On the Sixth Day of Parenting - Family Traditions Sorted

Hello and thank you for hopping over from BumpsBabies Tots and Teens Mummy Diaries and welcome to the 6th day of #12DaysOfParenting. Today's sponsor is Science4You who are offering a Sweet Factory and the theme is Family Traditions Sorted. My keyword to enter today’s giveaway is in this post below, good luck! Full details of the #12DaysOfParenting terms and conditions can be found on the #12DaysOfParenting page and all entries are to be completed via the Rafflecopter at the bottom of this post.

Oh, I love Christmas!

I love how steeped it is in history and tradition. How we do the same things each year; the same things that have been done for decades, centuries.

Sometimes even longer.

We sing songs that our grandparents sang, and their grandparents before them. Foods are flavoured with the same spices our ancestors used at Christmas. At church we speak the same words and say the same prayers that have been said for generations.

And I love how you can look through the windows of all the houses on your street and see a Christmas tree, lit with fairy lights and topped with an angel or a star.

Christmas is a time when we have so much in common.

So what a shock it is to discover that other people also have different traditions to us. We marry into families who have vastly different Christmas days to us and it can be overwhelmingly surprising. For some it becomes a real sticking point.

December 14th - Loving Father

A beard to represent St. Joseph, Jesus' dad on earth. 

We don't know much about him, but God must have made him very special to trust him to look after His son. 

December 12th - Worship Leader

David danced before the Lord. He sang and played; he wrote the psalms. In our house there is always a lot of singing going - mainly Frozen! - so this aspect of David was easy for B to grasp. And just to help, we made a tambourine. It's great!

December 9th - A Baby Saved

Baby Moses in his basket.

December 8th - Never Alone

God had a plan for Joseph. He sank to the pits, but God had a plan to bring him up to the heights.

"And now, do not be distressed and do not be angry with yourselves for selling me here, because it was to save lives that God sent me ahead of you." (Genesis 45:5 NIV)

We made a dreamcatcher because Joseph was a dreamer, but also because the belief about dreamcatchers is that they protect, just as God protected him. We watched the film of Joseph and the Amazing Technicolour Dreamcoat - starring Donny Osmond! - and I was touched by the line in one of the songs: "Children of Israel are never alone." That was the message I wanted us to take away from the story of Joseph.

December 7th - God Watches Over Us

Genesis 28:10-22

Today we read about Jacob's dream at Bethel. God's promise to Jacob, to be with him wherever he goes, is for us too. What a comfort.

I am with you and will watch over you wherever you go... (Genesis 28:15)

  

We love this angel! It's going on the top of our tree. 

Do you feel that God is watching over you always?

December 6th - God Provides

Genesis 22:1-19

This was a great craft. Aside from cutting out the legs and head, B did all of this herself. We set her off with it, and after a couple of minutes she seemed bored and wandered off. But a bit later on, she came into the lounge with a completed lamb. So proud!

Abraham answered, “God himself will provide the lamb for the burnt offering, my son.” 

Are you in need? Can we pray for you?

December 5th - As Many As The Stars

Genesis 15

Proud to be a descendant of Abraham!

He took him outside and said, “Look up at the sky and count the stars—if indeed you can count them.” Then he said to him, “So shall your offspring be.” (Genesis 15:5)

December 4th - Worth Saving

Genesis 6:9 - 9:17

We made rainbows out of paper plates today:

Genesis 9:13

I explained to B that God was sad about all the meanies and had to wash them away. But that He gave us rainbows so that we know He would never do it again. We generally focus on the animals and the rainbow in the story of Noah, especially when it comes to telling children, because the full story is so hugely difficult to comprehend. How could our all-loving God do something so horrific?

December 3rd - Consequences

Genesis 3

Today we found out what happened when Adam and Eve ate from the Tree of Knowledge. Our parenting and discipline avoids threats and punishment, relying more on the teaching that comes from the natural consequences of our actions. Anyone present at our wedding will know what I mean when I say, "Consequences!" but for those readers who didn't have that experience, suffice it to say my dad gave a very long speech, punctuated by his reminder that we have to live with consequences of our actions. This was big in our childhood and now all my friends know too! I was embarrassed at the time, but actually, his speech does make sense to me now, as a parent.

Reading the account of the Fall from the perspective of consequences rather than punishment has been helpful for me. When God said Adam and Eve would die if they ate from the tree of Knowledge, it wasn't meant to be a threat of punishment for disobedience, but a warning. God could not allow them to eat from the tree of Life and so live forever if they had allowed badness to enter their hearts. It wouldn't - couldn't - be a case of just eating the fruit and then never breaking another rule. One sin leads to another and another. Immediately, Adam and Eve hid from God and then began to lie. The rollercoaster was on the move. Paradise couldn't be allowed to filled with sin, and so Adam and Eve had to leave. Their actions broke Creation, allowing pain and toil and enmity in. The consequence of eating of the tree of Knowledge was removal from the Tree of Life, and therefore death would be inevitable.

December 2nd - I Am Special

Genesis 1:26 - Genesis 2:25

Today we found out about Adam and Eve, and how God made people. I tried to explain to B that she is special because God made her and loves her. She was more interested in the fact that they were naked though!

Last year we put all of our handprints on a canvas and we thought it would be nice to make a tradition out of it, so we did it again. I thought getting M's handprint was tough last year - this year was harder! She just wanted to squeeze the paint. B really enjoyed this activity - she found it difficult to wait for the hubby's and my handprints to dry so that she could do hers. I think it's such a lovely reminder of how precious our family is.

December 1st - Looking After the Earth

Genesis 1:1 - 2:3

Today's Jesse Tree theme was Creation. We read the Genesis account at breakfast time, but B really wasn't in the mood to listen, so instead of starting the day with crafts, we got out into nature and took a walk.

