Christmas Book Recommendations

This post is a bit overdue for it to be useful to anyone this year, but there is always next year, right?  I’d love to hear your favorite Christmas books. 

Retellings of the Biblical story

• One Wintry Night by Ruth Bell Graham ill. by Richard Jesse Watson 
  As the publisher says, “A snowy night, a warm cabin, and a boy who hears the Christmas story told for the first time—beginning with Creation and ending with the Resurrection.” I love the storytelling and illustrations in this book.  They are very realistic with a lot of detail to capture kids’ attention.  This one will take several sittings to get through.
• Chapters from our favorite story Bibles. The Big Picture Story Bible is one of the few I’ve seen to deal with the Passover and explain Jesus as the Lamb of God, and you can see one of the chapters from The Jesus Storybook Bible on youtube.
• The Story of Christmas by Stephanie Jeffs and John Haysom
• The Christmas Story by Carol Heyer

Stories with Christmas themes (generosity, charity, traditions, etc.)

• An Orange for Frankie by Patricia Polacco
  I love the generosity portrayed in this book.  If I’m not careful, this one makes me cry.
• The Third Gift by Linda Sue Park, ill. by Bagram Ibatoulline
  Ever wonder what myrrh is?  This book answers that question through the story of a young boy learning from his father to collect myrrh.  One of my favorites this year.
• Who Would Like a Christmas Tree? by Ellen Bryan Obed, ill. by Anne Hunter 
  This book travels through the calendar year of the Christmas tree, exploring what animals find a Christmas tree useful in January, February, etc. 
• Great Joy by Kate DiCamillo ill. by Bagram Ibatoulline
  This one is similar to An Orange for Frankie in theme, but not nearly as long, making it more accessible to a younger crowd.  This was one of Sophia’s favorites this year, probably for the monkey in the story more than the actual message.
• Little Match Girl ill. by Jerry Pinkney
  A great reminder of the joys of heaven, but also one to read before you read it to your kids, in case they aren’t ready for its sadness.

Toddler Favorites (short introductions to the Christmas story)

• A Christmas Goodnight by Nola Buck, ill. by Sarah Jane Wright
• Christmas in the Manger by Nola buck  and Felicia Bond
• This is the Stable by Cynthia Cotton ill. by Delana Bettoli (This book is most notable for its depiction of wise men riding elephants, horses, and camels.  I love when books challenge our presuppositions about the Christmas story.)

Kids’ Favorites

• Small Medium and Large by Jane Monroe Donovan
  This is a mostly wordless picture book, and rather fun.  it’s not my favorite because a little girl seems to celebrate Christmas with only her small, medium and large animals.  Other people are absent from this book, which kind of misses the point of Christmas in my opinion. Nevertheless, my kids didn’t mind and loved finding all the small, medium, and large things. 
• 12 Days of Christmas by Rachel Isadora
  Another beautifully illustrated book that has very little to do with Christmas itself, but it was often read in our house this past month.  it features rebus pictures, so Caleb could “read” this entirely on his own.
• The Night Before Christmas by Clement C. Moore, ill. by Niroot Puttapipat 
  The illustrations are beautiful and make this book!

Adult reading

Good News of Great Joy by John Piper
A advent devotional I enjoyed reading…sometimes in the middle of the night.  Good food for thought. Some of my favorites were “God, Frankincense, and Myrrh,” “Replacing the Shadows,” and “Life and Death at Christmas.” 

Family Resemblance

Ava

Sophia

Caleb

Thanksgiving- Preschool Edition

Just a boring post compiling several resources I used to discuss the Thanksgiving story with Caleb during our preschool time.  Thankfully, Caleb already had heard (and retained) the story with a great lego retelling at his preschool co-op.  (I love that he’s beginning to share what he does in his classes!)

Thanksgiving bracelets  Sophia got to make these as well.  Both the kids made multiple bracelets because Ava needed one too. :) 

Rebus retelling

Pilgrim Pilgrim What do you see?

Sponge boat craft: sponge + straw + triangle of foam = bath time boat

Paper/shape boat  This was a great continuation of math, since Caleb’s in the middle of the “shape” unit.

Squanto  This stretched Caleb’s attention span, but he picked up most of the story.

Youtube video

Thank you notes (which I still need to get in the mail!)

Sorting thankful thoughts (16 food, 13 fun/toys, 3 people)—We added some more people after this activity!

Placing the story disc on the world map.  Since this wasn’t part of our Five in a Row curriculum, Caleb got to draw own version of the Mayflower.  I especially love his rendition of the United States flag he felt he needed to add. 

It’s beginning to look a lot like Christmas!

We’ve starting decorating our Jesus tree.

