Being Thankful

I love this time of year, but if you are anything like me, I sometimes feel like I am getting so excited planning and getting ready for Advent and Christmas that I forget to slow down and appreciate Thanksgiving!!  Yet, I NEED Thanksgiving, and my family needs Thanksgiving.  Thanksgiving is the time to really count our blessings and have appreciation and gratitude for what God has granted us and for those that we love. 

"Count Your Blessings" - our hallway display reminder!

I feel like it is so easy to fall far on either spectrum of gratitude.  There are those days that I feel discouraged: "why does my husband's work schedule take so much of him away from our family", "why did I only get 4 hours of sleep last night", "why is there so much hurt and pain occurring in the community around me"?  Then there are other days that I feel so humbled and so blessed looking at so many others in need.  I know that I am so lucky to be where I am, with the home and privileges that we do, with a healthy family and lots of love. 

I think what I have realized is that I want to trust God and be thankful for today, in this moment.  I know that my struggles and hardships (no matter how big or small they are) are my crosses to bear, my opportunities to grow in strength and virtue.  Yes, my husband has a demanding work schedule, but he is providing not only for our family but also a need to the poor and weary in our community as an Emergency room physician, and he has a true gift within his vocation.  Thank you God, for my husband, and for granting him a heart to not only love our family, but to also love and care for others.  Yes, some nights I get little sleep, but thank you God for granting us the blessings of our children.  Thank you for allowing me to be able to stay at home with our children to provide love, comfort and guidance.  Yes, there is a lot of pain and hurt in my community, so God please put in my heart the act of servitude.  That I might be able to reach out, in my own way, to help and love those in need. 



The Banner across our fireplace - "Be Thankful"

God, thank you for sending your Son, to love us so much that he died so that we might live in eternity with you.  Thank you for my husband, and for my family.  They give me so much joy and love and they allow me to live out the vocation that I know that you are calling me to as a wife and mother. Thank you for my parents, my sister and my extended family.  Thank you for allowing us to be near each other and to play such an important part in each others lives.  Thank you for my in-laws and brother in law.  Thank you for bringing them into my life and for allowing me to join their family, and most of all for helping me to grow closer to them each year.  Thank you for my friends and community.  Thank you for the support, kindness and guidance that they provide.  Thank you for our country and for the freedoms and privileges that we have.  This Thanksgiving, I am truly thankful for the blessings in my life and I pray that God blesses you and your family as well!

Preschool Table Manners & Thanksgiving Fun

One thing that we are loving about homeschooling during the preschool years is taking some extra time to learn those important life skills and virtues like kindness, generosity, honesty and manners!  With Thanksgiving coming up it seemed like the perfect time to do a little lesson on table manners.  Now, I'm not sure how it works at your house, but with 3 kids 5 years old and under, meal times are still a work in progress here at our house!  We have a few things that have really helped, which are eating meals together as a family and trying to limit snacks between meals.  Yet, trust me when I say we still have a lot of work to do!

 

Well, Things to Share and Remember made this adorable activity called Yes Please, No Thank - You, where you print off different photos of typical foods that you eat during a Thanksgiving dinner, cut them out, paste them on paper plates and then get to practice lots of things! 

 

 

We first identified the foods, figured out which ones are healthy or not, which foods they had tried before, which foods they liked or didn't like, etc.  We then took time to pass the plates around the table and pretend eating.  This was a great reminder of how we sit at the table, how we chew properly, how we use our manners and say please and thank you, and how to ask to be excused.  We even discussed what proper dinner conversations are and proper voice levels (if anyone knows our middle child you would know that this is a big thing to practice)!

 

Playing "Yes, Please - No Thank you"!

 

One thing that we use throughout the year to help with manners is called Building Good Character: God Made Me to Be Part of A Family from Catholic Heritage Curricula.  It has great lessons in behavior and virtues with sticker charts already made up!  They also have read aloud stories to go with the lessons called Devotional Stories for Little Folks and Devotional Stories for Little Folks, Too!  We learned about this program when we were at the MN Catholic Homeschool conference last spring and we just love it!  They even have an entire section all about table manners!

Finally, we took some time for fun Thanksgiving painting.  All of our boys love crafts and I realized that I needed to figure out a good way to have things easily accessible so that it easy to take out and have activities be not too messy!  We use this Easy Clean Splash Mat and Vinyl Paint Aprons from Lakeshore Learning with all of our craft activities.  We keep all of our art supplies together under the sink in our homeschool room, and have easy clean up as well!  We decided to make a fun Thanksgiving canvas (we bought a set of 2 blank canvases for $7 at Hobby Lobby) to hang in our living room and then just have some free painting time!

