Summer World Travel: South America

Hello again, and welcome here!  Are you travelling with us around the world with Focus on the Family?  If not, why not join in?  It is fun, and can be as simple as just following the itinerary they have themselves, or as complex as you wish to make it.  I decided to post the links to recipes and youtube videos that I am using with my own kids, as well as the maps and printables I made to go with the 'program' myself.  You can view those by clicking the links below.

Time for a Summer Adventure!
Summer World Travel: Ethiopia, South Africa, Zimbabwe
Summer World Travel:  Australia, New Zealand, PNG
Summer World Travel:  Asia
Summer World Travel:  Caribbean
Summer World Travel:  Eastern Europe/Central Asia

And so, our sixth week of our 'travels' took us to South America: Suriname, Bolivia, and Colombia.

Suriname Aug8&9

We found it on a map, read the clues, colored flag/stamp, and listened to national anthem " God zij met ons Suriname" with the first verse in dutch, and the second in Sranan Tongo

We listened to Kaseko music, and then made drums and played to it.

We watched a tourism video.

We made up a song -

• (mom) I love the Lord with all my heart
• (M)  With all my heart and soul
• (Bram) I Believe in Jesus, Yes I do
• (A) I believe in Jesus
• (Baby) Jesus

I did my best to write down what the kids prayed for, but I couldn't get it all word for word.  I love keeping this so I can see it again later.  It is wonderful to hear our children pray.

• M - That the word would travel through the rainforests to the people
• Bram - that they would hear of God through the rainforests and that many of them would know He is the Saviour and that He made everything

The kids wrote the things they were anxious about and put them on their shoes, ran outside, and then kicked them off to come inside before our baths/supper.  These were the things they wrote.

1. A - power going out
2. Bram - school, nightmares, needles
3. M - when the power goes out, thunder, school, nightmares, spiders

For supper, I made 'pom'.  Quite interesting.

Bolivia Aug10&11

Galatians 6:9

 Let us not become weary in doing good, for at the proper time we will reap a harvest if we do not give up.

Once again, we read the clues, found Bolivia on the map, colored the flag and stamp, and listened to the national anthem.

We also watched a video of a balero, and then watched a video of the Salar de Uyuni in Bolivia... called the worlds largest salt flat and God's Mirror.  Beautiful.  Kids said they want to see it in real life someday.

We made Empanadas de Queso as our recipe.

They don't have 'snacks' here usually, but they have a morning tea time around 10am called merienda, and an afternoon tea time around 5 called tecito.  They like to have baked goods with their tea.  Click here for more info. 

We learned about desserts there (they use a lot of coconut and chocolate) and their fruits.  See more on that here and here.

We made up our own 'family flags'.

We prayed for Bolivia-

M - that the people would know Jesus, that they would have enough food

Bram - that they would get enough money to buy food

Colombia - Aug 12&13

We read the clues, found Colombia on the map, colored the flag and stamp, and listened to the national anthem.

We watched a footbag or hacky sack tricks video and then tried to play ourselves.  We were not successful.  Balloons made it easier, though.

Our verses:
Leviticus 19:32 'Stand up in the presence of the aged, show respect for the elderly and revere your God. I am the LORD.

1 Cor 4:8-9 we are afflicted in every way, but not crushed; perplexed, but not despairing; persecuted, but not forsaken; struck down, but not destroyed;

We played with spinning tops, as per the activity for the day.  And we prayed.

1. M - I pray for the leaders to make decisions so that people will not be in poverty.
2. Bram - I pray for the people in Colombia to have their leaders so that they will not have poverty and will accept you. 

We invited my parents to come for supper, to serve them first, oldest to youngest.

Summer World Travel: Eastern Europe/Central Asia

Hello again, and welcome here!  Are you travelling with us around the world with Focus on the Family?  If not, why not join in?  It is fun, and can be as simple as just following the itinerary they have themselves, or as complex as you wish to make it.  I decided to post the links to recipes and youtube videos that I am using with my own kids, as well as the maps and printables I made to go with the 'program' myself.  You can view those by clicking the links below.