The fresh air and exercise did us a lot of good. B calmed down; M slept most of the walk; I enjoyed being outside. As we walked, I talked about Creation with B and I was surprised to find that she had taken in quite a bit of the story at breakfast. She remembered that God made light first and then talked about Him putting a roof over the earth. She enjoyed pointing things out on our walk and telling me that God made them. We spoke about looking after the beautiful things God had made for us, and we fed the ducks as an example for her of being kind to animals.

O Come, O Come, Emmanuel - Advent Waiting

Advent has come around again. My favourite time of year. So much excitement. The joy of waiting. The cold air; the lights; the smells. I'm definitely a traditional girl when it comes to Christmas - and by traditional I mean elements of the medieval! I love the spices and the jewelled fruits, the foods that we've been eating for centuries, and the carols that were sung by our ancestors. I can't wait to celebrate Jesus' birth. Equally, I love that we can start our own traditions with our own little family. Christmas is special because I know what's coming.

Jesse Tree 2013: 16th December - John the Baptist

Jesse Tree 2013: 14th December - Joseph the Carpenter

Our activity today involved wooden pegs, as a tribute to the man who brought up Jesus - the carpenter, Joseph. Pegs were the closest I could get to doing a wood based craft, without requiring dangerous tools!

We decorated the wooden pegs with sequins and glitter glue, and stuck magnets on the back to make useful fridge magnets, perfect for holding art work or recipe cards or my calendar. 

Whilst these magnets are decorative , their main role is a supporting one, a bit like Joseph. We know very little about him, but without him the nativity would be very different. He had such an important job. He may not have been Jesus's natural father, but he was His earthly dad, and a good and loving husband. 

Father God, help us to live our lives without worrying about who notices. 

Jesse Tree 2013: 13th December - Solomon

King Solomon. The wise king. He was clearly on the road to wisdom before God granted his wish to be oh so wise, as he knew enough to ask only for wisdom. In return for that, God also have him huge riches. I sometimes think it was a bit unfair of God to give him that burden disguised as a reward. Solomon, despite God's gift of wisdom, was still pretty unwise when it came to women, and his massive wealth allowed him access to more women than was wise. Perhaps Go was using Solomon to remind us that no one is perfect. At the very least no one can be as wise as God. Which enabled us to look at Jesus and see the perfection, the divine wisdom ofour Saviour. 

Our activity today was to make crowns. Wisdom is a big ask for a 2 year old, but gluing jewels onto a gold crown is right up queen B's street.  

Daddy and B really enjoyed this activity, and she's not stopped wearing her crown. 

Help us, God, to treasure wisdom like a crown. 

Jesse Tree 2013: 18th December - O Adonai

O Lord, and Ruler of the house of Israel, who appeared to Moses in the burning bush, and gave him the Law on Sinai, come to redeem us with outstretched arm!

Today we made a picture of the burning bush by sticking red, orange and yellow scrunched up tissue onto a drawing of a tree. B really enjoyed tearing and scrunching the tissue. 

Father God, help us to hear your voice. 

Jesse Tree 2013 - 6th December: Isaac

As Isaac was the beginning of the fulfilment of God's promise to give Abraham countless descendants, we did another star based activity today. 

We made salt dough stars to create a mobile, based on this: 

However, yet again, it didn't go quite to plan! Blame the sleep deprivation from having a 3 week old baby, but I misread the oven temperature in that blogpost. It's American and therefore in Fahrenheit. I baked those little things at 170 C and they burnt. Fortunately we can salvage with a bit of paint, but we'll try again next year to make one to keep. B enjoyed playing with the special play dough, and I resisted the urge to tell her not to eat it. She would try it either way! She put a bit in her mouth and found it disgusting, so that worked without me having to nag!

Jesse Tree 2013 - 5th December: Abraham

Genesis 22

Whenever I see stars in the sky I am reminded of two bible verses. The first is, "He also made the stars," from the creation account. Such a throwaway verse for something so perfectly beautiful. The second is God's promise to Abraham: "I will surely bless you and make your descendants as numerous as the stars in the sky..." (Genesis 22:17a NIV)

Today's activity acknowledged that promise, in that we made star jars. I pinched the idea from The Imagination Tree.

However, they weren't as successful as the various ones I'd seen on the internet. I was expecting the glitter and stars to float through the water, snowglobe-like, but everything basically stayed in a big blob at the top. Still, B enjoyed sprinkling the stars into the jars, and she wasn't bothered by high expectations or the need for perfection like I am, so to her the jars were lovely. 

Thank you, God, for fulfilling our need for perfection, and for keeping your perfect promises. 

Jesse Tree 2013 - 4th December: Noah

Genesis 6-7

Noah was one of the easier themes to come up with activities for, though as B gets older I expect I will have to be a bit more inventive in order to make it teachable and relevant. She has several Noah's Ark related books and toys, so we read the story and played with her wooden ark. 

Daddy and B did some painting together, making a picture of the Ark ready for sticking animals onto. They painted a piece of paper with blue paint to be the sea, and then made an Ark out of paper plates which they painted brown and red. When that was dry, B stuck loads of stickers of animals on to the boat, and added rain clouds and rain drops to the sky, as well as some sea creatures to the water. 

I really love this picture. And B loved painting and sticking. It was brilliant to watch her doing an activity with Daddy. They had a lot of fun together. 

After this they painted rainbows onto two halves of a paper plate and I added streamers and string before sticking the plates together to make a mobile. I pinched this idea from http://megduerksen.typepad.com/whatever/2010/09/craft-thursday-9.html

There was a rainbow in the sky the day that B was born, and so I always think that God has special plans for her. I really hope so. 

Thank you, God for keeping your promises.