For the first two weeks in April leading up to Easter, I decided to read If Jesus Came to My House by Joan G. Thomas. We learned and practiced hospitality, kindness, putting others first, and Jesus as the little boy in the story explains all the things he would do for Jesus and others in His name. Then, for the week leading up to Easter, I mixed in a devotional beginning with Psalm Sunday and ending with Easter Sunday.
My original plan was to have a spring nature study and then read The Carrot Seed before we closed April with If Jesus Came to My House, but I felt it would be good to talk about Jesus leading up to Easter. So, I rearranged Our Year a bit. Reading If Jesus Came to My House ended up being a perfect way to prepare for Easter! And we were able to incorporate an Easter week devotional flawlessly!
But before I go into our study…
Just to Recap
We always begin our morning with our morning basket, a study time I call Morning Time. Essentially, I stage all our morning time study stuff for the day, or week, in a basket which keeps me organized and looks super cute! Our Morning Time consists of recitation, poetry reading and devotional time with some music and fun learning activities mixed in. Specifically, Micah recites the catechism questions he knows and his Bible memory verses, I introduce a new catechism question and memory verse with every new book study we do. Then, in no particular order, I read poems and verses from at least two different books, and I read a chapter of his Jesus Storybook Bible or a Bible passage. To break up the readings, we sing or listen to various styles of music and do a simple yet fun alphabet, numbers, or shapes activities. I do our Morning Time while we are all gathered around the table for breakfast, though you can do it anytime, really. But most importantly, I keep it short!
After a break, I normally don’t have a set time, we start our daily lesson beginning with the book we are studying. We only do an actual school lesson three or four days a week, though we begin every weekday morning with Morning Time. The other days are reserved for free learning in a fun environment!
For Micah’s lessons, I use the Before Five in a Row curriculum. If you haven’t checked it out yet, I detail the plan for our first year of homeschooling in Our School Year. With this curriculum, we read a new suggested story- which quickly becomes a favorite- every two weeks. I use the guide to structure our lessons, and supplement them with activities from Homeschool Share along with other stories and nonfiction books, craft ideas, and activities. I absolutely LOVE the Before Five in a Row curriculum and explain more about it and our homeschool style here!
That’s it in a nutshell, at least until I refine it again, and again… and again. Anyway…
Let’s Dig into Our Study!
Daily Morning Time
Bible Study
I introduced question six in the Catechism for Young Children,
“Are there more gods than one? There is only one God.”
And for Micah’s Bible memory verse, he learned Ephesians 6:1,
“Children, obey your parents in the Lord, for this is right.”
For our devotional time, we read scripture, and followed an Easter devotional using our Jesus Storybook Bible. For the first week, we read Matthew 7:12, The Golden Rule,
“So whatever you wish that others would do to you, do also to them, for this is the Law and the Prophets.”
Matthew 25:40,
“And the King will answer them, ‘Truly, I say to you, as you did it to one of the least of these my brothers, you did it to me.’”
and Hebrews 13:2,
“Do not neglect to show hospitality to strangers, for thereby some have entertained angels unawares.”
to go along with If Jesus Came to My House and our lesson for the day.
For the second week, I used an Easter Devotional Guide for Families from Lifeway Kids, and read the chapters from our Jesus Storybook Bible that coincided with each devotional leading up to Easter. For Palm Sunday, I followed a children’s church lesson from our church. We made big palm leaves, read about Jesus’ entrance into Jerusalem, and celebrated with our own parade. For the rest of the week, we read about Jesus washing his disciple’s feet, the Last Super, Jesus praying in the garden, Peter denying Jesus, Jesus’ trial and death, Jesus’ burial, and finally- Jesus’ resurrection!
Poetry and Rhymes
We continued working through A Child’s Garden of Verses by Robert Louis Stevenson. I focused on My Shadow for a few days because of our shadow lesson, but continued to read a new poem a day afterwards. Additionally, I mixed in some fun poems from our home collection. I’d alternate reading from Sally Go Round the Stars by Sarah Webb and Claire Ranson and Otters, Snail and Tadpole Tails by Eric Ode.
Alphabet, Numbers, Shapes
For the alphabet, numbers and shapes activities, I randomly chose something from my go-to activities in order to break up the readings.
For the alphabet, I like to work through the alphabet sounds or match letters. I have Micah tell me the sounds of each letter, then we discover things that begin with each sound. I also like to work through his flash cards, he has a few different sets, and play the Alphabet Laundry game from our Jesse Bear, What Will You Wear? study.
For numbers, I like to have Micah either count objects- marshmallows and M&Ms work great- or match and identify numbers. Right now, Micah is working on counting from 1 to 20 and tens up to 100.
And for shapes, I like to have Micah identify shape cards. Sometimes we draw shapes, play with blocks, or learn about their sides and points.
Lessons
In addition to these daily studies, we looped a few subjects. Looping just means doing one or two activities of a subject on your list a day, going down the list of subjects, and repeating the list until the week is over. For Example, if you have a list of four subjects, you can have several activities for each subject. And as you repeat the subject, you just choose different activities.
