General Ideas for God's Creation from A to Z

[henryteachers]

I wrote a review on my blog about using My Father's World K. This is our 2nd time using it, so I wanted a place to share all my tips, pros and cons, and printables in using the program. If you're interested, here's the link:
http://alittleinspiration.wordpress.com ... en-review/

Nice review! I appreciate the booklist grid for the Let's Read and Find Out books!

[Ceallaigh]

I loved that the creation unit had a hymn to sing everyday (for the first 5 days anyway, we are singing it everyday) so I found some hymns to go with the other units and themes I tried to make them repeat at least once during the year so my son will learn the hymns.

[Sweetiemommy]

If you are looking for a beautiful, inspired version of the hymn, check out the version by a band called "Gungor" on their "A Creation Liturgy" album. It is lovely.

[clantry]

We just started MFW this year and are loving it. I am blogging about each unit and am including lots of pictures of each project as well as some printables I have created to go along with some of the units. I just wanted to post it here in case it would be helpful to anyone. It is www.simplyhomeblog.com

[bethinga]

This year, in K, I've made the "Words to Remember" unit cards into train cars.

We started out with fewer trains, of course, so I always use the extra space to display our art. We also used to have the number chart and letter of the week on the board. (As you can see, it's a dry erase board, but we use it like a bulletin board.)

I made the first "engine" car (with the card with Psalm 24:1), my son the Kindergartener made the second "engine" car, my daughter the preschooler made the third, and my dh made the last one (it's a bullet train, per ds's request). In this way, we included everyone, and that makes it really special.

[kanderson]

What a really neat idea! I might have to try this when we start Kindy again next year

... and yes, the pictures did show up.

[lea_lpz]

I love the train idea , too cute! I'll have to try that when I do k again in 2014-2015.

[robertb10502]

Has anybody made sensory bins to go with every unit of K?? I want something that goes along with what we are doing. Example....Sun - blue rice - sky, green Easter grass - grass, felt sun, and number 4 to help remember what day of creation. My child I am doing K with and my 4 year old can then play in it while I work with my older 2. My kids all love sensory bins so just something that goes along with the unit to keep the little ones busy. Anybody have any ideas?? Thanks!!

Your sensory bin idea sounds really nice for those little ones. I did find one other short thread on them that might have an idea in there?
http://board.mfwbooks.com/viewtopic.php ... 806#p75806

Have fun! Those little tots can never get enough hands-on, I think!

Thank you for the link. I will check it out. I agree about never getting enough hands on

[hsm]

I think this is a great idea! I use sensory "pans" (ie cake pan full of sensory items) for my preschooler and a 2.5 year old I watch. My preschooler will be doing K this year but the 2 year old loves doing this. She prefers to be at the table playing with this type of stuff rather than in a different room playing alone. It involves her and keeps her busy and happy. Maybe I will look into this idea a little further with the themes of K/ECC in mind. Thanks for the idea!

[kanderson]

The children are loving learning the My Father's World hymn (they learned Amazing Grace and a couple other hymns last year) . I'm just curious if anyone continued singing hymns throughout the K year to correlate with each weekly topic. So far I plan to teach them

"Take my life and let it be" for the Us unit,
"On Christ the Solid Rock I stand" for the Rock unit,
"For the beauty of the earth" for the Y unit theme of thanking God for this beautiful world (thinking that hymn will be as good ending to the program as "This is My Father's World" is for the beginning of the program) .

If any of you can think if any hymns that seem to fit other MFW K units like a glove, please let me know. Thanks in advance.

"As the deer panteth for the water" for the W/ water unit

[Julie in MN]

I wanted to be sure you saw that there are hymns in a few more of the weeks already. Let's see, one in J, M, L, and O?

There are also other children's songs in some weeks and some of them are Bible songs, such as "The Wise Man Built His House Upon the Rock and "Be Careful Little Eyes." The A song could be called a hymn or prayer (Johnny Appleseed one).

If you want to do some more traditional hymns, we used Joni Eareckson Tada's books, Hymns for a Kid's Heart. I think the only ones in print now are the Passion hymns and Christmas hymns, but those include some nice ones to hear children singing in praise.

HTH,
Julie

[Colleen]

For some reason I think "Standing on the Promises" would fit for T-T-Turtle - I don't quit I persevere!

Also, off the top of my head, how about "He Leadeth Me" for N-N-Nest - God takes good care of me.

If you consider "Shine Jesus Shine" a hymn, then that would be great for S-S-Sun - Jesus is the Light of the World.

Here's a perfect one "All Things Bright and Beautiful, All Creatures Great and Small...." for D-D-Dinosaur-Big and Small God made them all.

"Everybody sing praise to the Lord" for O-O-Octopus - Even the octopus praises the Lord. (I'm not sure if this hymn is as common, but we sang it growing up in the Church of God.)

G-G-Goat - Jesus died for my sins...boy you could probably find a dozen hymns for that one!

H-H-Horse - I obey right away. How about "Trust and Obey"?

OK, I'm having too much fun with this post. I'm looking through my daughters little scrapbook of badges from MFW K and writing the worlds longest post, but I'm only half way through the book so I'm not stopping now! (but you can skip to the end, I don't mind!

"A Christian Home" for P-P-Penguin - I show love to everyone, especially my family. CHEO has us sing that every day at their homeschool conferences. Love it! You have to read the words to this one! http://lyrics.astraweb.com/display/177/ ... _home.html

"Search Me O God" (words by Orr, tune Maori) for Z-Z-Zebra - I can't hide anything from God.

I might use the Doxology for V-V-Vegetable - God gives me all that I need.

I guess that's more than enough for tonight!

Great list, Colleen!!

[MelissaB]

Just wanted to share a reminder with you wonderful moms doing Kindergarten and ECC - Answers in Genesis for Kids site has wonderful science videos on animals. (Free.)

Enjoy,
Melissa

[Etta]

When my son does the Sound Discrimination page on day 2. Instead of just circling and marking out the correct and wrong answers respectively, I have him write the beginning letter for each picture. Also, for working on numbers I have started using the cuisine rods orange for 10 and white for ones. He has to build numbers with them or figure out the number that I have built. Really love this curriculum. So easy for me as a mom to have everything put together and ready to go.

[Etta]

Some favorites that my 5 1/2 y.o. and 4 y.o love are Jim Weiss stories on CD. We live an hour from town so we listen to them constantly. My kids don't even want to go into the store after sitting in the car for an hour because they want to finish the story. These audio stories are saving my voice. Also, my Aunt gave me 10+ older chapter books on famous people. They are a part of the Signature Books series published by Grosset & Dunlap New York. We have read about Davy Crockett, Martha Washington, Crazy Horse (too scary, we stopped after a few chapters), Leif Ericson and now are reading about Ulysses S. Grant by Jeannette Covert Nolan copyright 1952. I, as a mom, am learning so much from these fantastic chapter books and my children can hardly stand it when I stop at the end of a chapter. Love learning and seeing my children grow along with me.

[akoldenhoven]

For those of you who already have their First Grade - Learning God's Story, you can use the Pattern Blocks a little early. I found a set of wonderful free printable mats that use the pattern blocks. I printed the letters back-to-back on card stock, but might laminate them if they become a favorite activity. The site has many other great printable pattern block mats, so you might use the link for other grades too.

http://raebear.net/goodies/patternblocks/alphabet.html