Here we are at the letter G! This is one of my favorites–it’s my favorite color, one of my favorite fruits, a favorite verse and the craft actually turned out pretty cute. I just drew a bunch of grapes and let Lydia glue some pieces of purple tissue paper on it. I am pretty sure we tried to scrunch the paper up first…but I don’t think it worked to well.

When Lydia was this age (about 27 months) I remember that I would always get a muffin cup and pour some white glue into it, then let her use a q-tip to rub the glue around on her crafts. Now we use a glue stick–and that seems like a much better idea!

I chose 1 John 4:8 because, well, it’s one of the first “G” verses that popped into my head–one I memorized when I was a kid. But I think this simple 3 word verse is important. The world questions God at every turn. They paint him as austere, vengeful and mean. I want my children’s first thought and first definition of God to be LOVE.

:: :: ::

In case you are just jumping into these ABC Scripture activities–I started this blog when my daughter Lydia and I were on the Letter N. So, I’m updating on our activities from the letters A through M. Leigh, a contributor on Impress Your Kids also has several posts on ABC Scripture activities that she has done with her son. So, make sure you click around the rest of our ABC Scriptures to find more great ideas!

The letter F was an easy one: FLOWERS with cupcake liners and green pipe cleaners. And the verse was also an easy one for me to choose. It is one of my favorite verses: Psalm 103:3a. Granted it doesn’t actually begin with the letter F. But it is such a beautiful truth for us to know. God forgives ALL my sins. I want my daughter and son to be confident of this always.

The “b” part of Psalm 103:3 says “He heals all my sicknesses.” I love the equality of spiritual and physical in the same verse. God cares for every part of our being. In fact, all of Psalm 103 is a poem of God’s great love, devotion and attention to us.

This Monday morning, full of back-to-school scrambling, breakfast prep and full to-do lists be encouraged by God’s love:

PSALM 103

I will praise the Lord.
Deep down inside me, I will praise him.
I will praise him, because his name is holy.
I will praise the Lord.
I won’t forget anything he does for me.
He forgives all my sins.
He heals all my sicknesses.
He saves my life from going down into the grave.
His faithful and tender love makes me feel like a king.
He satisfies me with the good things I long for.
Then I feel young and strong again, just like an eagle.
The Lord does what is right and fair
for all who are beaten down.
He told Moses all about his plans.
He let the people of Israel see his mighty acts.
The Lord is tender and kind. He is gracious.
He is slow to get angry. He is full of love.
He won’t keep bringing charges against us.
He won’t stay angry with us forever.
He doesn’t punish us for our sins as much as we should be punished.
He doesn’t pay us back in keeping with the evil things we’ve done.
His love for those who have respect for him
is as high as the heavens are above the earth.
He has removed our lawless acts from us
as far as the east is from the west.
A father is tender and kind to his children.
In the same way, the Lord is tender and kind
to those who have respect for him.
He knows what we are made of.
He remembers that we are dust.
People’s lives are like grass.
People grow like the flowers in the field.
When the wind blows on them, they are gone.
No one can tell that they had ever been there.
But the Lord’s love
for those who have respect for him
lasts for ever and ever.
Their children’s children will know
that he always does what is right.
He always loves those who keep his covenant.
He always does what is right for those who remember to obey his commands.
The Lord has set up his throne in heaven.
His kingdom rules over all.
Praise the Lord, you angels of his.
Praise him, you mighty ones
who carry out his orders and obey his word.
Praise the Lord, all you angels in heaven.
Praise him, all you who serve him and do what he wants.
Let everything the Lord has made praise him
everywhere in his kingdom.
I will praise the Lord.

(New International Reader’s Version)
(emphasis mine)

Did you read it? I know, I ususally skip over scripture because oh-I’ve-read-that-before. If you didn’t, go back and read it. It’s worth it–and it was written lovingly for you!

Which part of that scripture do you like best?

See all of our ABC Scripture Crafts in one spot!

