Stained Glass Art with Kids

by Jenny

~LOVE Through Art~

Window Cling Stained Glass Art

 

 

 

We started a Fruit of the Spirit~A Homeschool Study and we spent quite a bit of time on LOVE. Because we knew we needed it. And because Jesus did.

 

'Jesus replied, "Love the Lord your God with all your heart with all your soul and with all your mind. This is the first and greatest commandment. And the second is like it: Love your neighbor as yourself."'

 

If you are following our study so far, here's my original post Fruit of the Spirit~A Homeschool Study, then We Made a Giant Tree to display all of our fruit verses. We started with LOVE ( All Ya Need is Love... ) and our art for this 'fruit' was Window Clings from stained glass paint.

 

These window clings are super easy to make. All you need are colors of your choice of stain glass paint, liquid leading and page protectors. The stain glass materials should all be located together in a craft store. This stuff looks a lot like puff paint. You'll want to start with the liquid leading and trace the shape you want right onto the page protector. Then let it dry completely. We let ours dry overnight.

After they're dry, fill in with the paint colors making sure to cover the entire surface and use the tip to pop any air bubbles. Again, you'll want to let these dry completely. At this point we peeled them off the page protectors and slapped 'em right on the window. Buuut...if you want to move yours around you may want to cut the page protector around your shape and use tape to secure it to the window. They're not super moveable- they might be if they are super thick but the thinner they are the easier they rip. That's it. Super simple. Have fun making tons of decorations! You could make some for each holiday, for school, or just for fun!

My Retreat With God...at the KOA

by Jenny

I realized after a particularly stressful day of homeschooling, mothering yada yada…that I have never spent time alone for very long. 
I've been married over 16 years, have four kids, and have never spent the night by myself. I have been away from the kids and from Gregg for women's retreats or on short trips but even then I was sharing a room with other women. I have never spent the night all by myself in silence- not since I've been married. 
Well, after this particularly stressful day I decided I needed to have some silence, some quiet. The thought had entered my head on and off for the past three months that it might be nice to spend the night in a hotel room or something. But it felt selfish to me. I almost reached a breaking point Wednesday and I realized that this time of quiet needed to happen. It must happen. It was a necessity. I decided that with some recent money I had made from selling jewelry that it wouldn't cost from our family budget so there was no guilt (not that this guilt came from anybody but me- in fact, when I approached the option months ago, hubby was ready to book me a hotel room).
I decided I wanted a cabin versus a hotel room because I didn't really want people on either side of me. I have a tendency to need to talk out loud, especially when I'm praying. And I didn't want to be hindered by others around me. Plus I seem to really feel close to God in nature so I called the KOA that's just five minutes from the house and reserved a cabin, the smallest cabin they have, for the next day.  She must've heard the desperation in my voice because she quickly offered 25% off and then early check in and a late check out the following day. I began to make a list of what I wanted to get out of this quiet time and what I should bring – my Bible, journal, book to read.... I knew that God wanted me to work through something big. I knew I needed physical rest, spiritual rest, and emotional rest. I would also need to bring my own sheets, pillow, blankets and anything else I might need because this was a bare-bones cabin. No bathroom, no kitchen. 
The next morning I knew that this was still something I needed to do because of my impatient attitude and anger that I had all morning with the kids. I was packed and ready to go pretty early but I needed to wait until I put the baby down for her nap in order to really feel like it was okay to leave the kids until Gregg got home from work. I decided to keep a journal of my time there...

2:15pm: I arrived. Well, I knew the cabin would be small, but when I arrived and spotted the little beauty I realized it was even smaller than I thought. But that was okay I didn't need much room. I also thought I might be surrounded a little bit more with nature versus campsites and RVs. But when you need to get away with God and you've already made the reservation you can't be picky. The first thing I did when I walked in was take a picture, after that I decided to set up my new little home for the next 24 hours. I made my bed, I put my food in the mini fridge and I proceeded to pray throughout the cabin (I took two steps forward) that God would be with me for the next 24 hours. That I would dedicate those hours to him to focus on him, to grow in him. 

9:15pm: Well it's been about 7 hours now as I type this and I find that the quiet can be a little hard. I find myself definitely talking out loud, I also worshiped earlier and I am very thankful no one was around to hear that. But I had an awesome time with the Lord in worship. I prayed, cried, sang, read the Word outloud, prayed some more.
I have found the time on my hands a little daunting. I realized that I straightened my mug, napkin & spoon, and pile of books a couple of times already (I'm gonna make a great OCD old person in a home...). I also found myself looking at my clock several times at first and wondering what the kids were doing at that moment while they were all at home.
I would pray, then listen, get distracted, try to listen some more, pray....waiting to hear from God is difficult. I feel like I have ADHD when I try to listen for something from the Holy Spirit...
There was a tv in the cabin and I brought my computer to work on blog posts in case God worked out everything in me real quick and I was bored. 
No chance of that. 
It's also about 35° right now and I have one little space heater in the room. It's supposed to get down to 20° and feel like 9°. I hope this little space heater has enough to last me through the night and the morning....


10:30pm: I caved and texted Gregg and he brought me a space heater and down comforter from home. I thought about saying, "I've had a great time so far- let's go home" but I didn't. I wanted to spend the night by myself- and God.


12:07am: I woke up with my heart racing. I decided to read and pray some more. As I was praying and reading earlier, I had a picture in my mind and it didn't make any sense. I asked God to fill me in why I kept getting the same vision....no answer. Now to get back to sleep.


6:05am: Woke up to some freaky crinkly sound by the wall in the package of water bottles I brought. The sound was getting louder! I thought for sure it was a mouse. Heart racing, I turned on the flashlight app and slipped on my shoes, I flicked the light on real quick! Nothing.... I think it was the water was so cold it was affecting the plastic. Since I was wide awake I decided to walk to the bathroom. Did I mention yet that I had to walk to the bathroom...when I first got there I decided to walk the circle of the park every time I went to the bathroom to get fresh air and exercise more. This time I did not walk. I ran back to get under the covers. Maybe I should have got the hotel room...and a spa treatment. Why did I want a cabin?!


9:30am: Got the most sleep since the little bathroom run at 6. Tossed and turned all night. It was hard to sleep with out Gregg next to me. Now for some more quiet time...


12:30pm: I had a great last couple hours reading and praying. The first verse I read this morning was the literal word of the vision I kept having. God's so cool like that. It took a while for me to get an answer but he came through. I was confused and had just decided to write it down and wait on God. He always comes through. Not in the time we may want but his timing. I'm cold, tired, and feel drained- I think I'll head home early.


Now that I'm home I want to reflect... I am thankful for a husband that did not hesitate to support me spending time alone. I am glad that I took this time- I realized that as a stay at home homeschooling mother, I rarely have time to myself. I think that I get wrapped up in serving my kids, training them, ministry, household tasks, etc that I often forget to get alone with God. When I do take time to 'check out' I spend that time on my phone, watching tv, or reading, but rarely with God. I think I re-learned how important and vital to my relationship with Him to 'check out' with Him. "To block out all noise and stress and zone out" would be my description of 'checking out' and to do all those things while praying and meditating on his Word, is what I was able to do during this retreat. 
During this time I was not only able to reflect, refresh, realize, but make goals for myself and our family. I'm amazed and thankful for all that I learned. 
I really think I need to make time like this on a regular basis, maybe yearly. But maybe next time will be at a spa.

We Made a Giant Tree

by Jenny

I've been working on Fruit of the Spirit ~ A Homeschool Study with my kids and we decided it would be fun to make a giant tree to hang all of our fruits on. If you wanted to do the study and wanted a tree on a smaller scale you could make one on posterboard, or make one just 2-D, I'm sure there's tons of tree clip art you could print as well.
I began my hunt for brown paper that would be long enough. I found this great roll of wrapping paper at Deals, a $1 store, that was brown on the back side and just had small white vine and flowers on the right side. This tree only took one roll of paper!

Supplies:

$1 roll of brown paper

clear packing tape

sticky tack

 

(It only cost me a dollar because I already had the sticky tack and tape...)
I began by cutting a piece about 4-5 feet long and crinkling it accordion style.

Then I cut down at different lengths to create limbs and roots from the bottom. I wrinkled each limb, twisting some and curving the ones on sides.

I used some scrap cardboard to fold a triangle to form a base for the back of the tree in the corner. I gathered the paper tighter in the middle to form a smaller trunk leave it wider at the base and top. I used packing tape to secure it to the trunk and then to the wall.

We decided to put the tree floating from the ground because of our very curious 18 month old who would love to rip down all our work.

After we got that part up there, I felt the top limbs just looked weird, all cut the same length so we created additional limbs. I cut the paper strips width-wise in about 6-12 inches and wrinkled those, cutting down to split them into two limbs at the top. Then I secured them behind the original with clear tape and sticky tack. (By the way, my tip for sticky tack is to warm it up with your hands before you use it, and mix a package of blue and white together for a sticky, non-oily combo.)

Adding some branches definitely helped but we wanted to have plenty of space to hang our fruit so I added some long skinny branches to go around the corner. We plan on having over 30 pieces of paper with verses on it so we definitely needed some long ones.

Now to add our Fruit...

If you end up making a giant tree, I'd love to see pictures or hear how you did yours!

Fruit of the Spirit ~ A Homeschool Study

by Jenny

(UPDATE: this blog has changed from itsahodgepodgelifeforus to jennybrook journeys...still same info but if you notice some conflicting labels, that's why. Thanks for stopping by!)

You may remember awhile back I was in search of a Fruit of Spirit curriculum to do with the kiddos? Whew! What a first homeschool day! was the post of our first day and list of curriculum we're using this year where I hadn't really settled on what to do for Bible.

This study is a work in progress but I'd like to share with you as I find materials and resources for our study of the Fruit of the Spirit ~ A Homeschool Study.
Well, I searched high and low! A lot of them are made for preschoolers or early elementary with little kid crafts and more childish coloring sheets. They are great but my kids are older (13, 11, 9) and wanted to take them through Galatians 5:22 and how to apply it for themselves now! A fruit of the Spirit study is not just applicable for little kids! My other criteria was "free" so the search took awhile. I stumbled upon this blog post "Fruit of the Spirit Bible Study" by Confessions of a Homeschooler blogger Erica. (I love her blog and all the resources she makes available, if you're ever looking for a great homeschooling blogger.) She linked the downloadable and printable study. I printed it and decided it would be a good jumping off point. Her study only lasts 3 weeks and I want to stretch mine out. I want it to last at least til Christmas break.

So if you're going to do this study with me, first step is to print her study.

We spent a whole week on the first few days worth of her study with questions like- Who is the Holy Spirit? & How do we walk in the Spirit? it wasn't hard! We looked up additional scriptures for each study. I used those lessons as a guide to spark conversations... We talked about these qualities (love, joy, peace, etc) are produced by the Holy Spirit not by being a disciplined person who lives by the law. "Since we live by the Spirit, let us keep in step with the Spirit..." Gal 5:25 We talked about the fact that these are the "fruit" of the Spirit meaning the fruit we produce by walking with the Spirit. They are different then the gifts of the Spirit mentioned in 1 Cor. 12 & 14. The gifts are just how they sound- gifts. We had a great side tracking conversation about Spiritual Gifts...love it! And they love to get me off topic. ;)

(NOTE: Somedays, I merely used her main question as a guide for our bible time and not the activities, applications, etc. Make sure you read through the lesson to see if you want to stay on her track or veer off with your own questions or verses...)

Over the course of this study I plan to:

• Make a tree for our home to display our "fruit"
• With each fruit, they will find their favorite verses that represent that fruit to hang on the tree
• Create art using lots of different mediums for each "fruit" study
• Have some games/activities to play regarding the fruit
• Pick a verse from each "fruit" we'd like to memorize as a family
• Talk about real ways we can practice the "fruit" to each other and others
• Read and learn about real, living people who exhibit the fruit of the Spirit

I'm really looking forward to learning alongside my children the fruit of the Spirit, growing together in walk with the Lord.

 

Look forward to my next post in this series where we make the tree for our fruit!

How to Get Kids to Journal

by Jenny

Trying to get a kid to journal can be harder than staying clean standing in a mud puddle...
but it is possible.

We are trying to journal for bible/quiet time. Some of the reasons of journaling or benefits we want our kids to experience are...

• keep a record of what scriptures they've read and be able to look back when they want to recall a certain verse
• learn to meditate on a certain scripture, pray over it, and ask God what He wants them to see
• it can be another way to talk to God, to communicate our thoughts, dreams, prayers...
• they could write a scripture down, then later in the future, He could bring to light knowledge about that scripture in a way they didn't see before
• journaling builds a good habit of spending quiet time with just you and God, reflecting...
• when Jesus was 12, he spent time in the temple listening and asking questions- this is a way for our kids to be like Jesus, listening to God through his Word and asking questions in their journal

Back story about journaling, our kids, learning about tweens, and our church:
     A few years back, my husband and I were at a church leadership conference and were introduced to a curriculum/concept called J12. At that same point my oldest was 10 and I had a heightened curiosity about tweens. I was already reading everything I could get my hands on and talking to other parents about this new stage I knew nothing about. (Another great resource that I love for tweens-specifically girls- is Dannah Gresh's Secret Keeper Girls.)
     Our church was also lacking in a class that was specifically designed for the tween. They felt too old to be with the first graders, and were too young to be lumped with the youth group. They have specific issues they're dealing with and are usually ready to have a deeper personal relationship with God than they've had in the past.
     So our journey began developing a tween specific program. We use just about everything J12 makes, because why reinvent the wheel when it's already chrome plated and super cool?! If you want some great tween resources, curriculum for groups, devotionals for your tween or a great journal, check out  j12.com. {Learn more about the J12 Strategy if you want.} I want you to know I in no way, shape, or form, was asked to recommend this stuff- I'm just super in love with it!!! Journaling is a key part of the J12 theory/curriculum so we made it key in our program at church. We've developed some incentives for journaling for our J12ers at church: after three weeks of journaling they get a t-shirt, three more weeks of journaling gets them a lanyard and a pin, and every three weeks after that, they select another pin to collect and/or trade. {Sound like a familiar concept[Disney World/land]? Again- why reinvent the wheel when kids are dedicated pin collectors/traders?!} Ok, enough back story....

When your kids say, "I don't know what to journal? How to journal? What am I suppose to write?... here's some ideas/methods to guide them.

The S.O.A.P. Method of journaling: it's a practical method that can be applied with any reading plan. Many bibles even have reading plans in the back or you could easily find one online. Here is a Bible Reading Plan with printables and broken down for different ages. Here is great reading plan- 90 days through the gospel of John with a printable as well. S.O.A.P. is an easy to remember acronym for Scripture, Observation, Application, & Prayer. You may want to walk your kiddos through the first one by helping them find a scripture to rewrite and focus on, write down something they observe or see in the verse, write down how they can apply that verse- how they'll be different because of what they've read, and finally write out a prayer.

There are other types of journaling besides focusing on a scripture or a different way to focus on scripture. You could present these options to them:

Journal about what God is doing in your life. Even when you don't understand what God's doing, how it will all turn out, or taking time to record the positives that you see God doing for you.

Write out your prayer. Sometimes in writing out our words to God, He gives us answers and insight while we're writing out our conversation to Him.

Write the verse out in your own words. When we have to think about something to put in our own words we really think about what it means.

Meditate on the verse. "Meditating" on scripture means to think on it, rethink on it, and think some more. Talk it out, add hand motions, use as many senses as you can while you contemplate His Word. The Hebrew meaning of meditate is to muse, commune, or speak. To ponder, analyze.

Journal with your art supplies! Sometimes it's easier for us to draw out or sketch what God wants us to see (especially littles whose fine motor skills are not quite as developed), sometimes Holy Spirit can give us a picture in our mind that may not make sense right away, but draw it anyway. When you write your verse out in your own words, add color! Doodles are fun! God's word for us is fun!

And remember these....
Incentives are great! I am amazed at how excited some of our J12 kids are to journal for the t-shirt and they can't wait to get their pins. Why not encourage them with something that would mean a lot to them? Maybe they want a new bible, a bible cover, a new book, computer time, a date with you....I'm sure they'd love to give you their own ideas!
Mom- you journal! I realized that if I wanted my kids to journal, I couldn't be a hypocrite. And I want all these benefits too! I have LOVED journaling with my kids. I have LOVED seeing what God has for me specifically. I like to draw and sketch while I journal. Sometimes I do the SOAP method, sometimes I write out a prayer...I like to vary it so why wouldn't my kids?

I hope this helps someone out there...I wanted to share some tips because I've been trying to get my kids to journal after our family bible time and on their own, encourage a group of tweens and their parents to journal, and journal on a more regular basis myself.
Oh, another idea I wanted to share is from a great friend of mine who is super into journaling (I think I've even heard her referred to as 'The Journal Nazi'...) and they have a family journal that they all write in- love that idea! She's been a huge encourager for me to journal again. :)

 Go forth and write!

Please share any tips for journaling in the comments below! I'd love to hear more ideas! Especially if I need to draw from them for my own kids! ;)