Halloween Alternative.........

There are so many Christians out there wanting a Halloween alternative for their kids...a church harvest festival, a fluffy and cutesy costume party, or just stay home and hand out candy! A lot of us have been there.  I certainly was growing up. But I also didn't know what it was really about, and now knowing what I know, I have decided to not participate. I'd like to share the best alternative....there is no alternative!
There is no place for believers to participate in a holiday dedicated to Satan and his followers.  You can attach the name of Jesus on it, dress up as Moses and celebrate within your church doors, but you are celebrating a demonic holiday. Black and white.  We are called to be separate from the world, and not look like it in any way, shape or form.  Satan must be giddy to have believers participating in his favorite holiday. 
Most say, "It's for the kids."  or "It's night of harmless games and treats.".  "It's not a Halloween Party, it's a Harvest Party(but come dressed up in a fun costume, there will be a contest later)
Halloween is not Snoopy, princesses or SpongeBob Square Pants....that is the cover. Satan likes to make things look pretty and fun...to cover up the truth. 
Dressing up on this holiday, handing out candy,  trick or treating, and celebrating is a pagan ritual.  Trying to evade demons. It's history is horrifying. You may have your own reasons or justification, but I urge you to dig deep into the origins and push aside the mini-snickers bar and take the mask from your eyes and see it for what it really is.  Evil. 

Genesis 2:17

but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for in the day that you eat of it you shall surely die.”

 

My hubby recently did a sermon on the two trees in the garden.  Tree of Life, and the Tree of the knowledge of good and evil.  We are presented with options, who we will obey and follow.  God said not to partake of the tree knowledge of good and evil.  I am sure that tree had some yummy looking fruit on it, looked harmless enough...but the truth is...God said NO!  Too many Christians today are partaking of the fruit of that forbidden tree.  An evil we were never supposed to be exposed to..a choice that causes death.

Let's stop trying to justify evil deeds.

3 John 1:11

Beloved, do not imitate what is evil, but what is good. He who does good is of God, but he who does evil has not seen God.

This has been on my heart.  God is calling you to draw close to Him, which means leaving the things of the world behind, because those things separate us from Him. 
   
Romans 12:2
And do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, that you may prove what is that good and acceptable and perfect will of God.

I don't want to come across judgemental  or harsh.  I wasn't even planning on publishing this, it was my own personal "writing rant".  But it happened.  
God has to reveal this to your heart.  You have to be the one to WANT to know where this holiday comes from and where it leads.   Take the time to discover the Truth for yourself.

Twin Cities Field Trip Ideas

I have been homeschooling for only a couple of years, and it has been so much fun.  I live in the Twin Cities area of Minnesota and there is so much available for homeschool groups. We have yet to duplicate a field trip.  Here are my top 10 favorites:

1. Minnesota State Capitol.  The children were in awe of the structure and grandness of the building and enjoyed the tour.  They even got a view from the top of the Capitol overlooking St. Paul.

2. MAD Science.  Professor Dude came to our local library meeting room(local library meeting rooms are FREE of charge. Great place to meet up!)  He gave us a fun filled, hands on and silly lesson on electricity!  They have lots of themes to choose from! They have a set fee, but the more families you gather, the cheaper the individual charge.

3. TWINS Stadium Tour.  Wow! Did the kids really enjoy this.  I did too!  We got a wonderful tour of the whole building, structure and workings of the it.  We got to walk around the field and had  science lesson on baseball.  They even got to have a little batting practice!

 4. U of M Raptor Center.  This was a fascinating field trip.  Displays of these amazing birds and how God designed them was great to learn about.  The kids particularly loved when the birds pooed on the floor and ate dead mice :)

5.St Paul Riverboat Cruise.  This was such fun!  We got an education tour of the river and saw a bald eagle on the way.  The kids even took turns sitting up front with the captain!

6. Berry Hill Farm, Anoka MN.  We just did this one for fall.  It was a beautiful farm with a lot of space for the kids to play.  They had a small variety of animals, a hay stack for kids to climb, wagon ride with a fun interactive trail , and a large interactive corn maze!  I loved it for being more Harvest themed and not Halloween.