Ah, the letter E! I actually like this one. I thought I was so creative because although this verse doesn’t actually begin with the letter E it has 6 inside of it! You can see I let Lydia circle (ok, I circled them) each letter E and then let her draw some E’s. So, even though it’s not exactly an “e” verse, I still think it’s a good one to learn and practice. Not just that we’re all created to praise, but that we need to be purposeful in doing so!

I really liked making the letter E from popsicle sticks. You could do this with any letter—as long as you don’t mind some block letters.

But my favorite is the elephant. What, you don’t see it? It’s that little orange hamburger looking thing on the right. I cut out a head, two ears and a trunk. Then I let her piece it together. I’m not sure if it was my horrible artistic skills or the fact that my daughter was just 2 years old, but she did not put that animal together correctly! I didn’t correct her because I thought it was cuter her way!

I actually think this would be super cute to do for kids–make your own animal puzzles. You could cut out a few circles, some rectangles and triangles and let the kids make their own animals. Here’s a few we tried out today:

1. spider?
2. owl
3. bunny/bear/caterpillar head
4. bug

Pretty cute, right? Maybe I’ll try some ears and trunk and see if my  now 4 year old Lydia can put together an physically correct elephant!

The past few weeks I’ve been updating some of our “back-dated” alphabet crafts—all the scriptures and crafts Lydia and I did before I started recording them on this blog. And I started out strong with the letter A, B was just ok, C was a phonics-fail and today? The letter D? Well, I’m just thankful I really didn’t start this blog until the letter N!

But in the spirit of full disclosure and I’m-a-real-mom, here is our letter D scripture and craft…if you can call it that:

I knew the verse I wanted immediately, “Do not let your hearts be troubled and DO NOT BE AFRAID!” I’ve chronicled Lydia’s battle with fear and being shy. So, this verse is the perfect one for her. It’s still one of her go-to verses when she’s frightened. I’ve always loved this verse because it says “do not let your heart…” as opposed to, “I will not let your heart…”. There is a significant personal action involved. I want Lydia to know that she has a big role to play in fear or bravery. It’s up to her in one way–to act in the power that Jesus gives.

Now, onto the crafty part. You do recognize the animal don’t you? It’s a duck. Ahem. I know, it looks like the handprint turkeys you make at Thanksgiving. I wanted to use feathers but we didn’t have any. So, we used what we had: Lydia’s hand and crayons.

I’m hoping “E” will score a little higher on the craft-a-licioius scale, but for now here’s some more letter D crafts that might get your craftiness going…and I even added some scriptures you could couple them with.

Donkey Paper Bag Puppet from Danielle’s Place {this one would be great for John 12:15!}

Light and Dark “D” Dots from DLTK {a cool craft for Genesis 1!}

D is for DoctorBag from Our Crafts N Things {maybe Matthew 9:12-13? Or even Luke 7:21-23?)

D is for Dinosaur from Homeschool Creations {plus tons of other fun “d” activities…but I couldn’t think of a scripture for this one!}

Door “d” from No Time For Flashcards {ooh, you could use Revelation 3:20 for this craft!}

And don’t forget about the rest of our “D” crafts here on Impress Your Kids—including a Make Your Own Drumset Tutorial!

Do you have a “d” craft? Especially one that has to do with a scripture? Feel free to leave a link in the comments!

Today’s activity is actually something I learned on the Focus on the Family webcast a few weeks ago. (Remember that? They interviewed me about the Shoes 2 Share challenge?) The entire focus of the webcast was fun, frugal and super easy activities to do with kids—including all kinds of diy toys and games by a couple/family/ministry called, Kid Concoctions.

One of these concoctions was slime. That’s right. We’re making slime today. It actually kinda reminds me of “gak”. Remember that stuff a few years ago? It’s a little tighter than slime but not quite as hard as silly putty. Who knew there could be so many kinds, huh?

All you need is water (easy), one cup of white glue (that’s a little more than a regular sized bottle), food coloring and 4 teaspooons of Borax.

Grab one large bowl and mix in the cup of glue with a few drops of food coloring. Mix until it’s the color you like.

