Pictures!

Pictures are worth a thousand words, right? Did you know that all of my pictures are on flickr? You can find them at http://www.flickr.com/photos/richandmags/tags/daycare/ I encourage comments here as well as over at flickr - as your thoughts, questions, compliments keep me up on my blogging and photo taking!

My disclaimer: You'll find many many pictures of my own kiddos - it's just easier to upload my recent pictures all at once, and so sometimes the photos get tagged under "daycare" even if they're not. :) I'm sure you understand!

Enjoy this preview:

Unit on Creation

This week (and possibly next), the children and I are learning about God's Creation of the world. It's a series that I love, because there are so many things children can do and sing and play that help them to understand just how special they are.

So God created man in his own image,
in the image of God he created him;
male and female he created them.

God blessed them and said to them, "Be fruitful and increase in number; fill the earth and subdue it. Rule over the fish of the sea and the birds of the air and over every living creature that moves on the ground."

Then God said, "I give you every seed-bearing plant on the face of the whole earth and every tree that has fruit with seed in it. They will be yours for food. 30 And to all the beasts of the earth and all the birds of the air and all the creatures that move on the ground—everything that has the breath of life in it—I give every green plant for food." And it was so.

God saw all that he had made, and it was very good.

In a recent bible study class at my church, we talked about how, when God created all of the parts of the Earth, he said that "it was Good" and after creating man, He said "and it was very good." Amen.

So, today the children are learning a basic, age-appropriate version of the story of Adam and Eve. We talked about how our fingerprints are unique to us - that nobody else in the world shares a fingerprint like ours, and so that is a constant, attached reminder of how special we are. We'll be doing a few things with our fingerprints today, as learning continues.

I had originally planned to focus on body parts and nutrition for these next few weeks, but on Friday night, my husband and I treated ourselves to a movie and dinner. The movie we picked was Expelled with Ben Stein. I highly recommend that you look into seeing it! It's a documentary covering Stein's view of the controversy over teaching children and adults that the world may have been created by Intelligent Design (God) rather than through Evolution (Darwinian theories). The movie reminded me that I'm so blessed to be submerged in a community where I can speak openly about my convictions and I can use my gifts to help communicate the beauty of faith to God's little people. So, rather than just going with your basic boy parts for these kiddos, I'm going to go back to the basics - and help the children understand just how those body parts got here in the first place. :) I'm so thrilled that I have this opportunity and that God is guiding my work.

So, parents can look forward to seeing some wonderful crafts and notes coming home this week and next. Today, they are coloring a homemade book about Adam and Eve. Later in the unit, we will trace our bodies and color them to our likeness (while learning body parts, hehe). Also, we'll find some scripture to frame. We'll talk about "forbidden" things and "temptation"... Sure, it may go over their heads, but if they might understand parts of the concepts. We will talk about fruits and which things we eat that are good for our bodies and which things aren't so good for our bodies. I'm just so excited to see where this unit leads us! Already, I've mentioned things that use all five senses.

Alright, that's all I have for now... this journal needed to be updated. I'm glad I've stolen some time to post. Thanks for reading! I hope you all had a wonderful Mother's Day - whether you are a Mother or not!