Time for a Summer Adventure!
Summer World Travel: Ethiopia, South Africa, Zimbabwe
Summer World Travel:  Australia, New Zealand, PNG
Summer World Travel:  Asia
Summer World Travel:  Caribbean


And so, our fifth week of our 'travels' took us to Eastern Europe and Central Asia.  Here we visit Armenia, Kazakhstan, and Russia.

August 1&2 - Armenia

We read the clues, found Armenia on the map, colored our flags and stamps, and listened to the national anthem called 'Our Fatherland'.  mɛɾ hɑjɾɛnikʰ

We did the activity where we rearranged our alphabet by making a prayer with it.

We also played egg jousting (had the eggs for supper afterwards)

We prayed - everyone basically prayed the same thing... that they'd 'stand firm'

For our 'recipe', I made armenian flatbread with cheese.

• 1 cup flour,
• salt,
• 1/2 cup water
• Mix and let sit 15 minutes.  Divide into four and roll into about 12 inch diameter circles.  Spread olive oil on it, and sprinkle on cheese, dried mint, and pepper.  Bake 400F for 7minutes.

We watched a video to see Mount Ararat

We watched a short Armenia travel guide video. 

Aug3&4 - Kazakhstan

Once again we read the clues, found Kazakhstan on our map, colored the flag/stamp, and listened to the national anthem

We named as many fruits as we could think of. 32 total - apples, oranges, peaches, plums, bananas, lemons, limes, kiwi, tomato, cantaloupe, watermelon, strawberries, cherries, raspberries, blackberries, blueberries, papaya, plantain, pineapple, mango, coconut, chokecherries, mandarins, pears, starfruit, dragonfruit, durian, honeydew, apricots, grapes, cranberries, pomegranates

We made fruit salad using what we had... bananas, strawberries, canaloupe, blueberries, apples, pineapple, and lemon juice.

We played the anklebone shooting game.  With dice.

We prayed:

• M - That the people in Kazakhstan would understand your truth, love, and freedom
• Bram - that the people would have faith in you and understand you created everything, and they would come to know you.
• A - I don't know what she said.

We watched a commercial tourism video and a tourism video.

Aug 5&7 Russia

Once again we colored flags, found Russia on the map, and colored and glued our stamps.

We did the 'swapping meals' activity and ate denvers for breakfast and cereal for supper.  (I liked this one... cereal for supper means less work, haha)

We played Gorodki in the office (another of the activities).

We listened to the national anthem

Государственный гимн Российской Федерации, "Gosudarstvenny Gimn Rossiyskoy Federatsii

Bram tells me there are lots of z's in it

We watched a video or two of schools in Russia

We also looked at churches in Russia.

Sorry this has been taking so long to update.  I have sort of been doing it as I scrapbook, and I am very behind.  I will get everything up here yet.  Hopefully before the end of the year!

Summer World Travel: Caribbean

Hello again, and welcome here!  Are you travelling with us around the world with Focus on the Family?  If not, why not join in?  It is fun, and can be as simple as just following the itinerary they have themselves, or as complex as you wish to make it.  I decided to post the links to recipes and youtube videos that I am using with my own kids, as well as the maps and printables I made to go with the 'program' myself.  You can view those by clicking the links below.

Time for a Summer Adventure!
Summer World Travel: Ethiopia, South Africa, Zimbabwe
Summer World Travel:  Australia, New Zealand, PNG
Summer World Travel:  Asia

And so, our fourth week of our 'travels' took us to the Caribbean.  Here we visit Costa Rica, the Bahamas, and Colombia.

July 25 and 16 - Costa Rica

We read the clues.  Then we colored our flags and stamps.

Listened to the national anthem. 

Did the 'find and name animals/plants' activity at the splash park.  Found more than 10 things.

Lunch was Casado... a plate/dish that has fried plantain, white rice, cooked black beans (I fried mine with some sauteed onions, garlic, and in fat with salt and pepper, fried fish, and a cabbage salad (used a mixture of equal parts oil and cider vinegar with added sugar, salt, and pepper, and garlic powder.  I didn't measure).  The links I used for this are here, here, and here.

