Child Training Bible

http://www.childtrainingbible.com/

We have been using this tool for about six months now and I highly recommend it.  I did spend extra time adding some additional tags in our Bible.  This is a great tool but lacks in the following: leading you to the blessings of your child having a Spirit filled heart, examples of men and women who were Spirit filled and who were disobedient to God.  My kids relate and remember stories so I like to not only lead them to a single verse but a story that relates to that heart attitude.

So here are the adjustments or additions we added to ours:

On our tabs I added EX. (examples) and B (blessings) and left plain if it was just a scripture in reference to the sinful nature.

For example, for defiance I tabbed CTB's scripture reference along with others that I pulled from Instructions in Righteousness (doorposts.com) red.  I also red tabbed stories that demonstrated defiance and labeled that red tab with an EX.  

Then I red tabbed scripture that spoke of a child who was the opposite of the sinful nature of defiance (obedience) and labeled it with a B.  Then on that page I highlighted the blessing of obedience with orange.

 Here is a picture to show how I label mine.

This page is tabbed red for defiance and I have a EX. and a B.

The orange shows when you obey what God says the blessing will be.

The red is a scripture of disobedience.

I also added sticky notes throughout of rewards and discipline for their heart attitude.





Approaching God / New Family Devotional

One of my favorite books to recommend to families is Family Driven Faith and in the book he states that his family takes their children through Training Hearts Teaching Minds: Family Devotion.  We began the book and stayed in it a while, but it kept getting more and more difficult to comprehend and remember for our six and eight year old.  My husband decided to put it down for a few years and thought we could take the kids through Paul Enns book Approaching God: Daily Reflections for Growing Christians.  This book was given to me as a gift from the Bible college he attended.

  

The book is written to give you a basic understanding of the doctrines of the Christian faith.  What is God like?  Was Jesus both God and man?  What is demon possession?  What will happen during the tribulation?  

It will systematically take you through biblical doctrine, beginning with God, then moving onto the Bible, Christ, the Holy Spirit, man , sin, salvation, the church, angels, Satan, demons, and phrophesy.

This book will help ground your children in the doctrines of the Bible.

Armor of God

 This year MFW has us studying the New Testament.  I bought The New Testament Lap Book from www.Homeschoolinthewoods.com to accompany our study. I added another page on ours so we can add our written memory verses, information about the gospels, and the number of books in the NT.

This past week we studied the armor of God.  Here is a picture of Micah's poster.  He really doesn't enjoy coloring, but he loves putting on his armor each morning.

God's Names

The kids and I have been studying the Names of God.  I requested from a friend, who is a wonderful artist, if she would paint some of His names on a canvas to hang up in our house.  We absolutely love it and it is a constant reminder of who He is and how worthy He is of our admiration and trusts.  Thank you Mrs. Penny!

I came across this book as I was viewing an email from God's World News http://www.gwnews.com/.  I thought it would be a great addition to our study.  I have skimmed though it and think the kids are really going to enjoy the activities that go with learning some of the Lord's names.

Some activities in the book are as follows:
Jehovah-Maginnenu/The Lord our Defense: Have a friendly family fight with water balloons or wadded paper balls.  Be sure to have a shield.  Then talk about how God is a shield for His people.
Jehovah-Sabaoth/The Lord of Hosts: Ask your mom or dad to make a crossword puzzle with God's names in it.  Then find God's names-do you see them?  Pray for faith to see God for who He is.
Elohim/Strong Creator: Cut up ten pieces of paper and number them 1-10.  Put them in a paper bag.  Blow up bag like a balloon, twist the top, shake it up well, then pop the bag by hitting it with your hand.  Did it make a big bang?  Dump out the paper numbers.  Are they in a nice straight line?  Are they all right side up?  Are the numbers in order?  Order does not happen by itself.  Our world is like that, too.  Someone had to create the world and put it in order.

The book also includes discussion and Bible stories.

We also listen to Names of God at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T5-6gwssX0Y .

Our Family Prayer Book

The girls made our Family Prayer Book. A treasure to always remind us

of God's faithfulness.

Through the Bible in 2 Years

So today Hannah (my eight yr old) and I are going to begin a journey of reading through the Bible together. Each morning we will read the same selection given to us from our reading plan and then discuss what we read. I am so excited to begin this with her and can't wait to see how God grows our relationship with Him and with eachother as mother and daughter.

The Wise Man Built His House Upon The Rock

Matthew 7:24

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q_lbd0q-xqo

"Therefore everyone who hears these words of mine and puts them into practice is like a wise man who built his house on the rock."

Unleavened Bread

Today we discussed Communion. We read Luke 22:7-20.

Unleavened bread is flat, because it is made without yeast. Yeast symbolizes sin, so unleavened bread is a picture for us that the Bread of Life, Jesus, is without sin.

Our curriculum did not call for us to make unleavened bread, but I thought it would be nice for us to make it and compare the differences in yesterdays recipe.

At dinner we discussed why we do communion and the differences in the recipes (what ingredient caused the bread to rise and not rise). Afterwards we took a few minutes to remember what the bread and juice represent, to thank Jesus, and to ask for forgiveness for our sins. We then ate the bread and drank the juice.

Hannah's responsibility was the eggs and oil.
Lauren's responsibility was the flour and salt.

Ok so this picture is Micah's own experiment per his own words.


Our bread and juice.

Jesus Window Poster

So this week we have been talking about Jesus-the Lord saves, Live Like Jesus (we made WWJD bracelets), Jesus as a Child, and today we made our Jesus Window Poster. The girls enjoyed this and thought they were beautiful, mommy thinks so too.

My name is special

Names have meanings. Did you know David means beloved? Elizabeth means promise of God. Christopher means Christ bearer. Christopher Columbus believed God chose him to bring Christ to others across the ocean. (learning about Christopher Columbus this coming week)

I wrote a special letter to each girl explaining why we chose their name and the special meaning it has. All week we discussed how very special they are to God. On Thursday we made a necklace with their names on it as a reminder of how special they are.

Micah and Lauren adding beads to their necklace.

Isn't this just beautiful???

God What's Your Name?

We created this as a reminder every time we walk by of who are God is and just how big He is!