 

Our Thanksgiving Canvas Art! 

Thanking YOU- an Advent Giveaway

I never expected when starting a blog that the little community that forms would be such a beautiful blessing!  In two short weeks after launching Children of the Church we have reached to the hearts and minds of over 2000 people in over 12 different countries!  Seriously you guys, I started this blog just to be able to have a way to share our homeschooling journey and life with a few people and never expected this response!  So, as we enter the week of Thanksgiving and prepare for Advent I want to thank YOU.  Thank you for supporting me on this little journey.  Thank you for your comments, for your input and for your prayers!

We have started a group over on Facebook for Children of the Church to make it easier for you to follow along and for us to come together in praise, recommendations and support!  If you are on Facebook please share this group and make a comment on the post either here or on Facebook about what you are most looking forward to this Advent/Christmas and you will be entered for our Advent giveaway.  We will randomly choose our winner once the Children of the Church Facebook page hits 100 likes!!

So what is the giveaway you ask?  Have you been following Blessed is She?  It is an amazing daily e-mail that includes the daily mass readings and also a wonderful devotion.  I cannot tell you how much I have already been blessed by this little reminder to focus on God's word and for a beautiful reflection each day!  Just head over to their website to get signed up for their daily e-mails! 

To make it even better they created a beautiful Advent journal, which I want to give away to ONE OF YOU!  It is a perfect little journal that includes the daily readings, reflection questions, space to include notes from the Sunday homilies and lots of room for you to record your own thoughts and prayers this Advent season! 

Thank you so much for your support and prayers and I look forward to mailing this Advent Journal out once we reach 100 likes over at Children of the Church on Facebook!

"Blessed is She"- Advent Journal

Saint Peg Doll Swap

Have you heard of saint peg doll swaps?  One of my favorite things about social media is the communities of support and fun that it creates.  One of the Catholic Homeschooling groups that I am a part of started a "swap" where we each painted 30 of the same peg doll saints (I painted St Lucy) and then we sent them to a central location and in return got 30 different saints back.  These saints retail for about $10-15 each on websites like Etsy, etc and to make my set of 30 cost about $50 including the cost of dolls and paint supplies.  So instead of $10-15 per saint it cost me a little more than $1.50 per doll (plus my time and effort).  Connor our middle son is our artistic child and he loved helping mommy paint our dolls!  I was assured that it didn't matter what personal artistic ability is, that you can paint these little dolls.  Trust me when I say that I have very little artistic ability, so I was surprised when I had so much fun.  Here are some of the amazing pieces that were "swapped" in our collection. 

I am also a part of a peg doll swap with our Catholic Homeschool co-op here in my home town where we painted a set of 15 dolls including the nativity and Saints with feast days during Advent!  We have that "swap" this next week and I am so excited to see the end result!  I would definitely recommend getting a group together to do a swap, and I am looking forward to participating in more in the future.  The same group of ladies who did the one that I am showing below are thinking of doing a "Rosary set" this spring with peg dolls to help our children interact and learn about the mysteries of the Rosary!

Connor helping me paint our Saint Dolls!

 

Our finished St Lucy dolls before we put them in the mail

 

A photo from the wonderful homeschool momma who put the swap together!  All of the little saints lined up!

St Faustina - Isn't this amazing!


 

**These are just a few of the 30 saints we swapped, so if you would like ideas of more just send me a message or e-mail and I can send you more!



The Gift of Giving - Operation Christmas Child

One tradition that our family started last year is giving to Operation Christmas Child.  National collection week is going on now, from November 17th - 24th, so you still have time to participate if you want!!  I know that Samaritan's Purse does the national collection week early to make sure to get the gifts to the children in time for Christmas, but I also love that the collection occurs right before Thanksgiving and the beginning of Advent.  I think it can be so hard in a world of materialism to teach our children to give and to think of others first, but it is SO important! This is the perfect time to be thinking about giving to others and for being thankful for what we have.

So off to Target we went to get some shoe box sized totes and pick out gifts!  I had a talk with the boys before we got to the store about what Operation Christmas Child is and that there are children in the world who do not have as many toys and important things like food, toothpaste/toothbrushes as we do.  We discussed that it is important to have a generous heart and to give to others.  Our oldest child Ryan (almost 5 years old) remembered doing this activity last year and asked if he was sending a gift to the same boy that he did last year.  This was a great question to be able to discuss how many boys and girls there are in the world for us to help and that we always want to do our little part and always keep all of them in our prayers!

