Speaking of next year, I will be using the Truth in the Tinsel concept of a Bible verse/story each day and activity to go with. However, I plan to do more about Jesus' whole life. I think I might do Jesus A-Z. I started brainstorming ideas for it and came up with a good outline. As for Truth in the Tinsel, Aria had a lot of fun with the crafts. I know she learned from it. It was my expectation that wasn't met simply because it didn't end up being what I thought. When I took down our decorations, I kept all of the things she made and was proud of the time we spent together learning more about Jesus. That alone makes me call it success.
Here is an abbreviated synopsis of the rest...
Day 13 City of Bethlehem. Aria painted part of an egg carton to represent the city and we listened to the song, "O Little Town of Bethlehem." It was a hit because of the paint and she likes to say the word, Bethlehem.
Day 14 Stable. We made a stable out of popsicle sticks and tree sticks. It was a hit because of the glue. It was also a good discussion about Jesus being born by the animals and not even in a hospital. :)
Day 15 and 16 we clumped together because we got behind. It was a manger and baby Jesus. The manger was an activity Aria and Justin did together out of salt dough. They had a blast making the dough and forming it. They made some ornaments, too. Then baby Jesus was made out of a small ornament ball and some felt for the blanket. The lesson for that one actually makes the reference to Jesus being wrapped in cloths as a baby and then after he died. I would have like to make that connection, but we were behind and busy at that point and it just didn't happen. Easter. We will talk about it at Easter.
Day 17 Sheep. The order got funny to me here. I thought we should have done a shepherd first. There is great significance to sheep and Jesus, so maybe that is why the sheep came first. I'm not sure Aria really gets that. It is pretty abstract for a 2 and 3/4 year old. She did like making the little sheep, though. It was made of yarn, pipe cleaners, foam, and google eyes. Even if she doesn't smile for pictures.
Day 18 Angels. I liked this craft. This represents the infinite angels in the sky to announce Jesus' birth to the shepherds. (Again, why haven't we made a shepherd yet?) We modified the craft to a row of feathers attached to a pipe cleaner to represent a lot of angels. Aria chose to make 9. They had buttons for faces.
Day 19 Shepherd. As I read the directions again, I remembered that the shepherd craft was about the shepherds' reaction after the angels told them about Jesus. The immediately went to see Him and told everyone about Him. There was a template of a little man and we used paper fasteners to make his arms move. Aria colored it. It wasn't real fancy, so no picture included.
Day 20 Temple. This wasn't much of a craft. There was a template to cut out a temple. Aria cannot cut along lines, yet, so I cut it out and she colored it a little bit. The story was fun to read, though, because it was not one Aria knew. It is the story of when Mary and Joseph took Jesus to the temple at 8 days old and he was blessed by Simeon and Anna. It is not told very often, but I find it has great significance. Simeon and Anna were both told by God they would see the Messiah. As soon as they saw Jesus, they believed. That is a lot more than can be said for a lot of other people that Mary and Joseph knew.
Day 21 Star. The wise men followed a star to get to Jesus. Aria really likes the star. She points it out in all the Christmas stories. The craft was a circle of cardboard with slots cut all around the edges. Then we used gold tinsel and weaved it around the circle. We hung the star from the ceiling over the "stable" when we acted out Mary and Joseph's journey during our family Christmas celebration. For some reason I didn't take a picture.
Day 22 Wise Men. We didn't end up doing this one. We talked about the wise men and their presents to Jesus, but didn't make the craft. It was cutting a three man paper chain out.
Day 23 Gifts. The craft was a cinnamon applesauce ornament. The lesson was about the gifts the wise men gave Jesus. We didn't get to it because we were doing our family of three Christmas celebration on the 23rd and we incorporated our own gifts in that. :)
Day 24 Cross. We actually did this one a few days after Christmas. We were not home for basically three days and the Jesus crafts didn't travel. When we got home, Aria wanted to do her Jesus craft so we finished with the cross. Of course it was the most important one, so I was glad to do it. It is made out of pipe cleaners and beads. Aria could thread the beads all by herself. It was good to help her make the connection that Jesus came to earth as a baby at Christmas so he could die on the cross for us at Easter. I need to remember to reinforce that connection at Easter and not just focus on the Easter story.
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