The Holy Innocents

Gospel, Mt 2:13-18

¹³ After they had left, suddenly the angel of the Lord appeared to Joseph in a dream and said, 'Get up, take the child and his mother with you, and escape into Egypt, and stay there until I tell you, because Herod intends to search for the child and do away with him.'
¹⁴ So Joseph got up and, taking the child and his mother with him, left that night for Egypt,
¹⁵ where he stayed until Herod was dead. This was to fulfil what the Lord had spoken through the prophet: I called my son out of Egypt.
¹⁶ Herod was furious on realising that he had been fooled by the wise men, and in Bethlehem and its surrounding district he had all the male children killed who were two years old or less, reckoning by the date he had been careful to ask the wise men.
¹⁷ Then were fulfilled the words spoken through the prophet Jeremiah:
¹⁸ A voice is heard in Ramah, lamenting and weeping bitterly: it is Rachel weeping for her children, refusing to be comforted because they are no more.

 The Coventry Carol

Lullay, Thou little tiny Child,
By, by, lully, lullay.
Lullay, Thou little tiny Child.
By, by, lully, lullay.

O sisters, too, how may we do,
For to preserve this day;
This poor Youngling for whom we sing,
By, by, lully, lullay.

Herod the King, in his raging,
Charged he hath this day;
His men of might, in his own sight,
All children young, to slay.

Then woe is me, poor Child, for Thee,
And ever mourn and say;
For Thy parting, nor say nor sing,
By, by, lully, lullay.

Merry Christmas!

Gospel, Jn 1:1-18

¹ In the beginning was the Word: the Word was with God and the Word was God.
² He was with God in the beginning.
³ Through him all things came into being, not one thing came into being except through him.
⁴ What has come into being in him was life, life that was the light of men;
⁵ and light shines in darkness, and darkness could not overpower it.
⁶ A man came, sent by God. His name was John.
⁷ He came as a witness, to bear witness to the light, so that everyone might believe through him.
⁸ He was not the light, he was to bear witness to the light.
⁹ The Word was the real light that gives light to everyone; he was coming into the world.
¹⁰ He was in the world that had come into being through him, and the world did not recognise him.
¹¹ He came to his own and his own people did not accept him.
¹² But to those who did accept him he gave power to become children of God, to those who believed in his name
¹³ who were born not from human stock or human desire or human will but from God himself.
¹⁴ The Word became flesh, he lived among us, and we saw his glory, the glory that he has from the Father as only Son of the Father, full of grace and truth.
¹⁵ John witnesses to him. He proclaims: 'This is the one of whom I said: He who comes after me has passed ahead of me because he existed before me.'
¹⁶ Indeed, from his fullness we have, all of us, received -- one gift replacing another,
¹⁷ for the Law was given through Moses, grace and truth have come through Jesus Christ.
¹⁸ No one has ever seen God; it is the only Son, who is close to the Father's heart, who has made him known.

Advent Fun

Creating a gingerbread house (serious work!):

Jane was highly amused by the whole process:

Our finished product:

December 6 - December 12, 2010

What we're working on this week:
Monday

• Letter "Y" flashcard
• Snow White, page 29: prewriting skills (Upper Case Y)
• Cinderella, page 29: visual perception (recognizing circles and squares), prewriting skills (drawing circles and squares)
• Rumpelstiltskin, page 27: learning colors (yellow and blue), distinguishing one color from others (yellow and blue)
• Count with Peter Rabbit, pages 1-10: learning numbers (1-10)
• Story Time: Henry's choice from the Good Books list

Wednesday

• Letter "Z" flashcard
• Snow White, page 30: prewriting skills (Upper Case Z)
• Cinderella, page 30: visual perception (recognizing triangles and rectangles), prewriting skills (drawing triangles and rectangles)
• Rumpelstiltskin, page 28: learning colors (green and brown), distinguishing one color from others (green and brown)
• Count with Peter Rabbit, pages 1-10: learning numbers (1-10)
• Story Time: Henry's choice from the Good Books list

Friday

• Rumpelstiltskin, page 29: learning colors (orange and purple), distinguishing one color from others (orange and purple)
• Rumpelstiltskin, page 30: learning colors (red and yellow), distinguishing one color from others (red and yellow)
• Story Time: Henry's choice from the Good Books list

Saturday

• Science Play!: Water Designs:  We're going to use water, paint, and different tools to create some beautiful artwork.

Sunday

• Who Am I? - Review lessons 1 - 7.

Week in Review: November 29 - December 5, 2010

Workbooks completed, science done (no pictures this week since it was incorporated into bathtime), and Advent is well underway.  It's a little startling to realize that we're already two months past our start date.  It doesn't seem that long ago!

As we're nearing the end of two of our workbooks and as we're in Advent and our weeks are filling with activities in preparation for Christmas, this seems like a good time to take a break from school.  More and more, I am leaning toward a year-round approach so that we can have greater flexibility with our schedule and work around any surprises as they spring up.  I also like the idea of being extra-focused on the religious holidays.

So, my next post will be our normal schedule for the week.  After that, we'll be on hiatus until mid-January or so.  I may post some pictures here and there of our holiday projects, too!