I made a version of Refrescos using field berries (instead of just blackberries) and milk.

We watched 'Cristo Me Ama' or Jesus Loves me in Spanish.  Here is one of kids, and here is an animated one

Bahamas July 27 and 28

After reading the clues, we colored stamps and flags, found country on the map.

We watched video on sloop sailing and another with kids.

We looked and listened to my conch shell

I made Caribbean Peas and Rice .

We told stories around a 'fake fire':

• A -  "I cannot tell a story."
• So, I told a story first.  I told the kids about when a friend and I found a red log.  Well... she thought it might be a good idea to walk on it, but I was scared to.  When she stepped onto the log, the red started moving, and she started screaming.  They were red ants.  My mom had to put her in the tub to get rid of them all.
• Bram -  Doing my best to quote his story... "At (a friend)'s party, there was a little boy there, and he took my sucker out of my mouth and put it in his mouth, and I needed a new sucker.  Then he gave mine back.  After it had been in his mouth!  And we had a pillow fight."
• M - Once again, the story is best straight from their mouths, but this will have to do."At (a friend)'s house we found an old laptop, so we had the idea to draw our own laptops, and that's how I got so many paper laptops.  And we made a fort.  It was fun."  And yes, she has many a paper laptop, paper phone, paper everything.
• A - This was the most imaginative!  "M is a dragon.  No.  Bram is a dragon.  Yeah, Bram is a dragon."  I love her matter of fact way of saying it, too.

I made coconut cookies.

I made a Johnny Cake for breakfast 

Listened to the national anthem - 'March on, Bahamaland' (and we noticed it sounds very similar to 'Oh Canada')

The kids made paper/cardboard fish with paperclips, fishing rods with sticks/string/magnets, and fished in the living room 'blanket pond'.  For hours.

We prayed:

• M - that the Christians will tell others about God, like missionaries.
• Bram - that they will believe in God and become Christians and believe the Bible.
• A- sounded like another language.

We made crab sandwiches for supper.

Jamaica - July 29 and 30

The kids colored maps and stamps after reading the clues and finding the country on our map.

We watched the Jamaica National Anthem, Jamaica, Land We Love.

I made Jamaican banana bread ( don't follow the baking directions of 375 for 1 hour.  Do 350 for 45 minutes to start.  Mine burned terribly at this rate)

We bought Jamaican Beef Patties but there is a recipe for them here.

We made Caribbean chicken.

We also had the Jamaican drinks we bought (pineapple soda, and ginger beer) and hubby bought a Caribbean jerk sauce for his chicken.

We played Dandy Shandy a little bit.

We read some of a book in the Library with pictures about Jamaica

We did the activity of guessing what some Patois expressions were in English.

We prayed.

We watched a tourist video with written info and pictures about 14 tourist attractions

We looked up the Giant Swallowtail Butterfly (they stay in Blue and John Crow Mountains National Park).



I really hope that these links are useful to anyone looking for a little extra fun to use in this 'excursion'.  Please let me know in the comments.

Summer World Travel: Asia

Hello again, and welcome here!  Are you travelling with us around the world with Focus on the Family?  If not, why not join in?  It is fun, and can be as simple as just following the itinerary they have themselves, or as complex as you wish to make it.  I decided to post the links to recipes and youtube videos that I am using with my own kids, as well as the maps and printables I made to go with the 'program' myself.  You can view those by clicking the links below.

Time for a Summer Adventure!
Summer World Travel: Ethiopia, South Africa, Zimbabwe
Summer World Travel:  Australia, New Zealand, PNG

And so, our third week of our 'travels' took us to Asia.  I know this is super late to post, but I finally blogged about it.  I need to do this more frequently.  I hope the links to the videos we watched and the recipes we found help you in your 'travels' as well... even if you do this at another time. 

I am trying to keep up with scrapbooking these days as well.  I'm further behind on that than I am on blogging about it.  Oops. 

July 18+19 India

First, after reading the clues above, we found India on our map and colored our flags and stamps.  We also took note that our sponsored child is from India.
We made curry and rice.

