I am so excited to be guest posting today, as part of The Purposeful Mom’s Spring into Summer Series, where I am sharing a few simple ways you can keep your kids excited about reading this summer!
Here’s an excerpt from the post:
With summer quickly approaching, I can already feel the difference it’s made in the amount of time our family spends reading. Instead of staying inside and cuddling up with a good book, we go outside every chance we get and reluctantly drag ourselves in at bedtime.
So how can we keep our kids reading this summer? It all starts by making reading something they can look forward to, instead of just another chore.
Though the timing of this post may be a little late, I thought I’d share it anyway. After all these flowers are fun to make for any occasion or even as a little token of thanks for your kiddos to give their teachers as school gets out.
Last week, I had the privilege of attending Muffins for Mom’s at my daughter’s preschool. Along with some delicious muffins, the most precious little songs, and a couple of art masterpieces, we received this beautiful flower and vase from our little ones.
It inspired us to create more flowers at home and turn them into a little gift for our Grandmothers this Mother’s Day.
However, since I happen to think that a delicious piece of chocolate is one of the best little luxuries in life, we added a piece of these beautifully wrapped Godiva chocolates to the middle of each of our flowers.
I didn’t take any photos of the process, but it’s really quite simple (after all, my preschooler taught us how!). You just color one white coffee filter with markers, using any design that you’d like. Then, place a second white coffee filter directly underneath the one you just colored and place them on an art tray or old plastic tablecloth (anything so that they next step doesn’t ruin your furniture)! Use a spray bottle to mist over the entire surface of the colored filter until the colors start to flow and blend. When it dries, both filters will be full of bold and beautiful color.
After your coffee filters have dried, leave them stacked one on top of the other, grab the wrapped candy of your choice and pinch the center of the filters around the end of your candy to form your flower. Then, wrap a green pipe cleaner around the bottom side that you have pinched together until it holds the flower and candy into place, leaving the remainder for your stem. If you’d like, cut a leaf from green paper to glue around your stem and add a personalized note.
The flowers are delightful whether displayed in a vase…
Our family has always loved books, so spending lots of time reading was never a problem. But, when my kindergartner was supposed to read 20 minutes a day this year, there were times when I’d hear “I don’t want to!” I began to realize that as the kids have gotten older, our lives have gotten busier, and it is unfortunately sometimes difficult to get 20 minutes of reading in if we don’t plan for it. That got me to thinking about ways that I could make reading more exciting for the kids this summer. So, I started by creating a couple of reading maps. You can certainly create your own, tailored to your child’s interests, but if you’d like to use ours, they are available as a free download at the bottom of this post.
The first is a treasure map that includes 12 fun and unique places to read: in the sand…under a tree…on a swing, etc. The idea is to have kids color in the coordinating picture once they’ve read a book in that spot, and then once they reach the “treasure spot” at the end of the map, have a little celebration.
The second reading map takes you through the Dewey Decimal system of the library. Along the path, are signs for various sections of the library. Depending on the age and interests of your kids, you can complete the map in a couple of ways:
1) Have your kiddos write the title of the book they read from that section of the library on the appropriate sign.
2) Or, to challenge your kiddos to read a variety of topics, go through the reading map yourself and write a specific subject on each section’s sign (for example, dinosaurs or cooking). There are helpful charts identifying some of the subjects within the Dewey Decimal system found here and here. Then help your kiddos find a book on that subject the next time you’re at the library.
In either case, they can color in the appropriate sign after they’ve read the book and then celebrate once they’ve followed the butterfly to the end of the path.
The celebrations can be simple…an ice cream treat, a popsicle, a water balloon fight. I happen to have an old chest that I plan on putting a few treasures in when my kids reach the end of their maps. Inside, they might find a “new” book for each of them (I was lucky enough to pick some up for a quarter at a garage sale), a sweet treat, or some sort of little craft activity…perhaps the supplies for making a new bookmark.
You can get a pdf file containing both of the maps by clicking on the icon below. And may your family enjoy a summer full of fun reading adventures!
(Note: For some reason, the maps print much neater than what the images appear on the pdf!)
