25 Names of Jesus: Christmas Tradition

This year we will be starting a new Christmas tradition!  I ran across this wonderful idea several months ago and instantly knew I would want to do it with my kids.  It's called the 25 Names of Jesus.  Using ornaments, we'll celebrate Jesus' birth and count down the days until Christmas.  Each ornament has a different name for Jesus.  We'll take out the ornament, read the scripture where the name is found, and discuss the meaning of the name.  It does take a little time to prepare so I wanted to share it with you early enough so that you could also begin on December 1.  :)

Here's how it works:   

Step 1:  The first thing I worked on was choosing the 25 names of Jesus.  It was very hard to narrow down the ones to use, but each year new ones can be introduced.  So I'm sure we'll learn more year after year.  I looked at several blogs and websites that have names and scripture listed.  Here are the names we have chosen, and I also included the scripture, discussion topics, and possible activities.

25 Names for Jesus

1.  Jesus
Luke 1:31; put together nativity scene.  Here is a wooden one for kids
         

2.  Alpha and Omega
Revelation 22: 12-13; discuss Greek alphabet and symbols

3.  Wonderful Counselor

Isaiah 9:6; discuss "counselor" and qualities of a good one; have child give counsel on a "problem"

4.  The Mighty God

Isaiah 9:6; find pictures that depict "mighty"

5.  Everlasting Father

Isaiah 9:6; everlasting = never ending; collect evergreen branches; math: discuss circles and infinity

6.  The Prince of Peace

Isaiah 9:6; what does it mean to be a peacemaker?

7.  The Way

John 14:6; discuss how Jesus can be the way; discuss meaning

8.  Son of God

John 1:34 and Mark 1:1; discuss the trinity = God, Jesus (son), and Holy Spirit

9.  Lamb of God

John 1:29; discuss sacrifice; make lamb art with cottonballs

10.  Good Shepherd

John 10:11; discuss how Jesus can be both lamb and shepherd

11.  Bright and Morning Star

Revelation 22:16; What important star do we talk about at Christmas?  Jesus is even brighter than that star.  Wise men followed the star.  If we follow the star--Jesus--where will it lead us?; make star shaped cookies

12.  Christ

Luke 2:11 and John 20:31; discuss "Christians" and "Christmas"

13.  The Truth

John 14:6; Jesus doesn't just tell and reveal truth, he is the truth

14.  Lord of All

Acts 10:36 and Revelation 17:14; discuss "lord" = master

15.  Immanuel

Matthew 1:23 and Isaiah 7:14; "God with us"; how do we know God is with us?

16.  Holy One

Mark 1:24 and Isaiah 43:15; discuss "holy"; sing O Holy Night

17.  Light of the World

John 8:12; discuss natural and man-made light;  how can Jesus be a light?;

light a candle to help remember Jesus is the Light of the World

18.  Rock

1 Corinthians 10:4, Matthew 7:24-25, and Psalm 18:2; discuss how Jesus is a firm foundation and unchanging; collect rocks

19.  The Word

Revelation 19:13 and John 1:1; get child's idea about how Jesus can be the word?

20.  King

Zechariah 9:9, Psalm 24:7-10, and Revelation 7:14; make crowns

21.  Redeemer

Job 19:25; redeem = to free from harm by paying a price; what price did Jesus pay?

22.  Savior

John 4:42; why do we need a savior; discuss the cross; make a cross art or craft

(here is an example of a possible cross craft)

23.  The Shield

Psalm 18:2; discuss what a shield is used for; gather toy shields or make one from cardboard

24.  The Vine

John 15:5; discuss how we grow in Christ; talk about what happens when leaves or flowers are cut from the vine/plant; experiment with this if possible

25.  Messiah

John 1:41; "Annointed One"; discuss meaning; discuss different examples of annointing in the Bible; listen to Christ Tomlin's song Jesus Messiah           

**Depending on the age of your child, more in depth discussions may be possible.  This is geared towards preschool and early elementary.    

Step 2:  Now that the names have been chosen, I worked on the ornaments.  There are tons of possibilities...I decided to go with clear ball ornaments that I could glitter.  This method uses Pledge Floor Cleaner and glitter on the inside of the ornament.  This blog gives more details.  Then I had a sweet friend write the names on the ornaments in her beautiful handwriting.