 

 

 



7. Coon Rapids Dam.  My kids were able to attend this one without me, but they loved it.  They even got to do a scavenger hunt.

 

 

8. Stepping Stone Children's Theater, St. Paul.  We love the theater!  We got to watch Tom Sawyer at this theater and loved it.  We also attended Children's Theater Co. and Stages Theater in Hopkins, MN!

 

9. Sea Life at MOA.  Normally this is an expensive trip! This is where you take advantage of being a homeschooler!  In the Fall and Spring, they offer a homeschool day!  Only $5 a kid..whoohoo! Such a cool field trip!

 

10.  Rum River Art Center.  We don't have a formal art class, so I am excited to do this trip in a few weeks.  Due to the various ages of our group we are doing a session on water color painting.  They will teach us about an artist and do our own painting based on that artists technique.

    ** I also looked in Northern Clay Co. and Leonards Basement, but they started their lessons at 6yr and up for their classes and the pottery wheels were for 9yr and up at the clay company!

 

Some other trips we have done:

 Aamot's Apple Orchard

 Eveland Family Farm

 Como Zoo

 Science Museum

 MN Zoo

 YMCA Swim day



 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Torah Boot Camp VBS Overview

 

 

Our Torah Boot Camp VBS was our best one yet! The kids had SO much fun and they are still talking about it weeks later!  Here is an overview of how we set things up!

Lesson:
Day1: Physical and Spiritual Training: Exercising Godliness.  Focused on Salvation on the first day. You can't even think about entering a battle with Satan unless you have Jesus as your Savior!
Day 2:Following Orders: Obedience!
Day 3:The Battle: Stand Firm; Armor of God
Day 4: The Victory!!!

Decorations:
 Army Crates: plain cardboard boxes, spray paint army green and stencil words like; God's Army; Brave; Stand Firm; Bibles; in yellow. I made 20 of them and stacked them all around the room.

 

 

Sand Bags:  I had someone from our congregation that works for the city get me actual sandbags. I just stuffed them with newspaper to fill them out.  Stacked them all around the front of the stage.

Station Signs:  We had various stations for the traveling company's to help divide the kids up.  We had the Mess Hall, Torah Drills, BaseCamp, Field Training and the Craft Bunker.  I got firm posterboard at the $1 Store, spraypainted, and stenciled the words.

Army Gear: We had donations of army jackets and other gear.  We also had access to a very large canvas Army tent that we set up outside for our craft bunker.  We had hats for all the adults.  I also got hats for all the kids at www.haloheaven.com .  We also had camo paint set up at the beginning of each day so the kids could camo up.

 

Even I got into the fun!!

 

We also had a Barracks. We set up "lockers" for each kid to place their hat each day and their "dogtag" name tag.  They also placed their crafts their too for safe keeping. The Barracks consisted of 2x4 lumber shelves placed on cinder blocks. We had about 3 shelves and we used camo duct tape to write their names.

 

Staff and Companies:

For each station I had a "Sergeant", an adult who ran the station.  Then each company represented an age group and color.  They marched to and from each station with their flag and a "Staff Sergeant" (a teenager) who accompanied them everywhere.  So then each station had the adult and a teen helper every time.
4yr= Aleph Company(Orange)
5-6yr= Bet Company(Purple)
7 yr= Chet Company(Green)
8-9yr= Dalet Company(Blue)
Each child's name tag had their corresponding color.

Bet Company with Staff Sergeant Hannah

(purple Flag and "dogtag" nametags)

 

 

Army Cadence:
Of course we had to have our own army cadence to have the kids march to every day.  But you have to practice up on your drill sergeant voice!
"I don't know what you've been told" (kids repeat)
"Torah is God's Word of old" (kids repeat)
"Read it, say it and obey it" (kids repeat)
"Bow your head and meditate it" (kids repeat)
"Sound Off"(Drill Sergeant)
"Torah" (kids answer)
"Sound Off" :(Drill Sergeant)
"Is Life" (kids answer)
"Sound Off" (Drill Sergeant)
"Torah is life--IS LIFE! (kids answer)

We also downloaded a bugle call and played it when they needed to return to Base Camp!

Physical Training:
What kind of Bible Boot camp would this be without some PT!!!!!!