Picking out gifts for Operation Christmas Child

I told them to pick out some fun toys and things that they thought little boys would want to play with.  You pick what age range you want to give to so we picked Boys age 2-4 years old, just like our kids.  It was so much fun to set them loose and see what they picked!  Our oldest son picked a dinosaur game, a Tonka helicopter, a fire truck book and a few matchbox cars!  We also added to this box toothpaste, toothbrushes, soap and socks. 



 

 

Our middle son, who is 3 years old, immediately picked out the Dusty airplane from Disney Planes Fire & Rescue that he has been wishing for (I knew that when he was picking it out we were probably going to have a problem, but I still let him choose it.)  He also picked some blocks, Mickey mouse stamps, a school bus book and a sports game.  We also added toothpaste, toothbrushes, soap and socks to this box!

 

 

We went to the checkout line and everything was going well, the boys were chatting to each other about all of the fun things that they were purchasing and then our oldest said "those boys are going to love these toys so much!"  At this moment I was so excited about how they are really getting this, they are understanding how important it is to give to others!

 

Enter meltdown from our 3 year old.  "No, the Dusty plane is MINE"!  Thankfully we were finished checking out and on our way to the van but the meltdown continued.  Part of me was initially frustrated thinking about how this isn't even worth it!  Taking three little boys out on a cold day, making the effort doing these things parenting with little kids...but then thankfully I paused for a moment, said a prayer and got some much needed clarity. 

 

Thank you God for this meltdown!  Thank you for giving me the opportunity to teach my children about the importance of giving and not just receiving.  Thank you for giving me the opportunity to teach my children that it is ok for their every wish not to be granted immediately and it is good to give to others, even those things that they REALLY want. 

 

We stopped in our van, and right there we said a prayer together "Dear Jesus, please watch over the boys and girls in this world who are in need.  Please show them your love and please let them feel our love for them.  Please pray for each of us, that we learn how to love like you and give of ourselves and our gifts to others.  In your name we pray.  Amen".   

 

My child dried his tears, put down the coveted toy and said "Mommy, I think the boy who gets Dusty (the plane) is going to think it's really cool".  Now, I know this won't be the last meltdown, or the last time we have to talk about letting go of materialism and giving to others, but I do know today was a good step.  A step forward in teaching my children the importance of giving to others.  Plus there is the added bonus that teaching these lessons to my children are a fantastic reminder of these virtues for myself! 

 

Yes, he REALLY loves this Dusty plane.  He gave it a kiss before putting it in the box!

Thank you God for giving me this moment with our children.  May their hearts continue to grow to love and give to others like you.  We pray for all of those involved with Operation Christmas Child and for all those in need, especially during this season of Thanksgiving and Christmas.

 

A Homeschool Thanksgiving - Theme Learning

We love using Seton for our homeschooling, but we also really enjoy adding some extras for special fun learning!  We especially love adding different "themes" to different weeks or seasons.  We have done themes for the Olympics, Fire Prevention Week, and holidays like Halloween, Thanksgiving, Valentine's Day, etc.  We also will do theme weeks to focus on special topics like Colors, Shapes, Numbers, Letters, Seasons, and Months.  One thing that I knew I needed to figure out early on in homeschooling was some sort of organization.  Being a "type A" momma, I knew that organization is a must for me to be able to enjoy things, and I think I finally have a system figured out that works for our family. 

First, when I find things for my "themes" from Pinterest or different websites I print them out and laminate anything that we can re-use between different years or even with different children.  I put any small pieces and puzzles in a zip-lock bag.  I then found clear plastic folders with a snap at Target that I put each "theme" in and then label that folder with the theme name on the outside so I can clearly see what it is!  I probably have 20-30 of these "theme folders" so far and I keep them all in file drawers that are easily accessible by my desk.  It has been great to have them all easily accessible and organized.

Our Thanksgiving Theme Pack

Then when fun theme weeks come along, like starting our theme of Thanksgiving this week, we can pull out the folder and it's all ready to go!  Even if the kids have done the activities before, as their learning increases they do the activities in different ways and are able to gain more from them!

 

They love this fun Thanksgiving song and activity from 1+1+1=1, we sing the song to the tune of "Are you Sleeping" and work on finding and identifying different colors!  It also helps with sharing and taking turns when I hand out different colored feathers to each child before we start!

 

We always love activities that work on improving writing skills!  Ryan (almost 5 years old) can now write all of his letters on his own without tracing or guides, but practice never hurts!  Connor (3 years old) is just learning those basic writing skills so these activities are perfect for him!  It's also different for me because Connor writes with his left hand, so he has been needing a little extra practice writing.

 



 

We love these activities from HomeschoolCreations.com, that help sorting sizes of Large, Medium and Small and also building puzzles from identifying number order!

