Truth in the Tinsel 7-12

I must say my excitement for our Truth in the Tinsel lessons and crafts has diminished just a little bit.  When I first glanced through it I didn't think there was quite as much focus on just the birth of Jesus story.  I thought there was more about who Jesus is in general.  However, I feel like I am repeating myself a little bit with some of the lessons, as I will note below.  I do still like it.  Aria is still excited about it.  I just wish I would have taken a little more time to tweak it myself first. 

Day 7: Mary's Song.  This is my least favorite lesson so far.  Mary's song from Luke 1: 46-56 is not in any of Aria's Bibles.  It mentions that she sang to God, but doesn't give any words.  I also wish there was some kind of musical recording of Mary's song, but I don't know of any.  I don't mind, so much, talking with Aria about Mary singing a song.  In fact it is a nice connection to Aria's love for singing.  The craft, however, was kind of silly.  We took a blank cd and decorated it.  I'm not sure why.  I didn't even know what to tell Aria when she asked why we were decorating it, other than to make it look pretty.  Oh well.  I'm not even going to put a picture because it isn't a very good picture and it really is a cd with some sequins and glitter glue on it. 

Day 8: Rising Sun.  This is from Zechariah's response when his son, John the Baptist, is born.  He describes Jesus as the "rising sun" who will "shine on those living in darkness."  It is from Luke 1: 57-80.  It was a good connection to day 1 when we talked about Jesus as the light of the world.  This is the kind of lesson I like, slightly outside the regular Christmas story box.  The craft was fun, too.  It is a glitter foam sun!

Day 9: Joseph.  Back to the regular Christmas story, but I didn't really mind making a Joseph to go with the Mary we made in day 5.  Joseph was Jesus' earthly father.  He obeyed God and married Mary even though it probably seemed very strange to him that she was pregnant by God.  Aria liked that we now have a matching set.

Notice the snowpants she's wearing in the picture.  It was really exciting that we got a very small bit of snow, so we had to wear the snowpants.  :)

Day 10: Joseph's dream.  This is where it gets too repetitive for me.  We just talked about Joseph yesterday and we talked about his dream when the angel told him to marry Mary and name the baby Jesus.  Now we are taking a day to just focus on the dream.  The Scripture was the same for both days, Matthew 1: 18-25.  There is so much more to Jesus, I just didn't think we needed to do two days of Joseph and his dream.  However, this craft was pretty cute; a pillow for Joseph.  We used felt, threaded it with pipe cleaners and stuffed it with cotton balls.  Not sure Joseph would have chose (or even had the option for) a pink pillow, but that's ok.

Day 11: Names of Jesus.  This is one of my favorites in the group.  I did change it from the book slightly.  The lesson talked about how the angel told Mary and Joseph to name the baby Jesus.  It talked about how Jesus means "God saves" and Immanuel, which means "God with us."  The craft said to glue a bunch of small random names on a stick then glue a big Jesus on top to show He is the name above all names.  I like that, but I didn't know if Aria would completely get it.  Instead, I decided to find all the names for Jesus and glue them on the stick.  We talked about the different names we use for Jesus when we talk to him.  The first one Aria said was, "God."  I thought that was cool.  On the name stick we glued God, Savior, Lord, King, Wonderful Counselor, Father, Immanuel, Prince of Peace, Christ, Holy, I Am, Shepherd, Mighty God, and maybe some more that I am forgetting.  The we glued big J-E-S-U-S letters on top.  It was a fun conversation and cool to see that Aria does recognize there are several names for Jesus.  We referred back to Isaiah 9 for some of the names.  We also talked about some of her nicknames, which was fun, too.

Day 12: Census.  This lesson was about why Mary and Joseph had to go to Bethlehem, to be counted.  We're back to the specifics of the Christmas story.  I don't mind talking about them going to Bethlehem for the census, but there isn't much more to say than just that.  The craft was unique and fun, though.  We used food coloring and "hanitizer" to dye rice.  (Not sure the purpose of the hand sanitizer, but it did smell good.)  Aria chose red rice.  We shook it all up in a bag then left it on a tray to dry.  Once the rice was dry, Aria put it in a jar with two small, random game pieces we designated as Mary and Joseph.  We wrote their names on them and put faces on them.  When the lid is screwed on tight, Aria can shake the jar and move it around to try and find Mary and Joseph amongst all the people that went to Bethlehem.  It was a good visual to show that Mary and Joseph were a part of a big crowd, which leads to why they have to stay in a stable.