God Calls Families to Be Holy

     After two weeks of learning more about how God created us in unique and special ways and how to take care of our bodies to glorify God, I figured the next topic to learn about is families. Families are as unique as ourselves, but the one thing that should pull us altogether is how we are all called to be holy. The best way to do this is to try and emulate the best family in history. The Holy Family. Jesus, Mary, and St. Joseph should be who each family should want to aspire too. This week we worked on activities to help my almost three year old learn about ways families try to be like the Holy Family.

     Along with doing a week on families we worked on the letter Cc and the concept of long/longer/longest.

Monday - What Is A Family/ Introduce Uppercase "C"
Books: Families by Shelly Rotnery (with this book I personally chose to skip a page so that is also an option if you find a book you like except for a page or two.)
My c Sound  Box by Jane Belk Moncure
Picture Dictionary - Cc words

Songs: Pat-A-Cake (instead of saying mark it with a B, mark is with a C and practice tracing the c in the air)

 Happy Family (tune of I'm A Little Teapot)
I love momma, she loves me
We love daddy, yes sirree
He loves us and so you see
We're a happy family

Activities:

Begin working on Anthony's family photo album. Today we added just our small family of 3 photos. Each day we will add more as I introduce to him how relatives are also his family.
Ice Play: I froze water in different sized plastic containers the night before so that ice would be ready for him to touch and experience. I put the ice shapes in the pool outside so he would be able to spend more time playing with it, while being able to run around outside and keep warm, since ice is COLD (c for cold). I brought out his cars and people to play in his ice cold city.
"C" coloring page

Tuesday: Families Pray Together/Longest
Books:Creation by Cynthia Rylant (the story of the beginning of the first family God created)
Just Me and My Mom and Just Me and My Dad both by Mercer Mayer
Picture Dictionary Cc words

Songs: All I Really Need by Raffi
Pussy Cat Pussy Cat (mother Goose)

Activities:
Play-dough to roll out and show long/longer/longest

Pray A Family Rosary together -we pray daily rosaries, but some days we do not pray altogether. I let Anthony play with saint peg dolls, carry Rosaries around, and if he gets other toys out than we do not mind. At his age hearing it being prayed and seeing his older family members praying is the most important. Most of the time he will join in by praying parts of the Our Father, Hail Mary whenever he feels like joining in. I do have coloring pages, but coloring is not his fav. He prefers looking at them right now, which is fine with me.
Long/longer/longest work sheet

Also Mother Goose On the Loose day at the library

Wednesday: Families Love and Respect One Another/Lowercase "c"
Books: The Story of Christmas by Hayley Down
Just My Grandma and Me and Just My Grandpa and Me both by Mercer Mayer
Picture Dictionary Cc words

Songs/Rhymes: These Are Grandma's/Grandpas Glasses
Hey Diddle Diddle

Activities:
Intro to the 4th Commandment in pre k terms how Good loving parents are supposed to treat their children with love, kindness, and respect as well as help them and teach them, and make sure they are taken good care of. In turn kids are to follow their parents example, do as they are told, listen, and give love back.

Add to the family photo album photos of grandparents. Explain how they are important to the child's family. Introduce St. Anne and St. Joachim as Jesus' grandparents. How his grandparents were important to Jesus' family

c coloring page

Free chalk play

Park Day

Thursday: Families Work Together/longest

Books: The Cat In The Hat by Dr. Seuss
Click, Clack, Moo Cows That Type by Doreen Cronin
Picture Dictionary Cc words

Songs: Sally the Camel
He's Got The Whole World In His Hands (use mothers and fathers, MiMi's and Papaw's, Aunts and Uncles, all the cousins, you and me)

Activities:

Zoo day- went to the zoo to find animals that start with Cc. We found copperhead, cobra, and cottonmouth snakes (insert completely freaked out I am terrified of snakes face) and camels. We also rode the carousel.

String beads to make long/longer/longest strands

Work on a family job chart. Explain how the Holy Family each worked together to get things done and did not get upset over the work they each needed to do. At Almost 3 is a great way to make my child realize he is definitely old enough for some bigger responsibilities. For him we all talked about how his "new" official responsibilities are to put his dirty clothes in the hamper, help pick up his toys, help put laundry in washer/dryer, and also press the start button on the washer/dryer. He already helps with these things, but these are now his little jobs.

Watched Daniel the Tiger "Daniel Helps Dad" episode

Add photos of Anthony's Aunts/Uncles to his photo album and explain how they are also his family and how special they are to him.

Friday: Families Have Fun Together/Cc vocabulary Review

Books: Cowboys by Glen Rounds
Corduroy By Don Freeman (Cordury is one of my kid's all time lovies. He has a few, but Corduroy is near the top of the lovey chain, so ofcourse I had to fit this one in)
Picture Dictionary Cc words

Songs: Free Choice

Activities:

Free coloring

Worked on his Cc vocabulary work sheet

Add photos of Anthony's 1st cousins (would love to asd them all, BUT both sides of our family are HUGE and we do not have a big enough photo album at this time for that. I would love to do that thought. That would be fun to see put altogether) and explain why cousins are related and important to his family. Introduce St Elizabeth, St Zachariah, and St John the Baptist to explain how important cousins were to Jesus' family

Shaving Cream Slip-n-slide/water play: take our slip-n-slide and cover it in shaving cream. Fun for Anthony to experience this with momma and daddy and seriously how does this not sound fun?!?!

Additional dvd's to use as needed.
.. Peg + Cat, the Race Car Problem
Super Why: Jasper's Cowboy Wish
Brother Francis: O Holy Night
Cloudy With a Chance of Meatballs, both 1 and 2.
     What ways can you think of to help your 2-3 yr old learn about families and how to emulate the Holy Family? Please share your ideas!