Well, it appears that I’ve taken a rather long (though unintended) break from blogging. Instead of spending my time in front of the computer screen, I chose to invest it in other things.
Lots of at-home movie dates with hubby.
Reading books that I just couldn’t put down.
Spending carefree afternoons and evenings playing outside with my kiddos.
Sewing ruffles on about everything I could get my hands on.
Refinishing some beloved old furniture.
Recommitting myself to Bible readings and devotions.
Trying to develop better housekeeping routines.
Planning for a fun summer. (Can’t wait…only 12 more school days!!)
I will slowly return to blogging again. Afterall, I do have a few fun things to share.
But first a little praise and inspiration. We sang this song at church this morning. By the 3rd verse, I just couldn’t stop the tears from flowing. Even listening to it now, I’m just overwhelmed with emotion. HE is beautiful!
One of the things that I’ve not been diligent about lately is working with my kids on Bible memory work. The biggest obstacle for me is just not having decided on a verse to work on, and therefore, not having it posted in front of us as a reminder when we eat our meals, when we prepare for our days, and when we get ready for bed.
But this week, I decided that all of that was going to change.
So I prepared 51 Bible verses (Easter falls a week earlier next year), rolled them up, and placed each inside an egg.
Then I hid them around the backyard and let the kids gather them to fill our memory verse jar.
Now I have no excuses. Each week, we’ll pull out a verse to fill our minds, and He will write them on our hearts.
I will put my laws in their minds and write them on their hearts. I will be their God and they will be my people. Hebrews 8:10
This year, for the first time, we read The Story of the Easter Robin. It’s a delightful story about a little girl who discovers a nest of robin’s eggs on her grandmother’s windowsill. Her grandmother then teaches her how to make oscheter-foggel (Easter birds) while sharing the Pennsylvania Dutch story of how the robin’s red breast reminds us of Christ’s suffering.
Though it’s just a story, and I was careful to discuss that with my kids, I really like having a common, everyday sight from our backyard, serve as a reminder of Christ’s love for us. So now, whenever we spy the first robin of spring, we’ll remember Christ’s death and resurrection. The nests will remind us of the crown of thorns. The robin’s red breast, a symbol of Christ’s suffering and love. And the eggs of our new life in Christ.
To go along with the story, we made Chocolate Bird Nests. They were super simple with only 4 ingredients: shredded wheat, coconut, chocolate chips and robin egg candy. The kids love them! You can find the full recipe over at Mustard Seeds.
And then of course, we couldn’t help but make our own Easter birds to hang on our tree, too!
This is the first experience that my kids had with blowing the gooey insides out of eggs. None of them wanted to attempt it at first, but after watching me for a bit, both the girls had to give it a try! After a couple broken eggs, we finally had success…a clean egg for each of them! You can find out more about the process here.
When they were dry, we dyed them blue.
And then each of the kids painted a coffee filter with blue watercolor paint, which would then be used to make the bird’s wings, tail and head.
Once dry, we cut a circle from the middle of the filter.
And then cut the large outside donut shape into 3 sections: a little bit smaller section for the tail and two equal sections for the wings.
Fold the tail and wing pieces accordion style and hot glue them to the back and sides of the dyed egg.
Cut the bird’s head out of the leftover circle of painted coffee filter. We made our head double sided so that we could fold the edges together in the back of it’s head in order to have something to glue to the egg.
Hot glue a bit of string on the bird’s back, and he’s ready to hang!
This is my all-time favorite story. I’ve had the book for more than a decade, read it countless times, and still, it’s nearly impossible for me to get to the end with dry eyes.
In it, three little trees dream of what they want they want to be when they grow up: the first, a beautiful treasure chest; the second, the strongest sailing ship on the ocean; and the third wanted nothing more than to remain on the mountain as the tallest tree in the world, pointing to God. Years pass, and they each experience disappointment, believing that they did not become that which they dreamed. But in the end, they realize that they became more than they’d ever hoped: the manger that held the greatest treasure in the world, the fishing boat that carried the King of heaven and earth, and the cross that points us to God and reminds us of the promise of eternal life.
