T is For Thanksgiving! (Day 5)

Today, we are on Day 5. This lesson, we actually did today (unlike Day 4 which were completed and posted about two days apart). So many things can upset a schedule, can't they? So far in the last 10 days we have had an ER visit with stitches, gone down to one vehicle (temporarily), had a broken down refrigerator (sorta fixed), a loss of food (spoiled in the fridge), no food in the house (yay for dinner out!), and the normal things like toddler meltdowns. But, again, here is the beauty of homeschooling- we set our own schedule! (And when you are schooling a 2 year old, there is no need for regular work, thankfully). But on to today's lesson:

Daily Thankful Theme: Thank you, God, for friends
Scripture: Proverbs 17 (especially verse 17)
Memory: "In everything, give thanks"
Prayer: "Thank you God, for friends"
Song: "Give Thanks" 
Craft: Cards for Friends
Thankfulness Activity: add "Friends" leaf to Thankfulness Tree

There are many scriptures that speak to friendship in the Bible. Instead of skipping around, though, (and there is nothing wrong with that, by the way) I decided to pick one verse and that was Proverbs 17:17. But, I did not want to read only a single verse, because context is so important, so we read the entire chapter. I admit, I was surprised that Evan listened to the entire chapter. We must be making progress with sitting still!

We spent some time in prayer (I've really loved praying with my son), singing, and practicing the memory verse. Evan is retaining scripture so well, we can ask him at any time of the day to repeat his memory verse and he usually rattles it right off! Now if that doesn't warm a parents heart, I don't know what will!

Right now, Evan has two friends near his age that he plays with regularly. I wanted him to color a card to each of them, which we can give to them.

Supplies: To prepare, I wrote a short note on each card (as if written by Evan) saying "I am learning about thankfulness in homeschool and wanted to tell you I'm thankful we are friends. Thank you for being my buddy" (or something along those lines). As you can guess from the colors of the cards, both friends are girls (when I showed Justin, he lamented Evan's lack of boy pals). One friend lives down the street, so we will hand deliver her card after the kids wake up from their nap. The other friend is going to receive her card in the mail- thus the addressed envelope. Crayons for decorating, "Friend" leaf for the thankfulness tree, and tape were today's supplies.

This is an easy project to vary. You can select any number of friends, make the cards as elaborate as you desire, include any message you wish, mail them all, etc. Just have fun!

By the way, a piece of construction paper can be folded into thirds and fit in a standard business envelope.

As I mentioned, one of the cards is for Evan's friend down the street. Right now, my kids are napping, but when they awake, we will walk down and hand deliver his card. The other is in the mail, since I would probably forget to take it with us to church tomorrow.

Evan gets really excited to "push, green" as he puts it. What he means is, place another leaf on the tree. I always tell him to "push" it onto the door, and the last one we did was green, thus "push, green" (isn't it fun interpreting toddler-speak? I think it's darling)

So if you're Penelope's or Sophie's mom reading this, please act surprised when your child receives their card, thanks!

What cute "toddler-speak" phrases or words have your kids said?