Advent and The Jesse Tree

Myra's (2) take on creation

When Sarah and I got married, I wanted to continue a Chapdelaine tradition of observing Advent (or "the Arrival") with daily devotional reading, candles and songs.  We began with a few accent candles in a circle that we received for the celebration of our marriage and I began looking for a reading list of stories we could track God's story with.  I landed on 'The Jesse Tree,' something I really hadn't heard of before my google search.

So, since then we've used some form of The Jesse Tree to observe Advent.  Here's the webpage I began with:

The Voice, The Story of the Jesse Tree:

http://www.cresourcei.org/jesse.html#Jesse%20Story

Now that we've added children, I found out that symbols aren't enough for kids to pay attention.  So, I looked around this year for a coloring sheet that we could use so the kids could be involved in every day's reading.  Lots of pages revealed "pay-for" coloring sheets.  I'm not against paying artists for their work - but the previews were limited, so I couldn't tell the quality of the pictures that were included.

A little more searching and I found a free resource for coloring sheets, as well as 3-4 verse readings for little ones.  My kids had just enough listening-power to hear the story today, so I think this rhythm for our family will work well for Advent 2013.  (I also added in 'what kind of things are creeping things?' to which my son replied 'alligators and hippopotamuses.'  Crose eduff.) 

Shared coloring page and reading on my Google Drive:

https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B5wSq8N8UmCQcWttREo0NFBkY2c/edit?usp=sharing

This discipline seems daunting with small kids, but I need this kind of rhythm.  Especially since I want my children to know God's story is the big story we're living in at all times.

Advent starts today.  Get ready!