Some links for Thanksgiving:

Exemplify Online:  An article I wrote, A New Tradition for Giving Thanks

Scholastic: The first Thanksgiving.  This is an awesome resource I used with my girls last year.  There’s videos about the first Thanksgiving, life on the Mayflower, and daily life of the Pilgrims and Indians.  You’ll also find some printables here.

Simple Mom has a great article on Hosting Overnight Guests.  If you are planning on having guests this season, check here for some creative ideas to make them cozy and comfortable.

Life in Grace:  Shares her beautiful, yet simple table in Thanksgiving Tabletop

My favorite books for Thanksgiving:  I’ve added the books I read with my kids to my Amazon Shop.  Some of these are available used for as little as $3.50!  I usually try to get them from the library, but I am going to purchase them this year since we read them over and over again.

Today I am posting an idea to get your family involved in giving while celebrating a fun holiday at Heart of the Matter. 

On November 11^th, countries around the world will celebrate Martinmas, the holiday honoring St. Martin of Tours, a Roman soldier-turned monk.  According to legend, St. Martin came upon a scantily clad beggar one night in the snow, and having nothing to offer, he took his sword and cut his cloak in half to share with the man.  That night, St. Martin had a dream in which Christ was wearing half a cloak and said, “Here is Martin, the Roman soldier who is not baptized; he has clad me.”  The next day, Martin ran to be baptized and became a Christian.

In European countries today, festivities range from children parading with paper lanterns behind a man dressed as St. Martin to families eating a feast featuring goose, but the heart of the story is selfless generosity.

Why not hold your own spin-off on Martinmas and round out the celebration with a new tradition that will foster warm, giving hearts in your family?

 

Read the rest here:  A Family Giving Project

Let me know if you try it!

Her little hands hold the china pot carefully.  Biting her lower lip, she pours the boiling water into our dainty cups and gives me a grin.  This is big stuff.  Soleil, my six year old, has been able to use my previously-forbidden tea set for the last year or so.  She plops just one cube of sugar in and barely dips her tea bag before removing it.  She’s basically going to drink hot sugar water.  But I don’t care, because in the next forty five minutes, she’s going to share her heart with me and listen a little as I share some new things about our mighty God. 

Tomorrow, her sister will have her turn.  She likes her tea a little stronger, but still sweet.  She’ll take a little longer to start sharing, but once she does…just try stopping her!  She shares dreams, reflections, answered prayers.  She is so excited when God shows her something and often jumps up from the table to get her prayer journal and share it with me.

Every week, each of my girls has an appointment with me for tea time.  In the past, their tea time was the same day every week, and we would do it before we started school in the mornings.  Since I started the workbox system, I now just make sure I add a tea time note to their box each week.  This special time has become one of my favorite times, and theirs, too.

I think the girls appreciate the one-on-one time and I love hearing about what God is doing in their hearts.  Surely, this is something you can do with boys, too.  Maybe a manly tea pot and mugs, or even milk and cookies would be preferred at a certain age, but the routine of having a regular time set aside just for you is a priceless.  Boy or girl.  My girls know they are not to interrupt while their sis is having tea with me.  I usually keep little sister busy with a project.  Coco can keep herself busy.  That doesn’t mean that they don’t chip in from time to time with a comment from the other room.  But for the most part, they respect each other’s time and stay out of the kitchen.

Wouldn’t you like to set aside a little time each week to focus wholly on each of your kids, and more specifically, God’s work in their lives?  I didn’t have a solid plan when I started this routine, but this is what it has turned into.

1.  We pray

I ask my girl if she’d like prayer especially for any specific thing.  Even though we share all our days, I am sometimes surprised at what is fresh in their minds.  For a grandparent to have a good day, or for a friend to be more loving.  I then pray for them and their week.  Often, they’ll pray for me, too.

2.  We chat

We pour our tea and usually enjoy a small treat.  I told them when we first started that we might not always have a snack on hand.  Yet, there is always something.  Sometimes it is just a slice of toast with cinnamon sugar on it cut into a heart shape.  While we drink our tea, we just talk for a while.   My girls are both big talkers, so this is their time to shine.

3.  For Soleil, I read a story

We have a couple of books that I read from, and then we ask each other questions. The focus is most often either on who God is, or who we are in Christ.  We like Just Mom and Me Having Tea (but all I use from it are the stories).  Sometimes I’ll read right out of the Bible.

