Week 8 - Abigail is a Peacemaker

Printables for this week:

Peacemaker Bible page

Peacemaker Chart from Hubbard’s Cupboard

Proverbs 15:1 from Hubbard’s Cupboard

Zoo ABC - letter h

Zoo Math H - #8

Abigail Song

Abigail lesson from Mission Arlington, optional 

We had a week of big crankiness around the Crizon Casa, so school wasn’t as smooth as normal.  Ary has been fighting off something, so it has been a perpetual state of a little bear coming out of hibernation.  All that said, I have had many hands on opportunities to be a peacemaker amongst the whole family this week.  hehe  


Sunday night, Levi was playing too rough with Ary and she bumped her head and started crying.  He actually made a good choice and tried to do it over but setting her gently on a pillow instead.  Papito couldn’t see what was happening from the kitchen, and yelled “Levi!” (which was an appropriate guess after all the other offenses of the day) which sent Levi into angry hysterics over the injustice of it all.  We settled everything, father and son apologized and made up, and it was off to bathtime.  Amidst the noise of rushing water, I was thinking about an idea I saw online months ago about teaching soft gentle words, and how desperately we needed some more of those in our home lately!  Well, we put the children to bed and I went to plan for this week and guess what the verse was...Proverbs 15:1  A gentle answer turns away wrath, but a harsh word stirs up anger.  I just had to laugh.  Isn’t the Lord’s timing perfect?

I looked up that idea right away (the soft word jar from Spell Out Loud) and had intentions of setting it up Monday morning.  Before I could get around to it, Levi ran up to me with a container of mini M&Ms (that I had stashed in our travel diaper bag for emergency situations...hehe)  Of course the question was, “Mamita, can I taste one?” and I had a quick thought (uncommon occurence with pregnancy brain) and said “Sure, you and sis can have one each time I catch you respond to each other with sweet and gentle words, rather than the ones I’ve been hearing lately.”  (Gasp!  Did she just bribe her children with chocolate?  Yes, I did, but told them that this little exercise was just going to last until the container is empty.  ;-)  Levi has really caught on, and I have seen him stop and rephrase things many times this week.  My little bear has not been as consistent, but gets an A+ for effort.  This morning, I asked if she wanted a certain food and she said “No sanks.  Mamita, did you hear dat?  I get a self control!  The M&Ms are right up there on the counter, on the left.  Do you see them?”  Self-contol, kind words, same thing, right?  

This week’s story was about Abigail, which at least made it fun for Aryelle to be able to act out a female part (she has not been a big fan of having to be King Saul, David, etc. saying “I’ just a princess!”)  Just like last week, the story was not in any of our children’s bibles so we turned again to Mission Arlington for the story telling (see page 3 for the preschool version) and some inspiration for the Abigail Song.

Our zoo friend this week was Honey Horse.  Here are a few of our favorite H ideas:

-do the Hokey Pokey (including head, hands, hair, hips, forehead, and of course hooves)

-line up the family and have a hat relay, passing the hat under, over, under, over

-play Hopscotch, Hot Potato, or Hide and Seek

-sing Johnny Hammers (substituting Handy Manny for Johnny...hehe) 

This week’s cooking project was Hummus! (Click here for the recipe.)  I knew the JungleMamas would approve, but didn’t expect to get much enthusiasm from the children.  They proved me wrong, however, with Peter and Levi being the biggest fans.  (Aryelle tried a lick, and Josh just stuck to the pita bread.)  In fact, I only got one helping of the leftovers as Levi licked the bowl clean by Saturday morning while saying, “I’ll tell you why I love this...cuz it’s SO yummy!” 

For our Friday edition of Jungle School, we made Honey Horse out of a lowercase h.