Church of the Home Again

With Doug called in to preach this weekend, I again didn't have a car.  This week I was much more up for the challenge of taking all 3 boys down to the East End campus on foot, but unfortunately, the weather did not cooperate with that plan.  It was in the 20's this morning and then there was also snow for most of the early morning hours.  Penn's cheeks are already red and chapped (as are Koen's and Tav's, I don't know what it is with these kids!) just from the dry air in the house, the cool temps outside would probably not help at all and not to mention it might be a little upsetting to him anyways.  Also, I don't even want to think about all the spills Koen would have on his scooter going downhill on the slick sidewalks covered with a thin layer of snow.  So, back to Church of the Home for us.  Koen was very pleased (although I again stressed that it's important to be out with the community and have fellowship).  I had thankfully already thought of a plan for if this situation occurred.  Today's theme was Matthew 12:34, "Out of the overflow of the heart the mouth speaks."  We started around 9:30am after I had laid Penn down for his nap and gotten the final preparations for our church time completed.  Koen brought his guitar down and we started with a few favorite "God wuvwuv me" songs for Tavin.  Then we sang "Our God is an Awesome God" as that is one of Koen's favorites from chapel at school.  Then I had a CD with a children's song that was Matthew 12:34 that the boys really enjoy, so we did that a few times.  Then I read the Scripture of Matthew 12:34 and the following verses and briefly explained it (more to K's level than T's).  After that I let them watch a short Bible-based DVD (Davey and Goliath from the 70's or 80's...it's claymation, totally old-school and Koen loves it!).  After the show, the boys got to have a snack and then we set up the main activity.  It was a little object lesson (Dad you'll love it).  Here's the link to where I found it originally.  
http://godcenteredmom.com/2012/06/08/out-of-the-heart-the-mouth-speaks-an-activity/
It was such a good way to illustrate that what we put in is what comes out when we are upset.  Koen completely got it.  He said, "hey mommy, that's like what we just learned, that out of what's inside comes out of our mouth!"  Yay!  So, first I showed them the two identical jars that look just fine on the outside.

Then I said, "I wonder what's inside?"  "What happens when we upset the jars and turn them over and dump them out.  Hmmm, this one is all clear, I wonder what that could be?"  Koen guessed water.  "And what's this one?"  Koen guessed hair gel.  Well, it turns out that one is vinegar and one is honey.  I had the boys taste and smell each one.  Here's Koen's vinegar reaction (and yes, sorry about the messy hair, still working on a hair cut appointment!).

Tavin wasn't quite sure about the whole experiment.

Koen could not get enough of the honey!  

Koen totally tracked with me that the vinegar was bad and the honey was good.  What goes inside the jar (or person) is what's important and whatever you put in is bound to come out at some point especially when you are upset.  Then we talked about the good things we could put in our hearts, minds and thoughts.  They got to color a picture of those things (Koen drew the Bible and Tav drew an airplane). =)  Next I had them take GOOD ingredients to make GOOD banana bread.  They were pretty psyched about baking all together.  So we put the yummy ingredients in and got some yummy bread from it.  Here are the little bakers...

It was a really special time with my boys.  Doing these activities with them to make a concerted effort to still spend time with the Lord when we are unable to go to church gives us a real great opportunity to just work together and learn together.  I've really enjoyed it the last two weeks, but I also miss my friends and the teaching at church and I can't wait to go next week!