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.

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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!

As I mentioned last time, I had all kinds of grand giraffe plans in my head.  The one I tried to implement yesterday involved a tall, regal giraffe made out of pantyhose, and EJ would color spots on him with markers, and he would be called “George, the Gentle, Giant Giraffe,” and he would forever serve as a gentle reminder to EJ about… well, gentleness.

I meant well – I really did.  I even took step-by-step pictures of the process, even after I could tell that it was going to be a flop, just in case it turned out well and I could post a little tutorial.  Ah, well…

Since I had cleaned out my sock drawer to find an actual pair of pantyhose, I also knew I had some spare socks that I could use, so I whipped up a sock puppet giraffe.  I cannot believe I have never done sock puppets with EJ before!  He was enthralled!

I popped another spare sock on my hand and let EJ go to town with some googly eyes and some Sharpie markers.  Yup, you heard me – I let a toddler go at me with Sharpies.  Amazingly, not a dot got on me!  The sock, on the other hand…

EJ took his responsibility of decorating this guy very seriously.  Even the inside of the puppet’s mouth was colored.  Then I cut some slits in the top of the sock and pushed a pipe cleaner through (for ears, or antlers, or whatever those little nubs are on the top of a giraffe’s head).

We then played with those sock puppets for a full hour.  They had names, they played every type of ball known to man, they ate 34 different things in a row, and they touched everything in the house…

But most important, they were gentle with each other.

I will save you all the gory details – but today is the first day we’ve had in well over a week to actually get to getting on with our letter of the (2) week(s) – G!!!

I’ve had several giraffe crafts bumping around in my head, and this is the first one to make it out.  Introducing…

George, the Gentle, Giant Giraffe

a fill-in-the-blank story by EJ and Momma

Once there was a giant giraffe named George.  He was green, giant, and gray.  He loved to eat grapes and grass (and also green leaves!).  One day, George’s mommy and daddy came home with a new baby brother giraffe for George.  The baby giraffe’s name was Gerald.  Gerald was great (and he was not a giant giraffe like George, yet, because he was still a baby). 

Gerald liked to run around and jump, and play football, and go, but it bothered him when baby Gerald got in the way.  George was always telling the baby to “Go away!”  But George’s mommy and daddy reminded him that he needed to be gentle with Gerald.  George remembered that God wanted him to be gentle, too, and from that day on, George became the gentle, giant giraffe.  He and Gerald now like to eat gooey things, and play guitars, and go on walks.  They watch gorillas jumping, and they love Gam and Great-Gam, and they go for walks.

The end.

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OK, so I also had an ulterior motive to doing a story about a gentle giraffe… EJ’s not so gentle with Dieter right now, and I hoped that this might be a good moral tale for him.  I’m not sure how much he got it, but he got really into giving me details about what they like to do.  He only needed little reminders to try to stick with “G” words.  It didn’t always work, but I think the story turned out well.

I think I need work on my giraffe’s face, though – don’t you?  He looks like a smug dog, or something…