Advent Days 4, 5, and 6

We have been really loving our family Bible time each evening...I love having my husband participate with us! It's going so well, after Advent, we'll continue to have our Bible study at night, instead of in the mornings. The girls love doing "school-time" with their Dad, too!

Day 4: Abraham

After reading the bible story and coloring, Izzie and Mac liked putting a ton of stars in the sky!

On our Jesse tree.......star ornament for Abraham

Day 5: Sarah

Again, we read the bible story and Izzie colored a simple picture of Sarah and Baby Issac.

Then, she placed Baby Isaac on our Jesse Tree........

Baby Isaac went missing for a few days! Mac loves "babies", so when she saw Baby Isaac on the tree, she just had to have him! She played and played with him, it was adorable watching her rock the little babe! Somehow, they were disconnected and he went missing! Thankfully, we found him!

Day 6: Issac

We decided not to discuss the sacrifice of Isaac with Izzie. Instead, we focused on Isaac's marriage to Rebekah and how they had twins, Jacob and Esau.

However, we did use a ram for the daily Jesse tree ornament......

Advent Day 3: Noah's Ark

The girls are really enjoying our nightly Advent activities! This evening, they were ready to roll right after dinner...Izzie grabbed the Bible binder and Mac got the Bible!

After reading about Noah's Ark, we placed our special ornament, The Ark, on our Jesse Tree.

Izzie colored a Noah's Ark page...found here.

Then, she retold us the story using her sequence cards.

I found this adorable Noah's Ark skipping counting activity. Izzie had fun lining the animals up in the correct order to get on the ark!

This was also a great review for her Skipping Counting by 2's song!

In addition, she completed this Noah's Ark file folder game.

She had to sort the animals...she did very well with this activity with my simple explanations. I told her that mammals have hair, birds have feathers, and reptiles have neither.

However, she was confused about why a bat is a mammal...

Izzie: "Mommy, bats don't have hair! They have wings, so a bat is a bird."

Me: "Bats do have wings, but they don't have feathers...they actually have body hair."

Izzie: "Ummm"....(I don't think I convinced her!)

The whale also gave her problems.

Izzie: "A whale is a fish. Where do fish go?"

Me: "That's a tricky one! Whales are mammals."

Izzie: "Whales don't have hair, that's silly! A whale is a fish!"

Me: "Nope, whales really do have body hair, so they are mammals too."

Izzie: "Ummm"...(again, not convinced!)

Advent Day 2: Adam and Eve

This is how I found the girls....anxiously waiting for Bible time!

For the second day of Advent, we studied the story of Adam and Eve.

Then, we placed our special ornament, an apple, on our Jesse Tree.

Lastly, we each colored a page of the story...quality family time...priceless!

Advent Day 1: Creation

Last year, I was really inspired by Nicole at Tired, Need Sleep and her family tradition of a Jesse Tree for Advent. This year, I knew I wanted to incorporate a Jesse Tree into our family tradition too! I am so thankful that Nicole took the time to share her Jesse Tree information...schedule of Bible stories, prayer cards, and ornaments for the tree.

Sunday, the first day of Advent, we explained the Jesse Tree concept to Izzie, who was thrilled to learn that she was going to have her own little Christmas tree with very special ornaments, that she would receive each night. I really wanted my husband to part of our new tradition; therefore, we are waiting until evening to read our focused Bible story with craft/activity.

Advent Day 1: Creation

After reading the Story of Creation, Izzie placed the world ornament on the tree.

(I simply made it out of felt and added some glitter glue for details.)

She also colored this (I created in Word and thought that I saved it to share, oops...I'll recreate and add a printable one in the near future) to add to her Bible Study binder.

Then, Izzie used her story sequencing cards to retell us the story.

I added a felt board (one side of a cereal box covered in felt) to her Bible Study binder with her sequence cards...I'm leaving her binder out, so she can have access to all the materials.

Izzie and Mac really enjoyed playing with their Creation Bean Bags...Izzie was using them to retell the story and to match up with the sequence cards.

I'm so thankful that we're starting this new tradition with our girls! It's a great way to explain the real reason for the Christmas season.