Step 3:  These ornaments can be added to your main Christmas tree or you can have a separate, smaller tree just for this activity.  I decided to go with a separate tree...something like this.

Step 4:  Eagerly wait for December 1st.  I'm really excited about sharing the meaning of Christmas with my children, and this will be the perfect way to do that!!  I can see a new tradition in the making. :) 

Jenny

    

                                                  

From fearful to fearless!

Events occur in our lives that set us back, throw us off our comfortable axis, and change our perspective on life.  Tragedies, temptations, and worldly circumstances bombard us and we are left reeling...not sure which way to go.  Fear can almost paralyze us. 

Only with God's grace are we able to move from being frozen by fear to becoming fearless.  In Beth Moore's Study on Esther, she told us of the most repeated command in the Bible.

"Do not be afraid."  It is read throughout the Bible and commands us to live a life of faith not fear. 

So do not fear, for I am with you.  Isaiah 41:10

  

Crazy Horse experienced a fearful situation recently.  After learning to swim last year, his 1st swim of this season while away from home resulted in panic.  He went further than he intended into the pool and panicked when he couldn't touch the bottom.  Old Crow was there to rescue him (which he loves to tell everyone).  This left Crazy Horse fearful, and he would not even leave the pool steps.  He cried if I even carried him around in the pool.  

Well, then came swim lessons.  With the special touch of a talented teacher, our Crazy Horse has learned to love the water again.  He faced the fear and dove right in.

He even jumped off the "big diving board."

He was fearful and then became fearless!  Way to go, little man!

In His love,

Jenny

Resurrection Week

As our friends and family enjoyed Spring Break the week before Easter, we spent the week in our new home catching up on school work.  The weeks before were spent packing, unloading, and organizing our new house so we were a little behind. ;)  

Since it was Resurrection Week, I wanted that to be the focus of our school work.   The first thing we did was create our Resurrection Lapbook.  I found a wonderful link with many printables for the lapbook.  

We printed off the lapbook cover, Easter Bingo (which Old Crow wanted to play everyday), How We Celebrate flipbook, a Bible verse (John 11:25) for copywork. 

We also found Israel on the map and used the pages from his A Beka social studies book to learn about places and culture of Israel. It helped him to realize that the places we read about from long ago are real and current even today.

For a fun math activity, we used jelly beans to practice several skills.  I filled a jar with jelly beans and we discussed how to estimate.  Then we poured some of the jelly beans onto the table and graphed the colors, which allowed us to find the greatest and least. 

After the graphing activity, we wanted to count all the jelly beans in the jar to see if our estimations were close.  We grouped them by 10s, which made counting them a lot easier.

 For our daily Bible time, we focused on Jesus' days before His resurrection.  I used the Resurrection Eggs to help facilitate our discussions.  We opened two eggs each day and read the corresponding scripture.  It was a great reminder for even Clark and me...reading and focusing on all Jesus endured for us. 

  And Memphis Belle enjoyed playing with the container of plastic eggs...although she prefers them to be filled with chocolate.  We called her our little egg thief.  She would sneak off with the filled eggs, open them, take off the candy wrapper, and hide and eat the chocolate.  She was a mess!! (literally and figuratively)

Jenny

Bible Time

In the beginning stages of my homeschool planning and trying to arrange our schedule, I decided to place our Bible lesson as the first activity.  We begin each morning with prayer and then we see what our lesson and Bible story has in store for us. :)  We are using Grapevine Studies...Stick Figuring Through the Bible.  I first found this curriculum reviewed on other homeschool blogs, and I thought it would be a great place for us to start. 

We are reviewing the Old Testament beginning with Creation.  After I read a passage from the Bible, Old Crow then draws the main idea/theme and character using stick figures.  It is a wonderful tool to help him remember the story.  Each day as we begin a new lesson, he is able to go back through his notebook and recall the previous days.  This was extremely helpful with the Creation story.  And now we are reviewing Adam.  I love looking at his drawings!

Along with our Bible curriculum, we have a weekly Bible verse to memorize (ABC Bible Verses).  Clark and I have found that we need this as much as our children.  Below are the two we have learned so far:

(My plan is to place them into a book as we learn them; this will make for a great review.)

We practice our verse each day and it is working!!!!  Old Crow was able to recite them to his daddy over dinner at Longhorns.

Jenny