He left the lights on

Reason #467.5 I have the best husband in the world:

He left the Christmas tree lights on all night because he knew I’d see them and enjoy them. 

90 years

November 14th.  90 years apart.  Happy birthday, Grandma!  Ava held out past midnight just for you. ;-) We’re honored that Ava gets to share her birthday with someone as special as you. 

Dear Ava Agapé

I am so excited to meet you.  You’ve made yourself known as you start jumping and jiving every night around 10 pm, throwing crazy dance parties.  I think you’ve had more cases of the hiccups than Caleb and Sophia combined!  I’m looking forward to seeing your face, touching your little fingers and toes, and showing you off to Caleb and Sophia.  They are so excited and are asking about you and your birthday constantly.  I think what I’m most excited about is seeing you snuggle up in your daddy’s arms.  You’ll find that he’s a champion snuggler!

While we await your arrival, I thought I’d take advantage of a little extra time and share how we decided on your name.  Ava Agapé, we love you already even though we barely know you.  We want your name to remind you of the God who loves you already, when he already knows your birthday and every day after that.  He knows your good days and your bad days, your strengths and weaknesses, and he loves you.  He loves you so much he gave Jesus, his Son, so you could have true life.  It’s that kind of life-giving, hope-inspiring, sacrificial, unconditional, and powerful love that your name reminds us of.  We pray it’ll lead you to do the same. 

Ava, meaning life-giver, stems form the name Eve, which reminds us not only of the mother of all mankind, but even more so of the God who gave Eve life.  God, the Creator of the universe with all its delicacies, complexities, and beauty, made life out of nothing, simply by speaking.  If God can do that, is anything too hard for him?  Whatever you need, he can provide.  He’s ordained and planned each of your days and will sustain you and give you life through Jesus.  We pray you’ll view each breath you take as a gift from our Creator God, who gives and sustains true life. 

Not only did God give life in creation, but also through his Son, Jesus.  Agapé is a word that describes the kind of sacrificial, life-giving love that Jesus has shown through his death and resurrection.  How amazing is it that God gave his Son, his perfect and only Son, over to death so that you and I could live!  When Jesus died, he took our sin on himself, paying the penalty that we should pay, and offering us forgiveness, redemption, and life in return.  This is not a fair trade.  This is not a love that we can earn or ever deserve, yet we can know without a doubt that it’s true.  God, the creator of the universe, loves you, Ava Agapé. We pray you will always know that fact and be amazed by it. 

God’s love is so much more than a simple little letter can describe, so make sure you remember these passages from the Bible.  (1 John 3:16, Psalm 136, Romans 8:28-39, Romans 5:8, Philippians 2:1-11, 1 John 4:9-12, 1 Corinthians 13) I’m also praying Ephesians 3 for you.  In verses 17-19, it says, “I pray that you, being rooted and established in love, may have power, together with all the saints, to grasp how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ, and to know this love that surpasses knowledge—that you may be filled to the measure of all the fullness of God.” This is my prayer for you. 

With love,

Mom

More pictures

Superstar Siblings

When can I hold her?

Bringing cupcakes and balloons for Ava’s birthday party.

Tickle, tickle, tickle!

Caleb reading a story he wrote for Ava.  It’s something about a fat bat hitting a ball, which hits the snow, which hits the snow plow. 

A Dim Reflection

Yesterday as we were packing up our things to come home from the hospital, I discovered several ultrasound pictures from Tuesday morning.  I laughingly offered to show them to Luke, who hadn’t even seen them yet.  Somehow ultrasound pictures don’t have the same pull when you’re holding the real baby in your arms. 

Quite the contrast!

Can you imagine the difference between what and how we see now and what heaven will be like?  It reminded me of 1 Corinthians 13 where it says, “For now we see only a reflection as in a mirror; then we shall see face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I am fully known.”  How exciting is that?!

We’re Home!

Welcome to our world!

"Welcome to our world! It's a beautiful world..." So goes the theme song to Word World, which has been stuck in my head the past few nights and is a favorite of Caleb and Sophia.

Welcome, Ava Agapé! We are excited to show you all the beautiful things God put in our world, including you!

Ava Agapé was born on November 14, 2012 at 12:39 am weighing 7 lbs. 11 oz. and measuring 21 inches long.

Ava's name is meant to always remind her (and us) of God's life -giving love, the selfless, sacrificial, hope-inspiring love shown by Jesus Christ.

Stay tuned for pictures.

Waiting

Psalm 139:16 “All the days ordained for me were written in your book
before one of them came to be.”

Although we’re all anxiously awaiting your arrival, we’re trusting God’s perfect timing.  See you soon, Baby Girl!

