Yes, this is late...again. I had a Halfway to Christmas party Friday night and couldn't get the time to write this. So here I am on Sunday night (while this week's bread is rising) writing about last week's great lesson!
Character Trait and Bible Story: Obedient
This was really a great week for teaching them about being obedient. We defined obedient as not just doing what you are told, but to do it with a happy heart. The main Bible story that went with this was Noah and the Ark. We talked about how hard it must have been for Noah to build that ark during a time when there was no rain and hadn't been any in a long, long time. We talked about how, just like Noah, there will be times God asks us to do something we are not comfortable doing, or he may ask us to do something when everyone else says the opposite is true. The kids really responded well to this! Off and on during the week we would discuss whether or not we were being "obedient" or not. (This was also a great lesson for me. I need to be reminded of my obedience to God and His plan for me).
Craft: Noah's Ark
The lesson plans included quite a few different ways to have the kids focus on building the ark. I chose to have them to do the "science" project of building a boat and then testing how many animals can be put in before it sinks (see Thursday's post). The kids LOVED this! I actually had to drag them away from the tub and forced the "floods to recede", otherwise they would have been in there all day.
Reading and Writing: "S", "is", and "this"
This week's words were actually hard for Jed. For some reason he could read "is", but "this" gave him troubles. Now, I'm not complaining too much. He is actually reading 3-4 word sentences (won't his kindergarten teacher be proud?!) and is identifying the words he has learned while we are out on the town. The great thing about these lessons is that J already knows these words, so I have to step it up for him. Why is that good? Well, 1) it teaches him patience. He's a smart kid, and I'm not just saying that as a proud mama. He's really pretty smart. He has to learn there will be times in school where the teacher is covering something he already knows, and he must learn how to gracefully and respectfully react to this. and 2) it helps sharpen my teaching skills. It's been a year since I've been challenged to, well, challenge a smart kid. I had to do it all the time in my classroom, but the time has come for me to do it at home. J did a great job helping his brother remember the words. He even gave him little pointers on how to remember what certain words said. Maybe I have a future teacher on my hands.... (:
During the "cut", "paste", and "write" section (always done on Friday as a review for the week), Jed impressed me by letting me know that he can tell the beginning of a sentence because it has the capital letter (!!) and that the end of the sentence must have a period (which is where J and I then discussed other possible punctuation). They are given a set of words, I scramble them, and then they have to rearrange it to make a sentence. Jed did incredible, and I gave J the task adding to the sentence other descriptive words and to create a new sentence at least 3 of the previously learned word. So proud of my kids!
This has been a great week of learning! Next week's word and story? "Respectful" and "David towards Saul". This should be interesting! :)
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