I’ve read this book so many times with my kiddos, and we’ve watched the video before, but this Easter, I wanted to do something more. So, we made this silhouette art project:
Simply use watercolor paints over your entire paper to look like a sunrise (we used lots fo red, yellow, and orange).
Then, from black construction paper cut out the following:
A hill that fits along the bottom width of your paper.
A longer and a shorter rectangle to form the beams of a cross.
A half-circle, right-triangle and tiny rectangle to form the boat.
2 small rectangles (which are the legs) and a trapezoid for the manger.
Then just glue the hill to the bottom of your watercolor sunrise and position the manger, the cross, and the boat on top of your hill.
And every time you look at it, remember that God may be planning to use you in His story in the most unexpected of ways!
As soon as I saw the Easter Egg Hunt Lunch that Sherri had planned for her kids over at Families ARE fun, I knew we’d have to have one!! So Monday, while my oldest was at Kindergarten, my 4-year-old girly busily prepared a picnic lunch, and packed it all up in eggs for her siblings (and her) to find! She was so worried about everyone finding one of each of the goodies for their lunch, so we decided to pack the items for each course in like colors, then send them all out to fill their buckets with the all the colors of the rainbow and a special golden egg.
Since we didn’t even have any bread in the house and needed to make a trip to the grocery store (which no one was too excited about) we had to get a little creative in packing our main dish ; ) Here’s what we ended up with: mini burritos wrapped in foil, pretzels, celery, grapes, strawberries, and little cookies.
The golden egg contained both a candy treat as well as a Bible Verse proclaiming the promise of eternal life. My girly decorated the verses on our computer with clip art crosses, and then insisted on sharing her own love for Jesus at the end.
Finally, she hid the eggs…
And when their baskets were all filled…
We took them to the top of our playset for a fun picnic in the beautiful spring sunshine!
Then, we read each of the Gospel writers’ accounts of the triumphal procession, as Jesus rides into Jerusalem on a colt. We started with Matthew 21:1-11 and Mark 11:1-11. After each, we acted out the story, from the kids portraying two of the disciples who untied the colt in the village, to me being the colt and each of the kids taking turns being Jesus, while the other kiddos waved their palm branches shouting:
“Hosanna!”
“Hosanna in the highest!”
“Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord!”
“Hosanna to the King!”
Afterwards, we read Zechariah 9:9 “Rejoice greatly, O Daughter of Zion! Shout, Daughter of Jerusalem! See, your king comes to you, righteous and having salvation, gentle and riding on a donkey, on a colt, the foal of a donkey.”
And we talked about what it must have been like to have been that colt who carried Jesus, what he must have been thinking and feeling.
Then, I introduced the book The Colt and the King, and we talked about how it was a story written by someone who did what we just did…imagine what the colt was thinking as he carried the King.
It’s a beautiful book that portrays the fear the colt must have experienced, until he felt Jesus’s soothing touch and heard his calming voice. And then the colt says, “Although his legs hung long at my sides, Jesus did not feel heavy to me. Happiness made my hooves tap high, and joy was in my breath…And I knew that truly I carried a king.” And at the end of the story, the now old donkey listens for Jesus’s voice, knowing that someday that he will come again. The story is beautiful and poetic, and I’m so glad that we’ve added it to our family library!
I had originally planned to break our reading up into more than one sitting, but would you believe that after all of that, my kiddos were still excited to read he last two accounts of The Triumphal Entry from the Bible (Luke 19:28-44 and John 12:12-19) and act them out yet again?
And although that’s where my plans for Celebrating Palm Sunday ended, my daughter had other plans. While I was putting the little ones down for naps, she created a festive table setting for our dinner, complete with palm branch place mats that she’d personalized for each of us, and even adding candles and picking out special music.
And my heart rejoiced knowing that even though all our Easter baskets and eggs were still out from our family egg hunt the day before, that’s not what she chose to decorate our table with. For on this day, she found it fitting to remember and celebrate this event in the life of Jesus!
The idea is to have kids color in the coordinating picture once they’ve read a book in that spot, and then once they reach the “treasure spot” at the end of the map, have a little celebration.
Along the path, are signs for various sections of the library. Depending on the age and interests of your kids, you can complete the map in a couple of ways:
