It's VBS time!

Castle in Progress

We put a castle in the foyer to kick off VBS Registration.  We are doing Group's Kingdom Rock VBS and we are loving it.  I love the castle theme and the Biblical truths that go with it.

Day 1
Bible Point: God’s love helps us stand strong.
Bible Verse: "I love you, Lord; you are my strength." (Psalm 18:1)
Bible Story: David writes about God's love. (Psalm 23)

Day 2
Bible Point: Family and friends help us stand strong.
Bible Verse: "So encourage each other and build each other up." (1 Thessalonians 5:11)
Bible Story: Mordecai encourages Esther to do the right thing. (Esther 1–9)

Day 3
Bible Point: Prayer helps us stand strong.
Bible Verse: "Don’t worry about anything; instead, pray about everything." (Philippians 4:6)
Bible Story: Nehemiah perseveres to rebuild the wall around Jerusalem. (Nehemiah 1–6)

Day 4
Bible Point: Trusting God helps us stand strong.
Bible Verse: "Trust in the Lord always, for the Lord God is the eternal Rock." (Isaiah 26:4)
Bible Story: Jesus dies and comes back to life. (Luke 22:39–24:12)

Day 5
Bible Point: The Bible helps us stand strong.
Bible Verse: "Your word is a lamp to guide my feet and a light for my path." (Psalm 119:105)
Bible Story: King Josiah follows God’s way. (2 Kings 22:1–23:23)

Another Sunday School Post. My classroom.

I'm working on my class.  I want to make it inviting and fun.  It's a work in progress.  I took some pictures today on my phone so the color isn't the best but I am sharing them anyway.

It's the idea that counts right?

View from the doorway

Our current attendance chart

I got this idea from here.  Love her blog!!!

attendance chart up close

"Bible Neighborhood"
The houses are empty food boxes covered in construction paper with Bible "addresses" on them.
Each week we take the strips out, look up the verses and match them to the address. They love to be the one who reads the verse and puts in back in the house. :)

I got this paper for 15 cents on clearance at Wal-Mart after Christmas! Score!
Thank you Lord. ;)

Shelf up close.  I got these popcorn containers at Dollar Tree.
They hold our markers, crayons and pencils.

I would like to get better close ups when I can use my daughter's camera.

Sunday School Artwork

My Sunday school class learned the story today of the "Fantastic Feast".  We've been learning in this unit that "Jesus Does Great Things".  

I had to share this picture because this student's work always amazes me.  First of tall these kids did NOT know how to weave!  But they were eager to learn and they wove these construction paper baskets.  What amazed me about this student is her fish!  She designed, drew and cut these out herself.  And may I add that she's a lefty using righty scissors?

1st and 2nd Grade Sunday school student's artwork

While the other students (and myself) were making the simple little fish you know, like this one...

I love teaching children! It seems like so much work behind the scenes but every single Sunday that I walk in that room and spend time with those kids; God shows up!  He always blesses me. :)

I quote Eric Liddel, "God made me fast. And when I run I feel God's pleasure."

This is how I feel about children's ministry!

I taught K-2nd grade Sunday school at church last summer and we were between curriculum so I decided to finish the summer out teaching about Samuel and David.

I used this coloring book (my absolute fave!!!) for an opening activity.

I know some people don't like coloring pages and I don't always use them but these pages are so fun for the kids.  I have it as one of the activity choices when the children first arrive.  I don't make them color.  I also don't make them color with traditional colors.  If they want to give Samuel pink hair, I don't mind it at all!  We do talk about the fact that he didn't really have pink hair but we can be creative just for fun.

Another thing the coloring pages do is help us establish the story for the day.  They begin to ask questions about the page and helps me introduce the outline of the story.

I also colored a page and pinned it up on the bulletin board.  Instant review!

I always have a corner for books and then a corner for something a little more active like blocks or a game.

So there are usually 3 choices when they first come into class.

Why is it that parents are notoriously 15 minutes late to Sunday School?  So I have to wait 15 min into class to really begin the lesson. Sigh.

Whiteboards

 A major part of my (very busy) life is children's ministry.

I HEART Children's Ministry!!!!

I took some pictures with my phone last week of some of my Sunday school students and the drawings they made of the "Most Special Baby".

Drawing our pictures...

Star drawing...

Baby Jesus and family(top)...student's family(bottom)

tiny baby Jesus...couldn't you guess this was a boy drawing?

teacher drawing for inspiration ;)

I got the idea to incorporate individual whiteboards in this way from here.  She has some wonderful ideas!

I did not get a picture of all the drawings. I think some kids were faster with the eraser than I am with the camera.  Funny thing, at first they seemed intimidated to draw anything, that is why I drew the "inspiration" picture to get them going. Once they got started they didn't want to quit.

I bought an $11 dollar 4x8 shower board at Home Depot and had the guy there cut it for me. They have that amazing saw and it would be much quicker than doing it myself at home.  I had him cut 2 large ones cut and 12 smaller ones.  He said they usually charge .50 cents a cut after the first cut and I was willing to pay. He asked if I was a teacher and I told him that I homeschool and teach a class at church.  He didn't charge me anything!  So I only paid for the board. I was so excited!

I added felt to the back of one of the larger boards and used it for flannel figures.  I'm going to hang the other big one in CJ's room.  He really wants one!

I love whiteboards and I love children's ministry!

Airplane in Action! VBS 2012

Our VBS was so fun and this plane was one of the highlights!  It was so fun to make and so hard to hang!  Our ceiling is very high!  Thank goodness a man at church knows how to use the "cherry picker" or manlift or whatever that thing is called. LOL

It's up!

Here you can see how high it's hanging.

Making an Airplane for VBS 2012

 I am making a bi-plane to hang in the sanctuary of our church for VBS.  We are doing Group's Sky VBS.

Okay, so the messes you see in the background here are in my "workshop".  I have a mobile home on my property that I use for my workshop/sewing room/storage/puppet workshop etc.  It's so nice to make these messes and then just walk away!

This is the bottom wing of the bi-plane painted red.
I cut it out of pink insulation foam.
We already had the foam and the paint so this is a free project so far!

This will be the top wing.

This is the rear wing.

This is the tail and the propeller.
 I haven't decided what color the propeller will be yet.

This will be the fuselage (is that the right word?) made from a concrete form.
I already  had this too!
Another free resource! Yeah!

Everything drying!

This little craft tutorial was my inspiration for my shapes.  I hope it goes together like I want it too!

Our church is doing the SKY VBS

Our church is doing the SKY VBS from Group in a couple of weeks and I have so much to do!

I am working on making an airplane to hang from the ceiling of the sanctuary.  It is cut out and painted with the first coat of paint.  It's make of cardboard tube and foam so it will take more than one coat to cover.  I hope to have some pictures to share.

Another project that is complete are hoops like these:

Mine are not quite as elegant as these because they are made of crepe paper streamers in rainbow colors.  I will also try to get a picture when they are all done.

The rest of my list:

** VBS "FLYER" wall hanging (I wanted this done this Sunday but just didn't get it done!)

- rainbow hoops

- red airplane (in progress)

- hot air balloon

- hot air balloon basket

- rainbow balloon garland

- foam & batting clouds

- shadow screen

- God sightings wall

-Arrival/Departure Signs for reg. table

- S K Y letters of foam

- SKY letters of cotton balls (like bulletin board)

- photo ops: balloon, box plane, sky to fly

-giant pinwheels

-rainbow door coverings

-kite words 

-rainbow words 

I'd better get to bed now! I need my rest!!!
I'll check in through the week and update my progress.  

I am praying for our VBS and all the VBSs across this nation and globe!  I know that VBS has to be God's favorite time of year. ;)  I know it is mine. 

****UPDATE****
The list got crossed off with lots of help from my church family!!!
God is good. :)

Church - Children's Hallway Painting Project

Here are some snapshots "in progress" of the hallways we painted last summer.  We took pictures of our kids at church and used them for the silhouettes.

It's bright and cheerful!

The Homeschool Mother's Journal

The Homeschool Mother’s Journal ~
Week 6.5 C.J.'s 8th grade

In our homeschool this week…
I'm calling this week "6.5" because we used it as a catch up week.  It is our 7th week of school, but we didn't do week 7's work.  Make sense?  Not that we got so much caught up, but it helped!

In my life this week…
I have a hard time with this one because my weeks seem to run together, so I thought I'd break it down day by day and find out what it actually is that we do each week.

Sunday 
Go to church early for dd to practice for praise band and I join the prayer group in Pastor's office.
Sunday school - I love my class!
Church - this week I had to teach in Children's church even though it wasn't my month.  The teachers were out of town so I taught for them.  I am the Children's Church director, so it was no burden for me to teach.  I love it!  We are on a "Winners" unit and this week we learned about "paying attention" to God.  We learned about the boy Samuel and how he heard God calling him and giving him instruction.  It was a good lesson.
After church - PIT Crew practice for the Black Light Show!!! This lasted until 7pm!!! I'm exhausted by now.


Monday
I think we slept in on Monday I can't remember anything specific about Monday.  It was Monday.  I had some paper work/planning/organizing to do and I did that all day.  DH took DS to soccer practice that evening. Storms rolled in later that evening.  We need the rain so badly here in Texas, it was wonderful!

Tuesday
Again, I can't remember anything special about Tuesday.  We did some school work and some housework.  Got caught up on laundry. Whoo Hoo!

Wednesday
My day to work at church.  Get up, rush around trying to get lunch and all necessities gathered up and out the door.  Spill Diet Dr Pepper all over myself in the car, turn around to change clothes. Arrive at 8:05am. Just 5 minutes late.  A long list of tasks and projects to get done.  Lots of e-mails, copies, questions to answer, orders to make.  Somewhere in there DS got some schoolwork done.
Ordered the pizzas for dinner at church.  Made the tea, served pizza, cleaned up.  Got ready for our children's department program.  I do a skit every week with the children's pastor.  Finished the skit.  SAT DOWN FOR 15 minutes!!! Church is over at 7:30pm.  Ran an errand for hubby.  Go home.  Get a snack.  Fall asleep on the couch.

Thursday
My second work day at the church. This morning's fiasco was the carnation instant breakfast my son made for me leaking out all over the car and into the lunch bag.  What a mess!!  Got that cleaned up.  We have a little girl coming in to record a skit for us for our Black Light Show.  That takes a couple of hours.  Now I'm behind on my tasks, but somehow I get it all done.  Ate lunch with my friend who cleans the church and her daughter and granddaughter.  Back to work.  Now DS isn't feeling well.  He ends up sleeping on the couch in Pastor's office the rest of the afternoon. Text the coach. He's not making it for soccer practice.  I had to wake him up at 5:00pm to leave.  Had to run an errand for my mom.  Had to get gas in my van.  Drive home. Walk in the door and throw a very quick dinner in the oven.  I didn't have anything thawed! Why??  Sat down at the computer and have a little down time where I decide to write this post.

Friday (at the time of this writing, this is the tentative plan)
Get up.  Meet a friend who is the treasurer of our church to get her to sign a check so I can pick up banners our pastor ordered for a parade in our town Saturday.  Go to the city to pick up my contacts and while I'm there pick up the banners too.  Come back to town.  Get the parade float ready.  Also work on some last minute props for the Black Light show (sense a theme here?).  At home maybe do some light housework and laundry.  Fix dinner, clean up and go to bed.

Saturday
7:00am, arrive at church to finish last minute touches on the parade float.  Meet at the parade starting point at 8:00am.  Ride in the parade.  Hope to get back to my van in time to get DS to a 12:30 soccer game in a neighboring town.  Go HOME!!!

Then start it all over again!
I'm going to bed now. ;)

View from my desk

Kitchen Before

 This is what my kitchen looked like last night. Because I have been so busy working on another project.  It looks a lot worse through a camera lens! LOL  That's how I realized how bad it looked.  Not one clear surface!!!

Kitchen after - ahhh

Much better!

Happenings

I've been busy lately.  It's been good though.  Mostly just getting ready for things like Puppet Shows, Mission Trips, and VBS.  We've had a lot of doctor appointments lately and I'm pretty much responsible for taking whomever it is that needs to go.  I have two more weeks before VBS and I'm in charge of the crafts.  I chose simple ones so maybe it won't take too much time to get them all together.

DS has been tutoring twice a week with a lady from our church who's a teacher so we've been doing that too.  We had DGS this week.  Just took him home today as a matter of fact.  He'll be back in two weeks to go to VBS with us.

We've also had a lot of babies due around us lately.  I went to shower #2 yesterday and there is another one at the end of this month.  Babies everywhere!  Not in our home though thank goodness!

I wanted to do some school with DS this summer and we did at the beginning and we'll pick it back up soon.  This is why we basically school year round because there are times when other things come up so we put the books aside, then pick them back up when things settle down.

I have some more things I'd like to blog about.  Hopefully this week will afford me some time to sit down and get my thoughts together!

They've arrived!

I got a text that the Mission Team have finally arrived at their destination.

My dd was happy to get off the bus and get a shower. ;)

(Follow up to this post.)

8:22 pm Thursday July 9, 2009

My baby just headed out of Texas for a 26 hour bus ride to Connecticut!

Pray for her.

Pray for me.

Pray for her daddy!

Changing my puppet blog

I had another blog called kingskrew.blogspot.com but have re-named it

http://puppetspace.blogspot.com

If you have links to the old one, please update.

ALSO I'm moving the puppet pics from this blog to the puppet blog.

Thanks for reading! ;)

Croc Puppet

I made this puppet myself w/out a pattern! Our VBS for 2009 is Crocodile Dock so I wanted a "non-scary" puppet and couldn't find one online so I decided to make my own. I made a few mistakes in the design and decorating but he still turned out pretty cute if I say so myself! What do you think? Leave me a comment!

...... check out the pics over at puppetspace.blogspot.com

We've Been Making Puppets!!!

Check them out at....Puppet Space

I Am the Very Model of a Modern Major General...

I have that song stuck in my head! We went to a Puppet Festival sponsored by OneWayStreet over the weekend and a very talented 17 yo girl ventriloquist's puppet, Jodie, sang that song for us. She did a great job!

Here are the lyrics in case you, like me, wonder what they are!

I am the very model of a modern Major-General
I've information vegetable, animal, and mineral
I know the kings of England, and I quote the fights historical
From Marathon to Waterloo, in order categorical
I'm very well acquainted, too, with matters mathematical
I understand equations, both the simple and quadratical
About binomial theorem I'm teeming with a lot o' news
With many cheerful facts about the square of the hypotenuse

With many cheerful facts about the square of the hypotenuse
With many cheerful facts about the square of the hypotenuse
With many cheerful facts about the square of the hypotepotenuse

I'm very good at integral and differential calculus
I know the scientific names of beings animalculous
In short, in matters vegetable, animal, and mineral
I am the very model of a modern Major-General

In short, in matters vegetable, animal, and mineral
He is the very model of a modern Major-General

I know our mythic history, King Arthur's and Sir Caradoc's
I answer hard acrostics, I've a pretty taste for paradox
I quote in elegiacs all the crimes of Heliogabalus
In conics I can floor peculiarities parabolous
I can tell undoubted Raphaels from Gerard Dows and Zoffanies
I know the croaking chorus from the Frogs of Aristophanes
Then I can hum a fugue of which I've heard the music's din afore
And whistle all the airs from that infernal nonsense Pinafore

And whistle all the airs from that infernal nonsense Pinafore
And whistle all the airs from that infernal nonsense Pinafore
And whistle all the airs from that infernal nonsense Pinapinafore

Then I can write a washing bill in Babylonic cuneiform
And tell you ev'ry detail of Caractacus's uniform
In short, in matters vegetable, animal, and mineral
I am the very model of a modern Major-General

In short, in matters vegetable, animal, and mineral
He is the very model of a modern Major-General

In fact, when I know what is meant by "mamelon" and "ravelin"
When I can tell at sight a Mauser rifle from a javelin
When such affairs as sorties and surprises I'm more wary at
And when I know precisely what is meant by "commissariat"
When I have learnt what progress has been made in modern gunnery
When I know more of tactics than a novice in a nunnery
In short, when I've a smattering of elemental strategy
You'll say a better Major-General had never sat a gee

You'll say a better Major-General had never sat a gee
You'll say a better Major-General had never sat a gee
You'll say a better Major-General had never sat a sat a gee

For my military knowledge, though I'm plucky and adventury
Has only been brought down to the beginning of the century
But still, in matters vegetable, animal, and mineral
I am the very model of a modern Major-General

But still, in matters vegetable, animal, and mineral
He is the very model of a modern Major-General

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~
Whew! I hope to share more things about the Festival in future posts.

King's Kids September

This month we traveled to Africa and learned about the Mandinka people.

http://www.mandinkapeople.com/

The children were fascinated by it all. We even got on our knees and they prayed for the children there to get a chance to hear about Jesus. I hope it opened their eyes to a world without God. Living in the US and especially in the Bible belt, we just take for granted that everyone believes the way we do.

Here are some of the slides that I used for our lessons this month.

I used information from Helpmeet in the Making my dil's blog. Her sister is a member of the IMB and is a missionary to the Mandinka. Please pray for her and the work that is being done there.
I know I will and so will the children I teach.

You're never too old to be taught by a puppet

Today's puppet skit with Princess Annie really convicted *me*. I'm not sure how much the kids got out of it but the Lord really spoke to my heart during the skit.

Princess Annie was bemoaning the really bad day she was having. I gently reminded her to praise God.

Praise God???

For all this bad stuff that is happening in my life???

Yes, because if we give in to the things around us, it will steal our joy, but if we praise the Lord for who He is and for His son, then we will be able to rejoice.

Aha! That's what's been missing! Praise!

I will praise Him while I have my being.