Our Lenten Journey (2015)

Lent has started! It's almost the second Sunday of Lent and I praise and thank God for the wisdom and grace He has given me and my family to continue our Lenten family traditions and to start new ones.

I consider this is a miracle because I have a newborn baby whom I breastfeed on demand. I thank God for sustaining me and giving me energy to lead our devotions and activities. I thank God also that it seems that my two older boys are enjoying our activities.

Let me share what we have started so far. 

Ash Wednesday was a full day in our home.

We changed the curtains and throw pillow cases changed into lavender. We also changed the cover of our altar into the same color.

  

My eldest son made Lenten banners.

My two older kids made the Alleluia banner and hid it.

I asked my eldest son to write "From: Jesus" in the gift tag
and on the opposite side of it, "salvation" and "eternal life."

We started using the Lenten calendar I printed the day before. For alternative Lenten Calendar ideas, click here.

Lenten Calendar from Catholic Icing blog.

The kids dropped coins on our alms box (a cereal box turned into a coin box covered with purple paper and with the word ALMS written on it).

I declared that for the entire season of Lent, our family will fast on our favorite dessert: ice cream and chocolates. So on the night before Ash Wednesday, my husband and I had a brief Valentine date at a nearby ice cream store. ;)

We've started observing the abstinence of meat on prescribed days like Ash Wednesday and all Fridays of Lent. I put to use the 4-week Cycle Menu Plan for Lent that I made . Click here to go to my post about meatless Fridays of Lent.

And since we love music, we started reviewing and singing songs usually sang during Lent. Last week, my eldest son who can play the piano oido and who is starting to learn how to read notes learned how to play the song Hosea.

We went to Mass on Ash Wednesday and had ashes on our foreheads.



It's our baby's first Ash Wednesday!

As part of our new Lenten tradition, I have started reading the Bible or Bible stories from the kids' Children's Bible over breakfast. Then, I reinforce with a bit of storytelling as well when I read from my Bible.

After our storytelling and Bible reading, I sometimes ask the kids to make a drawing based on the story that they just heard. Sometimes, I ask them to color coloring pages about the stories that I told them. I also ask my eldest son to answer some worksheets related to our topics. Sometimes, he answers word searches, mazes, questions or fill in the blanks worksheets. I search the internet for ideas. I also get some help from the Holy Heroes site for inspiration and activities. I choose only what I think my kids are ready to do at this time/age.

Just like in the past, I reinforce these lessons and stories by letting them watch some videos on our topics/Bible heroes/characters. One of the recent videos I let them watch is about the 10 Commandments.

The kids so far are enjoying these activities. I hear them a lot talking about the Bible characters and stories we have discussed so far. Sometimes, these stories become the theme of their pretend plays. 

We have also resumed our night prayers as a family. For a while we just listen to the kids say their night prayers in the past months after I gave birth then we send them to bed to sleep. This Lent, we started praying again with them after they say their night prayers.

Lent is indeed a season of grace and I thank God for His grace that is new every morning. His grace is what enables us to keep on keeping on in our faith walk. It's what enables us to be faithful even after we fall and make mistakes along the way. It's His grace that reminds us of His unconditional and steadfast love. It's His grace that gives me encouragement to continuously strive to be more like Him in all things, especially in parenting my kids.

This year, I do not have a new verse to guide me throughout my Lenten journey. I have decided to stick to the verse that I adapted years ago. I believe that I need to be reminded of this verse a lot so I can grow closer to living it out. My verse for Lent again this year is: "Slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love."

I pray that God would continue to bless the rest of our Lenten journey.

7 Valentine Activities You Can Do with Your Kids

Less than a week to go before Valentine's Day! Are you still thinking of activities that you can do with your kids?

Let me share 7 simple but meaningful activities that you can do even with small children. 

