Raising little business men with a heart - FUn FaIr FUN!

Homeschool fun fair was round the corner and that got everyone excited. Mummy was thinking of popcorn, and son was thinking of probably a million things to make and sell.

So we started brainstorming and KB came up with close to 20 ideas, amongst which were making jeans, house, aeroplance, rockets ... and finally he said "mummy, I like music, I would make a trumpet to sell" and I had to say YES!

So we figured we could let him paint his beautiful drawing board in whichever way he likes and mummy would help to roll it up for him. These are the completed 'trumpets' or 'loud hailer', but we decided to call it a trumpet becuz the name was more catchy.

KB looks at his wallet (probably deciding there were too few coins), picks up his loud-hailer and calls out for customers... ha haha... this is so cute!



After some logistic challenges (something to do with bringing extension wire to hook up our popcorn machine!), mummy decided to scrap the idea of making popcorn and decided to just go for Game-for-charity. There was a Food Crisis at East Africa and that provided an excellent cause to go for. It would be meaningful yet fun to do something like that as a family.




















Game-for-charity : Scoop as many balls as you can under 10 secs. Highest scorer of the day wins Family Boardgame, "Chutes and Ladders". Game is suitable for aged 2 yrs-old onwards!

My 4 yr-old is in-charge of giving out stickers to those who completes the game, though sometimes he would also tend to his 'trumpet' stall.





































Which child would say no to ice-lollies? ;)















Face-painting!




















All good things must come to an end. Many (little) hands make work lighter.

Family Easter Celebration - 4yr old

This year, our family's Easter celebration spans over 2 days. We use alot of symbolic play.

We use this book The Story of Easter by Patricia A Pingry. It uses very simple language to communicate the reason for Easter. Then we enact Jesus' triumph entry into Jerusalem right up to Jesus's empty tomb.

Good Friday morning. We went out to look for 'palm branches' together, and we took turns to play the character of Jesus. The rest of us, play the role of the crowd who waves our palm branches and shouts 'hosanna, hosanna, Jesus is our King' and sang Hosanna by Carl Tuttle.

The song goes like this: Hosanna, hosanna, hosanna in the highest. Hosanna, hosanna, hosanna in the highest Lord we lift up Your name With a heart full of praise Be exalted, oh Lord my God Hosanna in the highest!

Then Daddy tells us why we need to be close to God. It is so that Jesus can make us good and help us to do the things we cannot do ourselves.

But when we become naughty (Sin), we get further from God. so when we snatch toys, or tell lies, or hit someone, or speak rude words, we get further away from Jesus. And when we don't have Jesus, it makes us sad.

(And daddy would pull the other chair further as he illustrates a sinful trait, and ask tot to try of ways to go over to Jesus (daddy) who is seated on the other chair by not stepping in the sea full of sharks!)

BUT, Jesus came and died for us! And took all our naughtiness away and make us clean. And because of that, He made a bridge for us.





(cushions 'as bridge' )
















(tots walked over bridge and was greeted by 'Jesus' (it was daddy really playing the part *wink*. Both tots got a big hug from daddy. Daddy said now that they are close to Jesus, Jesus can protect them, and help them.)




















Friday night, our family went to church for a time of prayer and reflection. We walked through a chronological each 'station' leading up to Jesus's cruxification. Life-like props were set up for The Triumph Entry, Table of the Lord's supper, a basin with water for washing of disciples feet, the Garden of Gethsemane, and the eventual betrayal and cruxification of Christ. Adults confessed our sins on a piece of paper and nailed it on a block of wood representing the cross that Jesus died on. It was awesome.

On Saturday, our family got some goodies to prepare to bless our little friends we have invited to church the next day.

We got some plastic eggs and stuffed marshmallow in it.
Then mummy wrapped it up and made a little bookmark to go along with it. We also created a little bird nest (using bronze raffia strings) with the eggs perched up in our little tree at home.

Tot and Mummy had a short conversation on why bird's eggs are used to symbolize new life. Tot asked me when are the hatchlings coming. Then he tells me about ants laying eggs. I had to keep from laughing.















Resurrection Sunday. Our friends came to church with us and we were delighted to have them.

We spent an afternoon playing and chatting with them at their home.

















Sunday night, Daddy had a surprise for us. We re-read the Bible. We pretended to be the disciples who would go look for Jesus on the third day. Suddenly we saw.... an empty tomb and a piece of linen!!

(using a camping tent)

We use our torch light to shine upwards, pretending to see a glimpse of an angel who would tell us that Jesus is alive. We end by singing "Celebrate Jesus and Arise by Brendon & Cathie, International school of worship.

Arise: A is for all you done for me, R is for really do believe, I is for inside where I breathe, S is for son who sets me free, E is for everything you are, my Lord, my God, my King, my all. ...