4.  For Coco, I will ask her…

“What has your quiet time been like?”  She is working her way through a couple of devotional books and Bible studies, and she’ll share with me what she’s learning.  Sometimes, she’ll have questions.  Often, she’ll share prayers God has put on her heart or scriptures He’s shown her in answer to prayer.  We talk a lot about His will.

5.  I’ll offer my two cents

While our time isn’t super-structured, I will usually end up sharing a story or an insight that relates to what we’ve talked about.  I didn’t actually think of it this way until I went to write this post, but God has been so faithful to bless my mind during these times.  I try to listen more than I speak, and towards the end there is usually something I can say that encourages my girls, or helps them find an answer.  Always, we end up at how to live for Christ daily. 

Tea Time Tips:

Don’t have an agenda.  Once in a while, I’ll have a specific plan, like creating a morning routine. But that is very rare.  More often, I come with no expectations other than to let the girls share their hearts.  There are plenty of opportunities in a normal day to direct, teach, and prompt with questions.  Tea time isn’t about that.  It’s about listening, and then gently guiding as the Lord leads.

Keep it simple.  This way you will be more likely to repeat it every week.  Every once in a while, we’ll have a “celebratory tea,” complete with a tablecloth, multiple treats, and fancy decorations.  Our regular tea time is pretty simple.  Just us, the tea set, a small snack, and our Bibles.

Tune-out distractions.  I don’t answer my phone or anything else during tea, unless it’s my husband.  Usually, I will call him before hand to say hi and see if there’s anything he needs.  Then I can tell him, “Ok I’m off to tea with Coco now, so I’ll talk to you later.”

Occupy younger siblings before-hand.  I think this is one of those times a short video would be a perfect distraction!  Setting up an independent project or task is another way to cut down on interruptions.  Another trick is to let your younger children have their time before the older sibling.  Then you can praise “how nice big sister is being, letting us have this time.  Isn’t that so kind of her?  I know you’ll be just as kind when it’s her turn for tea!” 

Enjoy yourself.  Yes, this is all about the kids.  But the fact is, if you’re bored or checking your watch, your kids will sense that and they’ll begin to dread it, too.  If you say often, “Ooh!  I can’t wait for our tea time!” and show them how much you enjoy spending time with them, they’ll have a better time.

Be creative.  For our first tea time, I sent an invitation to each girl.  I often say that invitations just make everything more fun.  The girls could hardly wait.  Sometimes, I’ll put a tea bag in their workbox, or cut out a card in the shape of a tea pot that says, “Time for tea!”  Other times I’ll just wake them in the morning and the table will already be set so when they come out, they’re surprised.

One of the many blessings of being a mom is that you get to be the person to teach your children how awesome our God is! Don’t you just love it?

Today I am posting over at the Homeschool Classroom with some ideas for creating playtime kits for kids.  This is a fun idea whether you homeschool or not, so swing on my and check it out!

For the last five or six years, I’ve been dreaming up games and activities for my littlest girl. I love being one of her favorite playmates, but it has become clear to me lately that she needs to be able to play on her own just a little bit more.

To encourage her to play on her own (and give mom a little break), I put together some playtime kits…. Click here to read the rest of this post!

Today, September 29, is celebrated all over the world as Michaelmas, or the feast of St. Michael.  I originally read about this holiday in Mrs.Sharp’s Traditions and we tweaked it a little and made our own tradition.  According to Wikipedia, It is based on “the legend” of the archangel Michael who banished Satan from heaven.  Michaelmas is celebrated differently depending on where you live.  If you live in the Mills house, it goes something like this…

First, we read Revelation 12:7-12

Here, we read John’s firsthand account of Michael and his army of angels fighting Satan (the dragon) and his angels.  Satan was defeated and hurled down to Earth where he spends his days as the accuser of the believers.  (But he was filled with fury because he knows his time is short! verse 12)  We then talk a bit about the devil, temptation, and his clever evil ways.  This time is pretty laid back, I just go with the flow of what seems to be on their minds.

If you’d like to have some scriptures on hand, here are a few:

James 1:13-15

Genesis 3:1-6

Ephesians 6:12-18

Then, we make a tasty dragon of our own

I use canned cinnamon roll dough (with 8 rolls) for this.  We roll out 3 pieces into a dragon-ish shape.  Top that with dried fruit and add a top layer of 3 more pieces.  I then cut one of the remaining 2 pieces into triangles and we make spikes.  The last roll we leave as a head and add a raisin eye.  We pop him into the fiery pit ( a 375 oven)  and await his demise (for about 20 minutes). 