 

 

1. Valentine's Day Countdown - I got this inspiration from Catholic Icing but I modified it. We started our Valentine countdown last February 1. I chose 14 Bible verses about love (with the help of Google and my own Bible) that I want our family to focus on this month of love. Then, I printed the verses in pink bond paper and my eldest cut the paper into strips, folded them into two and taped them with masking tape to form a chain. Once the 14 strips were made into a long chain, I cut a pink ribbon and attached it to a heart-shaped pink board (that I cut as well). I taped it at the back of the door of our master's bedroom. What we do is get 1 heart from the countdown chain every night after evening Mass, read it and try to memorize it. Then, we stick it on the door. Our goal and challenge this month is to memorize all 14 Bible verses about love. Aside from reading the verse several times and memorizing the verse for the day, my husband and I also try to explain the meaning of the verses to our kids.

These are the verses on love that we have read so far.

John 3:16
1 John 4:7
Mark 12:31
Deuteronomy 6:5
1 John 4:16
John 13:34
Luke 6:35
1 Peter 4:8
1 John 3:13

You can still do this activity starting tonight or Thursday this week.

 

 

After this activity, we proceed to our next Valentine activity.
 

2. Q and A on how we expressed love and felt loved - Every night, we tell each other how we felt loved by the different members of our family. It's a good exercise to teach kids that there are different ways of showing love. Through this activity, our eldest son is slowly learning how to show love in many different ways. I remember one night when he said that one way he showed love to his younger brother was when he accompanied him to the bathroom to wash his hands even though he was annoyed that it takes his younger brother a while before he is done. I praised him for doing that and emphasized that love is doing something good to another even when you don't like it. Our 3-year-old is still a bit challenged by this exercise. His concept of love is still limited to hugs and kisses as of now even though we have explained to him the different love languages. hehe That or he is simply a physical touch person! ;)

 

 

3. Love Poster - The boys and I made a love poster inspired by the Bible verse "If you love me, you will obey my commands." They helped glue the pink hearts. My eldest wrote the verse on top of the poster.

I told them that every time they obey me, they can draw a flower inside "my heart" and they can draw a smiling face inside their "Daddy's heart" every time they obey him this month. I thought of this activity to further emphasize the virtue of obedience to my little boys.

4. Valentine Card-Making Activity - This is a yearly tradition in our home. I lead the boys in painting or crafting cards each year. This morning, we finished making cards for their grandparents, for my brother and for our pianist in the church who inspires my boys a lot! First, I cut hearts out of a white board then asked them to paint on them using watercolor. They chose the colors that they wanted to use on their works of heart. ;) After letting them dry, I put some glitter glue on the hearts and glued them to folded papers. Then, my eldest wrote messages on them and signed them. My 3-year-old wrote his name beside his older brother's name. So, that was our arts and crafts project for today with writing and spelling practice.

 

The Valentine card made by our boys for me and my husband today (February 11).
They each painted a heart. The blue one was painted by my 3-year-old
and the pink and purple one by my 6-year-old.

 

 

5. Valentine-themed Worksheets - Since we are a homeschooling family, I incorporated Valentine's Day lessons into our activities. My eldest has just finished answering some Math and English worksheets. My youngest started coloring a Valentine-themed Math worksheet also the other day. There are many that you can find in the internet. Just choose what is appropriate for your kids' current needs and interests. We got some of our worksheets from Education.com.

 

 

6. One-to-One Dates - We will be going out on one-to-one dates this week. There's an ice cream store near our house where I plan to bring each of my boys this week. It's just a few minutes away so perfect for when my newborn baby needs to breastfeed from me. Our maid can just go there and inform me that the baby needs me.

Took this photo during my Valentine date with my eldest son this afternoon (February 11).
We had ice cream at the park then had a light snack here in this place.

My handsome little Valentine today, February 12.

7. Book-Giving - Last but not the least, I will be giving my boys a book as a gift on Valentine's Day since we love books and it's International Book-Giving Day. I have a perfect book in mind already. I hope there is still a copy available in the bookstore of A Little Boy After God's Own Heart. This book was written by one of my favorite authors, Elizabeth George. I believe that this book is something they could reread over the years and grow up with. I pray that they would grow up to be boys with hearts burning for love of God.

What activities do you plan to do with your family this week or this month? Feel free to share them with me in the comments. Advance Happy Valentine's Day to you!

