Reviewing Advent

Hello and Happy New Year!

I'm finally back on my laptop after a busy Christmas and New Year period with our extended family. We enjoyed having my parents to stay for a few days over Christmas and then went and visited Steve's family in Herefordshire for New Year. Whilst we had a lovely time, it is also nice to be back home and returning to our normal rhythms and routines.

Our Advent series is now over and I'm looking forward to what we have planned next, but first I'd like to review how it went:

Jesse Tree Story (or 'From Creation to Christmas') and activities

I've loved doing a sweep of the Bible with Zoë (and Caleb) and she's really grasped the different stories and how they all point to Jesus and his birth. But, and this is a big one... if you plan a series of stories and activities with your husband make sure that he tells you exactly what he was thinking at the time, otherwise you may well be left with a verse or 'story' and no idea why it's included!! We'll spend some time over the next 11 months padding out the story section of our plan so I have a better idea of what I'm doing

Before next year I'm hoping to sort out the 'labels' to hang on the tree as Zoë lost interest in drawing and colouring these about halfway through the month. I'd much rather put her effort and interest into the activities which support the stories.

The activities seemed to work well; though as I mentioned in a previous post I need to make sure that I go with the flow and don't stress about 'following a plan'. Toddlers and babies are fickle creatures who don't follow plans, and other activities can happen at the last minute.

24 books

I loved this, as did the children. We got to read all our Christmas books at least once as they were opened rather than the favourites being the only ones read. I think next year Zoë and Caleb will have to take it in turns to open a book as he'll be much more interested! A lesson in 'taking turns'!

Lolly Sticks

Again, another idea which I enjoyed as it helped us to make more of the season. We've done Zoë's Summer List of Fun and Autumn List of Fun and I'm looking forward to writing a Winter List of Fun. These lists are more for me to make sure that we fit some fun stuff around the daily tasks of housework.

We squeezed in some of the remaining lolly stick activities into the days following Christmas. Here are some photos for you to enjoy:

What next?

Advent is over for another 11 months (or less than that now...), but we need to continue to share the Bible with our children. Steve and I have been chatting through some ideas which I'm looking forward to sharing with you in my next post.