We also prayed for India according to the 'tour guide' Focus on the Family provided.
M - For them to have food and water, for them to accept Jesus in their hearts

Bram - for them to have Bibles and not follow Islam but Jesus instead
A - India, OK.  Amen.

Went outside and played Seven Stones (also called Pitthu) (kids preferred knocking down the stones, not so much the stacking part) and pretended to be rickshaws.  They got bored and wanted to fly a kite instead.

We  also watched a variety of videos:

• a game of pitthu
• a video about monsoons
• a cricket video
• 2 videos about the cows.  Click here and here.
• Some of the National Geographic video for the Secrets of the Taj Mahal (long, 45 minute video.  I don't recommend making your kids watch all of it.  We skipped parts) 
• the national anthem Jana Gana Mana

Japan - July 20 and 21

After reading the clues, once again, we found the country on our map and colored our flags and stamps.  The kids love coloring the flags, even ones as simple as Japan's.

We watched national anthem Kimi Ga Yo

We practiced bowing.  To the floor.  Giggles all around.

We watched a variety of videos:

• Japanese Table manners here and here.
• Japanese vs American appliances
• Treatment of an American in rural Japan
• school lunches in Japan
• Japanese street food vendors (long video... I skipped lots as well)

We even looked at what Japanese breakfasts are like.

We watched Totoro with supper.  Got to see and talk a bit about how the Japanese people live in the country.

I made a Japanese breakfast and lunch, using this site to see some of the things they have as breakfasts.  We had a fried egg on rice and miso soup with toast for breakfast, and lunch was homemade chicken ramen with rice noodles and purchased california rolls.

We also made origami cranes, using this video to help us.

We then prayed for Japan.

July 23- China

We once again read the clues, found China on our map, colored the flag and stamp, and watched the national anthem

We prayed that more people would become Christians in China.

I then played the game '5, 10, 15, 20' with M.  Bram didn't want to play.

We all drew the symbol for righteousness

I made chicken/broccoli/bell peppers stir fry with rice and Costco's pot stickers for supper, and a coconut milk/orange jello concoction for dessert (no real recipe... I just used leftover coconut milk to replace some of the cold water and used gelatin molds for extra fun).

There were two vids I watched later with the kids (did them on the 26th).  They are about the Great Wall of China.  You can see them here and here.

Summer World Travel: Ethiopia, South Africa, Zimbabwe

Sorry for not posting sooner!  We're already heading into our 5th week of the summer 'World Travel'  from Focus on the Family.  You can see my previous posts on it, here.

My first post had flags which I've been using with my kids to color each day.  They also look for the country on the map, find the flag that corresponds and then use that as their 'color key' to color their own map.  I have not been following the itinerary as laid out page by page that focus on the family has, mostly because my kids are still so young and don't remember too much about the countries from the previous time we did this, so I'm doing it page by page as in the passports.  First page I did was actually page 7... South Africa, Zimbabwe, and Ethiopia.  Since I watched a variety of Youtube videos with the kids, I thought that maybe I'd help you all out by posting links to the videos and recipes I used to help enhance the experience with each country.  So, without further adieu, here is an 'itinerary' of what we have done with the links to go with them.  I hope you enjoy them and find them useful in your own journey with your kiddos.

Ethiopia - July 4

Colored the flag and stamp

Went outside and carried water in an obstacle course on our heads.  M's stayed pretty full, Bram lost most of his, and A spilled some and proceeded to carry it next to her tummy.  We figured this would not be enough water for us, and we would need much more for an entire day.
Prayed for clean water and easier ways to carry it for the people.

Ethiopia - July 5

I attempted making Almond Sweetmeat (Kashata Ya Lozi).  Didn't work as I messed up the syrup (no listing as to how much water, so I found another syrup recipe and followed that, not realizing I needed to cook it much longer and probably should have halved the water as well)  3/4 cup sugar, 3/4 cup water (probably should have been less), tiny amount cinnamon and nutmeg, cooked until thick and sticky, then added 1 2/3 cup almond flour (or ground almond meal) and spread in a buttered 8x8 dish until cooled.  Broken up and served.  I ended up not cooking the syrup long enough.  It tastes good, and the gooey centre will work well with ice cream.

