Why

Reasons I’m doing alphabet activities with Caleb:

• Boredom is a choice, and I’m not choosing it.
• Boredom spells trouble.
• It’s winter, and we’re stuck inside. When we do the crab walk, the stir crazies stay away longer. 
• It helps me think of fun things to do with Caleb.
• Caleb is enjoying it.
• It’s an opportunity to fill up our thoughts and time with good and true things instead of complaints or simple frivolity (although some of our alphabet activities are definitely frivolous). 
• Preschoolers understand more than I think they understand.  
• Translating attributes of God and Bible stories into a form that a preschooler can understand and retain challenges what I know and believe. 

I’m not doing alphabet activities because…

• I want Caleb to be the geekiest preschooler around.
• Caleb needs to learn how to read right now. He is the brightest, smartest kid around, you know.
• If we sing the B-I-B-L-E, Caleb and I will be more likely to get into heaven.

Daddy

Explaining attributes of an omniscient, loving Creator God to a two year old can be a challenge.  But a challenge that I think will pay off—both in my life and in Caleb’s.  The other day Caleb opened my Bible and pretending to read, said, “God loves me.  God loves Mommy.  God loves Sophia.”  Then he closed the Bible and was off to play some more.  Yes!  You’re getting it!  The God of the universe loves you.  Incredible, isn’t it? 

As I tried to explain to Caleb how God is “Daddy” to those who believe him, I came up with a few similarities between Father God and an earthly father.

A Daddy:

• loves.
• gives an inheritance, both materially (providing for physical needs) and emotionally/spiritually (leaving a legacy). Ephesians 1:3, 18-21; Philippians 4:19; Matthew 6:11
• disciplines. Hebrews 12:5-11
• listens. (Psalm 55:17 and many other Psalms)
• is in charge.
• comforts when his children are hurt. 2 Corinthians 1:3-5
• teaches.
• guides.

A son:

• often looks like his father.
• mimics his father.
• obeys his Father (or rebels against him). 
• clings to his Daddy in uncomfortable or scary situations.
• belongs. Ephesians 1:4-5

What do you have to add to my list? 

Letter D

Attribute of God: Daddy
I spent too long trying to figure out how to explain “defend” or “deliver” to Caleb, and then as I was sitting and talking with him, it hit me.  Caleb knows what a Daddy is.  Let’s do that! 

Story: David and Goliath
Originally this was meant to tie in with the theme of God as our Defender, but we did it anyway. 

Song: Only a Boy Named David (Instead of watching this video, we just played and sang at the piano.)

Food: Donuts (for Daddy’s birthday); Dumplings

Common vocabulary: donut, drum, drop, dinosaur, dog, duck, Daddy, door, down, dump truck

People We Know: Daddy, Deborah, Aunt Dawn, Danielle, Miss Doris

Art/Craft: Making Goliath

Video: Various Stomp and other drumming clips on youtube including Fanfare for the Common Man.

Activities:

• Dropping stuff (cotton ball, soccer ball, piece of paper) over the staircase.  The scientific observation of fast and slow was a bit beyond Caleb’s concentration level.  He was more interested in saying “ready, set, go” or just dropping things over the rail. 
• Dominoes
• Drums: Pied Piper Percussion Ensemble concert at the mall. The focus that Caleb lacked while dropping things over the staircase was made up for during this 30-minute concert.  Sophia also enjoyed this concert, making friends and trying to take a nearby preschooler’s lunchbox. 

David and Goliath

With the help of the packing paper from these boxes, Caleb and I made an almost life-size Goliath this week.  Goliath was a little short because we don’t have 10 foot ceilings, his hands were mutantly small because I lack artistic skill, and he sported a green nose and various tattoos because Caleb had fun marking him up. After making Goliath, what else do you and a little boy do beside practice hitting Goliath right between the eyes?

Since Caleb was already familiar with the story, I tried to add more detail. (David was a shepherd. God prepared David by helping fight lions and bears.)  The biggest advantage of doing an activity like this is the extra time Caleb and I spent talking about what God did in this story while we drew Goliath, marked him up, and threw balls at him. 

Themes: God is bigger than any giant.  God is able to help you.

Source material: 1 Samuel 17, The Jesus Storybook Bible

I also listened to this clip from DTS Chapel of Rob Styler retelling the story of David and Goliath.  More appropriate for adults, it effectively brought together many of details of the story (that often get overlooked) into an interesting, relevant package. 

Gymnastics

We had the opportunity to go play at Twisters Gymnastics this week with a group from MOPS.  Caleb had a blast, and most of my pictures look like this:

So you won’t get to see how much fun he really had, but you can get the gist. 

Huge trampoline:

Block pit at the end of the trampoline:

Obstacle course:

Bear walk:

Caleb "Reads" to Sophia

Letter C

This week we did a combination of the Letter C and celebrating Martin Luther King, Jr. Day.  We didn’t do a whole lot for MLK Day beside read books with pictures of people different from ourselves.  It worked well to talk about everything God created and then see that in picture and story form. 

Attribute of God: Creator

Story: Creation

Songs: God Made Me by Andrew Peterson and Randall Goodgame (Otherwise known as the blue song because of the video.  I’m tempted to buy the whole album. Warning: The song has been stuck in my head all week; no guarantees it won’t happen to you!)  We’ve also sung a simple God Made Me in the past. 

Craft: Glue clouds (cotton balls) to blue paper

Common vocabulary: cracker, cookie, candle, cake, cut, curious, crab, caterpillar, cup, crayon, colors, cut

Books: Looking out for Sarah, Susan Laughs, Global Babies, Some Kids Use Wheelchairs, Jazz Baby (Caleb likes all of these books.  I like all of them except Some Kids Use Wheelchairs.)

People We Know: Caleb, Grandma Carol, Cornel

Video: We watched “C is for Cookie” on Sesame Street, but Caleb wasn’t very interested.  Every time we tried to watch the video, he would beg for the blue song instead. 

Fun Stuff: Making cookies and the crab walk (not at the same time).  Caleb hasn’t mastered the crab walk yet, but it sure is fun to see him try!