would always tell people that she loved homeschooling because of the great education she was getting.

As an adult, who received a fabulous education growing up, I can still vouch for that. While there is certainly a lot of me imparting instruction and training to them, much of it is a joint learning venture. And as I've learned with even the giving instruction and discipling process, there are still lessons for me.

Nothing quite brought this home recently like our study of the military a few months ago. I grew up in a home of three little girls. When it came time to study the military, we had no interest. I'm kicking myself now, especially since my Opa and his father were both career Army and my dad's father served briefly in the Navy. But no, that didn't appeal to little girls...

Times have changed and with three little boys, there were great whoops of excitement when this topic was introduced. We did boot camp, drills, awoke to reveille. They marched, learned how to make their beds military style, thanks to my hubby, an expert bedmaker.  I'd probably be discharged for poor bed-making skills alone...  One of their favorite parts was learning to properly salute from my Opa.

We learned details about how the military is structured and its various branches. I finally have a fairly good understanding of ranking now. Although the boys were too young for some of the information, I still found myself reading some of the 'older' kids books and gleaning information that I could then pass on to them. This was most definitely a JOINT venture.

The end of our unit perfectly coincided with an airshow that happens only every two years at Luke Air Force Base. {providence} We were all primed and ready...

The boys sat in the cockpit of a helicopter...

...and I genuinely marvelled at the controls!

The boys and I were all giddy and could tell the difference between an Apache and a Black Hawk helicopter. My husband has an amazing knowledge of military aircraft. He was able to fill us in on even more during this particular adventure!

Little guys practiced their salutes!

We talked to air force pilots...

And of course watched the show...

Oh the joys of homeschooling!!!

It provides the time, opportunity and adventure of on-going learning - as a family!

So what have YOU discovered lately in your learning adventures?

A 'dge' kind of day!

Who would have thought that spelling could be so much fun???  About a month ago, we were reviewing the 'dge 3 letter j' phonogram in our Spell to Write and Read program (which I just LOVE) when I noticed on the back of the card it offered the cute suggestion of taking some time to go -

Eat fuDGE on the eDGE of a briDGE.

We were meeting friends the next morning and I knew that there was a bridge over an irrigation ditch there, so I whipped up a batch of my super yummy sugar-free fudge and took a box of it over!  (That way, I wouldn't feel too guilty about giving them fudge before lunch...)

They enjoyed it so much that Keegan, my 4.5 year old, recently asked if we could do it again.  I told him that this was something he would just have to anticipate doing when he reaches that point!

I love my job!

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Rollercoaster of a Week

Last week was wild with emotion from mountain tops to low valleys...

The high point was our ultrasound and discovering that this child of ours is a girl!  I find there is something so special about just knowing that the child I carry is a son or daughter.  The feelings of intimacy and elation each time are amazing!

The next morning we woke up to discover that our beloved dog, Duchess had died.  Whenever I would mention being completely outnumbered in the boy to girl ratio in our home, my husband would always point out that I had Duchess...  She was a beloved part of our family and is sorely missed.

What I've learned over the last couple of years is that there is always something to thank God for, in every circumstance...  So I continue to count God's many blessings and am encouraged to see that my children are increasingly doing the same!  I guess the whole 'better caught than taught' thing is really true.  It is a beautiful thing to behold.

Want to transform the way you think about your everyday circumstances?  Consider joining the gratitude community and reading Ann's wonderful book, One Thousand Gifts: A Dare to Live Fully Right Where You Are.  God will grow bigger in your eyes and circumstances don't have the same kind of grip on you as we learn to "give thanks for everything."

767. The excitement of scheduling our ultrasound - for the next day!
768. The flurry of planning to pull off a 'revealing party' the next evening.
769. Waking up at the crack of dawn full of anticipation at getting a peak at our little baby and discovering whether a new son or daughter would be greeting us in a few months.
770. Relishing each tiny part of the ultrasound.  It never gets old.
771. Little boys begging to be let in on the secret early.
772. Revealing the knowledge that there is a little girl in our family.
773. The sense of wonder as I try to wrap my brain around that thought.
774. Sleep - precious, oblivious sleep.

(#3 at 9months getting 'kisses')

775. The flexibility to put aside our learning plans for the day to grieve her death, but also delight in sweet memories of her 7.5 years with us!
776. Recognizing and respecting the various ways my boys understood and handled their grief.  (A true gift, since many times I'm pretty clueless unless one comes out and tells me "I feel...")
777. The comfort and support in the form of loving texts and phone calls from family.
778. The kindness of God in revealing that we have a girl just the day before we lost our 'girl' Duchess.
779. Eggs that finally hatched.

780. A chick that survived a difficult hatching (with my help) and not having to deal with more death right after losing Duchess...

781. Two more surprising us and hatching - a chick for each boy!
782. My three year old son coming down from nap to inspect our newly emerged butterflies and excitedly declaring they were 'tasting the orange with their feet'!  I love seeing retention of stuff we had learned about weeks ago...

783. The anticipation of a new day tomorrow - full of adventure and more gifts...