School Time!

During this past summer, I spent a lot of time doing research on curriculum for 2 year olds. I wanted it to be the basis of homeschooling but I also wanted the curriculum to have the foundation of the Bible, the Word. It wasn't until mid-August that I found a curriculum that I was willing to use but not totally satisfied with because it was not Bible-based. Then I read a fellow adoptive mama's blog who was also a fellow Embassy trip traveler and found the curriculum I had been looking for the whole time.

I spent the next several days on the website reading up on everything. The more I read, the more excited I got about implementing the curriculum into Eva's schedule. ABC Jesus Loves Me (ABCJLM) is all about incorporating the lessons into everyday life. There are 36 lesson plans. One for each week, starting mid to late August and finishing up in May.

For the past 6 weeks, Eva has been learning about how God created the world. We've read bible stories, sung Bible songs, learned poems, memorized Bible verses, read related books from the library and done all kinds of arts and crafts to complement the lesson of that week. We've made a Creation Book and are almost finished with it.

Because I used to work in daycare, I have also implemented some things that I used to do at work into our schedule as well. We call it School Time! I have a small throw rug that stays rolled up until it's time for "school." When I unroll it, Eva knows it's School Time :-) She gets so excited. We sit down in front of our big calender and go over the month, day of the week and year. We sing the days of the week and then we practice our numbers by counting all the way up to the current date. Then we sing a couple of songs, practice our Bible verse and practice our poems. After that, I read our Bible section and book for the week. If we're doing really well that day we'll do one of our arts and crafts projects. Doing ALL of that usually takes about 30 minutes.

Most days though, we're busy running errands or at Eva's classes. Those are the days when we can do stuff in the car, like sing songs, practice our poems or Bible verse. The curriculum is SO flexible. I love it. It definitely takes into account that a 2 year old has a not-so-long attention span.
 

Here's our School Time rug

 The Bible we use

 

I even have a School Binder

 

Our Calendar and Artwork Wall

On the wall, around the calendar is where I hang all of Eva's paintings, coloring pictures. She's so proud of her wall. Because she goes to Preschool once a week for half a day, any craft that she does also goes up on the wall. I leave it up for a month and then as old stuff comes down, new stuff goes up, so it's always rotating. Because I don't want to throw any of her artwork away - (I just can't seem to part with it and I don't know if I'll ever be able to) - I scan it and put it on a flash drive.

I was even able to get Eva on video singing the Bible verses that we've been learning. I just love her voice! 

2012 Meskel Celebration

It's amazing how quickly time goes by. I remember thinking 2 weeks ago that I had to blog about this.....then last week. Now, it's 2 1/2 weeks after and I'm just now getting around to it. 

Around to what?

Two and a half weeks ago, on September 26, was an Ethiopian celebration called Meskel. It is the celebration of the Finding of the True Cross. 

Here's a little history on it:

In the 4th century, Empress Helena, mother of Constantine the Great found 3 crosses buried. One was the True Cross that Jesus Christ was crucifed on. She took pieces of the True Cross and distributed them to all the churches, including the Ethiopian church. This piece was then brought back to Ethiopia and later buried at the mountain of Gishen Mariam monastery in Wollo region. The monastery also has a book that has this whole story recorded.

We had not been to a Mekel celebration for 2 years. So I was really looking forward to this. The whole day leading up to the celebration it looked like the sky was going to open up and pour down buckets of rain. 

We got there early, around 5 o'clock and were able to spend some time with friends before the prayer ceremony began. 

Eva was very excited! 

The priests and other clergy members came out around 6:30 and the ceremony began.

Prayers lasted for about 40 minutes. By the time prayers ended, it was dark outside. The bonfire was lit and everyone with a firestick (similiar to a candle wick) started lighting theirs as well. It was very pretty.

Eva was so mesmerized with the bonfire and the firesticks all around her.

Everyone began singing and dancing around the bonfire and then it was time to eat. After waiting several hours and only eating a few pieces of injera, we were definitely ready for dinner.

The food was absolutely wonderful, as usual. As God's design would have it, just as everyone was starting to say their goodbyes and farewells, the sky opened up and the first drops started to fall. We were so glad that Eva got to be a part of the celebration.