Feasts - Skipping/subbing/changing weeks

[cbollin]

I KNOW it is HIGHLY recommended that you do the feasts in CTG. It is not that I want to skip them, just that I am pregnant and feeling sick and fatigued all the time and we are just plain going to have to skip the fall feasts if we start in August as planned. I am hoping that we can find some type of movies or videos that we could use to give the kids the gist of the feasts without actually doing them. I have a found a few short video resources on the 700 Club website but was wondering if anyone else had any ideas on videos or movies that we could use??

no movie ideas...oh well... probably something out there

but when I did ctg first time... we didn't do the feasts that much either. read the sections from the book together. it was ok. kwim? well.. ok.. on the one where they live in tents.. we made a tent in the basement with couch cushions and had a snack inside of it while reading the book.

when I did ctg the second time... I was in the midst of moving out of state... if any thing in what I did might help you to scale back at all or have some pictures to show or stories to tell?
http://board.mfwbooks.com/viewtopic.php ... 770#p52622
or
http://board.mfwbooks.com/viewtopic.php ... =25#p53005

you might see if there is a messianic synagogue near you and ask if you can visit or learn a bit more, or maybe they have some resources to help?

it's ok to skip or scale back... they are stand alone units and if you just read,, it's ok.. you could plan for a Sunday (if that's your normal church day) to be a full day to just rest. and that's sabbath there . Rosh Hashanah.... snack time with apples and honey.

I took a memory from Julie, Shane and Reid's experience and used a coke bottle to blow for the shofar.

I definitely didn't do major stuff...

-crystal

[Buttercup78]

Thank you. I read through those links and links off links. I see "Fiddler on the Roof" recommended, so there's one movie! I will read through as we go and see what things we can do simply to get the ideas of each celebration.

[s_duguid]

Our library carried some Schlessinger videos about Jewish holidays and traditions. My library has these 3: Jewish-American Heritage, Hanukkah/Passover, and Rosh Hashanah/Yom Kippur.

[MelissaB]

Hi, Nikki -

Really, you'll have a great year whether you do the feasts or not.

If you don't feel good about leaving out the feasts, keep your Biblical Feasts book until next year for Rome to Reformation. Sabbat, Passover, Hannukah - all of those are significant in the study of Christ's life as well. (And, there's a great bread recipe in BF on p. 39. )

[mr.hickswife]

Hi Nikki!

I just wanted to let you know your not alone!! I too am skipping the feasts this year and pregnancy is much my reason too. I'm excited to hold onto the book and do them someday. I plan on discussing them, especially how they point to Christ...and *maybe* do a lapbook or something. In the Rose Book of Bible Charts, Maps & Timelines there are some really nice charts that I can reproduce (copyright permits up to 300 copies of individual pages!) and either turn into a lapbook project or just keep posted - by our family calendar- so we can *remember* them

Rose Book it's a great resource!
search for: Rose Book of Bible Charts, Maps, and Time Lines [Spiral-bound], Rose Publishing (Author)

Hugs!
Roni

DS10, DS9, DD 6, DD 4 and #5 due in Nov! Finished ECC and back for more!!

[Julie in MN]

Here are some Passover videos:
http://board.mfwbooks.com/viewtopic.php ... 840#p49840

I also wanted to mention that even if you aren't up to the fall feasts, you might keep it open right now as to whether you'll do the spring feasts. Passover is followed by "counting the omer for 49 days, which is a fun announcement each morning and gluing a piece of barley on a chart, so pretty easy. The final feast is on the 50th day of counting the omer, and it is Pentacost (pente=50), so very often your church will be celebrating that anyways.

Julie

[momma2boys]

We did CTG last year in the midst of a major move and so we didn't do the majority of the feasts. We read about them and talked about them though. We did watch Fiddler on the Roof which was fun. The one feast that our whole family did that we really, really enjoyed was the Sabbath. We really loved it and I'm so glad that I took the time to do it.

[mr.hickswife]

I just found a great resource for lapbooking the Biblical Feasts and wanted to share!

scroll down to Lapbook section and there is one for each!
http://anna.xanga.com/717329314/item/

[cbollin]

We're are starting week 4 tomorrow. For various reasons, I haven't been able to do justice to the feasts and so my children are not getting the full meaning of them. I feel we are missing out on the heart of CtG. Do you read the Celebrating Feasts out loud to your children? I've been summarizing the chapters to them. Hoping to be able to put more time into the next feast so that we connect with it. I thought we'd be reading more the Scripture too. Anyway, we'll hang in and hopefully get better.

I've done CTG twice... the heart of CTG is not the feasts. Those are hands on learning to absorb the information you summarize to add a cultural element to the year's study. I definitely did not read that book out loud word for word.
first time, we barely did them.

2nd time... everything was scaled back.
here are some ways I scaled back and it was good enough to enjoy and learn. not award winning blog or "going all out", but so what?
http://board.mfwbooks.com/viewtopic.php ... 770#p52622
http://board.mfwbooks.com/viewtopic.php ... 769#p43024
http://board.mfwbooks.com/viewtopic.php ... 9&start=25

our yom kippur was a 30 minute fast before lunch in the midst of staging a house to sell and having real estate showings....

here are spring scale back ideas from many others
http://board.mfwbooks.com/viewtopic.php?f=26&t=4754

Over the year you read a lot of the old testament. like most of the programs in MFW's 5 year cycle, it's all in small bites on a particular day. The way you'd have a dinner salad.... any specific fork full might not be overloaded, but you eat a lot over the whole bowl.

