If Jesus Came to My House {B4FI♥AR}

If Jesus Came to My House is a timeless treasure. It's the sweet story of a young boy and his visit with Jesus as he imagines him.

I can't tell you how many times I've looked up at a particular point in a book because I knew I had three sets of eyes waiting expectantly for me to break out in tears at any moment. I've cried my way through many read-alouds and my older boys always knew when I was on the brink of tears. I don't even think that they would have seen this one coming, but when I got to the point when the little boys realizes that he could do all the special things he did for Jesus for other people, I was moved. And yes, I cried. The words of Jesus in Matthew sprang quickly to my heart and came alive like no other time in my life.
Then shall the King say unto them on his right hand, Come, ye blessed of my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world: For I was an hungred, and ye gave me meat: I was thirsty, and ye gave me drink: I was a stranger, and ye took me in: Naked, and ye clothed me: I was sick, and ye visited me: I was in prison, and ye came unto me. Then shall the righteous answer him, saying, Lord, when saw we thee an hungred, and fed thee? or thirsty, and gave thee drink? When saw we thee a stranger, and took thee in? or naked, and clothed thee? Or when saw we thee sick, or in prison, and came unto thee? And the King shall answer and say unto them, Verily I say unto you, Inasmuch as ye have done it unto one of the least of these my brethren, ye have done it unto me.
Of course this had a wonderful impact on our row, and one day we were walking to the library and I saw Mr. E, an elderly neighbor, picking up broken glass one piece at a time as he clung to his cane to support him. A strong wind blew off an upper level storm window. I had seen it on our way home from the Y the day after it happened and meant to come back to pick it up for him, but I forgot. So when I saw him out there trying to pick it up, I rushed over with Malachi and Bo to help. I had Malachi go get a box to put the glass in, and I started picking it up. I didn't want the boys to help for obvious reasons, but Mr. E wasn't about to let me do it alone. When he got up from the stump that he had been resting on, I let the boys help with the bigger pieces showing them how to carefully pick the glass up. Mr. E. sighed and said he'd better get out of our way. :) He is an amazing man who at 95 years old lives on his own and cares for himself, and he doesn't accept help readily. I know - I offer every time I see him out working. The hard work must be what keeps him going. But it is simply too much to pick up such tiny pieces of glass while relying on a cane to keep you from falling. We got it all picked up and I said, "I think we got it all, but I wouldn't go barefoot in the grass for awhile." Haha. He laughed and thanked us.

When we got back to the house to dispose of the glass, I asked Bo who we just helped and he said Mr. E. I said no, who did we really help? The little lightbulb clicked on and he said Jesus. ♥

There were many teachable moments like this throughout the week. Except once day, one of the lessons was for me. Luke washed the eggs one day at lunch and asked me if he could give a dozen eggs to a friend. My eggs?!!? Our hens were laying regularly again, but I was still traumatized by actually having to buy eggs this winter that I wasn't about to part with a whole dozen. Of course, I was immediatly convicted for telling him no and asked him to take the eggs that I set back out on the counter. I thought he took them but he had put them in the fridge when I wasn't looking (not like he would take my eggs now, lol). So I asked Eliana to go put them in his fridge in his office and tell them they are for Jesus. He was not in his office, so she put a sticky note on them that said, "For Jesus."

I didn't want to part with my eggs for that guy, but I would have willingly given them for Jesus. Oh how that changed this week.

Books we read this week:

~Bo is 5 years old~
Golden Rule

"Therefore all things whatsoever ye would that men should do to you, do ye even so to them: for this is the law and the prophets."

We sang Matt 7:12 this week (Sing the Word A-Z), and it went like this: "Do to others and you would have them do to you. For this sums up the law and the prophets, and this is Matthew 7:12..."

This is why we keep God's law - His whole law is summed up in the two greatest commands - love God and love others. During our Sabbath study this week, we studied Deuteronomy - the second giving or summary of God's law, and one of the questions for the kids study was "Can we sum up the law in one word?" And the answer was yes... LOVE!

We also read the story of Zacheus. I read this story online, but Zacheus Climbs a Tree p 248 is coming up in the Family Time Bible  (Sonlight P 4/5 reading) soon. Luke reads this to him, so I asked him to see what he remembers about Zacheus' change of heart when he does.

We also read "Living in a Bible-Time House" from the Family Time Bible to tie into Zacheus. 

There was lots of play with Eliana's Playmobil doll house this week, too.

And lots of reminders that what we do unto others, we do unto Jesus. 

Science

Science4Us: Bo logged 47 hours in just over a month on Science4Us.com (or what he calls Super4). I needed a way to make his iPad time more educational and productive and this has been amazing. You can read my review with Eliana to learn more. Bo will have nearly completed the program by the end of our 2nd month subscription so I will be canceling it at the end of March, but it was so worth it. 


Shadows and Light Energy 
What is light?
What is a shadow?
What makes a shadow?

For our row, Bo did the Light Energy unit. This unit covered natural and manmade sources of light, transparent/opaque, properties of light energy, light energy sources, shadows, reflecting light and more.  


It is very interactive and engaging, and it makes learning so easy - even graphing data from a virtual experiment. :)

We also observed how light passes differently through different liquids. We used corn syrup, water, and olive oil and placed a glass object (another glass) inside the glass jar. Some liquids will make the glass object in the jar "disappear" as it reflects the light. It didn't make it disappear but the glass object in the jar was more visible through the olive oil.


Shadow Play

We read Robert Louis Stevenson's poem and My Shadow (we found these at our library) and played with Animal Shadow Puppets.






Fears

Bo said that he wouldn't have been afraid by the shadows on the wall, so we didn't need to talk about fears. :) 

Hospitality

We so enjoyed reading Tea Rex and Tea Party Rules. (So adorable!)

We talked about how to greet someone at the door, invite them in, serve refreshments, invite them to come back, etc. but that all went out the window, and we just had tea and cookies. :) 

I made edible tea cups and cold raspberry white hot chocolate and served them with boxed cookies.



What makes a home cozy?

What gives Bo warm and cozy feelings?
  • hot cocoa
  • snuggle in a blanket
  • being warm and cozy
  • reading books together 
  • nice clean home 

If Jesus Came to Bo's House...

"I would give him gummy snacks.
I'd give him the bestest toys that I have.
I would give him anything he wants, like an apple juice or a Snapple."

by Bo

:)

B4 Quilt

If Jesus Came to My House quilt square:



If Jesus Came to My House is a Before Five in a Row selection. There are a lot of Fun Things to do with B4FIAR, but the most important thing is to cultivate a love for learning. ♥

*******

Bo is plugging along at a hare's pace in his All About Reading. He finished up to letter sound /t by the end of February. 

All math this month was natural learning (he did not work in his Math Lessons book). 

Until next time... 

2 comments

  1. Oh my! How I love your FIAR posts! We checked out all the BFIAR books and read this book last year. So many of them are not great for older kids too - This one especially. I just read the short story Martin the Cobbler (in Teaching the Classics) which is basically a grown up version of If Jesus Came to My House. What a wonderful lesson for kids and adults to learn. Thank you for sharing the beauty of your week. These posts are always inspiring :)

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    1. Thank you, Tara! I love that you read these books to your boys. I've been looking at Reading Roadmaps that you mentioned, and I love that they include picture books for older kids - it's very reassuring that my children can enjoy FIAR books for years to come. I didn't know about Martin the Cobbler - so many wonderful lessons, I agree. :) Thank you for your encouragement!

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