Here’s the poor little guy before we cooked him:  (You can see my family time book in the corner of the pic!)

It’s no work of art, but it sure is tasty!  While we’re waiting for the dragon to cook, we clean up and one of the girls gets ready for our next step…

Donning a white robe, one of the kids gets to play Michael.

Once the dragon is out of the oven, we pour the provided icing on top. Then whoever is playing Michael gets to slay the dragon with a big knife.  Supervised, of course.  We do our best angel-soldier looking poses while doing this so I can add our memory to our family time book!

Finally, We Eat the Dragon!

Kids around here prefer their dragons with ice cold milk.  Mommy likes coffee.  This celebration feels like the start of fall to me, so we usually begin brainstorming fall crafts.  It must be the smell.  Today, we were going to make rag dolls, but instead we got caught up talking about Coco’s upcoming birthday and spent all our craft time at the table doing that instead.  Ah, homeschool.  Love it.

You don’t have to wait a year to start your own Michaelmas tradition, it is something just as fun on September 30, or October 1st!

Even before I began homeschooling, we had way too many books around this house. I’ve been buying children’s books since the conception of my first daughter. Book fairs, school book orders, book mail clubs. Actually, I started my collection years before Coco was born. I still have my original Babysitter’s Club books that I saved for my future children. Why wouldn’t I? My fantasy home always had a fully-stocked library complete with plush chairs and wide windows.

Now fast forward twenty or so years. No, no library. Yes, I still have the books. I have drastically simplified our home in the last few years…removing knick knacks and cluttered shelves. The only thing I could not bear to get rid of was our books. I routinely give away novels that I’ve read but I find it impossible to part with my children’s books.

When the girls started sharing a room, there was just not enough room for all their books in one bedroom. Finally, I parted with some chewed up baby board books. Thirteen of them in fact. It felt so good that the next day I boxed up quite a few more and gave them away.

Still, though we had so many! Now that we’re homeschooling, we have even more and I am saving many of Coco’s books for when Soleil gets older. Soleil’s bookshelf was perpetually overflowing and she read the same books over and over. I think too many choices was just overwhelming.

So what did I decide to do with all those books?

In our garage, we have several large filing drawers. Soleil has about 25 books on her bedroom bookshelf at all times. The rest are in the drawers in the garage. (you can easily have used a large storage bin or shelf for this idea.) Every couple of weeks, I will take her “book shopping.”

First, she picks all the books she’d like to exchange from her shelf (usually leaving one or two behind).

Then, she trades those books for books in the garage.

I had the idea to sort the books by season and subject, but I said no to my inner control freak. Soleil can pick whatever books she wants, whether she’s reading about valentines in the summer or not.

Often, I will have a particular idea for a book that goes with something we’re studying. If that’s the case, I’ll just grab it and add it to her pile as a bonus.

Now, her shelves are pretty tidy most of the time and she is reading a variety of books. On a side note, we still use the library frequently. These books are stored in a basket in our living room.

I have to say, book shopping has become a pretty popular activity around here! I plan to keep this in action until my girls grow up and start their own collections.

Unless, of course I move into a house with a library.

I wrote recently about homeschool workboxes and said I would add some ideas on filling them. If you haven’t read about workboxes, Read this post first.

Today, I wrote an article on Squidoo about filling up the fun workboxes. There are ideas for activities, direction cards, and ideas for different subjects. Even if you don’t homeschool, you’ll find some great ideas here for learning activities with your kiddos.

This is my first time writing for Squidoo, so while you’re reading my article, if you like what you read you can “rate” it with 1-5 stars. If you don’t like it, you can just go ahead and skip that little step J Kidding, of course. Either way, let me know what you think!

Read it here: Filling your homeschool workboxes!

Last week, my daughter Coco began her own blogging adventure.  I came across some information on blogging for kids and I knew Coco would be thrilled to start her own blog.  I gave her pretty loose guidelines and before I was finished telling her my rules, her idea was formed.

My only limitation for her blog was that it must inspire, educate, entertain, or in some way help others.  I didn’t necessarily want her keeping the kind of online journal people usually associate with blogging, unless it was going to minister to others somehow.

She is bursting with ideas and decided she would study and report on music, foods, and animals from different countries around the world.  I was pretty impressed when she spent all her free time last week researching these things.  I definitely have some ideas on how to work this in with a curriculum, but I wanted this to be all Coco’s.  Go figure, she went and made it educational on her own.