After it is a uniform color, add 1 cup of water. Stir.

Now, in another bowl, add 1 1/3 cups of warm water and 4 teaspoons of Borax. Borax is a powdered laundry booster. So, it should semi dissolve in the warm water. Once this is mixed, pour this new solution into your colored glue bowl. The second it hits, you’ll see a science miracle take place–these two liquids begin to form a solid!

You can start stirring, or do what Lydia did and stick your hands in to mix it up!

The more you mix the thicker and more gelatinous (*shudder*) it becomes. Once it has collected into a giant ball glob, there will be some excess water. Either pour that out or put your new glob of slime into another bowl and continue kneading and smooshing with your hands.

With the right measurements and the right ingredients, it should end up looking something like this:

Awesome, right?!

If you don’t have quite enough glue (who, me?) it might be a little more like this:

And if you couple it with some old-as-the-hills clumpy glue from the back of your closet, it might end up like this:

Regardless, your kids will think this is the best thing ever! My nieces and nephew are visiting from Mexico (they are missionaries there) and they giggled and squealed the entire time we made this. And even though some of it turned out crazier than others, they played with it for a good 30-45 minutes after we made it.

As we played with it, I was reminded of our verse from Monday:

I waited patiently for the LORD; he turned to me and heard my cry. He lifted me out of the slimy pit, out of the mud and mire; he set my feet on a rock and gave me a firm place to stand…Yet I am poor and needy; may the Lord think of me. You are my help and my deliverer; O my God, do not delay.

What a great picture of what God has done for us!

Enjoy your slime! And thank you to Kid Concoctions for the great idea!

linked to works for me wednesday

whatever goes wednesday

show and tell

creative therapy

spotlight yourself

creative share blog hop

You can learn a lot from me. Not because I am so amazing and creative. Nope. Because I learn (and mess up) as I go. And might as well learn from my mistakes instead of making your own.

Here’s our letter “C” verse from way back when. And apparently the hard-c, soft-c, c-h combination thing didn’t even cross my mind. I picked CAT and a verse that begins with CH. Which doesn’t help Lydia learn her letter sounds whatsoever.

But at least I drew a cute cat, right? Right?! And Lydia did do some nice matching of the black and pink pipe-cleaner whiskers. Just lovely!

I cannot for the life of me remember what else we did with this craft. I’m sure we checked out some “C” books and talked about cats. Or children. However, this verse is ingrained into Lydia’s head. This is one of those we say over and over again. Well, really, my husband and I don’t say it. We ask Lydia, “What’s our ‘C’ verse?” And she’ll say it back to us. Then God’s Word reminds her of what she should be doing and how she should be acting. So, even though it wasn’t a great phonics choice, it was a good choice for my little girl’s heart!

Anyway, if you’d like some cute (and phonetically accurate) alphabet crafts, you MUST download No Time For Flashcard’s Alphabet Crafts ebook. It’s only $8 and totally worth it. (Look at the cute “V” craft Lydia and I did from it!)

See more of our ABC scripture crafts!

I told you I was going to post all the ABC scriptures Lydia and I did before I started this blog. Well, the letter A was a pretty good one. But when I realized *this* was all I had for the letter B, I thought, “Oh, wow. That’s a little embarassing.” Not too crafty. Not even very thematic. Oh well. You know by now this blog is not about craftiness…it’s about dropping God’s Word in our kids’ hearts, however and whenever we can!

I remember I just let Lydia look through all my stickers (I have quite a lot because I’ve been saving them all my life. Seriously, do you see the red & yellow “b” on the left? I got that as a prize inside Alphabits cereal when I was a kid.). Hmm. Where was I? Oh yeah, I let Lydia look through all my stickers until we found one that started with the letter “B”.

Our verse is Acts 16:31, “Believe in the Lord Jesus…” The rest of the verse says, “…and you will be saved—you and your household.” When she was little, I just gave her snippets of scripture because I wasn’t sure if she could memorize a long piece. Now I know, I should have given her the whole thing–including the reference. Preschoolers can memorize anything, so make it worth your time and theirs by teaching the whole verse!