Listened to national anthem "Wodefit Gesgeshi, WiddInnat Ityopp'ya'

Made crafts from things we normally trash.  Kids made toys of varying types.

Prayed for the people to have enough rain, water, and food.

 

South Africa - July 6

Made beetroot crepes for breakfast
Watched a videos of the language here and here
Watched the anthem called "Nkosi Sikelel' iAfrika"
Kids talked in gibberish to each other.

South Africa - July 7

made Bobotie and South African Yellow Rice for lunch. 
Set up a time to have someone over for lunch.  Ended up on a different day.
Prayed for SAfrica to have enough food and to remember that all people are made in God's image, no matter their culture.

Zimbabwe - July 8

Made a cookie recipe from Zimbabwe
Kids colored their flags and stamps.
listened to the national anthem, known as Kalibusiswe Ilizwe leZimbabwe
played Tsoro Yematatu on paper
watched a video of Victoria falls
 
Zimbabwe - July 9

looked at the balancing rocks here and here.

Prayed for the people.  We did not build anything with rocks ourselves as we were gone that day.

I hope that some of my own research can help you with the things you wish to do with your own families.  Probably for another year, though... as I posted these late yet again.  It really is a lot of fun!  I highly recommend this for even homeschooling as family activities.  My daughter asks me every day which country we are visiting next.  :)

Until next week!  God Bless.

Summer World Travel: Australia, New Zealand, Papua New Guinea

Hello again, and welcome here!  Are you travelling with us around the world with Focus on the Family?  If not, why not join in?  It is fun, and can be as simple as just following the itinerary they have themselves, or as complex as you wish to make it.  I decided to post the links to recipes and youtube videos that I am using with my own kids, as well as the maps and printables I made to go with the 'program' myself.  You can view those by clicking the links below.

Time for a Summer Adventure!
Summer World Travel: Ethiopia, South Africa, Zimbabwe

And so, our second week had us visiting Australia, New Zealand and Papua New Guinea.  Here are the links to the videos and things that we did.

Australia - July 11

made 'porridge', but had no bananas to go on, so used apple cinnamon

made aussie meat pies

did the listed activity, but not with clay

kids colored flags, stamps, and found Australia on the map

Australia - July 12

watched a video about Uluru

watched national anthem 'Australia Fair'
did the activity on the book
Prayed for Australia
Supper - made banana lassies and hamburgers with 'the lot'.

New Zealand - July 13

colored stamp and flag after finding NZ on the map

watched a video of Milford sound
made a paper 'earthquake' diorama
supper was beer battered fish n chips

New Zealand - July 14

played the game Mu torere outside.

prayed for the people
watched national anthem God Defend New Zealand / Aotearoa.

Papua New Guinea - July 15

did the day one language activity

watched national anthem Apange and another version.
watched culturalfestival sing sing video
watched a vid ofthe mall in their capital
vid of landiungin airport

July 16 - made and ate Coconut Kau Kau

July 18 - did the second day activity and prayer a bit later than we'd have liked.

Enjoy your journey!  And God Bless!

Time for a Summer Adventure!

School is almost out, and summer is finally here!  Hooray!

I am super excited to tell you guys about something I'm going to be doing with my family this summer.  Focus on the Family does a Summer Adventure each year, and we will be joining in again this year!  Hooray!  You can feel free to join in anytime at this link. 

Three years ago my family did a very similar Adventure.  I took pictures and catalogued everything, and am making a scrapbook.  Still.  I haven't been spending as much time on it as I could (oops).  I'll have to post the pictures later.  When it's done.  Which might be awhile.  But I digress...