Letter of the Week Activities with the Letter B

It has been a B as in beautiful week with the letter B for me and my sons last week!

 

Let me share with you the activities that we had.

 

1. Finger-painting of letter O by Mateo - We always kick off our Letter of the Week Activity with finger-painting by my 2-year-old son. It's very simple but effective, relaxing and therapeutic.

 

 

2. Painting the Life Cycle of the Butterfly - I already had this idea right after we bought a copy of the book The Very Hungry Caterpillar. But I had to postpone it for some time when I have decided to do Letter of the Week activities with my sons. Having the letter B as our Letter of the Week was just the perfect time for it.

This was made by Mateo.

 

 

Here's how we did it step-by-step:

     a. I folded a bond paper into 4 parts/quadrants. Each child was given his own bond paper.

 

     b. I painted my son's hand with green paint using a brush.

 

     c. Then, I helped my son press his hand on the first quadrant of the bond paper.

 

     d. Next, I helped/guided my son as he dipped one finger on green paint again and made a series of dots that are joined to each other like a caterpillar.

 

     e. After finishing the body of the caterpillar, I helped/guided my son in dipping another finger in red paint and in making a head for the caterpillar.

 

     f. While waiting for the leaf (hand print) and the caterpillar to dry, I helped/guided my son again in painting a cocoon using his fingers. I helped/guided him in dipping his finger on brown paint and pressing it on the bond paper to form the pattern of a cocoon.

 

     g. We cleaned his hand/fingers first before painting them with his chosen color for the wings of the butterfly. I used a paint brush to paint my sons' palms.

 

      h. Then, I helped each child press his palm gently on the last quadrant. You can use both hands/palms to stamp hand prints for the wings or you can just use the same hand to do that. If you use the same hand though, you need to coat the same palm with paint again before pressing it the second time. 

 

       i. I waited for the paint to dry to add details to the caterpillar, an egg on the leaf hand print and additional colors and the body and details on the butterfly.

 

       j. Once dry, I helped/guided my son as he dipped his finger on white paint and pressed it on the green leaf.

 

       k. I assisted my son in drawing the eyes, smile and antennae on the caterpillar.

 

       l. I helped/assisted my son in finger-painting the body of the caterpillar and eventually finger painting and drawing the additional details.

 

This was made by Yanthy.

Note: My eldest son worked independently on this art activity. He would simply watch what I was doing with his younger brother whose hand I am holding/guiding most of the time. I asked him to imitate what I was doing and I would just intervene if necessary. ;)

 

I explained our art activity briefly, relating it to the story in our book. We capped our painting activity by singing the butterfly song that we learned from one of our helpers. It's actually spelling out the word BUTTERFLY. :)

 

3. Making a Bulldozer Toy Out of Paper Cut-out - I recently found and bought a book from the Book Sale that's about Diggers. It's an activity book about construction toys and areas. I was delighted when I saw it because I know that my sons would like it. In one of its pages, there's a bulldozer toy that can be cut-out and formed. I proceeded to cut the parts of the toy after we finished our painting activity on the life cycle of a butterfly. The boys were very happy to play with the paper bulldozer as soon as I finished it. 

 

 

4. Reading books about Things that Start with the Letter B - Aside from reading the book The Very Hungry Caterpillar, we read books about bulldozers, buses, bees and stories from the Bible. As usual, we used props (their toys) as we read the books.

 

 

5. Serving and Eating Food that Start with the Letter B - Some of the food that we had starting with the letter B last week were the following: banana with peanut butter wrapped in tortilla, beef balls, eggnog biscuits which my sons imagined to be hosts (Body of Christ during their pretend play of the Holy Mass), and bangus or milkfish sinigang.

 

 

6. Bible Verse Writing Activity - This is part of our Catholic ABC Program. Aside from the art and reading activities that we have each week, I make sure that I introduce a Bible verse to my sons, particularly to my eldest son. I use this activity as an opportunity to practice my eldest son's listening, writing and spelling skills. Last week, our Bible verse was taken from John 6:51.