 

 

 

Stations: 
The companies assembled together for Standard Procedures(rules), PT, Worship, Lesson and Skit. Then we break off into our 15 min. rotation stations.
Torah Drills: where the company's practice sword drills, Bible verse, and Hebrew Aleph Bet
Mess Hall- company's rest for snacks and drinks
Field Training- Company's meet outside for a game
Craft Bunker-company's gather for a fun craft

New School Room!!

Ah, the smell of new crayons and sharp pencils.  It 's the first day of school!  We were super excited to start today..


.I just reorganized my basement so we could have a school room and I am super pleased with it. 

My husband and I did a major Ikea shopping trip!  It was fun to actually do a room and shop for it instead of dreaming and window shopping.
I think my favorite is the person touch of making their names for the wall. 

 It was super easy and didn't take very long. I did it while Elise was napping.  I used wooden letters from the craft store.  I used a small compiled book of coordinating scrapping paper, and that was awesome. I just traced the letters and mod-podged them on!  They are so light that I used small mounting tabs from the school supply store. No damage and removable!

Hope everyone had a great first day! here is to many more :)

Are You In Vain????

As I was doing my devotionals this morning, I was reading in Psalm when I was struck by this verse...."Unless the Lord builds the house, they labor in vain who build it; Unless the Lord guards the city, the watchman stays awake in vain."  Psalm 127:1

Being a busy mom of 4 little girls, I think of all the work I do everyday, from sun up( well, mine doesn't start til 9am) to sun down!!  If I don't give it to the Lord, it's all in vain.  Ahhhh!!  Really!!  That is the last thing a mommy wants to hear!  My looong days of laundry, dishes, cleaning, cooking, ect is in vain.....UNLESS....it's given to God.  As I keep a hawks eye on my kids, guarding and watching them as they play and teaching them about stranger danger....it is in vain.....UNLESS....I give them to God..Everyday, I am building, building, building into my children, my house, my friends and family, my church...but if I am not bringing them to the Lord in prayer first, giving control over to the Savior of mankind, it is in vain.  My work profits them very little.  But the work of the Lord will profit them for eternity and that is what I want......

So, they have clean underwear, BUT do they have a clean heart?
So, they have food to eat, BUT are they hungry for God?
So, they have a roof over their heads, BUT are they in a house that God built?

It is good that God reminds me that even tho I am running my kids to soccer, playdates, field trips..thinking this is what they MUST have in life, that doing these things will make me a good mom...it is all in vain compared to the building blocks of righteousness I need to build in them to make them strong in this world.  I want them to have a Godly foundation of prayer, worship, Bible and church fellowship.  Then we can build other things on top of that, but if God is not their foundation, it will crumble.  Those other things will fall away and when they hit bottom, God will be there!  That is what I want .........

Church Nursery Name Tag System

Our church nursery is starting to grow like crazy and I had to come up with a new and easier security/name tag solution.  I really did not find anything out there, so I am posting what I came up with.
This is a blue clear pocketed calendar from www.Orientaltrading.com for about $15.  The clear pockets allows easy access to the name tags and I can see the names clearly!
You will also need clear plastic id badge sleeves, spiral key rings, and badge Id clips.  I got mine at Walmart.  So much cheaper than Office Max or Office Depot!

 Spiral key ring bracelets.  These will be attached to a id badge sleeve and be used as the security number tags(matches the number for their child) that are given to the parents.  They can easily wear on their wrist, and will have to present it to pick up their child.

 

Badge Id clips.  These will clip to the badge id sleeves for the the name tag that will clip easily onto  a child's shirt(no pins).  And make another name tag/id number badge to clip on the diaper bags.

 

I finished it off by printing off the name of our nursery, church and age and slipped it into where the day of the month would be.  There are hook holes at the top, so I used medium size 3M hooks to adhere to the wall. Each pocket is large enough to hold all three badges of id's: Name tag, security bracelet, and diaper badge.  I had to go every other row so it didn't look crowded, but it fit everyone!

 

Hope this is easy for your nursery workers to help keep your children safe and allow the parents to see how organized the security procedures are so they feel their children are well cared for!

Have a blessed day!!!