I hope some of those scale back ideas for the next feast help a bit. Yes... we did our "sukkoth" as play tents and moving boxes on a screened porch. and a couch fort in a basement. meals were snacks or whatever we ate that night anyway.

I do hope the year gets better for you.

[One of each]

Thanks Crystal for those thread links. Your ideas are setting me free. It's good to know that I'm not missing the heart of CtG.

I really do love MFW - it has completely changed my homeschool for the better. I've also several friends using it this year after I showed them the ECC curriculum and told them how much we loved it.

[4Truth]

Sharon, I agree with Crystal that the feasts are not the heart of CTG. Some people love to do all the hands-on they possibly can, and some don't. Some just don't have the time. The point of the feasts is to teach the children the significance of them in the lives of the Israelites at that time, as they come up a LOT in the Old Testament (and are referenced sometimes in the NT as well), so God obviously had a reason for them. Also, the feasts are just one of many different links in the Old Testament that show how God preserved the blood line of Christ. (Their preservation by the spreading of the blood over the doors at Passover, for example.) So it all leads TO something. Just reading about them is sufficient if that's all you have time and energy for.

I also wanted to point out that most of the feasts are done during the first several weeks of CTG. Then there's a long gap before you get another one, so... definitely not the heart of the program.

I'm doing CTG with my youngest this year, btw. Loving it! Actually, it ends up being a family study even though the older two are doing their own thing during the daytime, because we're doing CTG with Daddy in the evenings this time around. We do the Bible and read-alouds with Dad after supper (on the evenings that he's home), and then do the "other" stuff with my 9yo (almost 10) during the day. She loves having her notebooks and timelines completed to show Dad when we get together for the next Bible lesson! We're getting a lot more out of the program than we did the first time because circumstances in our family were kind of stressful back then, so schoolwork in general felt "forced". I remember when we did the Sabbath feast (we went all out the first time), that was our "last supper" before Daddy left for Army training and he was gone for several months. I'm glad we did the full feast then. We're not doing full feasts this time, but are just reading about them. Instead, we're getting more out of the the rest of the program as we have lots of great discussion and are noticing "little" things in the Scripture that we didn't see before. The lightbulb is coming on left and right even for my youngest.

My oldest has a good bit to contribute to the family discussion, too, since she's done AHL.

That's one neat thing about MFW. You get different things out of it at different times in your life. Different seasons and all that. I'm so thankful for how the Holy Spirit uses sometimes-familiar things to continually teach us (and our children) as we grow and are sanctified!

[HeyChelle]

Week 7 here.
We loved the first feast, but have skipped the next two because we were going out of town or had a birthday, etc...
We will be going through CTG again, so we will have another chance to go through the feasts as a family.

[One of each]

Sharon, I agree with Crystal that the feasts are not the heart of CTG.

Thank you for your response to my post. I'm feeling good heading into Sukkoth. I read the chapter on it this morning and I know my kids are going to be excited to build and decorate the booth. We have pieces of lattice leftover from our old deck that the kids can use. I'm embarrassed at what I said about thinking there'd be more Scripture reading in CTG. I found plenty of Scripture in the Celebrating Feasts book to correlate to the feast. Now, if we can find our Pyramid books, we'll be golden.

[Julie in MN]

We have finished our first week of CTG (which was great!) but as I look ahead I notice that we will be out of town for week 4 and most of week 5. And it seems like it's important that the feast in week 4 follow week 3.
So, would there be any reason I couldn't wait and begin Rosh Hashanah in week 6 and then do the other feasts in the weeks that follow?
Thanks!
Stephanie

Hi Stephanie,
I don't see any reason you can't wait. Folks start CTG all different times of the year and do fine. Some also wait until the "actual date" of the feast.

Things to keep in mind:
- Some of the "school work" on your grid during feast weeks includes preparing for the feasts, so hopefully you can still do most of your prep during school hours in the later weeks and not feel it is a lot of extra work.

- Along the same lines, if you put off the feasts, then be aware that you'll have more time for schoolwork during the weeks they were originally scheduled, and less time set aside during the weeks you actually decide to do the feasts. I guess basically that means to feel free to move ahead faster now and slow down later, as you see a need.

- The actual date for Rosh Hashanah this year (I just looked it up ) is Sept. 4-6. One quick option is to find a local messianic congregation (Jewish followers of Christ) and attend their service instead of doing a celebration at home. One near us had a daytime service and an evening one, and we tried the earlier one during school time and another time did the evening one so dh could attend. You could talk to the congregation office about which service is best for children, most welcoming of guests, etc.

- There are some threads in the archives on adapting the feasts to different family needs, such as this one http://board.mfwbooks.com/viewtopic.php?f=11&t=13064

HTH,
Julie

[MelissaB]

I agree w/ Julie. Having the feast then will be perfectly fine. It will be just as rich of an experience.

[extrafor6]

Thank you ladies!