 

 

7. Playing with Toys that Start with the Letter B and Pretend Play - The boys played again with their construction toys that start with the letter B (bulldozer, backhoe, bike). After tracing his finger on the letter B puzzle mat, I removed the letter B and filled it with my son's building blocks. Both of my sons love playing with building blocks! They can play with these toys for hours, imagining scenarios and creating them using the building blocks. They also played bowling , basketball and my younger son played with his smaller balls.

  

Aside from their favorite pretend play with building blocks (wherein they pretend to have a parking lot/building), they also pretended to celebrate the Holy Mass. My eldest son pretended to be the priest most of the time, doubling as musician/pianist and choir sometimes. My younger son pretended to be a reader (lector/commentator), parishioner or Mass-goer, choir member and sometimes priest also. He enjoyed pretending to receive Holy Communion (he liked the eggnogs!).
 

My eldest son pretending to be a priest giving Holy Communion to our helper.

My toddler pretending to carry the Bible
during the entrance procession at the start of the Mass.

 

8. B as in Bethlehem Craft - This craft activity is in line with our Bible verse for the week as well. I learned while I was researching for the most appropriate verse for our letter of the week that Bethlehem means house of bread. That discovery affirmed my plans to make our DIY Bethlehem/Nativity décor. I recommend that you read this interesting article about Jesus as the Living Bread that came down from heaven and how perfect that He was born in Bethlehem.

 

I did the same DIY Bethlehem décor/craft using popsicle sticks with my toddler which I did with my eldest son last year.

 

Let me share the steps as well for this craft:

 

     a. I simply asked my son to paint 6 popsicle sticks with green paint.

 

     b. Then, I asked him to paint 1 popsicle stick with white paint, guiding him to leave a space for the face of Baby Jesus.

 

     c. We set aside these popsicle sticks to air-dry.

 

    d. I then painted cream colored paint to serve as faces to the yellow and blue popsicle sticks as well as the white popsicle stick. I let these air-dry once more.

 

     e. While letting them dry, I drew and cut out a star from a scrap of bond paper.

 

     f. I asked my toddler to squeeze silver glitter glue all over it. Then, we let it dry once more.

 

    g. When all the popsicle sticks were dry, I glued them to form a stable and inserted the sticks that represent the Holy Family. I broke the sticks that represent Mama Mary and Jesus so that they would be shorter than the stick that represented St. Joseph.

 

    h. When the faces that I painted were already dry, I drew the details using a sign pen. I also glued the star on top of the stable.

 

We hanged this décor in our Christmas tree afterwards.

 

This year, I did a different Bethlehem craft with my eldest son. I asked him to paint a milk carton with brown paint so we can use it as stable for our toilet paper tube characters in our DIY Nativity set. My toddler also helped out in painting the parts of the manger for this set. Then, I took charge of making B as in Baby Jesus out of the other half of the toilet paper tube we used for the manger. I used left over yellow paper to cut out the hay for the manger.

 

 

9. Flag-making Activity - My sons made the flags of Bahrain and Bangladesh.

 

 

It has been another B as in busy week for us but it was fun-filled and blessed especially since our week was capped with the All Saints' Day party of our homeschool group where my sons came as San Lorenzo Ruiz de Manila and St. Dominic de Guzman.

 

My two sons as St. Dominic de Guzman and San Lorenzo Ruiz de Manila.

 

Today, we kicked off our new letter of the week - the letter C! Watch out for my post where I will summarize and enumerate our activities this week! 

Letter of the Week Activities with Letter O

It has been an outstanding week for me and my sons as we did activities related to the letter O last week!

 

 

Let me enumerate the what we did. 

 

1. Finger-painting of letter O by Mateo - Just like in the past letter of the week activities, my two-year-old finger-painted the upper case and lower case of our letter of the week on a bond paper. He did this after tracing his finger on the pencil mark on the bond paper and on the O foam letter that we have.

 

 

 

2. O as in Owl hand painting - I found a very cute owl hand painting internet so I thought of doing it as well with the boys. After doing this painting, I let my toddler watch a video of Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star again where an owl was part of it. He liked that video very much.

