Week 11: The Time of the Judges (Gideon, Samson and Ruth) and the Letter I

Wouldn't you know, I was finally able to have a "normal" school week with Claire.  This week was kind of interesting in that it focused on several Bible stories rather than one character or theme keeping everything together.  I mean, it was "The Time of the Judges" but connecting that with a 3 year old isn't really the goal as of yet.  We'll hit that in years ahead when we study Biblical History.  So, in the meantime, she enjoyed learning that God helped Gideon choose an army and win battles, made Samson strong and that when we stopped relying on and obeying God, his strength disappeared and that Ruth was kind and loyal to her mother in law and that we are to be kind and loyal too.

Gideon
First day we talked about how God told Gideon to choose his army.  The men were drinking water at a river.  The men who drank by lifting up their hands, were chosen for the army.  The men who drank straight out of the water with their mouths, were not.  Didn't make a lot of sense but we talked about how God knew what He was doing since Gideon went on the win battles with his small army.  We traced her hand on white paper and then on the opposite side had her draw a mouth (which looked like a happy face.  Then, she circled the hand on the page, reminding us which men were chosen for God's army.

Snacktime, Samson and the Letter I
We usually "do school" when Claire wakes up from her afternoon nap.  I get home from work around 12:15 or so and if the girls are at a babysitters that day, after I pick them up we get home around 1 and the girls wake up around 3 or 3:30 or so.  They always wake up hungry so "snacktime" usually accompanies "schooltime."  This time is was persimmons from a student's backyard and peanut butter pretzels.  Both a big hit with both girls. . .

 To show that Samson was a "strong man" and to get a little science/math activity in I took several items from my pantry out and hid them in Christian's socks.  She picked up each one and examined them one by one and put them in order of "heaviest to lightest."  Kind of funny watching her try and figure out which she thought should go first but eventually. . .

 This is the order she came up with without the socks.  From right to left:  Jar of Trader Joes Cookie Butter was the heaviest, then can of corn, full bottle of doTERRA Fractionated Coconut Oil, half eaten jar of peanut butter, and then, finally, a nearly empty bottle of doTERRA Fractionated Coconut Oil.

 Then, over the next couple of days, we did some "letter I" activities.  "Hide and Seek" page, gluing Cheerios to both a uppercase and lowercase letter "I" and painting a uppercase and lowercase I. Claire words that start with "I" are: igloo, ice cream and Indian.

Ruth 
To commemorate our study of Ruth, we discussed several things we can be a "good" daughter like Ruth (I hesitate to focus on this but we always pair it up with "God's grace" since that is so important to us). We talked about being loyal, obeying our parents, being kind to Ashlyn, helping around the house etc.
We also talked about how Ruth was a hard worker and that she worked in the fields to provide for herself and for her mother in law, Naomi.  For our activity, we drew little stalks of wheat and talked about how our bread and cereal come from wheat.  Now, I recognize that I totally screwed up and gave her Cheerios to decorate her "wheat" stalks.  Oats. . . hmm ok.  I'm over it.  She got the basic idea.  We'll rehash this later, ya'll.  I promise.

Ashlyn likes this activity, for sure, since she gets all sisters Cheerios leftovers. . .

 The last school activity we did for the week was the giant "I on the ground.   The Little Hands to Heaven book gives me specific things to do with the letter (have child walk a stuffed animal across the letter, drive a car along the letter, build blocks along the letter) I've decided that, instead, she gets to choose what to do with the letter.  This works for us. This time she decided to build a block wall with her foam blocks along the letter.

Tomorrow is Monday and we will be taking a break from Little Hands to Heaven in exchange for a week on Thanksgiving, giving thanks to God and a little American history (and Turkeys to boot!)  Should be a fun week and I am excited that I have the whole week off with the girls.
Till' then!