Lenten Memory Verse Garden

I asked my kids what kind of Memory Verse project they wanted to do this year, and they chose the flower garden from years ago. But we decided that each child would make their own small garden this year instead of one big one, and I'm hoping that will mean less cutting that our window garden. If you want the bigger garden, follow the link above.

I shrunk the original pdf to fit on one page. It can be colored first, cut out as you go, and glued onto a clean sheet of paper to make a garden. There are notes on the paper to tell you what color to color each shape and what flower they make. The memory verses are the stems. Use the guide below to know which flower to use each week. The photo above might also be helpful. You can print a second page if you want extra flowers or leaves.

WEEKLY GUIDE 

1. Sunday of the Publican and Pharisee: 1 red Poppy (color triangles yellow): “God, be merciful to me a sinner!” – Luke 18:13 

2. Sunday of the Prodigal Son: 2 yellow Blackeyed Susans: “Father, I have sinned against heaven and before you.” – Luke 15:18 

3. Sunday of the Last Judgment: 2 purple Crocus with 2 yellow centers: "Inasmuch as you did it to one of the least of these My brethren, you did it to Me.”- Matthew 25:40 

4. Forgiveness Sunday: 1 Phlox (purple oval with 12 small blue flowers glued on top) “For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.” – Matthew 6:21

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1. Sunday of Orthodoxy: 1 yellow Marigold : “Come and see.” – John 1:46 

2. Sunday of St. Gregory Palamas: 3 purple Asters with yellow centers: “When Jesus saw their faith, He said to the paralytic, ‘Son, your sins are forgiven you.’” – Mark 2:5 

3. Sunday of the Cross: 2 Carnations (use green for bottom section of flower, pink for top): “Whoever desires to come after Me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow Me.” – Mark 8:34 

4. St. John of the Ladder: 3 blue Morning Glories with white star centers and 1 bud (assemble along one stem to make it look like a vine): “If you can believe, all things are possible to him who believes.” – Mark 9:23 

5. Sunday of St. Mary of Egypt: 1 Rose (draw green tiny triangles for thorns): "Whoever would be first among you must be servant of all.” – Mark 10:44 

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1. Palm Sunday: 3 Ferns: “Hosanna! Blessed is He who comes in the name of the Lord!” – John 12:12 

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1. Great and Holy Pascha: 3 EASTER LILIES: “In him was life, and the life was the light of men. The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it.” – John 1: 4,5

I realize this guide started with the Triodion and so now we're behind, but we'll catch up, and, hey, its ready for the future.

Getting Ready for Lent

Lent begins on February 18 for Eastern Christians, and we are entering the three weeks of preparation for Lent. (Western Easter is April 1, while Eastern Pascha is April 8 this year.) Once again, I'm feeling a little daunted by the task ahead but anticipating the good things, too. Here's a quick round up of my Lenten printables if you need help getting organized.

• A look at the Christian origins of Lent and Pascha - If you're still thinking early Christians kept this feast because they secretly didn't want to give up their pagan traditions, you may want to check out that post. They had the greatest reason of all to celebrate this day with joy, and so do we - even with eggs and baskets!

• Printable calendars - we keep one of these on our fridge and color in the days as we go to mark our progress. Just grab and print on regular paper. The second page has extra stamps (for Akathists, Presanctified Liturgies, Canon of St. Andrew, Annunciation, Confession, and Soul Saturdays) that you can cut and paste onto your calendar to mark your parish's services. You can grab these jpgs, or find a pdf version here. I also have resources for the Great Canon during Clean Week, and St. Mary of Egypt, and Lazarus Saturday.

• Lenten Passport/Journal - This simple blank book can be used like a passport or journal to keep track of your lenten goals. It includes a memory verse from each of the Sunday's Gospels, and blank space to put in stamps or write almsgiving plans (I encourage the children to come up with one act of service per week). Print the pages front and back, and take out the page of stamps before stapling into a book. (The last page is blank because its the back of the stamps.) The pdf is embedded below, or use this link. 

• Memory Verse Printables - heck out our Memory Verse Tree and Memory Verse Garden printable, or just use this guide to do memory verses your own way. Last year we planted an actual garden, which was neat. 

• Lenten Centerpiece -  I don't think we'll have any gardens or trees this year, so I think we might make Lenten Centerpiece again with things to remind us to pray (candles/icons), fast (beans), and give alms (coin jar/flowers). I'll collect things and let the kids assemble it how they want, and we'll talk about what it reminds us of during meals. 
  
  
  

• Holy Week - Each day has a brief description of what is remembered on each day and a suggestion for simple, tangible ways to participate in the day. Last year, we printed this as a tri-fold pamphlet with our parish's service schedule on the outside. 

• Printable Pascha Cards - I've made a few different Pascha cards over the years. My favorite is below, but you can find more here, here, here, here, and here. They're fun to print and give to friends at the feast or mail to loved ones. I'm planning to make some new ones that the kids can color themselves before Pascha. 