 

 

 

3. O as in Oman flag - This one was part of our United Nations activity since the letter O fell on the same week that this event is celebrated. You may read more about our United Nations activities in detail in one of my previous posts.

 

 

 

4. O as in Olaf art activity. - My sons love the movie Frozen very much! They simply can't get over it. So, I thought that they would be delighted to make a snowman. ;) I asked my boys to trace ovals and circles (using some of their oval and round toys) on a bond paper to make Olaf's body parts. I asked my eldest son to cut the ovals and circles. Then, I asked the boys to glue Olaf's body parts (guiding them how to do it) on a blue bond paper. After letting the cut outs to air dry, I showed my eldest son how to put the other details on Olaf's body by guiding my toddler's hand as we drew the face and buttons of Olaf. 

 

 

 

5. Storytelling about St. Olaf of Sweden - Since it was almost All Saints' Day when we started with the letter O, I thought of researching for Saints whose names start with our letter of the week. I was delighted to find out with the help of the internet that there's a Saint named Olaf and that he was from Sweden! I excitedly shared this with the boys who were very happy to learn about it as well. Too bad we didn't find a photo of St. Olaf of Sweden. We only saw a photo of St. Olaf of Norway.

 

6. O as in Ocean Liner Pretend Play using folded paper - Since it was still United Nations' week and the letter O was our letter of the week, we taught the boys how to make ocean liners/boats using folded paper. They let their ocean liners sail on the oceans in our maps and globe. As part of our geography lessons, I asked my eldest son to look for the oceans in our globe. He found all four - Pacific, Indian, Atlantic and Arctic oceans. After letting their ocean liners sail on the map and globe, we gave them water in a basin to let their paper ocean liners to sail there.

 

 

7. Eating Food that Reminded Us of the Letter O - We served pancakes with the letter O written on top of them (using chocolate syrup) on the morning of October 31. Then, on All Saints' Day, I prepared Chicken in Coconut and Orange Sauce as part of our celebration.
 

The next set of activities were done in relation to our lesson on Obedience. We did a number of activities because I've decided that O will also stand for Obey. We used the materials from the Kids of Integrity website for most of our activities on Obedience.

 

7. The first activity we had on O as in Obey is making an obedience poster. We painted the boys' feet and stamps them foot prints on a cartolina to symbolize that they will follow Jesus' command. I asked my eldest son to write the Jesus' words from John 14:15 on top of our poster. Then, at the bottom, I asked him to write Jesus' command to children to obey their parents. I explained to them the Bible verses to them and told them that I will stick hearts into the poster every time they obey something that I ask them to do. Then, on Saturday (during our All Hallows' Eve and All Saints' Day celebrations), they will get a reward if there will be at least 10 hearts stuck on their side of the poster. I told them that their reward will be a donut that looks like a letter O. This excited the boys and they kept reminding me the past week to stick heart cut outs in the poster every time they obey something. I printed hearts in a pink bond paper and cut them. Then, I glued a heart each time the boys obeyed something that I asked them to do in the past week.

 

 

 

8. Science Experiment to Make Shiny Coins - This was also adapted from the Kids of Integrity website lesson on obedience. I asked the boys to look for dirty coins that we will clean. We got some cotton buds and vinegar. I first asked them to dip their cotton bud in vinegar and clean their dirty coin using these two. Then, I acted that I forgot to tell them to mix salt into the vinegar to make our cleaning solution more effective. I added salt to the vinegar and asked the boys to mix until the salt is dissolved. Then, I gave them new cotton buds and asked them to dip these in the mixture and use that to clean the coins. They were very happy to see their coins become cleaner and shinier this time! I explained that the experiment as recommended in the website then stuck their shiny coins on our obedience poster.

 

 

 

9. Storytelling on Obedience through the Story of the Mommy Bear and her 3 cubs - I read the story from the Kids of Integrity website to the boys and used our bear stuff toys and some pillows (as cave and wolves) as props in telling the story to them. The boys participated by moving the little bears while I' telling the story.

