Today we explored an African Christmas, focusing on Ghana. Some interesting things we learned are…..
Ghanians wear colorful clothing for Christmas
Christmas celebrations last for 8 days in Ghana
Ghanians eat a dish called “fufu” on Christmas
Kente is the a colorful African cloth used to make the clothes you might see the Ghanians wearing on to church on Christmas Eve. We wove paper to make our own Kente “cloths”.
We used this helpful video by United Art and Ed for instruction.
One resource we are using for our Christmas Around the World study is Operation World’s website. We can select a country and learn some demographics, including how many Christians are in that country. Additionally, Operation World shares prayer points for each country. What resources do you use to learn about other cultures?
Today we started our “Christmas Around the World” unit study. With just a month between the big trip to Florida (aka culmination of our Disney World/theme park unit) and Christmas, it is a logical topic of study. I have been looking for a way to introduce the girls to other cultures. I have been desiring to expand beyond of our little bubble of middle-class America so we can gain an understanding of conditions in other societies. I want my girls to realize how blessed we are, not just by the materials things we have, but the freedoms we have. Hopefully, this little study will spark some interest in world cultures.
Today we discussed what makes Christmas so exciting. I was really pleased that all the four girls participating agreed it’s exciting to “celebrate Jesus’ birthday”...and that they were honest enough to admit that they also like receiving the presents. We then discussed the meaning of “tradition”.
Karissa: “It is something that you do on a certain day”
Lara: “How you celebrate and what you believe”
Julia: “What you do that your family has passed down”
Good ‘ole Webster: “a way of thinking, behaving, or doing something that has been used by the people in a particular group, family, society, etc., for a long time”
We then thought of our family’s Christmas traditions. Some cherished traditions are….
Making a bed for baby Jesus
Making candy cane ice cream on Christmas Eve
Eating cake and ice cream for breakfast
Finding Baby Jesus in the nativity on Christmas morning
Making a “Happy Birthday, Jesus” banner on Christmas Eve
Decorating the Christmas tree
Caroling in the neighborhood
We considered where traditions come from. Mike & I have defined the Christmas traditions for our family...and the girls will follow some of those traditions for their future families and make some new ones based on their husbands’ family’s traditions.
Then we watched an interesting video about the history of Christmas traditions. I did not realize that Christmas is celebrated on December 25 because new Christians wanted something to celebrate around the winter solstice. They’d had festivals for years (which the pagans were still celebrating), so the church decided to celebrate the birth of Jesus at the same time.
And I was intrigued that Christmas wasn’t a big deal for early Americans. Our forefathers wanted to move away from English traditions, so Christmas didn’t make the cut of holidays to stay. It wasn’t until after the Civil War, during the birth of our industrialized nation, that American Christmas traditions took off. America was searching for ways to develop a unifying national culture. Christmas was seen as a time when all could share a commonality, and it was more about benevolence than Jesus. It took a while for Protestants to integrate Christmas, as they didn’t want to imitate the traditional Catholic mass.
Of course, the developing commercialization of the mid-1900s played a huge role in the the American Christmas as we know it. Anything to make an American buck!
As you can tell, the documentary was thought-provoking...at least for me (and it is my role to model curiosity to my family, so mission accomplished). I found “The Real Story of Christmas and Christmas Traditions” on YouTube. If you watch it, I’d love for you to share your thoughts in the comments.
I am pleased that our family has chosen to focus this season on celebrating the birth of Jesus.Last year, we really scaled back on our family gift-giving. Mike & I stuff the girls’ stockings and give a family gift. The girls have a meager budget to work with and we encourage gifts of the heart more than “things”. Last Christmas Eve, we started the tradition of caroling in our neighborhood. We see this as a way to bring joy to others & connect with our neighbors. I would like to see us reach beyond our home more with our giving, but that will come in time.
So, this is how my little mathematician handles a large coloring section. Let's make a grid and color it in sections.
Last week...
Alexa: It's strange how Daddy's age is the number in the middle on zero & one hundred. Mommy: How did you you know that? Alexa: Well, 5 is the number between zero and ten. So fifty is the number between zero and one hundred.