Wishing you a good fast!

Creed Zine

I made a little one page zine to help kids learn the Nicene-Constantinopolitan creed. Grab the pdf above, and print to fill a page.  Instructions for folding and cutting below. 

25 Day Advent Calendar with Windows

Its already December 5, but when my kids saw these old-fashioned advent calendars with the windows, they immediately wanted to make some. If you want to make some, too: The printable template (above, or two more below) has 25 windows (including the moon). Print two for each child on card stock. Color one of them, and on the other glue cut-out pictures from last year's Christmas cards or catalogues. The glued on pictures should be bigger than the window frames, but not overlapping any other windows. Next, number the windows and doors 1-25, and with an exacto knife, have an adult cut three sides of each one. Then glue the colored page over the glued-picture page, and there you go! Lots of pictures below, because I think this just turned out too cute. 

pictures cut from cards and catalogues

gluing them over the window template

finished inside

After coloring the outside picture, we cut three sides of every window and door
with an xacto knife. I cut from the front, but showing the back so you can see.

On inside picture, put glue all around edges and in some of the white space on
the inside. Then lay the colored outside picture on top, lining up corners carefully
and smooth it flat. 

Now you should be able to open the windows to see the pictures.

Doggies!

One child made the church doors be day 1 and 2, with an icon behind.

They liked lots of Christmas-y animal pictures.

And trees and lights.

Wise men, stars, shepherds and angels, too.

And cats in stockings.

Lots of Nativity scenes from our catalogues.

St. Lucia on day 13!

A variation. Don't cut out the windows and doors
on the back row of houses that are partially covered.

And one more, in case you want to make a calendar but skip the coloring.

Welcoming the Christ Child: Family Readings for the Nativity Lent

The weeks leading up to Christmas, what we call the Nativity Fast, are full of some of our favorite Advent traditions, most especially our Jesse Tree. My kids and I invested a lot of time putting together our Jesse tree set - using resources from an old yahoo listserv - which means its really hard for other families to join in on this tradition.

So I am really excited to see Elissa Bjeletich's new book and ornament set. Its a beautifully bound and illustrated, ready-to-go, 40 day Jesse Tree set. Its one of those books that's just lovely to hold. Since we already have a couple sets of ornaments, I only ordered the book. But Jelena Jeftic's illustrations are absolutely gorgeous [look at that coat of many colors!]. And the ornaments are printed on durable plastic - so I hope another set is in our future.

 The lovely coat of many colors

Each story is brief and easy to read, with the scripture reference and a few questions at the end. I love that it focuses on telling the story, and then gives you the space to respond to it anew. The discussion notes show how the stories point to Christ, and succinctly draw you back to the gospel message:

Christ will deliver us from death. 

God loves everyone. 

God joins us in difficult places.

Esau's bowl of stew

Really its more flexible than just a Jesse Tree set. The 40 readings aren't numbered and there aren't any instructions, so you can use it how you see fit - one reading a day for the 40 day fast, a couple of chapters a night throughout December, or stretched into a homeschool unit over the 36 week year.

So, I'm totally thrilled with it, and I can't wait for November 15!

King David, the psalmist

Lent Resources!

Whew, Lent seems early this year, and I'm trying to get ready. It has been a hard year, and I'm feeling a little broken down by it all. So, I'm looking forward to the struggle and the intensity ahead. This time of preparation is beautiful and difficult, and it calls me back to a place of deep joy.

Last year I wrote about the Christian origins of Lent and Pascha. If you're still thinking early Christians kept this feast because they secretly didn't want to give up their pagan traditions, you may want to check out that post. They had the greatest reason of all to celebrate this day with joy, and so do we - even with eggs and baskets!

So, here are a few resources! First, some printable calendars - we keep one of these on our fridge and color in the days as we go to mark our progress. Just grab and print on regular paper.

simple calendar with line drawings from
the OCA education website

calendar using my own cartoons, including Annunciation,
to match the services at our parish for 2017. 

And this pdf version is mostly blank, with a 2nd page of stamps you 
can add in to match your own church services. 
(Or get the printable passport with stamps here.)

Second, a Memory Verse Guide using the Sunday Gospel readings. This year I think we'll be writing them on rocks and laying them in a garden. At least, that's the plan, I haven't started yet. ;) You can check out our Memory Verse Tree and Memory Verse Garden printable, or just use this guide to do memory verses your own way. I left a blank to write in the date, so you can use the same printable every year. 

A potted Lenten Garden we made many years ago. 

Finally, here's a Holy Week Map I made for our parish. Each day has a brief description of what is remembered on each day and a suggestion for simple, tangible ways to participate in the day. Last year, we printed this as a tri-fold pamphlet with our parish's service schedule on the outside. 

Wishing you a good fast!