Sophia’s new room

When Grandma stayed with us this summer and Sophia cried over loaning her rocker to Grandma, I knew it was time to move quickly and get Sophia out of the nursery and into her own room before she felt any jealousy over the baby taking her room. 

Moving “quickly” meant several coats of paint on the walls and trim, new blinds and window treatments, a shelf for her books and stuffed animals, a letter for her wall, and a few pictures to make it her own.

Now that she’s been in her room several months, the nursery is no longer Sophia’s old room, but the baby’s room, and Sophia loves the simple decorations on her walls and bed. 

Thankful

We’re continuing our tradition of practicing thankfulness throughout the month of November.  Here’s a sampling of what our kids have come up with so far:

I love Sophia’s randomness.  She’s thankful for her birthday even though it was 6 months ago.  The little circles and lines are when Sophia wrote her own.  And in case you think Luke’s suddenly had a change of heart, the puppy refers to Sophia’s stuffed puppy.  Of course when Sophia says she’s thankful for “Mommy” and “Daddy,”  it melts my heart. 

Caleb’s list so far: handwriting with wet sponge during preschool, chalkboards, pasta, playing pretend mailman, ketchup on food I don’t like, turkey, favorite foods (PB&J, ice cream, cold pepperoni pizza, spaghetti), candy, trick or treat candy, math, sweet cinnamon rolls, Grandpa and Grandma Baker taking us to Chick-Fil-A, chicken nuggest, ham. 

Most of them have to do with food.  Maybe we should ask them what they’re thankful for outside of mealtime. 

Here’s one that Caleb helped Sophia write:  EAPPLE  translation: APPLE when you run out of room at the end of the paper.

I’m thankful for beautiful November days like today where we can spend the morning at the park, extra days beyond my due date to relax and enjoy my family, time with close friends, sweet rolls, and coconut-lime sugar cookies.  Considering I’m 9 months pregnant, I simply can’t leave off good food.

Preschool Curriculum 2012

Preschool Co-op:  Caleb’s “friend” preschool that he attends once a week with 6 other kids.  I value this for the relationships both Caleb and I get to have, as well as the social skills Caleb gets to practice.  i.e. actually talking to someone outside our family, following instructions from a non-parent authority figure, etc. Thankfully, we’ve been blessed by a great group of friends to do this with!

Five in a Row, Volume 1:  I love the concept. Read the same picture book five days in a row and complete related extension activities in various subject areas.  This is highly motivational for Caleb and gets our preschool time off to a good start.  Caveat: The actual Five in a Row book/book list is sparse.  I usually end up supplementing with my own ideas, and I may end up coming up with my own book list before long. 

Phonics Pathways:  After stalling out this summer while using Teach Your Child to read in 100 Easy Lessons, we tried Phonics Pathways (mostly since the public library had a copy).  Phonics is still not nearly as fun as math, but so far I’ve seen Caleb make a lot of progress in 5-10 minutes a day. 

Singapore Math: “Mommy, I love maf,” Caleb reiterates. Like father, like son. Motivation is never an issue with math.  In fact, math motivates Caleb to finish his phonics.

Handwriting: We started by trying out Explode the Code, but I think we’re about ready to quit using it.  The phonics concepts are extremely simple for Caleb, but the handwriting is difficult, relying only on tracing and copying and starting with some of the more difficult letters to write.  Since Caleb has been a reluctant writer, we’ve gone to using chalkboards and some concepts from Handwriting Without Tears, which has been really effective with Caleb.  For someone who didn’t want to write at all at the beginning of fall, he’s learned a lot!  Even Sophia has picked up a few letters, “H” being her favorite for some reason. 

I also toyed with the idea of beginning some letter of the week activities with Sophia, but decided it was too much for me to plan and organize.  Sophia is just as concept tagging along with Caleb’s preschool curriculum right now. 

Tradition?

As a reward for enduring so many doctor’s visits with me over the course of this pregnancy, I treated Caleb and Sophia to ice cream today.  How many times do we need to go out for ice cream near my due date for it to become tradition? 

Caleb wasn’t as apprehensive as last time:

Let me count the ways

Yet one more reason I love Luke.  Even though I know he would have preferred to sleep in, he took me to see the sunrise. Thankfully for him, this was before daylight savings. 

Proud of them!

 

On her own initiative, she gave several of her burp cloths to the baby.  Now she wants to share her class at church with the baby. 

He raked leaves for an hour for someone who couldn’t and didn’t want to stop because we didn’t get all the leaves.  Since then his pretend play has included fixing a roof for someone who couldn’t do it themselves. 

Praying these glimpses of generosity grow!