"Thought breeds thought; children familiar with great thoughts take as naturally to thinking for themselves as the well-nourished body takes to growing; and we must bear in mind that growth, physical, intellectual, moral, spiritual, is the sole end of education." ~ Charlotte Mason

Monday, December 1, 2014

December First: The First Day of Advent!

Good Morning!

We are all very excited to begin the 25 days of advent!  The kids worked hard on their Jesse Tree last week.  I had a different Jesse Tree planned for this season but they liked last year's one so well that we did it again.  The one for this year wouldn't have been as interactive and they really wanted to participate in building it.  It's hung up and waiting for the first decoration to adorn its branches.  If you have never heard of a Jesse Tree, have a read through here for an explanation.  I had considered buying the pre made Jesse Tree Ornaments Ann Voskamp has on her site but the kids really wanted to colour the ornaments themselves, so I downloaded them from A Holy Experience.  It became very clear to me that they wanted to be a part of how The Jesse Tree unfolded.  I have to say, I am deeply impacted by how meaningful this whole process has become for them.

We will be using Ann Voskamp's Unwrapping the Greatest Gift to do our advent readings from.  It's a wonderful book with gorgeous illustrations throughout.  A family keepsake, to be used time and time again.
The Jesse Tree!

I made a Kindness Elf to go along with our advent season.  She will be hiding in parts of the house each day with a note.  The activities will be geared towards random acts of kindness during this advent season.  I will be using the suggestions in Unwrapping the Greatest Gift along with suggestions on the Facebook group: The Kindness Elves Page to help me formulate ideas and acts of service.




Lily is all ready to go this morning!  I crocheted her from a pattern I found on line.  She was originally called Lily the Christmas Elf, so I tweaked the name for our purposes!  If you are a crocheter and would like the pattern, here it is!  Lily is all ready with her note, some ornaments for the kids' tree along with ornaments for the kids to make up for friends!


I will be blogging about our adventures from time to time throughout the advent season.  Please feel free to join us for this amazing time!    

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