For If Jesus Came to My House, we had two subject areas: Science and Art. We were able to do three lessons of each because we only focused on these two areas. Below is our list of subjects with activities, in no particular order. There are many ways to study If Jesus Came to My House, these are just things we had fun with!
Science
For our first science lesson, we studied shadows. During Morning Time, we read My Shadow to kick off our shadow study! Then, we searched for shadows in the story. Several times that day, we went outside to look at our shadows. We talked about how our shadows looked different every time we came outside, sometimes our shadows were big and sometimes they were small, and they were in different places around us. I explained this is because of the sun, and that the angle of light distorts true sizes. We jumped, danced, and acted silly to see if our shadows would do the same. And we found other shadows and noticed how tall or short they were compared to the original objects. We explored this concept further by making shadow puppets with a flashlight. This is a complex idea for a toddler, so I had Micah play around with the flashlight and objects, just to explore. There’s also a cute project from Homeschool Share you can do.
For our second science lesson, we explored the world of building things. Within the story, the little boy shows Jesus his special imaginary place under the stairs, and in another place he builds Jesus a palace. So, we played with blocks, building all sorts of things- mainly rocket ships and submarines. Then, we built our own super-secret imaginary fort out of sheets and pillows. We just had fun discovering how to build things and what materials we could use for each project. There are a few projects from Homeschool Share you could do here, too, if you wanted.
For our third science lesson, we learned all about gardening. In If Jesus Came to My House, the little boy shows Jesus his garden, asks Him to bless his seeds, and picks the best flowers for Him. Since it was about time to start our garden, I had Micah and Skye help me prep the soil, sow the seeds, and water our hopefully soon-to-be vegetables. Afterwards, we knelt down beside our garden to ask Jesus to bless our seeds and allow them to grow into delicious vegetables. We also repotted a few of our indoor plants that were growing too big for their homes. All the while, we talked about gardening, different plants, fruits and vegetables and where they come from, and God’s command that we be shepherds of our Earth. This is a fun lesson that you can revisit as you tend to your garden all year long!
For a few bonus science lessons, we discovered bugs! While gardening, we found LOTS of bugs! So, of course, we had to study them. Periodically throughout our book study, we explored various bugs we found in the story and through our adventures. This led us to read The Very Hungry Caterpillar by Eric Carle. Because we still could not visit the library as a result of the coronavirus pandemic, we watched YouTube readings of all Eric Carle’s bug books while we made our own caterpillars. First, I gave Micah a bowl of Fruit Loops with some string and colorful bowls. Then, he separated the Fruit Loop colors into their corresponding bowl colors, and threaded the Fruit Loops through the thread to create a caterpillar. This activity isn’t just fun, it’s a great way to work on fine motor skills!
Art
For our first art lesson, we explored different music for a range of emotions. There are a few references to music in the story, and several different emotions. So, we explored different songs we could sing to soothe our emotions. I had Micah brainstorm different songs he could sing when he’s afraid, and we settled on This Little Light of Mine. For anger and frustration, the Daniel Tiger song is always our go-to. We explored songs for when we are sad, happy, worried, and more. Then, we listened to some classical music for a little bit and discussed how it made us feel. And of course, dances like crazy!
For our second art lesson, we observed the illustrations. Our version of If Jesus Came to My House is illustrated by Lori McElrath-Eslick, and each picture is beautifully painted. We talked about different things in each picture, found animals and bugs, and discussed certain scenes- like the one where the little boy is praying at church. Then, we painted our own pictures, Easter painting, obviously!
Our last art lesson wasn’t actually art, but I included it as apart of the art loop for convenience. During Morning Time, we discussed Hebrews 13:2 and how Jesus wants us to be hospitable to people. For our lesson, we recreated a situation in which a friend would come over and play, since we are still social distancing. For this, we made a ‘home’ in the kid’s play area. Then, a friend, a.k.a. Mommy, knocked on the door. I guided Micah how to respond and treat guests within our house. He greeted me at the door with a welcoming smile and invited me in. He served me some tea from sister’s teapot and showed me all his favorite toys. To get him to share his MOST favorite ones proved difficult, but he found suitable alternatives that were just as coveted. Then, he accompanied me to the ‘door,’ invited me to come back, and we say our goodbyes. During our visit, we practiced manners, generosity, and kindness. Essentially, we played ‘house’ with rules! It was a really fun way to explore this topic and practice Micah’s social skills. And I found out so much more about him as we talked about all his favorite things!
But Most Important… Have Fun!
The If Jesus Came to My House is yet another treasured book we have had the opportunity to add to our collection. It never ceases to amaze me how much we can get out of our stories! Seriously, I know I keep talking about it, but the Before Five in a Row curriculum is amazing! It’s so perfect for our pre-preschool studies! I just want to mention again though, we don’t spend much time at all ‘studying.’ I work with Micah maybe 30 minutes to an hour, three to four times a week. Mostly we are talking, playing, doing crafts or activities, and exploring fun places! It’s all about exposure and experience, and getting his little mind thinking! My goal is to make learning something fun that he wants to do and not just something he feels he must do to get good grades.
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