Ortho-blocks

This post is out of season, but I've had this photo waiting in my picture file for while. For the record, I built this Holy Friday bier, not the kids - I kept thinking about it in my sleep, and so finally I made it. I did let them help me decorate it with flowers though. :)

Old Testament Timeline Printable for Jesse Tree

Okay, I'll admit it: I started playing Christmas music yesterday. 

with a few sweet ornaments from our ornament exchange group

I'm getting ready for one of my favorite family traditions of the whole year. During the Nativity Fast we do a Jesse Tree, with readings and ornaments from the Old Testament that lead to the birth of Christ. I've noticed my children don't always have a good sense of how the different events relate to one another. For years, I've wanted a Bible Timeline to provide a context for the stories we tell. There are several commercial ones: most have a lot of text and dates and are more involved than I need. I really like this one with all the pictures, but its 10' long! That just won't work for our home. 

So I obsessed over it for 48 hours, and made my own. I drew a simple cartoon history of the Old Testament. It doesn't include every prophet and king and favorite story (because otherwise it would be 10' long!), but it provides a big picture, so when you're reading your favorite story you can point and say, "this happened here." I'm hoping it will help my kids develop a sense of the continuity of the story.

I drew the timeline over 5 sheets of paper, but through the magic of Adobe, I've squished it onto a single printable page. Yes, ONE page. The pictures are tiny, but they are simple and readable, so I think it works. 

And its for you, too! Wishing you a good Nativity fast! Grab the printable PDF here - it includes a black and white page, and one with a little color. 

If you don't want the teeny-tiny version, you can order it in poster form from Zazzle in various sizes and paper qualities. I haven't actually done this yet, but I might. Let me know if you do! Click the embedded poster image below to head over to zazzle.

Old Testament Bible Timeline Poster by Laura Wilson
Make custom prints online at zazzle.com

Old Testament Timeline in black and white by Mary Laura
More Bible Posters

*I've cross-posted this on wewilsons blog to share the fun.

Morning Board (and yet even more church calendar printables)

We finally wrapped up the school year (yes, in mid-June), and I'm trying to get my planning done for next year. I am putting together a morning board - not too complicated because I know we won't keep to any kind of daily task for long. But I thought a simple board could help keep us on track in a few ways (download below):

1. Weekly Gospel reading.
I love-loved Elissa podcast Teaching the Story and really want to try to incorporate this into our usual routine. We already try to listen to the Gospel some of the time, so hopefully this won't be too difficult to incorporate. I intend to listen again, and write out some questions to use as prompts to help us interpret our lives through the Gospel stories.

2. Weekly lesson plans
I already have the plans all laid out for me in my planner, but I thought if the kids can see what we need to complete each week they might take some ownership in getting the work done. So we'll write them on the board, and the kids can help erase them as we go.

3. Hi-5
The girls are still learning to manage their own personal hygiene and dress themselves. We use this little list of 5 mornings tasks (go potty, brush teeth, get dressed, brush hair, eat breakfast) to build a routine. They have to get their high five before we can start school.

4. Reading charts
We've picked out some read-alouds for the year, and we all love progress charts. We'll get started on these this summer.

5. Church calendar
You know, I tried a fancy calendar, and while I really liked making it, it's totally impractical for my elementary kiddos. I really liked the timeline on the wall seen here, but just don't have the wall space for it. So anyway, I put together these cards with the feasts, fasts, and some of our family's favorite saints' days. I included the icon, date, and troparion for the day. I think I used a kontakion for a couple of the saints, and the fasts have a scripture or prayer or pre-feast hymn. Something simple to learn. I'll just pin the current one up, and change them out. I had them printed on cardstock and cut for me, so they'd be nice and last. I'm really happy with them.

You can download my pdf, but you may want to make some with your families' saints. I realized I left out the feast of Ascension and my husband's patron saint, so I'll probably make another set at some point. (Now updated!) I used a penmanship font for the kids.

6. Good-things record
The kids and I all tend to get grumpy and whiny at times, and when we do, I love to sit down and ask them about the good things of the day. Then I draw little cartoons of all the good things. I think, mostly, I like this because its a fun art-prompt for me, but the girls enjoy seeing the drawings too, and by the end of it we're usually all pretty happy. I decided to put this on the board so we could remember to do this more often, instead of only when we're grumpy.
I think this will be a fun record to look back at as well.


So I'm ready to go for next year! I've got all my curriculum plans and materials organized. Funny how I get that burst of energy just as we're winding down. Hopefully I can keep it up next year.

Orthodox Lenten Calendar Printable

Printable Lenten calendar using the line drawings from the OCA education website - color in the days with a purple crayon as you go. 

The top image is scaled to fit on Legal paper (8.5x14). The Annunciation icon is included on the bottom so you can cut it out and glue it on the correct date each year. There are also two tiny Lady Sarakosti's on the bottom edge. I cut them out and color them, then paste her to the top right corner of the calendar, with the glue just behind her head so the legs can be cut off each week.

The bottom image is scaled to fit on Letter paper (8.5 x 11) but does not include the Annunciation.