Thursday, September 30, 2010

Little Keepers - September


A couple of Fridays ago, we had our first gathering of our Little Keepers group! My girls were soooooo excited about getting together with their friends and they knew there was a craft and a tea party involved!

We started our time together by reading page 3 where the author writes a letter to the little girls that she has put this book together for. Then we prayed together.

Next, we began working on Scripture memory. I chose Psalm 23 for us to work on together and came up with some hand motions to help us learn it.

Psalm 23 - with hand motions in parentheses: (NASB)

1 The Lord (point to Heaven) is my shepherd (hold a lamb in arms), I shall not want (shake head).

2 He makes me lie down (lay cheek on hands like resting) in green pastures (sway fingers like grass); He leads me (hold out hand for being led) beside quiet waters (soft water motion with hands).

3 He restores my soul (point inward towards chest); He guides me in paths of righteousness (use both hands to make a path) for His name's sake (point to Heaven).

4 Even though I walk (walk two fingers on other hand) through the valley (bring hands down into a valley) of the shadow of death (sword motion with hand), I will fear no evil (shake head no), for You (point to Heaven) are with me (point to self); Your rod and Your staff (hold a shepherd's staff in hand) they comfort me (arms around yourself like a hug).

5 You prepare a table before me (draw hands out as in a long table in front of yourself) in the presence of my enemies (fighting fists); You have anointed my head with oil (pour oil on top of head); my cup overflows (make a "cup" with one hand and show it flowing over with the other).

6 Surely goodness (one hand behind back) and lovingkindness (join hands behind back) will follow me (look back while holding hands behind back) all the days (hold hands wide apart for a big expanse) of my life (point to self), and I will dwell in the house of the Lord (point to Heaven) forever (move finger in a circle).

I created little folders for each girl with the above hand motions/verse typed out and a coloring page of a shepherd holding a lamb, some blank lined paper for the older girls and a tracing page for the younger girls plus this for fun coloring.

After we learned the verse, we were ready to get our craft going. I had selected sewing with plastic canvas for our project this month. I had cut small crosses out of the canvas for the girls to sew into either a magnet, bookmark or Christmas ornament. And, I found this great pattern for some cute nativity ornaments.

Here is where things got interesting! The needles I had did not fit through the squares of the canvas - and after trying multiple solutions - we created very primitive needles from bent wire. Note: please try your needle before all the little girls are excited to start sewing!

The older two (5 and 6) were able to begin picking this craft up, but our younger two (4) both struggled - we ended up realizing this was exposure to the idea of sewing and a first encounter on their own. Still a success!

After this, we had our tea party and talked about praying for, loving and serving family (page 11).

All in all, I would say it was a great success! The girls seemed to have a great time and we learned some things for next time! I hope this will help some mom who is hoping to do some of these things with her daughters!

10 comments:

Bonnie said...

I am so excited to see this! A friend of mine and I are hoping to start this with our daughters, and I have a few questions for you: our girls are 5 and almost 7 would this work well for both of them? And also, I have been all over that web site, maybe I just missed it, but is there a teachers guide?
Thanks Monica!
Bonnie

petrii said...

What a beautiful thing to be doing with your daughters!! God will bless all these beautiful ways that you are teaching them about Him.

Have a Blessed day,
Dawn

Monica Wilkinson said...

Hi Bonnie,

Yes - I think ages 5 and 7 would fit perfectly with this.

There are some parent notes in the book that you can use as a very brief teachers guide. I did not see a separate teachers guide this time when I looked, though I thought I remembered seeing one another time. Perhaps it is only available for the older girls version.

Anyway, the book is divided by category: nature, crafts, spiritual growth and I just chose something out of two categories for our first group.

I know you and your girls would enjoy the time together!

Monica

Christy Stanton said...

Hi Monica, This looks like so much fun for your girls! I wish Natalie could be there to be apart of it. However, I'm hoping to meet more people here to start something like this for our girls. Thank you! ((Hugs)) Christy

Anonymous said...

I loved Little Keepers. I did the same thing with sewing on canvas before moving to cloth. We have some beautiful woonky looking Christmas ornaments that I cherish now that my oldest will so be 17. Keep enjoying your littles!

momof4sweetsisters

angie said...

What a cherished time with your daughters.
I have had similar problems with plastic needles for plastic canvas. I think your idea of bent wire was ingenious. That way you can cinch the yarn into the wire and it doesn't pull out every time they pull a stitch through.

Tim and Susan said...

Love the idea. I am sure the tea party topped it off. Fun.

Blissful & Domestic said...

I am so happy you have a button now. You have probably had ti for a while, but I just noticed. I am so glad because I tell me friends about your blog and now with the button directly on my blog ti will be easy for them to find you. Thank you for all your inspiration Monica!

Melissa said...

I love how you are investing in the life of your children! What a blessing to them to have a mama willing to pray with them and teach God's truth.

Season of Life said...

Monica ~

This sounds like a sweet group time for you, your daughter and friends. We are doing an older girls group which meets once a month utilizing Bright Lights material from the Mallys. Whatever the curriculum or age, it is just a blessing to start something as a part of their training, a time to look foward to gathering together with other moms and young ladies...a special time, a time to learn about the Lord, tea time/luncheon and related activity.

Thanks for sharing about how you do this.

Blessings ~