 

10. Storytelling on Obedience through Noah's Ark plus Pretend Play - We also reviewed the story of Noah and how he obeyed God even though God's command seemed strange and though people were laughing at him as he obeyed God's command to build an ark. We used our stuff toys again and the boys' carpenter tools. They also used our pillows and blankets during their pretend play in building the ark. My eldest son pretended that he is Noah while my younger son pretended that he is one of Noah's sons helping his father build the ark.

 

Noah's Ark pretend play in our bed with the blue blanket as flood waters. ;)

  

11. We read more books about obedience. - Aside from stories in the Bible that teaches obedience to God's commands in different ways and situations, we also read other books on obedience. Among these books that we read in the past week are the following: Creation (where Adam and Eve disobeyed God and as a result of their disobedience they were asked to leave the Garden of Eden); Jonah and the Big Fish; Flaming Furnace, Fiery Faith (story of Abednego); Moses and One Mighty, Awesome, Incredible Rescue; My Very First Bible (where we read about the obedience of Mama Mary even when she didn't completely understand how the angel's announcement to her would come true, about Joseph's obedience in taking Mary as his wife, about Daniel and the lions); and My Book of Devotions about Obedience. 

 

12. We played Mommy Says (just like Simon Says game) and Follow the Leader - This was also suggested in the lessons on obedience from Kids of Integrity website. I first asked the boys to obey some actions that I instructed them to do (example: touch your right ear with your right hand) then I asked them to take turns being the leader while the other sibling is the follower. The leader gets to lead an action that the other one will imitate. I related this to us Christians being followers and imitators of Christ who is our leader.

Me and my sons (in costume as Saints) during our All Hallows' Eve feast.

 

Our All Hallows' Eve and All Saints' Day feast was a perfect way to celebrate the boys' obedience and our outstanding activities with the letter E! You may read about our celebration here in detail.

United Nations Activities in our Homeschool

It was our first time to celebrate United Nations Day this year in our homeschool. It is just fitting that we celebrate it this year because my eldest son has been showing interest in the study of maps and flags of different countries. This was sparked by his Dad's frequent travels last year. The kids became interested in the countries that their Dad visited as part of his job.

 

Even before this month, my eldest son has been studying geography through his maps and globe. Last September, we found a poster of the flags of nations.

 

Let me share the activities we have done so far in celebrating United Nations Month.

 

1. Flag-making - We have integrated this activity in our Letter of the Week Program since this is one of my eldest child's interests. His younger brother likes the activity as well. There were times when we used paint to do this. Other times, we used crayons or colored paper. We have made several flags already. On United Nations Day, we made 3 more flags. One of these flags was the flag of Oman.

 

 

2. We read books. - We are certified bookworms so reading books is one activity that's always a part of our homeschool activities. Since we were already on letter O last October 24, I read the synopsis of a book entitled The Turtle of Oman to my eldest son. When we were on letter E, we read books about Egypt. We also read Pinocchio which was set in Italy.

 

3. Storytelling - I also shared more facts about Oman to my boys, which I have read from articles in the internet. I chose facts that they can relate to somehow.

 

4. Passport-making - I was inspired to make 'passports' for the boys. The passport I designed was inspired by the passport from FIAR's website. We will document our study of the different countries using these passports. We will write the dates when we'll study about the different countries as our date of arrival. We will stick the little flags that we made inside its pages, too.  

 

 

5. World Tour - Our world tour is only pretend play for the boys. They either ride their toy airplanes or boats or walk from country to country using our globe or maps.

 

 

6. Watched a Musical - We have previously scheduled to watch a musical on Pinocchio last October 25 but I did not know yet that it was also United Nations Week last week. I was delighted to find out that the musical we scheduled to watch last weekend was set in Italy and that it was presented in such a way that the audience were introduced to a few things about Italy. We were taught a few Italian words in the course of watching the musical. Thus, we now use "bambino", "buongiorno" and "mi scusi" at home. The musical will run until December so if you want to bring your kids to this musical, you can still buy tickets. Click here to buy your tickets.

 

 

7. Learned songs - I also taught new songs to the kids which were related to the countries we were studying. You may read about these here in my post on our activities with the letter E.