Yesterday she asked (out of the blue) what four 3s were. I told her, "The same as six 2s. "Oh, 12", she replies instantly. I asked, "Do you see lots of numbers in your head.?". "Yes, but not all the time".
Alexa and Karissa watch Julia draw with Adobe Illustrator and wanted to draw their own pictures on the computer. I introduced them to Illustrator and realized how clueless I am about it. Then I remembered that "less is more" sometimes. Good ol' Paint would do the trick. The younger girls can draw and get familiar with the basic concepts of drawing programs. They are using the mouse, zooming in and out, grabbing the different drawing tools and changing colors. Of course, they wanted to figure it out themselves. I love that I only have to send them in the right direction and they will learn on their own. That is at the foundation of our home learning. Mike & I provide the tools for learning and guide the process, but God works in each of the girls to reveal what they need to know. Here is Alexa's creation - the Heart Family. It will be fun to look back at it someday when she is designing more complex things.
You would think that after 15 years of this parenting thing, I'd have it down. Yes, "you" who doesn't have kids may think that, but us parents know that it is a day-by-day growth process. And a child-by-child learning experience.
One of my daughters has been experiences intense emotions. She has always been assertive and steadfast.... and prone to outbursts and fits. But she is to the age that I can no longer pass it off as a "phase". I have been praying about ways to reach her precious heart when she is upset and to know her deeper so that I can help her cope with her emotions.
This week, God showed me a new way to reach her.
(A little backstory - this daughter is learning to read and write. But, because she has an "attitude of excellence" (aka perfectionism), she has been resistant to reading and writing because she can't do it perfect the first time. In the past two weeks, she has grown comfortable with writing things the way they sound and not worrying about spelling.)
So, during one of her fits, said child showed up with a whiteboard and dropped it at my feet. Her message?
"Sad. Can I eat now quietly? Can you not talk bad please?" My heart melted. She found a way to express her feelings in a way that didn't hurt herself or others. Later in the day, when she was upset again (it was a rough day), I got another white board note from her, this one asking for a reply.
So, I put together a journal for us to use to communicate back and forth with each other. We leave it on each other's pillows when we want the other to read it. And everytime this child has been upset in the past two days, she has used the journal to work through her feelings.
Not only is she learning to express herself, but there are other valuable lessons.
I have left a few scripture references that she has learned to look up on my Bible app
She is trying to read my notes to her and doing great!
She is really trying with her spelling, and has asked me to write the correct spellings above her words. This may actually be the way she learns to read and write.
God is good! I give Him full credit for the journal idea. And I know that He is working on this daughter's heart in ways that I can't.
By Karissa: I love my family, but we all like different things. Like my sister likes reading. Lara likes animals. Alexa likes playing. My other sister likes singing. I like basketball.
Lara has a gerbil. It's name is Button. She is fast. She made a nest last night. She likes to run away. She likes to crawl on our laps. We all love her so so much. We just got her the other day. She is only 3 months old. We hope that she lives a long time. She likes to chew on her wheel. She is gray with a hint of white. She has red eyes. She likes to hide, and she loves food.
My Quilting Story Chapter 1 : As a young girl (somewhere between 7 and 10 years old), my mom and I took a quilting class at church. I'm pretty sure that it was only a few sessions and all I remember is sharing something special with my mommy & making a pillow. Chapter 2: After graduating from college, I worked part-time at a fabric and craft store. That was the craftiest season of my life. Somehow, someway I took it upon myself to make a quilt for my mother. I had just purchased my first sewing machine and was raring to go. Picked my pattern and fabric and off I went. What did I get myself into? My greatest memories are that my machine jammed a lot & that I was not exact enough in my cutting. Not very fond memories and I think I swore off quilting. But, my mom was delighted and loved the quilt. It graced the back of her couch (and her lap) for 20 years. Chapter 3: About five years ago, my mom started quilting. She had wanted to hand quilt for many years, but felt that, with working and caring for my grandmother, she didn't have the time. But she finally resigned herself to the fact that machine quilting was good enough and that she needed to get started. She decided to make quilts for all her grandkids and found a couple quilting groups. In 2010, Mom presented Lara with the first grandchild quilt.
And while she was visiting, she took Mikayla and Julia to the fabric store to pick fabric for their quilts. However, Mom's health started to deteriorate and she did not have the ability or time to quilt as often as she wanted. Over the next four years, she completed Julia's then Mikayla's quilts.
