Thursday, March 27, 2008

Garden of the Good Shepherd

So far, this idea has been a hit! I have the first couple of weeks worth of eggs filled and am still chewing over some ideas for the rest. I thought I would share what we have done and what we plan to do a little at a time and, later on, beg for suggestions for the ones that have me stumped. Since there are so many, I will do them in weekly chunks.

Each day has a symbol (sticker) to add to the garden, a bible verse to lookup, and a meditation. Some of our activities come from the symbol and some are inspired by the meditation. All outdoor activities are contingent upon the weather, but my children are very aware of that. Here is what we have so far:

Day 1: The Shepherd (Easter Sunday) ~ CELEBRATE!!!
Day 2: The Shepherd's crook ~ Read the Legend of the Candy Cane (a little Christmas in March) and talk about why a shepherd has a crooked staff instead of a straight staff
Day 3: The Sheepfold ~ Read Psalm 23 and dance around the house to some of our favorite Bible songs
Day 4: The Gate ~ Go see the animals at the petting zoo!
Day 5: The Ewe and The Ram ~ find baby animals today (at the pet store)
Day 6: The Lamb ~ shepherd our souls at Mass and then play like little lambs at the park
Day 7 : The Wolf ~ feed a hungry dog today with a donation to the local animal shelter

Coming up for next week...
Day 8: The Table ~ set the table for a nice family dinner... Mom's homemade fried chicken! It's a ton of work but they love it!
Day 9: The Chairs ~ let's go pick out some bean bag chairs for our reading corner!
Day 10: The Bread ~ bake bread with Mom today and play with some salt dough
Day 11: The Wine ~ sparkling grape juice with dinner in fancy glasses
Day 12: The Milk ~ Milkshakes!
Day 13: The Pot of Honey ~ buy some local honey ( I am also looking into a trip to a honey farm.)
Day 14: The Fruit ~ fruit salad for dinner and a nature walk

I'll post more next week and also ask for some help coming up with a few. Have a great Thursday!

8 comments:

  1. Matilda, could you please post a reminder of this next year so we can gather ourselves together to do it in time. It's so cute!

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  2. Matilda: How lovely! How beautifully you've tied it all together...thanking you again for a timely post!

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  3. We got our calendar today! (Kudos to the company; I ordered it on Monday morning. Now to implement some of the fun stuff as you have...

    You are brilliant, dear Matilda. Thank you for the gift of you.

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  4. Hmm..is there an easy way to print your post so I can have a hard copy of all these wonderful ideas? I guess I'll be cutting and pasting. We ordered our calendar on Moday after reading your post and today at Target I scored a bunch of eggs for 19 cents a piece. I'm also not going to let the demon of perfectionism rule my mind and plan on jumping in on the action this year when my calendar arrives. I'm figuring I don't have to hang the eggs this year; I'll just keep them in an easter basket on our altar. -Elizabeth

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  5. This looks like such fun! I finally broke down and ordered the calendar today... I wish I wouldn't have waited so long! You have done such a beautiful job with it!

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  6. Just love this! Copying it out to go on a shopping trip this morning!

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  7. Hope I saw it more earlier so that I will be the one to make a schedule for myself also. But thanks for the post.

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  8. We are really enjoying our Garden of the Good Shepherd too, but I really love your extra creativity with it all!

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Thank you for sharing your thoughts and yourself!