Homeschool

How I do Morning Family Devotions with 3 Kids

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Morning family devotions with 3 kids

I want to instill the practice of morning devotions with my children. We already do something right before bed, but I wanted to do something in the morning.

Previously, my oldest was supposed to read her devotional each day and write the focus verse. However, I don’t think she always did this or did it thoughtfully. She needed more accountability. I also wanted to instill the practice in all of my children and have them see it done each day.

My new plan:

We will all do devotions together each morning. Each child has an age appropriate devotion or children’s Bible to look at or read including the 3 year old. I will also have my Bible to read. This way, everyone sees the others doing their devotions, plus they see mom reading her own Bible.

I will usually read part of a proverb from my Bible out loud while the kids look through their books.

Then, I will read aloud from the youngest two’s devotion

Then I will ask my oldest what hers was about

So far this has worked for a few weeks. They know and expect that we do a devotion each day. I keep it short since the attention span of the youngest 2 are short.

These are the books I use:

Baby Bible ABC for my 3 year old

Day by Day Begin to Read Bible for my 5 year old

Adventure Bible Books of Devotions for my 8 year old

Cat & Dog Attitudes Homeschool Curriculum Review

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Catanddog attitudes curriculum review

Cat & Dog Attitudes! Living to Make God Famous! by UnveilingGlory

I saw this study at my homeschool convention last summer and purchased it. The part that appealed to me was that they teach character concepts using a cat and dog as a visual. A cat is an animal that is “me” focused. A dog is an animal that is “others” focused. Our goal is to be more like a dog – other’s focused. In this way we will glorify God.

There are 30 weeks of lessons with 3 lessons a week along with a weekly Bible verse.

Books that I use:

  • Parent’s Guide – It’s easy to read and tells you what to say.
  • Children’s Workbook – Gives some activities for your child and questions to answer for each lesson.
  • I heard Good News Today 2: Big Life – This book has many stories about various individual’s conversions to Christ in other parts of the world. The stories are relatively shortish and have nothing to do with the daily lesson focus. However, my kids are bored by them. They do get old after awhile since they have the same theme of a broken person coming to know Christ. I know that’s what Christianity is about, but the stories felt monotonous after awhile. Also, some stories talk about alcoholism & drug abuse, although briefly. I didn’t like that for my young kids.
  • Because He Liked It! 101 Glimpses of God’s Glory in the Animal World – We love this book! This cartoon like book focuses on the “strange” attributes that God created certain animals with. It’s fascinating! Good for science.
  • 102 Differences Between Cats & Dogs for kids. Love it! We read a few of these cartoons each day of the lesson plan. They visually help explain the difference in behavior between a cat and a dog.

My Opinion:

I am now half-way through the curriculum. The theme of “How to make God famous” doesn’t sit well with me. I’ve changed the wording to “How to glorify God”.

I still like the use of the dog & cat visual to talk about character traits. I like the memory verses.

We don’t always read the missionary story each day, so I supplement with something else. Otherwise, the curriculum is pretty light.

Do I regret using this curriculum? No. I like the cat & dog visual. That being said. I would prefer just to use the 102 Differences Between Cats & Dogs for kids book and do my own thing.

 

Homeschool Spider Unit for Charlotte’s Web Book

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Spider Unit

We are currently reading through “Charlotte’s Web” by E. B. White. As part of our lesson, we are doing a unit on spiders. Click each picture to find the download.

web

Things we studied:

Life Cycle of a Spider.  I found an advanced page for my 2nd grader and a simpler one for my Kinder.

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Free download from teacherspayteachers.com

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Read a Mini Book about Spiders

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http://educationtothecore.com/2013/10/spiders-free-mini-book-and-writing/

Labeled parts of a spider – both children liked this. The Kinder practiced cutting & pasting. The 2nd grader practiced her writing instead of cutting and pasting.

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Worked on Fact or Opinion statements about spiders for 2nd grader

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Practiced some counting with spider counting cards for the Kinder

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We read “The Very Busy Spider” by Eric Carle. Kinder had to organize the animal pictures in the order they occured in the story. 2nd Grader had to write the names of the animals in order.

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Overall, my kids seemed to enjoy our unit study on spiders. Both were interested in it. It wasn’t too easy for the 2nd grader and not too “boring” for the Kinder.