Chapter 4... February 2014 - One of the hardest months of my life as my parents both passed away just five days apart. Soon after hearing of my mom's death, my thoughts and heart went to the quilts and all the love she put into them. That sad day I wrapped myself up in Mikayla's quilt to feel near to my mommy. And I mourned that two of my girls did not have Grandma quilts. I started making arrangements for someone to finish Karissa's quilt which my mom had already planned. And I decided to give Alexa the quilt I made for mom years ago. Chapter 5: God had different plans. I am making Alexa's Grandma Ellie quilt. And renewing my quilting story. All I know of mom's plans was that Alexa's quilt would include fabrics from the other girls' quilts, so I'm going scrappy. It was bittersweet going through my mom's stash and finding pieces of her past projects. I came home with a suitcase full of fabrics she had acquired... and touched...and loved...many she had cut and some she had even sewed. This story is one about working through my feelings of loss and feeling connected to my mother. My mom has inspired me to try quilting again. I miss her dearly, but knowing that I am carrying on something she started brings me comfort. And I am genuinely enjoying it. There are so many more tools and techniques since I swore off quilting 20 years ago. I have been longing for a creative outlet and this can be it. I know that this brings Mom joy. My quilting story continues.
Today my bold, confident, "jump-right-in" daughter (that would be Lara) decided it would be an experiment day. On her agenda....play dough & slime. She reviewed a few YouTube videos, felt she knew how to do it and then took over the kitchen.
Out came the mixing bowls, measuring cups, food coloring, flour, salt, borax and glue. And into the kitchen came two little sisters. I am proud of Lara for graciously including them, but seeing all three with sticky homemade-playdough-hands (and clothes after rubbing their hands on their shirts) made me start to cringe.
This is where my learning/growing process comes into play. I admire Lara's confidence. She is not wary of trying new things. She charges forward with ideas and she boldly loves others by including them in her life. But sometimes (ok, lots of times) her confidence emerges as an impetuous, act-without-thinking manner. I'm learning that when Lara puts her mind to try something potentially messy and wasteful, as long as she's not in danger I need to hold back my instinct to thwart - or control - the plan and let her experiment.
So, instead of focusing on the kichen mess, I reminded myself that they are only kids once. And that they only have each learning moment once. So, what did I want the girls to learn? That messes are a reason to get upset and controlling? Or that life is full of messes and mistakes that we need to deal with and "clean up" in a loving way? Did I want them to believe that a clean kitchen is more important than their discovery? Or learn that I believed in them, knowing that they would clean up after themselves?
The greatest lesson learned came after Lara'a slime making. Actually, we need to call it the wad-of-colored-something making. Slime it is not, but not for lack of trying. Lara went through 3 bottles of glue and unknown amounts of Borax trying to get the right consistency.
Lara: "I feel like I wasted everthing" Me: It was only a few bottles of glue. Let's examine your end product later to see what you did make. What did you learn? Lara: That I should have followed the directions better.
Aha! Very valuable lesson learned. And I didn't need to control the learning experience for Lara to draw that conclusion.
Reminds me of Isaiah 54:13 (NIV)
All your children will be taught by the Lord , and great will be their peace.
God is our ultimate teacher and I am thankful that my children discern the wisdom He has for them. And thankful that He loves me enough to remind me that it is important to let my children learn from Him.
For years I've considered actually writing posts here in our family blog. But there always seems some reason not to. Among those reasons:
”What do I have to say that someone else (lots of someone else's} isn't already writing about?"
"Who would care what I have to say, so why bother if no one will read it?"
"I don't have an especially witty and entertaining 'voice'."
"I'm typically not consistent, so why even start something that I may not finish?"
"I don't know all the do's and don'ts of blogging"
I am going to stop making these excuses and turn them into positives.
"The value will be in the writing, not the reading, I will be blessed as I record our life experiences to look back on in the years to come."
"My family will read this, and it will bless them."
"The more I write, the more likely I will find my voice."
"I want consistency. I desire consistency, so here is a chance to grow and change."
"I can learn all i need to know as i go. This will be a great model for my girls and other learners."