This year I decided to do a few extras, and I made some sheets to print for my kiddos to color to go along with each of the countries.  Focus on the Family has some info sheets for each country (there are 27 in the program) and a passport with some 'stamps' each child can color and glue into place as you visit each country.  There is a large map to print and put up as a poster, as well as markers you can use to track your progress.  I decided to add Germany and Austria to our countries this year (no stamps though, unfortunately) as the missionary my son has been praying for is in Germany, and a friend of ours lives in Austria.  So, I added the flags.  Didn't create info sheets for them, though.  I may try to do so yet, (but probably not).

One thing that I noticed however is that this year, since the sheets are more detailed, there was a lot more info for the USA than other countries (as this is based there) and that is the 'final destination'.  I decided to create a sheet similar to the other countries for the USA for those of us that do not live there, and then turned the USA sheet into a Canadian version for all my Canadian followers.  You can download them at the links below.

 Download here.

Download here.

 

 

I also made sheets of flags for the kids to color.  We did this one by one three years ago, and it was a pain.  So this year, I found all the flags and put them all on sheets for a single time printout.  I like cutting them out so the kids only have the one flag on the day that we are doing that country.  And if you are lucky enough to have a world map with all the flags pictured, you can get the kids to search for the flag and the country name before coloring it.  :)

 

Note... I got all the flags from YesColoring.  They have lots of free downloads for coloring pages for kids.  I used these and put them together on four pages for printing.  Much simpler.

 

 Download here.

 Download here.

 Download here.

 Download here.

And, since we are from Canada and Canada day is coming as well, I thought it would be nice to grab the provincial flags from YesColoring as well.  I managed to put those with the Canada flag on two pages.  You could just print the Canadian flag itself for the purposes of this program, but since we've done this before I figured the kids would probably like something a little bit extra.  :)

 Download here.



Download here.

And there you have it!  I hope these downloads help anyone wanting to join our family on our tour of the world.  :)  I think I'll be trying to make some meals/foods from each country as well.  I did a few of them last time.  A meal plan would be in order, however. 

Let me know in the comments if you plan to do this (or something similar) with your family this summer.  Or maybe you have other fun summer plans you would like to share!  I'd love to hear about them!

Have a great summer, and God Bless!

Bear Hugs 23-26 - God sent the Savior

Hello again.  Welcome to a series I'm doing on Awana Cubbies!  I hope you enjoy your time here.  If you'd like, you can visit my previous posts, or dive right in!

Introduction
How I started down the Appleseed Trail
Bear Hugs 3-6:  God is Creator
Bear Hugs 7-10:  God's Word is Truth
Extra Cubbies Fun - Gingerbread Nativities
Bear Hugs 11-14 - God is Faithful
Bear Hug 15 - Story of Abraham
Bear Hug 16 - God is Mighty
Bear Hug 17 - Valentine's Day
Bear Hug 18 - Crossing the Red Sea
Bear Hug 19 - God is in Charge
Bear Hug 20 & 21 - God is in Charge

Bear Hug 22 - Happy Birthday

 

I'm putting the remainder of the bear hugs in one grouping.

 

Bear Hug 23 told us the story of John the Baptist.  Our verse was John 1:29 "Look, the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world".  We learned about how John ate locusts and wild honey, how he baptised people in the water and had many many people come to him to repent of their sins and be baptised, and how he baptised Jesus, even though He had not sinned, and God sent a dove and said "This is my son whom I love".

 

I did my best to lead this lesson into the resurrection story, and we proceeded to make resurrection buns together.  I did this before handbook time, and I was grateful for the help from my mom and Jen gave me by baking them and cleaning up!

 

Bear Hug 24 brought the story of the fish!  Mark 1:17 says "'Come, Follow me,' Jesus said 'and I will make you fishers of men.'"  This was the memory verse for the week.  The story was the well known story of how Peter, Andrew, James, and John had fished all night and caught nothing.  Then Jesus came along and told them to throw their nets on the other side of the boats.  After doing so, the nets were so full of fish, they had to drag them ashore!

 

So, for fun we made a 'fishing pond'.  I used a blue blanket, put down a bunch of fish reused from previous lessons (which are reused from a previous year as well.  The laminating keeps these things for a long time).  I recommend a better magnet than I had.  Mine wanted to pick them up, but the way it was shaped made the fish fall off afterwards as the paper clip wasn't big enough.  Using juice tops would have been better as they are bigger.  Either way, this is a simple activity and the kids enjoy it.