We played a game of opposites. Mum says "If we are weak... God will make us ...?" Tot says "Strong!" Mum says, "If we are scared, God will .... ?" Tot says "Protect us!", Mum says, "if we are ill, God will ..... us?" Tot says, "Heal us!" That's because Jesus is alive!




















To see what we do for Easter in year 2010, go here.

Easter Celebration 2010

Easter was special because this is the reason why men has HOPE. The objective of the lesson/activity was the message of the cross. We wanted to make the lesson so simple but impressionable and applicable. This is what we did.

We read from Theo's childrens Bible which details day 1 - day 7 of creation. Then I repeated the story in minicards http://www.biblestoryprintables.com

Bible Story printables happened to have creation story told so simply, kids can play story sequence from it. Great for logical thinking skills. We did this during our morning devotion.
We explained that Jesus died on the cross to take away our naughtiness but he is alive again so we can be good boys and girls.
During breakfast, we had hot cross bun. We pointed out to the 'cross' symbol on the bun, but I think he was more interested in the bun! ha... he gobbled it up.



















After that we proceeded to the kitchen and play pretend. We pretended to be naughty by snatching toys. And then Daddy and mummy took turns to come up with illustration of pushing, interrupting during conversations, not sharing toys, hitting others and not saying excuse me etc.
The person who is naughty gets a black paint on his/her legs and hands. Soon, Theo wants to join in and then he pretends he is naughty.















When we have enough black marks, mummy say "Oh oh... look we are ALL naughty! What should we do? We need to ask God to help us be good boys and girls !So we prayed, and Theo prayed after us "Dear Jesus, Sorry that we are naughty. Thank you for dying on the cross to take away our naughtiness. Please help us to be good boys and girls. In Jesus name, Amen!"

Then we went to the bathroom to wash ourselves in the 'blood of Jesus" and we say that only Jesus blood can clean us all. I said, we pretend this is the blood of Jesus, see this is red colour. Only the blood of Jesus can wash all our naughty marks away. And we sang, "only the blood of Jesus. What can wash my naughtiness away, nothing but the blood of Jesus."

After lunch, we do some light craft. KB cuts the cellophane paper in odd shapes and sizes. I took out a double-sided tape and he sticks them on each other randomly. When the piece of mosiac is big enough to contain the cut-out of the cross, I stick the cross on the back and front of the cellophane paper, while he plays "see-through" with cellophane papers. I trimmed off the excess of the cross and viola! We have a stained-glass cross to catch the sunlight! We hung it at the window but later decides that it is safer outside the room, away from rain.




















The Easter story sequencing cards can be replayed again anytime. Today Theo asked me to read the story again for him and when I asked him, where is Jesus? He said Jesus is alive. That is good enough for now.

Preparing for Christmas : Snowman

We started our 3-series Christmas preparation. The first was an gentle introduction to snowman!!! It was more cultural than religious and I thought there was no harm to doing that.
For a change, Daddy got the materials. It was to be a Family Time.

Then we collected hard cardboard together that Saturday morning from a nearby grocery store, using a piece of the hard cardboard as backing

I looked at the stickers available and developed a picture to show where the stickers should go. I also pre-cut two snow-capped mountains, complete with snow on the top of the mountains. Then I used cellophane paper to wrap the cardboard and glued the snow-capped mountain together to create a scenic backdrop. Cellophane is good for use as stickers can be peeled off easily and does not stick stubbornly compared to paper. So it is child-friendly and they can put it anywhere and peel off easily.

The instruction was for Theo to look at the pre-drawn picture I did and identify where each of the objects should go.

We let Theo pick out what he like to stick and then assign the rest of the roles to ourselves. I think we played for about 30mins and Theo had fun peeling the stickers of Christmas trees and sticking the pressies and stars. Then he reminded me to put up the lights which he thought looked like Strawberries! He told me, "there are 2 , we forgot to put it on, there are 2" And pointed at the picture and laughed. Here's the completed picture which now hangs in our living room.
















Part II

We did a snowman craft which was really just peeling the stickers and pasting them onto the snowman, pretty much the same skillset as the snow-capped picture but this is more funtional. It hangs nicely on the doorknob! Theo did everything by himself. I love his polka-dot scarf and how cool his snowman wears it. :)




















Part III - Nativity scene (Jesus was born in the manger)

This is the real stuff Christmas is made of. We read the Bible on the birth of Jesus and proceeded to construct the birth place of Jesus. This was really easy to build, like a 3D puzzle, so it was fun! The only thing was that it needed the help of an adult because of the glue that was needed to hold the pieces in place. Theo had fun putting "Joseph", "Mary" and "Baby Jesus" in the manger.