Source: None via ohAmanda {impress your kids} on Pinterest

Asa’s letter this week is K. Which is completely random. I just make up a new letter based on whatever book we’re covering each week. This week is a Kangaroo book. So. it’s K.

Which leads perfectly to a word my rough-and-tumble boy needs to know: KINDNESS.

We read two kindness scriptures today:

Be kind and tender to one another. Ephesians 4:32 (NIrV)

So put on tender mercy and kindness as if they were your clothes. Colossians 3:12 (NIrV)

The second is one Lydia and I memorized eons ago. And I’ve never forgotten the cadence in which we memorized it: Put on kindness asifitwereyourclothes. Lydia still has her Kindness Poster up on her closet door.

I love the picture of putting on kindness like clothes. It’s the same feeling I get when I read about the armor of God. It’s such a big and real attitude–so real I should be feeling it and living in it at all times!

I decided to do a little K activity with Asa. And add some kindness-clothing stuff to it.

We pulled out our hand-dandy old magazines, cut out some letter K’s and then Mod Podged them.

Onto a hanger.

An old wooden baby hanger.

Yes. I know this seems like a craft for the girly. For the very crafty girly. But I couldn’t help it. I knew he’d like looking at and gluing all those K’s. And he’s had that little hanger since he was a baby! It was perfect for upcycling! (I’ve still haven’t got the hang of boy crafts!)

Don’t worry. We did add a scripture to it…

Today is drizzly in cool in Atlanta so I think this hanger will be perfect for housing Asa’s hoodie. And every time (ok, most times) we take that hoodie off our fancy hanger and put it on his little body, I hope we remember to put kindness on, too!

The Fruit of the Spirit: Kindness has been…well, kind to us. We’ve had a lot of fun with this one and been able to talk about it a lot. Kindness is one of the easiest ones to measure and act on –especially for a 3 year old with a 1 year old brother! Here’s a few more activities we’ve done this past week and few more we haven’t done—but I think would be super fun!

Bible Story

Good Samaritan (Luke 10:25-37). I just realized this story may have been even better for GOODNESS! Oh well, the point here is the same—a man is kind to someone different than him.  Lydia has just now started noticing differences in people’s skin and styles, so she didn’t quite get the full depth of this story. We read it in about 3 different Bible story books. Her favorite was from the See With Me Bible. It’s the Bible told in pictures. And the pictures are brilliant. Lydia will look at all 350 pages in one sitting. Speaking of which…

Books

I was looking up ORANGE books on Amazon and found this cute book about a bear, Orange Pear Apple Bear. The whole book only has five words in it. They are just rearranged depending on what Bear is doing with his fruit. This would actually be a great one for any time during the Fruit of the Spirit. I’m going to try to check it out at the library.

I went to the Family Bookstore yesterday to scope out their Holiday books (found nothing interesting!) but while I was browsing through the kids’ section, a title caught my eye: Lyle the Kindly Viking! I had forgotten there’s a Veggie Tales DVD of the same title! We even have it at home. This was the Little Golden Book edition. The book is really more about sharing, but I think that is a valid aspect of being kind. And a very tangible one!

Snacks

Jello Jigglers. Here’s another great anytime snack for the Fruit of the Spirit. In fact, you know what I would love to do? Find some cookie cutters in the shape of fruit (uhm, like these!). Then make several different flavors of jello jigglers, cut them out and have some jiggly Fruit of the Spirit!

We made orange jigglers this week–and I don’t think my daughter has ever had jello! She thought it was the best thing ever. We used some Christmas cookie cutters—so we made presents and gingerbread men to remind us to be kind by giving gifts to people. How’s that for creative?!

Movies

After I got the book, we of course, had to watch Veggie Tales’ Lyle the Kindly Viking. Lydia watched it after church with her Daddy. I tried to quiz her about it afterwards…she didn’t quite get it. I said, “Was Lyle kind? Did he share?” She said, “No. He just talked kind.”

*sigh*

Stay tuned this week for our next Fruit of the Spirit: LOVE!

Lydia is spending the night with her cousin from Mexico. No, Lydia’s not in Mexico. This cousin is. Well, not right now. The cousin is visiting so they are both spending the night at my mother-in-law’s. Is that confusing? Yeah, me, too. Anyway, while she was gone, I made this fun craft for her to play with when she returns.

I saw something like this at Danielle’s Place and again at a Pumpkin Patch this week. But this is my own personal little version of decorate-your-food-to-look-like-people craft or as I lovingly refer to them, “Kindness Kids”. *snort* Anywhoo, I just thought it would be fun to dress up an orange with clothes. So, here we go…

SUPPLIES:

• orange
• toothpick
• tape/glue
• construction paper
• miscellaneous craft foam pieces

DIRECTIONS:

I cut out some hat & clothing shapes from construction paper. Yes, I did these free hand. No, they are not that spectacular. Then, I taped them to some toothpicks.

I was trying to think of clothes I could make instead of body parts a la Mr. Potato Head. So, the first one I thought of was a Princess. A triangle hat with a little gold craft foam on top, some bell sleeves with more gold glitter craft foam, throw on  a heart shaped mouth and she is beautiful! I tried to do a skirt but couldn’t figure out how to keep it on.

Then I decided to go a boy-route. I made some shoes, a baseball hat, glove and even a baseball. And I have to admit…he looks super cute…especially after I got my Sharpie on it.

Asa really liked it. In fact, I had to confiscate it before he took a chunk out of our little baseball player’s rump!

I can’t wait for Lydia to come home and play with these little Kindness Kids! We’re going to have fun dressing them. And I’m pretty sure she’ll have some more wardrobe ideas for me to cut out, too!

TIP: The toothpicks soak up the orange juice inside and will make your construction paper wet. Craft foam may be a better alternative if you want it to last all day. If you wanted to make a more permanent version, you could stick the clothes into a foam ball or playdough ball–no juice!