Letter of the Week Activities with the Letter E

It has been an exciting week for us as we did various activities related to our letter of the week, which is the letter E!

 

Just like with our previous letters of the week, we began with my toddler (2-year-old son) finger painting the letter E in upper and lower case. I also let him trace his finger on a foam letter E before doing the painting exercise.

 

 

Next, we proceeded with an E as in Earth art activity. It was also an opportunity for my 6-year-old to practice his listening, spelling and writing skills as I dictated a Bible verse to him.

 

 

Let me share how we did this earth finger painting activity step by step:

 

1. I asked the boys to choose a round object that they would trace on a bond paper.

 

2. I asked my 6-year-old son to cut the circles.

 

3. I mixed a bit of white on our dark blue paint in another container.

 

4. The boys first painted the circle cut outs with blue paint using their fingers.

 

5. Air dry the painted cut outs.

 

6. While we were air-drying the globes/earths of the boys, I asked my eldest son to write a Bible verse on a bond paper. My youngest got hungry so he had some morning snack while waiting for his globe to dry. ;)

 

7. Once dry, the boys finger painted green paint (for the islands/continents) on their respective earths/globes.

 

8. We let them air dry once more and we cleaned their hands.

 

9. The boys glued the earths they painted on bond papers. My eldest son glued his earth on the same paper where he wrote a Bible verse about the earth. My younger son glued his on a clean sheet of bond paper.

 

10. Then, I helped my toddler write E as in Earth on his bond paper.

 

While the kids were painting, I let a song video about our Bible verse for the week play in the background. The boys tried to learn the song after our painting activity.

 

 

 

 

As usual, we posted their newly-finished works of art on our wall near our kids' study table.

 

The next activity that we had after that was reading of books. First, we read about the creation story and explained briefly how God made the earth to be full of His goodness. Moreover, I highlighted that E is also for Eve, the first woman, and E as in the Garden of Eden. We also read about the earth again from our Space Book. Then, we read about the flight from Egypt through one of the books we bought at the recent MIBF -- One Mighty, Awesome, Incredible Rescue.

After the boys woke up from their nap that day, we watched the movie Prince of Egypt.

The following day, we had food that started with the E. We had eggplant omelette and egg pie.

We also read a book about eagles titled Eagles Don't Fly, They Soar! The Adventures of Billy Big Toes by Bo Sanchez. I read this to the boys before their nap.

We read the books related to our letter of the week before nap time and at night. In between reading lines from the book, I ask the kids some questions or I let the kids fill in the details to check if they remembered the details of our stories.

I also taught the boys an action song that I learned when I was in college as part of a Catholic Charismatic community. My college friends and I taught this action song to the delegates of World Youth Day '95 wherein we served as facilitators. The boys had been singing and dancing to the tune of this song in the past days.

  

We also looked up Egypt on our globe and its flag on my eldest son's poster of the flags of nations. I showed them photos of pyramids and the sphinx as well.

Then, we made our own version of Egypt's flag. It was a joint effort of us three. I first folded a bond paper lengthwise into three parts. I asked my toddler to choose between black and red crayon. He said he wants to use black. So, I let him color the black part of the flag. After helping him finish his part of the flag, I asked my eldest son to color the red portion of the flag. When the boys were done with their part, I drew an eagle in the middle of the white portion. Then, I posted our flag on our wall.

Aside from these activities, I let my toddler watch this video on the letter E in the past days while holding/playing with some props.

Lastly, the boys made their own versions of pyramids using their building blocks.

These were the exciting activities we had with the letter E this past days. Watch out for my post for our next letter of the week -- the letter O!

Note: Aside from doing these activities, we also engage in other activities that our boys like doing each day. The letter of the week program is just one part of our homeschool adventure. You may read about our daily homeschool activities in detail here in my previous post.

Another activity that I let my toddler engage in these past weeks is a matching game with different variations. All variations however have one main goal: that is to help him become more familiar with the letters of his name (MATEO). Watch out for my post also where I will enumerate and detail all the matching games that Mateo is playing to help him achieve this goal.