Advent

Three years of age is such a beautiful age to teach.  There is so much understanding, involvement, and awe.  We've been working through an advent curriculum (thanks to a friend/teacher here in Portland who shared it with us) together as a family, and it's been amazing to see how teaching advent themes to Kai has made Christmas so much more vivid and meaningful to both Bryon and me.

We've focused on the themes of simplicity, gifts, wonder and worship, incorporating readings, stories, and activities as we've gone along.  Here's a little peek at some of the things we've been up to through this advent journey.

We made a nativity scene together.

Over the span of several days we acted out the Christmas story in our living room, taking turns being the different characters and talking about how they might have felt.

What a cute Mary! 

We even had a lovely couch-cushion stable.

Although far from being an angel himself, he acted the part of Gabriel very well. :)

Joseph

The Shepherds

And of course, the wisemen!

And, after receiving a homemade crown as a gift from a friend, we acted out the wisemen portion of the story a few more times. 

I'm pretty sure there wasn't a John Deere in the nativity story, but  apparently this wiseman's gift to Jesus was a John Deere tractor :)

We visited a stable with friends.  What might it have looked like where Jesus was born?  Felt like?  Smelled like?  Sounded like?  Was it fancy?  Did Jesus have a lot of stuff?  Who visited Jesus in the stable?

Feeding the goats was Kai's favourite part.

We decorated our tree and made a star for the top representing the star over the stable.

We put a baby in a straw-filled "manger"  under our tree so we could talk about Jesus being the best gift of all and how he came to us in humility as just a baby.

We made a welcome box, which will be given to a child entering foster care here in Portland.  We chose to have our box donated to a 2-4 year old boy, so that Kai could be more helpful as we chose items to add to the box.

We made gifts for our friends and family, and talked about how we give gifts to each other to symbolize God giving us the gift of Jesus.

We visited a light show with friends and talked about how much more incredible the star in the sky must have been at the first Christmas.  In fact, the whole Christmas story is pretty incredible!

We also visited a live nativity.  Kai was mesmerized by the entire Christmas story being acted out right in front of us as we walked from scene to scene.

We volunteered at the Ronald McDonald House here in Portland.

We listened to Christmas music and sang songs together.

Etc.

It was lovely and meaningful, teaching and celebrating this advent season with our son.