I can’t remember what else we did with this verse except I KNOW we read The B Book by Jan and Stan Bernstain. Lydia still loves that book and I can quote the whole thing for you: “Big. Big Brown. Big Brown Bear. Big Brown Bear, Blue Bull…”

Cover of The B Book (Bright and Early Books)

I don’t want to leave your craftiness completely unsatisifed, so here are some really cute “B” crafts for you and your kiddos:

Buzzy B at No Time For Flash Cards

B is for Butterfly at Totally Tots

“B” Activities (including this beehive!) at Mozi Esme

Letter B Handwriting Practice at Christian Preschool Printables

Do you have any fun “B” activities? Feel free to leave a link!

For several months I’ve been wanting to make something on a canvas to hang in my kids’ rooms. There are so many cute tutorials and ideas around the interweb. I’ll admit I’m just a crafty wannabe. But after seeing Book Inspired Nursery Art at Silly Eagle Books and  Faux Wood Letter Tutorial at Little Birdie Secrets, I was pining after a canvas in my kids’ rooms. Finally I ran across Messy Masterpiece at *explanation required and knew it was right up my alley! All you need is a canvas and a preschooler willing to fingerpaint! Oh, and one more thing. Alphabet stickers.

But I didn’t have any alphabet stickers. So, what’s a girl to do?

I made my own. Yes, I cut out letters by hand. What? You can’t cut letters out by hand? Well, why didn’t you say so? Here’s the basic tutorial:

I used this same technique to cut my letters out of the contact paper, then I placed the words on the canvas. I chose a phrase from my very favorite book, The Jesus Storybook Bible by Sally Lloyd Jones. It’s a phrase that describes God’s love for His people “Never Stopping, Never Giving Up, Unbreaking, Always and Forever Love”.

Once the letters were arranged how I wanted, I let my daughter crack out the paint. I chose two pinks and she did those at the same time.

Once the pink dried we did Leaf Green.

After it all dried, I peeled the letters off and VOILA!

But I couldn’t let my son be left out. So, as I peeled the letters off of Lydia’s canvas, I carefully placed them on Asa’s. Then, I gave him two shades of grey and one orange.

I right-justified his and I really like the white space to the left.

You can see up close that the paint really spread underneath the stickers, but from far away, I think they look pretty swanky!

I’m so excited that my kids will have a constant reminder of God’s great love for them right in their room!

So, do you love it as much as I do?!

(ps–yes, I see the misspelling on the orange canvas. If you don’t see it, don’t go back and try to find it, please! ack!)

linked to:
Today’s Creative Blog: Get Your Craft On!
Sugar Bee: Take a Look Tuesday
Tutorial Tuesday
Tot Tuesday
Lucky Linky Tuesday

When I started Impress Your Kids it was because I wanted a place to record the scriptures I was teaching my daughter and the activities we were doing along with them. I began with a scripture for each letter of the alphabet. But didn’t even start the blog until we were all the way on the letter N.

I just ran across all the scripture papers we made and thought I’d share them and try to remember what other activities we did along with them. There is nothing special about the crafts–usually just paper and glue. But for a toddler? It was the highlight of her day. And the highlight of mine as I saw God’s Word being planted in her heart.

So, here we go with the letter A. I’ll try to get B through M up in the next few weeks, too. Of course, you can check out our other ABC verses (the ones I blogged from the letter N through Z and all of them Leigh did) by visiting our ABC Scriptures page.

This is one of those scriptures I remember from a kid. My mom made my brother say it back and forth if we were fighting. I wanted Lydia to know it, too.

The easiest word for the letter A was “apple”, so this is what we did! This was really my first attempt at a craft with Lydia. She was probably a little over 2 years old when we did this. I just drew the apples, then tore the paper, put down some glue and let Lydia stick them on.

I remember we also did some apple stamps in all different colors. That was a big adventure! Then we went to the library and checked out lots of books about apples and Johnny Appleseed. That reminds me, I should have taught her the Johnny Appleseed song. Do you know it?