Currently, she is working on Australia, and even has a you-tube video posted on her blog by a famous Aussie band.  There’s also a yummy recipe posted that we are trying out this week. 

I can’t wait to see what she does with this.  I’m putting together some blogging tips for her, but I can see already that in a short time, she will be the one teaching me.  Cool!

So, here it is:

Coco Around The World

Interested in blogging for your kiddos?   Check out these links:

Adventures in Blogging, As A Homeschool Learning Project

Educational Blogging

Blogging safety

Do your kids blog?  Share the link below

This year my six year old, Soleil, is starting first grade.  Now that summer days of sleeping in are over, I asked her what she thought she should do each morning before school.  Her first five answers all included something that pretty much added up to her own quiet time.

While she had her own prayers each morning last year, it was clear to me that she was ready for a little more.  We made a little list for her and now in addition to getting ready and doing her chores, she has her own quiet time each day.

Can you imagine this little girl even five years from now if she develops this daily habit at such a young age?  Maybe by the time she is my age, she won’t struggle with this important discipline the way her mom does.

I wanted to encourage her in this, so I made her a little quiet time bag.  The idea started out as a quiet time basket or box, but I found a very cute sturdy bag, and used that instead.

Here’s what is inside:

• Her Children’s Bible (at her reading level so she can read it on her own)
• A devotional book
• Lyrics to a few songs
• A scarf to dance with (one of her ideas was to dance for the Lord)
• A composition book to write down prayers or songs
• A triangle that she has started using during worship

These ideas are pretty specific to Soleil.  There are lots of things you could add for your own kids, depending on their ages.  Shortly after I put Soleil’s together, I made Coco (12) one.  She had all her materials on her headboard, so I just found another cute bag and added some Bible study materials to go along with what she already has.

Some more ideas:

• Worship CDs
• Journal
• Book of prayers or promise book
• Bible study book
• Concordance, Bible dictionary
• Bible Highlighters, pens, etc.
• Bookmarks or ribbons, or post-it-flags

I gave these to the girls at our special tea times.  I’ll be sharing about this weekly time I have with each girl soon.  It’s another great idea for your girls…or boys!

Not just for kids!

While I am talking about this, I think it’s a great idea if you happen to know a new believer!  Sometimes I have been blessed to mentor a young woman who is new to walking with the Lord, and I love presenting her with a little box to inspire her own daily quiet time.  Do you know anyone you could bless with a quiet time kit?

I came across this idea on a blog and I LOVED it!  You can read about adventure boxes on Blog, She Wrote.  I like the idea of sneaking in learning when we’re not actually doing school, and we’ve already had great fun with these boxes.  I’ve done things like this before, but never under the label of Adventure Box…and it just seems more fun this way.  (And more adventurous, too!)

I asked the girls what they might like to explore over the summer and Coco chose Little House on the Prairie.  Soleil said Insects.   I spent a couple weeks shopping and finding little things to fill their boxes.  I really built them up, talking about them and hiding them until we officially started our summer.  They could hardly wait!

I have put these boxes (or basket in one case) on a table in our living room and have not had any kind of structure towards them.  They are there for fun whenever the mood strikes. 

So here they are:

 Little House on the Prairie Box:  I used a patchwork-printed hatbox I already owned.

Because I anticipated both girls wanting to enjoy activities from each other’s boxes, I got two of some items.

In the Little House box:

• 3 yards of calico fabric, various colors
• 4 little house books:  Little House on the Prairie, Little Town on the Prairie, The First Four Years  , and The Long Winter
• Little House cookbook
• Little house sewing book
• Little House crafts book
• Little House paper dolls book
• 2 mini slate boards
• 2 stagecoach model kits

Insect box: I used a basket lined with green gingham fabric that I already owned.

Everything in this box (except the butterfly treehouse) came from the $1 bin at Target, a used book sale, or my shelves! 

• Creature peeper 
• Books:  Butterflies, Christian Liberty Nature Reader 3 , Simon and Schuster Insects, Pop-Up Icky Bug Adventure, Handbook of Nature Study 
• Insect Sticker pack
• My First Sticker Encyclopedia: Insects
• 2 Butterfly-print clipboards
• 2 butterfly foam craft kits
• Butterfly and Insect Toob (plastic insects)
• Live Butterfly treehouse (With mail-delivered caterpillars)