Serving God Through Serving Others

   This week I thought I would introduce the idea of vocation to my child. As a Catholic I find it incredibly important to make sure my child knows how vital it is to pray to God to know what the best path in life is for hin. Keep close to God and He will lead you to the best path. In the Catholic faith there are four big groups of vocations that we have. A vocation to the priesthood, or to the religious life as a nun/sister/monk, the married life, and the sacred single life. What I care about the most as my child gets older is that he keeps God and getting into Heaven as his main focus when figuring out where his vocation should lead him.

      Our occupation as we get older is also a vocation. How we spread God's love through our work is the most beautiful way to make an occupation nore of a vocation. We learned a lot about community service workers and how we still serve God through helping our community. There are so many occupations to choose from and lots of activities to use to help children understand more about them.
     We also learned about the very important letter "Ii" and the number 4.


Monday: Intro of Uppercase "I"/Priests/Custodians
Books: My i Soundbox by Jane Belk Moore
Custodian by Debbie L. Yanuck
We Go to Mass by George Brundage
My First Dictionary "Ii" words only

Songs:Ten Little Indians
The Barney Clean-up Song

Activities:
Intro Uppercase I. Go over the "Ii" words in the picture dictionary
Color the "I" coloring page

Talk about Native American Indians snd explain how we are part of the blackfoot Indian tribe. Make a teepee tent inside and use pots and pans as the closest thing I had to native american drums. Play with large beads to make native american necklaces. Play with corn kernals and sunflower seeds and explain how Native Americans would grind up the seeds to make flour to cook with.

Intro idea of custodians and their importance to the community around us. Have him help me clean the windows like a custodian would do.
Intro the the importance of priests. Explain how just like custodians keep buildings clean and beautiful priests help keep our souls clean and beautiful. How important and special they are because only priests can bring Jesus to us every week at Mass. How only boys can grow up to be a priests and that is ok because God has other special things that only girls can grow up to do.
Play pretend Mass together.

Tuesday: Intro Number 4/Nuns/Firefighters

Books:One Big Building by Michael Dahl

Fireman Small by Wong Herbert

My First Dictionary "Ii" words only

Songs: 4 Little Firefighters (To the tune of itsy bitsy spider)

Four little firefighters sleeping in their beds.

Ding wemt the bell and down the pole they slid. 

They raced to the fire and put out all the flames

Then the four little firefighters went back to bed again.

Do You Know the Ice Cream Man? ( Tune of Do You Know the Muffin Man?)
Do you know the ice cream man, the ice cream man, the ice cream man?
Do you know the ice cream man you likes to sing with me?
Yes, he likes the letter I, the letter I, the letter I.
Yes, he likes the letter I and likes to sing with me

Activities:

Review "Ii" words in the picture dictionary of your choice

Introduce the number 4

Do the Number 4 coloring page

Use pom poms and take 4 of each size, or 4 of each color out. Draw ice cream cones on a paper...different sized ones of you want to focus on sizes, or seperate colors if you want to focus on colors. Then help the child seperate the pompoms in whichever group you decide before matching them to the right cones to make pom pom ice cream cones. After words let the child play around with the pom poms for sensory play. My child wanted to watch the pom poms go down our little ball track.

Intro the vocation of Nuns (I figure at his age it is easier to explain nuns for both sister and nuns and not mention monks just yet). Review what we learned about priests the day before and then explain how priests are always boys and nuns are only girls. How nuns marry Jesus and spend their time spreading God's love through prayer and acts of service. Taking care of the sick in hospitals or teaching in schools, or spending lots of time in prayer.

Play with our little saint peg dolls that Anthony's Papaw (my dad) handpainted for him and show which saints were priests and which ones were nuns.

Intro firefighters. Play with fire truck and firefighter helmets.

Wednesday:Lowercase "i"/Marriage/Food Service Workers 
Books: Insect Detector by Anita Holmes
Food Service Workers by Debbie L. Yanuck
My first dictionary "Ii" words only

Songs: Inch Worm by Kenny Loggins
The Itsy Bitsy Spider

Activities:
Review the Ii words in the picture dictionary
Intro lowercase i/i coloring page

Intro insects. Use play bugs and insectd in the dry rice sensory bin. Use what we learned about indects from the insect book to figure out which of the bugs are insects and which ones are creepy crawlers.

Intro the vocation of Marriage. Read the adam and eve story in the children's Bible to explain how God created man and woman to be together. Talk about how his momma and daddy are married because God showed us that is where He wanted us and we are now a family.

Intro food service workers. Play restaraunt and take turns being waiter/waitress. Have the child help set the table at dinner like food service workers do.

Thursday: Practice Tracing and Cutting/Sacred Single Life/ Garbage Man
Books:Ice Is Nice by Bonnie Worth
Trashy Town by Andrea Zimmerman and David Clemesha
My First Dictionary

Songs: A Big Green Iguana (tune of If You're Happy and You Know It)
Oh I wish I was a big green iguana
Oh I wish I was a big green iguana
Oh I'd itch and I'd scratch
And I'd find a green leafy patch
Oh I wish I was a big green iguana

Garbage Truck, Garbage Truck rhyme
Garbage truck garbage truck one, two, thtee
Garbage truck garbage truck loud as can be
Dump all the garbage and smash it all down
Fill the truck before you leave this town

Activities:
Review "Ii" words from the dictionary

Practice tracing lines and work with cutting skills

Ice painting craft: freeze a block of ice then let the child paint it. Keep it out so the child can watch as it melts throughout the day

Make marshmallow igloos: use peanut butter or icing to keep the pieces together

Play garbage man toss. Watch how fast your child can get pieces of crumpled up paper into the trash can.

Put the crumpled up paper in different places around the room and use a dump truck to drive around pick up the trash.

Intro sacred single life. Talk about how not everyone will get married or be a priest or nun. Instead they will do other things but still spread God's love to the people around them.

       (Racing around to pick up the "trash")

Friday: Review "Ii" Vocab/Carpenters/Meteorologist

Books: What do Illustrators Do? by Eileen Christelow

Carpenters by Debbie Yanuck 

Meteorologist by Saundra J. Christian

My First Dictionary

Songs: Letter I Song (tune of John Jacob Jimgleheimer Schmidt)

Ichardo I has an itchy iguana

He has an igloo too

The words that start with i

The people leap up high

Words like ichardo's itchy iguana

i, i, i, i, i, i, i, i.

What Will the Weather Be Today?  Poem

What will the weather be today?

What will the meteorologist say?

Hot or cold? Wet or dry?

Clear or cloudy? Look up at the sky.

Activities:

Review Ii words in the dictionary and Ii vocab coloring page

Instrument day. Play with all the instruments, piano, play guitar, play drums...

Playdough ice cream cone fun

Practice playing with the iron (unplugged ofcourse) and iron board

Intro carpenters and St. Joseph.

Play with tool set and work on the tool puzzle we have.

Intro meteorologist and play weather man

There are so many occupations you can choose to focus on. Each have an important purpose need different personalities and special abilities to fill. What other occupations can you think of to help your child learn about? What activities could you add? Let me know please.