 

 

For the craft, I decided to make something a little different from what was suggested in the book.  A mini fishing pond!

You will need my printable (link here and at the bottom), empty/washed applesauce/fruit containers, toothpicks, blue tissue paper squares, and some string.  You will also need a tiny hole punch (think of the ones you use for brads in scrapbooking), and glue.

Start by punching a tiny hole in the rim of the fruit cups.

Next, take your fish, cut them out but leave them attached at the mouths (they will be double sided when finished).  Add glue to both fish on the wrong sides, stick your string in so that it sticks out by the mouth/fold, and fold it together so it is double sided and looks like the fish is hanging on the string.  (note, the fish images are from the Awana Cubbies craft cd.  I just shrunk them and flipped them to make them work for this craft.)

Next, glue the other end of the string onto the fatter end of the toothpick.  Voila!  Fishing poles!

Make sure you cut out all of your circle verses for the bottom of the ponds.  Give each leader a bag of blue tissue paper squares, glue sticks, and it is a good idea to have one finished 'pond' to show the leaders and clubbers before they head off to handbook time. 

Here is a pic of all the stuff ready for the craft bags.

What each child will be receiving.

And the kids will be in charge of glueing the verse on the bottom of their pond, and the blue tissue paper on the 'bowl' portion to look like water.  The fishing pole fits into the little hole you punched out of the rim and can be set there when the kids are not 'fishing'.

This craft offered up a lot of fun!  The kids were fishing for a good long time.  If you wish, you can always print the coloring page offered in the Cubbies handbook as well.  Might be good for the kids to color while waiting for glue or a leader to help them.

For a link to the fishy printable, click here.

Bear Hug 25 - This week's verse was Mark 4:41"'Who is this?  Even the wind and the waves obey Him!'".  The story is of Jesus calming the storm.  We did a lot of actions to go with the verse (think of 'blowing' for wind and waving your arms for waves.  Helped them to remember the verse as well).    The craft ended up being the one that was in the book already.  We made little paper boats on a stick that they could move along on the waves.  If you have the time, you could make a little cardboard boat for the kids to sit in and play.

Bear Hug 26 - This was the last week of Awana, except for Awards night.  I cannot believe how fast the time flew by!  This week's verse was John 1:29 again ("Look, the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world") and the core truth, God sent the Savior.  I kept things pretty much to the book this week.  We did a review of the last three weeks, and I brought a bag of toys and printed papers with things on them that were to remind us of the stories we'd heard this month: a dove, a picture with honey and locusts, a fish (from our fishing game), a net (also used as a visual in BH24 lesson time), a lamb plush, and a picture of a boat.  The kids came up and took an item from the bag.  I would then describe the part of the story (if they were unable to remember... and most of them remembered really well!).  I enjoy the review lessons, and the kids seem to enjoy them as well!  Lots more interaction.

Anyway, I really wanted to give each Cubbie their own little gift as a thank you for coming each week.  I had planned on making bags for their books for next year (I'd do Sparks bags in red for those going into Sparks, and Cubbie bags in blue for those that would be returning next year)... but I never got around to going to the fabric store to pick anything up.  So, I went to the local dollar store and nabbed a bunch of things that I thought would make a neat little gift.

My shopping trip went well!  Baggies, erasers, pencils, notepads, googly eyes, and foam dragonflies for $17 for 20 kids.

I put some magnetic tape on the backs of the foam dragonflies and taped two googly eyes onto each (this is a craft for the kids to do at home) with some gem stickers I had in my craft supplies and one sticker each of Cubbie, Luvie, and Katie.  I made some gift tags that I taped onto the bags when I was done, and even tried to color coordinate them with the group room colors as they matched our craft bag tags as well.

To be honest, assembling these little baggies took a lot longer than I anticipated!  I think next time I will omit the craft, and just do the stickers.  I'm sure the kids will enjoy it, though.  My kids sure were hoping for extras that they could have.

