Giving Begins at Home

I love a good surprise. My husband is forever trying to tell me what he got me for Christmas or dropping huge hints and, honestly, I just don't want to hear it. I LIKE being surprised. Even more than that, though, I love to give. It warms my heart to see the looks on people's faces.

Now, how to I teach my girls, 4 and 5, to have the same kind of spirit--the whole "it's better to give than to receive"? All I've heard this year is "I want that".

I have a couple of thoughts, but am by no means an expert. 

Ralene's Non-Fool-Proof Ways to Help Develop a Giving Spirit in Young Children (NFPWHDGSYC for short)

1. Make it tangible for them. Yes, it is important to support programs like Operation Christmas Child, Angel Tree, etc., but the fact is, the kids don't see anything that comes of it. They're toy gets shipped to some foreign place they can barely comprehend to a group of children they can hardly relate to.

2. Make sure their input counts! Let them help make decisions--what gift to buy, what kind of cookies to make, how to decorate a card/wrap a present.

3. The more hands on, the better! The more the kids can do to hel, the more they'll be invested in it, the more they'll appreciate what happens to it at the end. If you purchase a toy, let them wrap it (with your help, of course) and then make a card for the child. Let them make the cookie dough, roll it out, cut the cookies, and, of course, the best part--decorating them!

4. As you're going through all the different parts of the process, be sure to explain to the kids what you're doing and why. Emphasize the difference in needs and wants.

5. Have them give of themselves. Help them understand how blessed they are by having them choose a few toys of their own to drop off at a charity. Then take them to drop it off! Let them put it in the box and take it in with you. This completes the thought process in their little heads. It didn't stop with putting it in the box and Mommy hauling it off to Goodwill.

6. Of course, they need to see you model the giving spirit. The giving spirit we harness during Christmas time should live in our hearts all year long. When they see us giving of our time, money, resources, and when we help them understand what we are doing and why, the more they'll develop that same sense as they grow and mature.

Giving can be as much of a gift for us as it is for those who receive our gifts. So, get in the spirit, and watch as you light up the faces of many with your blessings this year!

Seeds of Wisdom --- Christmas in Our Homeschools

Today, we share how we are incorporating Christmas into our homeschools.

Sam

We are doing Truth in the Tinsel as well as Jotham's Journey.

Ralene

We have an Alphabet Christmas printable book--we do one letter a day and talk about the different holiday traditions. We also have a Countdown Chain where each link has a different activity for our family to do together.  And not to mention the many different Christmas books we either own or have gotten from the library.  My girls are learning some carols, too. I picked one Christian and one secular song each week to learn. Last week was Away in a Manger and Here Comes Santa Claus. This week is Joy to the World and Rudolph.

Aurie

We are using The Truth in the Tinsel, and talk about the Advent story each day. I'm trying to keep it low key this year, and so far the girls are really enjoying it!

Tracy

We are doing the Coming of the King advent calendar and devotionals for our family time, but anything specifically homeschool will be spontaneous. I don't have anything planned into my lessons. http://www.wtsbooks.com/product-exec/product_id/7320/nm/The+Coming+of+the+King+-+Advent+Calendar+Pack+%28Paperback%29

Dorie

For the month of December, we are completing a Jesse Tree, learning some carols, and reading a great variety of Christmas books. We add in other activities when we are inspired and have time as well.

Jessica

I change material on our coffee table every month, so with December came back-issues of our magazines and our winter or Christmas-themed books. The kids have been spending their break time or crafting time to work on hand-made gifts for babysitters, teachers, and special friends. This year they are making perler bead ornaments and soap carvings.

Maureen

We have a picture book for each day of December. Our favorites are by Tomie de Paola. We also have a Jesse Tree book that takes us through the entire history of salvation up to the birth of Jesus. We read a story from it after dinner each night and then the kids make ornaments for our paper Jesse Tree. It is their favorite holiday tradition!  We always make some fresh ornaments for the real tree and use writing cards for 'handwriting' all month.

Marla

Everything that we are doing this month is Christmas-themed.  We are counting Christmas objects (nativity scenes, pictures of Santa, putting stickers on paper Christmas trees, etc.), using Christmas alphabet flashcards, spelling Christmas words, writing Christmas cards, and doing Christmas art and cooking projects.  We are also doing a Jesse tree, and Advent calendar, and giving a daily gift to Baby Jesus.  So far, it has been a fabulous month in our homeschool!

What Christmas-themed activities are you doing in your homeschool?

Meditation on Gentleness, at Christmastime

Once, my great-grandmother was speaking of the trials of being a mother of 6, to a minister. The minister said to her, “Dear lady, take the holy family as your model.”

“O yah,” she retorted, “them and their one!”

Just a little levity there, to get me started today!

There is a beautiful picture hanging in my living room: a young woman carrying a baby in her arms. This image is commonly known as the Madonna of the Streets. I only recently heard the story:

A young woman wandered the streets, say it’s New York City, and it is getting cold. It’s coming on Christmas. The woman is driven to distraction, worrying about how she will care for her child tonight, let alone for the next 20 years. And as midnight nears, and she begins to despair, Mary appears to her, with the baby Jesus in her arms and says, “Here, I will take care of your baby- if you will take care of mine.”

It is incomprehensible, the mystery we grasp at during this season of waiting. The Boundless, bound by a womb. The All-Powerful, helpless in a feeding trough. Eternal Beauty, wrapped up in rags, breathed on by oxen and asses.

He is given to us. If only we would carry His Image with us- everywhere!

One of the many reasons prayer is so necessary to a homeschooling mother is that I need to “carry His Image with me.”

When it’s 9 am and I’m already frazzled.

When it’s 2pm and a math book is floating in the sink of soapy water(?!),

The toddler is climbing the bookcase,

The preschooler changes her outfit for the 9th time today,

And my big kids are suddenly nowhere to be found- least of all at the table where I left them over their books 3 minutes ago,

It’s HIM I need to see before me…

BEFORE I open my mouth.

Prayer for me, as a mother, a homeschooling mother, who maybe gets 3 hours a week to herself, is how I knit the veil. The veil, of the child Jesus’ sweet face, that I (try to) throw over each child’s face whenever I look at him or her. BEFORE I open my mouth.

Because I resolved, as a brand new mom, that yelling might happen, but it would never become status quo in my relationships with my kids.

And I swore (through often-gritted teeth), as that first child and I negotiated that first year of kindergarten, that homeschooling would not change that resolution.

I had other mothers, homeschooling and not, tell me this resolve was ridiculous. That I shouldn’t be so hard on myself. That kids don’t listen if you don’t yell. But in my heart, it was never a question.

Gentleness is what God gives to me, at Christmas and every day of the year.

He is infinitely patient with my stubbornness.

He never rushes me, no matter how slow I am to learn his ways.

He gives to me, even when I am selfish with Him.

And He is the only Parent against whom I will model myself.

Every year as Christmas nears, when I see the babies in the mangers, I renew my commitment to gentleness. I use my prayer time to remember each child of mine, as a dimpled newborn, and thank God for these great gifts. I fail so often, committed as I am to gentleness, and I beg for the grace to do better in the year to come. I meditate on the patience of the Mother of Jesus, her humility, her quietness, her acceptance of the Will of God.

I want to give my children not just knowledge of God, not just the story of Christmas, but the experience of the gentleness and peace of God. And I pray for the grace to remember that- to see Jesus-

BEFORE I open my mouth!


“Love came down at Christmas,
Love all lovely, Love Divine;
Love was born at Christmas;
Star and angels gave the sign.”
~Christina Rossetti