Weekend Family Fun: Creation's Scavenger Hunt

Something that children always love are scavenger hunts.  I like putting meaningful scavenger hunts that will teach a lesson.  I will share some of them in the future.  Here is a simple one that the whole  family can participate as you go for a "Creation walk".  If fact,  I highly recommend going for a walk everyday with your children no matter the weather.   Kids like to get ready for walks anyways.  Bundle them up if it's cold with all their scarves, gloves and beanies.  Grab that umbrella for rain or sun.  Water boots are excellent since kids can't resist the puddles.  If it's too hot, carry a water spray bottle and drinking water.  So plan well for what time of the day is best to go out.  We like mornings, now that the weather is perfect around here.



Here is an idea of our hunt.  I printed a sheet of paper for each child on a nice nature background:

Creation’s Scavenger Hunt

• 
  

  Something fuzzy

  
  


• 
  

  Two kinds of seeds

  
  


• 
  

  Two pieces of man-made litter

  
  


• 
  

  Something straight

  
  


• 
  

  Something round

  
  


• 
  

  Something smooth

  
  


• 
  

  Something rough

  
  


• 
  

  Two different types of leaves

  
  


• 
  

  Something that makes noise

  
  


• 
  

  A chewed leaf

  
  


• 
  

  A beautiful rock

  
  


• 
  

  Something you think is beautiful

  
  


• 
  

  A pinecone

  
  


• 
  

  A critter – dead or alive

  
  


• 
  

  A feather

  
  


• 
  

  Something you think is a treasure

  
  

Sit down under a shady tree and give a treat to the kids for their great job hunting.  Share what they found and you can draw object lessons from each finding.  For example,  study how God perfectly designed the feather with hollow bones so they can be light and flexible for flight.  You can expand on flight and history of the Wright Brothers.   Collect all the rocks they picked up and talk about David who fought Goliath with 5 smooth stones.  Then practice their sling shooting.  What fun for the boys! And girls too!



The girls found rough and smooth stones.  We had a great conversation as we sat for a snack  and talked about how God uses each one of us in a family to make us smooth like the stone.  We are born rough but like the river rocks that get tossed along the river with other rocks, they end up smooth.   So we want our character to be smoothed out.   Be creative, the lessons are endless.

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Education "by the way" for young learners

Deuteronomy 6:7 "...and you shall teach them diligently to your children.....when you walk by the way..."

Being gone through schooling all my years of school even through a teaching credetial program for the state of CA, I had been taught and conditioned that education is something to do rather than a way of life.   In my home education, a check list in my "to do list" would be something like "math", "read Bible" at a certain time.  And there is absolutely nothing wrong with schedules or scheduling activities, many times it's the only way you'll get things done.  But the way we approach each task in our schedule has a lot to say about how motivated children will be at learning.

I've experienced that with young learners love to learn new things.  They will be life long learners when we make education a life style rather than a task or chore. 

At first I would say something like, "Lizbeth, it's time for our writing, or Bible reading."  At first she would eagerly engage.  The next day, I would get a response like "uuuugh, I don't want to do it."  Rather than seeing disobedience, she was trying to tell me that it wasn't interesting or exciting. 

Now, she would go through anything on my "to do list", but without knowing it and with a totally different attitude.  First, I know what interests her.  She likes to draw.  So I say something like, "Lizbeth, let's read this story and illustrate it."  Wow! What a different response.  She is then off showing her Bible illustration to everyone.  Then she would be playing about the story. 

Recently she did this with Dad.  They read about those who enter through the wide gate and the narrow gate.  They illustrated it.  She shared it excitedly with everyone in the house.  The next day I found her playing and she told be, "Mommy, look, these people are going through this wide gate and these little girl is going through the narrow gate."

Now reading and writing is done all day long too.   She would read a recipe as we bake something or write our shopping list or do some math with the recipe ingredients.  And there, reading, writing and math was done  on my schedule. 

Lizbeth has just turned six and almost everything she has learned now has been by living life day by day and seizing every opportinity and every question she asks to instruct her in the subject.   This really applies to almost everything to a young mind.  This way the Word of God is  being lived and applied before us all throughout the day.

This is essential for her, as she is developing a heart of wisdom, to view learning as an exciting never ending treasure.   If there is something that I think is of value for her to learn and she is not interested, then it's my job to make it interesting.  It always works.  In our house the word "boring" or "bored" is forbidden.  I tell my children that when your soul is asleep, you're almost always bored.  But awakens our soul so we can use our imagination and be creative in any circumstance.

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Virtuous Womanhood

Virtuous Womanhood, exerpt summary from the book "Much More"

 How strange is to refer to a woman as a “godly woman” these days.  We hear of successful woman, career woman, talented, sophisticated, smart, beautiful divorced.  It is a much nobler thing to be a good wife than to be Miss America.  It is a greater achievement to establish a Christian home than it is to produce a second-rate novel filled with filth. The world has enough women who know how to be smart.  It needs women who are willing to be simple.  There are enough brilliant women, but lacks brave women.  There are enough popular women, but lacks pure women.

 A real woman is a woman who recognizes that she has been exquisitely and perfectly created by a loving God for a unique purpose.  Out of genuine gratitude, awe, and a desire to please her Maker, a real woman joyfully embraces her femininity and submits every aspect of her identity to God’s original and unique design for her as a woman.

• Self-denial

1 Corinthians 6:19, 20

Matthew 10:39

Jeremiah 19:9

• Humility

1 Peter 5:5

•  A gentle and quiet spirit

1 Peter 3:3-4

Psalm 37:11

Psalm 147:6

• Dependence and Non-self-sufficiency

Self-confidence and self-esteem are humanistic ideas that people are inherently good.  But our source of strength and confidence must be entirely in Him (Psalm 18:32; Psalm 52:5-9).

•  Dress Modestly, excellent and feminine

1 Timothy 2:9

1 Timothy 5:2

Matthew 5:28

Romans 15:1-3

When we do our brothers harm by tempting them to sin, we are sinning against then and against God.

1 Peter 3:3-4

Isaiah 3:16-24

Proverbs 31:22 (excellent)

Deuteronomy 22:5 (feminine)

The highest and noblest vocation of all

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