 

One of our kids FAVORITE activities is lacing cards.  I make lacing cards all of the time by simply printing off a picture on a regular piece of paper, laminating it, cutting around the shape, using a hole puncher to punch holes and then adding a piece of yarn!  It is so easy, they are so great for those important fine motor skills, and the kids LOVE them! 

 

Finally, with each theme we include books!  If we don't have books that go with that theme we use our weekly library trip to find some!  All of our boys love our read aloud story time!

 

 

 

Well, that is part of our Thanksgiving learning fun!  I hope you all have a blessed Thanksgiving and are able to be with ones you love!

My Favorite Resources for the Catholic Homeschooling Mom

As a new homeschool mom I felt like I was always trying to read whatever information I could get my hands on, gain wisdom from whomever would hand it out, and talk about homeschooling with whoever would listen!  I am still very new at this, but there are a few resources out there that I would love to share with you that have been my biggest blessings along the way!

1.  Prayer and the Blessed Mary:  I figured if there is anyone who can teach me about being a good mother and teaching my children it would be the Blessed Mother Mary.  One of my Bible Studies is currently reading Mary: A Biblical Walk with the Blessed Mother.  I think that it is very important being one of the primary educators of our children, that I show my kids my own interest in life long learning.  The boys love their nights with Daddy or Grandma when I go to my Bible Study and know that I am going to "learn about Mary and Jesus".  One thing that this study discusses is the phrase "To Keep and Ponder" which Mary is described doing in Luke's story of the Nativity.  This idea "To Keep and Ponder" is also in the Old Testament in Genesis 37:5-11, Proverbs 3:1-2 and Psalm 119.11.  It makes me really sit back and realize that although there are always trials and times of humility that our role in imitating Mary is "to keep and ponder".  This has been so calming to me in being with our children every day, that even in times of frustration that I take a minute, pray, and keep it in my heart.  Also, I continue to grow a deeper relationship with Mary having started a daily rosary and also completing my first Marian Consecration after reading 33 Days to Morning Glory this past year with my own mother.  I know that this relationship with Mary has and will continue to give me many graces.

The beautiful prayer garden at our parish church

2.  My spouse:  There are a million books out there, thousands of blog posts, hundreds of different opinions, but in the end what matters most is what you and your spouse choose to be right for YOUR family.  As much as I sometimes try to go to outside sources, it is always when my husband and I can sit down at the end of a night to talk about what our goals are for our marriage, family and children that I get the most clarity and feel most at peace.  I know that one of the biggest successes for homeschooling in our family will be my spouse and I being open, communicative and able to support each other on this journey.

I love this guy!

 

3. Kimberly Hahn:  I spoke of her influence briefly in by post about Our Choice to Homeschool.  In her book Blessed and Beloved: Biblical Wisdom for Family Life she discusses that "our educational goal for our children has been and continues to be that they be self - directed, lifelong learners who serve the Lord with their gifts, abilities, skills and knowledge".  She also points out that "Ordinary life at home, lived in the context of faith, prepares our children to know how to function well in society while living faithfully for the Lord."  She continues to inspire me in her book Catholic Education: Homeward Bound as she states that "Home education offers Catholic families a compelling opportunity to make loving God and serving His Church an integrated part of their lives."  Both of these books are wonderful resources and have been a great support in discerning and carrying out the role of a homeschool parent.  She also gives wonderful resources and examples of some of the most popular Catholic homeschooling curriculums that you can use for your family, including Seton Home Study, which we have chosen for our family.

Visiting the Holy Family Shrine in Grenta, NE

 

4. Guiding Your Catholic Preschooler:  Out of all of the books I have read about starting homeschooling, Guiding Your Catholic Preschooler has been one of my favorites!  It is a great little book that explains with wonderful concrete examples and resources how to teach our young children about the Catholic faith and how to have FUN!  It discusses how to witness the love of Christ to our preschoolers and how to integrate the liturgical year into our homes.

Two of our boys learning about the Road to Easter during Holy Week

 

5.  Teaching from Rest:  A fellow homeschool momma Lisa Schmidt, of The Practicing Catholic recommended this book and it is a MUST for homeschooling parents.  When I first got this book I read the whole thing in a one day!  Now I continue to go back and read little pieces like little cups of encouragement to take a deep breath, to enjoy my children and to focus on the most important things in life.  There also is a wonderful printable journal to help focus your thoughts and priorities in regards to homeschooling and family life.  This book has helped remind me that it isn't only the curriculum choice that is important in educating our children but also the day to day learning experiences in life.  Also, it helped me to slow down and enjoy my children and family as the blessings that they are.

 

Relaxing and enjoying a nice fall afternoon picking apples with the boys

 

 Those are some of my favorite resources so far!  What are some of yours?  Please share!