Prayer Jar

One new thing we are doing every morning as we begin our school day is using a Prayer Jar. I got this idea from my MOPS group last semester. The kids love it because they get to pick something out of a jar every morning. (What kid doesn't love to choose something from a jar?!) I love it because it is teaching them to pray about a wide variety of topics and say it from the heart. It teaches them that God cares about every aspect of their life. It also gives them a larger vision concerning things that are important to pray about. I always enjoy hearing them take these topics and put them in their own words.

 

Here are the topics, if you are interested in doing it too!

Prayer Jar Questions
• Today thank God for something green.
• Today pray for people who live on the streets
• Today pray for people who don’t have food to eat
• Today pray for people who don’t have clean running water
• Today pray for people who are in the hospital
• Today pray for our country and our leaders
• Today pray that our government would seek Gods will for our country
• Today ask God what he wants to do in our lives today
• Today ask God to reveal a new aspect of Himself to you.
• Today pray for your Church
• Today pray for your neighbors
• Today thank God for something small
• Today thank God for something big
• Today thank God for saving your life
• Today pray for someone that you know, that doesn’t know the love of Jesus
• Today pray for your local Police department
• Today pray for your local Fire department
• Today pray for wisdom
• Today pray a prayer of thanks. Each person express 3 things you’re thankful for.
• Today pray for a friend
• Today pray for someone famous, why did you choose this person?
• Today pray for a country
• Today thank God for a blessing in your life
• Today thank God for the way he made you, what is it that you like most about yourself?
• Today thank God for your pets or your favorite animal
• Today pray for the oceans, forests, wetlands, deserts, of this earth
• Today thank God for your home, what is your favorite thing about your house?
• Today thank God for things that make you feel loved, what are some of those things?
• Today pray that God would reveal one way you could improve your relationship with Him.
• Today pray for people who are alone
• Today pray for understanding and patience
• Today pray that God would use you to change someone’s life
• Today pray that you would shine bright for the world to see, what is something you could do to shine bright for God?
• Today pray for your Pastor
• Today pray for your Parents
• Today pray for someone in your family
• Today thank God for your clothes and shoes, pray for those people that may not have them.
• Today thank God for your toys, pray for children who don’t have toys
• Today pray for people in slavery

Memory Work

Here is a picture of our "morning board," used for reviewing memory work. I revised it this year to greatly simplify it. I didn't want to spend quite as much time on it this year. It takes about 10 minutes and we are now doing it after lunch, so I guess it's not technically even a morning board anymore! All of our Classical Conversations memory is on it, as well as a few other things (a good character habit to work on, that I borrowed from my friend Catherine, and a corresponding bible verse, and also our home address and phone). The kids work on additional bible memory and memorize a poem, but we work on that separately in the morning. They are also memorizing the shorter catechism at night with their dad. My theory is that the more the kids memorize, the easier memorizing is for them. Kids are amazing!! They can retain so much in such a little amount of time when they are challenged to do it.

 

Summer Slowly Dies

Summer, we will miss you!

 

 

 

 

 

American Girls

For a birthday treat our daughters (all born in July) will remember forever, my good friend Kristi and I took them to an American Girl birthday tea in Chicago. I never knew having girls would be this much fun! We were in the store for four hours and the time flew by. The staff there really made their birthdays special. The girls also enjoyed browsing the dolls and accessories and watching the dolls get their hair fixed at the hair salon. Their friend Kati got her doll's ears pierced while there and also took another doll to the hospital to get a "birth defect" (lazy eye) corrected. They put the doll in a hospital gown, filled out her chart and whisked her away. The whole experience was pretty awesome.

My favorite memory of the day, however, was telling Clara we would get her a doll for her birthday. She was disbelieving. She laughed and cried at the same time. It was a coming-of-age moment and very precious.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Chicago Science Museum

We got a museum membership to the Indiana State Museum last fall because that means we can get into the Museum of Science and Industry in Chicago for free. And it was amazing. We look forward to taking the kids back! We could have spent at least another half day there!!

 

 

 

Yes, this is their first bubble gum ice cream experience. And, yes, they did pick out all the gum balls and save them for the end. :)

 

 

 

Joy over a tooth ...

If you can't tell by these pictures, Meredith was overjoyed to finally lose the top front tooth that had been stubbornly clinging on for weeks and weeks. What a transformation in her smile!

 

 

 

 

Several minutes later, I took a picture of Clara and then noticed that Meredith was jumping for joy in the background! Silly girl.

 

Broad Ripple

On a nice evening a few weeks ago we headed to our old neighborhood in Broad Ripple. We miss the canal and the amazing snow cone stand!

 

 

 

 

 

Food Stand

The kids have been wild and free and lovin' it all summer long. It's going to be a big adjustment when we start school next week! I have enjoyed watching all their creative juices flow this summer. As Meredith told her grandmother recently, "I am never bored." I love it!

Here is a pretend food stand Meredith set up. One of our top priorities this year in first grade is working on spelling! But I must confess I will miss the creative spelling a little--it makes for a fun guessing game. :)

 

 

 

 

Water Lillies

A few weeks ago we pulled the car to the side of the road to get a closer look at these gorgeous water flowers in front of our local CVS.