The other night when I was tucking Jonas in bed, I asked him if he wanted me to pray for anything. He told me that he would pray and then sweetly prayed, "Dear God, thank you for this day, and thank you that we get to celebrate the birth of Jesus. Amen." I was touched. And then he said, "Mom, did you write down my Christmas list?" I realized that Jonas is mostly just happy that we get to celebrate the birth of Jesus because he knows he'll get presents. We've been reading the Christmas story from our various Children's Bibles since the day after Thanksgiving, but I decided I needed a plan for how to emphasize the meaning of Christmas each day leading up to the big day. I googled "Advent Readings for Preschoolers" and found a great resource in a blog from 2010. I stole a lot of the readings and questions from there. I had Jonas cut out strips of construction paper, and I wrote the daily reading plan on each strip. Then we made a chain out of the strips (I wish I had red, white, and green paper to make a more festive chain, but our blue, orange, purple, and green will have to work.)
I'm looking forward to starting our readings with the first link in our chain tomorrow night!
December 5th: Read John 3:16. Why did Jesus come to earth?
December 6th: Sing "Joy to the World"
December 7th: Read Luke 1:26-33. Who told Mary that she would have a baby?
December 8th: Read Isaiah 7:14 and Matthew 1:22-23. How did Isaiah know what would happen?
December 9th: Read Matthew 1:18-21. Why did Mary and Joseph name the baby Jesus?
December 10th: Read Luke 2:1, 3-6. Why did Mary and Joseph go to Bethlehem?
December 11th: Read Micah 5:2. What does the Bible foretell about Bethlehem?
December 12th: Read Luke 2:7. Why did Mary lay Jesus in a manger?
December 13th: Sing "Away in a Manger"
December 14th: Read Luke 2: 13-14. Who joined the angels in praising God? How can we praise God?
December 15th: Read Luke 2:15-20. What did the shepherds do after they saw Jesus?
December 16th: Sing "Silent Night."
December 17th: Read Matthew 2:1-2. How did the wise men know that Jesus had been born?
December 18th: Read John 1:1-4. Why do you think we decorate with lights for Christmas?
December 19th: Read John 8:12. Who is the Light of the world?
December 20th: Read Matthew 2:11 and 25:40. Why do we give gifts at Christmas?
December 21st: Read Isaiah 9:6. What are some names of the Christ?
December 22nd: Read Luke 2 and act it out with our Little People Nativity Set.
December 23rd: Tell the Christmas story. Use the Nativity set to help you remember it.
December 24th: Sing Happy Birthday to Jesus!
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