amommysjoy: Prayer For A Child {BFIAR}

Last week we rowed Prayer For a Child by Rachel Field.

This is a little girl's prayer written as a poem.

With its vintage picture and rhyming couplets, this book is absolutely charming!

Both my girls adored it but especially Piper.

There were certain lines I'd read and she would stop me and say, "Oh, Mama! Can you write that down for me, please?!"

I ended up typing up the whole poem for her and highlighting her favorite parts.

She drew a picture on it, we laminated it and it is now hanging beside her bed.

I thought this was just so sweet and I love how she connects with the books we read!

Her favorite parts?

"Through the darkness, through the night

Let no danger come to fright

My sleep till morning once again

Beckons at the window pane"

and...

"Bless the hands that never tire

In their loving care of me"

and...

"Bless my Father and my Mother

And keep us close to one another"

The girls also traced their hands, cut them out and I wrote on each of the fingers the names of people they are praying for.

Then they glued it all together and added some glitter (just because!).

One line of the book says:

"Bless other children, far and near

And keep them safe and free from fear"

To go along with this, we took some time to learn all about our sponsor child, Joel.

We found the country he lives in, Burkina Faso, on the map and made the country's flag.

We talked about his family and what he does each day.

We chatted about his birthday while making birthday cake crafts to pin up by his birth date and a picture of him on his last birthday.

The girls also drew pictures for him that we will send with our next letter!

(That's what they are holding up.)

Using the Compassion International homeschool lesson plans, we talked about how kids in places like Burkina Faso like to play sports and games, just like us.

But because they have very little money, they don't have easy access to sports equipment.

Instead, they are very creative and make things using items they have on hand.

The girls gave this a try by making a ball out of grocery bags and twine!

We then found a box that was headed for the garbage to use as our goal.

And then began our first ever game of bag ball!

Both girls had a blast with this!

There was lots of hooping and hollering for each goal they made and because the ball was made of bags, nothing was broken (and no one was hurt!) during this rambunctious little game!