That's all for the Awana Cubbies Series.  I may do a post on how to organize the Cubbies closet... but I've got to properly reorganize mine again (haha... that's what I get for just putting things in quick as I can so as to get my kids home and to bed).  I hope you enjoyed this little series as much as I enjoyed making it! 

If you want, I've set up a Facebook page for our church Awana group.  You can see it here, or search for CFC Awana.  You can also visit my Cubbies pinterest board.  Feel free to check it out.

Cardboard Play

Today I decided to finally go ahead and make that project I promised the kids I'd make a month ago.  What happened a month ago to spark interest in a new 'project'?  Well, we went to Ikea, you see... and...

 

It all went downhill from there.  ;)

 

At Ikea, the kids love playing in the kids rooms and with the toys they have set out there.  One such toy that was up on the shelf (not available to be played with, but very visible) was a cardboard market.  This one, actually.

And me, being the frugal mom that I am, said "Hmm.  I can make that.  We've got lots of cardboard from our previous Ikea purchases that would work".  And my kids heard me, and got all excited, and I wished I never said it out loud.

Well, only kinda wished it.  You see, if I say it out loud, there is a much higher chance of me doing it, whereas if I keep it to myself, the likelihood of it ever happening remains at less than 10%.

So, since my husband was taking out the recycling yesterday, I made sure to nab the cardboard I needed for this project, and today (with a lot of prompting from my kids, and in between working on making lasagna and taking care of a cranky baby), we turned this...

 

...into this!

 

I'm thrilled, actually!  And I took a few photos of the process which I will share with you here!

We needed two boxes from Ikea's bookshelves.  Those were the sides.  The inner cardboard pieces were great for the roof, counter, and extra cover ups for the front and back.  Then we needed three diaper boxes (which we always have plenty of) and duct tape.

First I cut the 'tabs' off of the three diaper boxes and duct taped them together.  You can configure them however you like.  All three open to one side, two on the bottom open on one side, whatever you think would make for a great display/storage.  Once done, cover up the exposed 'bottoms' of the diaper boxes on both sides with extra cardboard.  This just looks nicer.

Don't worry about the top or the sides yet.

Next I drew my 'roof' angles on both sides of the two long and skinny boxes.  Make sure to remove any damaged corners this way.

Duct tape these to the sides of your diaper boxes.  I make a loop with my duct tape so it is like a double sided piece of tape and do it that way. 

Once that is done, I took more cardboard and made a 'counter', taping it to the top of the diaper boxes.  I made little shelves for inside and outside, found a small box (probably for hardware or something) that was perfect to 'hang' from the top of the diaper boxes for 'condiments' or whatever the kids wanted, and went all out in decorating it.  Also made the roof with the extra cardboard pieces.  Cut two pieces slightly longer than the whole width of the market stall, lay them on the floor flat with their long lengths together and tape them, then turn that tape to the underside and tape them to the roof.  (sorry, I forgot to take pictures at that point).

Voila!  The kids were thrilled to play market with this.  I made a little sign and hung it with string and sticky hooks so the kids can flip it.  Made some little shelves and a 'mail bag' of sorts as well using boxes that were too perfect to pass up.  I might take time to decorate it with stripes of paint yet.  Or I may buy some fun colored duct tape and use that instead.  Never know.  ;)

See?  Cardboard is soooo much fun!  Although, you probably already knew that.  ;)

Last month I also made this shelf for my daughter out of diapers and wipes boxes, some 'mack tack' paper (picked up for 50cents at LW when it was going out of business), and hello kitty duct tape I found at the dollar store.  It has been great for storing her 18" dolls and things.  She loves it, and so do I since it was cheap and it is solving a storage issue for her.  :)

Diaper boxes... who knew?

Oh, and they are FANTASTIC for kids clothing storage.  If you have a dry enough storage area, of course.  They stack so nicely and are a great size.  I have all my kids clothes that they are growing into or out of in these boxes. 

So... I'd love to see your cardboard creations!  Let me know what sorts of things you make out of boxes in the comments!  <3 p="">