The Lord’s been good to me
And so I thank the Lord
For giving me the things I need:
The sun and the rain and the appleseed.
The Lord is good to me!

And the thing you’re really wondering? Yes, Lydia still remembers the verse!

I clearly remember the year my mom helped me make a sit-upon for my Brownie troops’ camp (I remember it as well as I remember the smell of the ancient canteen I used to have to take with me to camp…. but that’s a story for another day….).  What’s a sit-upon?  Well, it’s… something… you sit upon.  Hmph – that was easier to explain in my head.  Here, let me show you…

Back in the day, Mom and I made my sit-upon out of a black plastic garbage bag and newspaper.  I wanted to improve on the design a bit, because while I remember making it and using it, I have no idea how long that black plastic sit-upon lasted, and I remember not enjoying it being tied around my waist.  I was told that it was to be worn around my waist so all I have to do is sit down and it would be in the right place, but even then I thought that was silly.  Maybe I don’t sit down like everyone else, but that sit-upon was too tight around my middle and always had to be adjusted when I sat.  So here’s what I came up with…

Gather your supplies:

• an old vinyl tablecloth or a shower curtain (the dollar store has shower curtains a-plenty!)
• newspaper
• a hole puncher
• large plastic needle
• heavy duty string or cord
• ribbon

Using your newspaper as a template, cut out a rectangle (or two or three – however many you will be making) on a fold of your vinyl tablecloth/shower curtain.

On a fold?  Fold your tablecloth/curtain in half and use that fold as one of your edges.  You will wind up with a 2 layered piece of cloth/curtain, and you will only need to sew up 3 sides instead of all 4!

Take a hole punch and punch holes spaced evenly around the 3 cut edges of your cloth/curtain through both layers.  You will be whipstitching the sides shut – see the picture below?  You just “whip” your needle around the back of the cloth/curtain and bring your needle and thread up through a set of holes, repeating the process over and over.

And I did say “you” will be stitching… Elias gave it his best shot, and did pretty well for his first time sewing anything by hand.

He wasn’t too interested in doing it “correctly” – so I just had to back up and let him do his thing.  He “finished” one side, and I finished it from there.

So I mentioned I never liked the sit-upon being tied around my wait – I wanted to make these so they slipped easily over a shoulder and could be plopped down on the ground wherever needed.  I used a length of ribbon for each sit-upon – and look!  My hole puncher could punch through ribbon!  Who knew? Punch 2-3 holes in your ribbon (depending on the width of your ribbon).

Sandwich the ribbon in between the layers of your cloth/curtain before you sew up a corner, then sew the ribbon in with the sides.  I added extra stitches around the ribbon so it would be reinforced, since that part of the sit-upon would potentially take more stress and strain than other parts.

Once you have 2 sides sewn up, stuff the sit-upon with newspaper.  My one from back-in-the-day only had flat newspaper layers in it, and I never thought that gave any cushioning for a little hinder.  So I just added some fluff to it – sandwich some crumpled up newspaper in between 2 layers of flat newspapers.  Sitting on it will flatten the crumpled layers out anyway, but in the meantime it will be a bit more comfy.  After stuffing, finish stitching up the sit-upon and tie off the end of your string, clipping any loose ends.

This step is optional – and can also be easily done before the sit-upon is sewn and stuffed – let your little ones decorate their sit-upon!  Super fun, and one thing I never got to do with my black plastic one.  Use permanent markers – you don’t want marker or paint coming off on little hind ends during your hike.

Here are ours, all ready to go!

This really was a walk down memory lane for me, and the boys have already had fun with the sit-upons… well, sitting upon them, amongst other things.  I wonder how long these will last…

linked to WFMW at We are THAT Family, Creative Share at Trendy Treehouse, Hoo’s Got Talent at Night Owl Crafting, Show & Tell at Blue Cricket Design, Gettin’ Crafty on Hump Day at Nikki’s Nifty Knacks, We Did It! Wedensday at Sew Much Ado and Idea Sharin’ Wednesday on Women Who Do It All!