08/25/2015 Holy Martyrs Anicetas & Photius

Hello Everyone,

I hope you all had a wonderful day. Our day has gone very well so far. 🙂 Today we commemorate the Holy Martyrs Anicetas and Photius. Emperor Diocletian had made a trip to Nicomedia to persecute and kill the Christians there. Saint Anicetas was the governor of Nicomedia. He boldly confessed his faith in Christ and was arrested and tortured. They threw him to the lions, but the lions only fawned over him and played at his feet. He was subject to other tortures before his death. His kinsman, Photius joined Anicetas in his martyrdom and they both suffered in Christ together.

Your holy martyrs Anicetas and Photius, O Lord, through their sufferings have received incorruptible crowns from you, our God. For having your strength, they laid low their adversaries and shattered the powerless boldness of demons. Through their intercessions, save our souls! Troparion – Tone 4

For our circle time this week we are using:

• The Angels (from the Garden of the Theotokos)
• My Cross (from the Garden of the Theotokos)
• I am a Little Toad
• 6 Little Ducks

We worked on our main lesson out of the Garden of the Theotokos. We talked about Monday today, which is the day of the angels. We talked about how their are nine different types of angels and how they all have different jobs. Then we focused on talking about our guardian angel.

Next we worked on our “Nature” unit. We talked about weather (Sunny, Windy, Snowy, Rainy) and then we went on a walk outside and talked about what the weather was like. Today it was sunny with a little breeze. 🙂 Then Theia did her weather work page out of her Get Ready For Kindergarten book.

After that we began our “Numbers” study. We started with the number zero. Theia worked on her work page out of her Brain Quest workbook. She had to practice tracing the number and circle the trees with zero apples on them.

Then, we had our “Structured Play Time”. The girls both worked on a couple puzzles together.

Lastly, we worked on chanting. We studied the Tone 4 Troparion using Tone Tutor 101. Theia sang with me while we practiced chanting and Apfeya really enjoyed just listening! It was a lot of fun.

When their daddy gets home Theia will do her “Share with Daddy Time”.

Tomorrow is the Feast Day of our chapel, the St. Maximus Chapel. So, we will be attending liturgy in the morning at the chapel. After that we will begin our homeschool work.

In Christ,

D. Kyriake

08/24/15 Holy Martyr Euplus

Hello Everyone!

So, today was the first day of school! Everything went really well and hopefully we will all get used to the new schedule soon.

Today we commemorate the Holy Martyr Euplus. We had fun reading about his life because he was a deacon (just like daddy, as Theia said) and he was from Sicily (just like Nana’s family)! He was martyred after he was discovered preaching and reading the Gospel in secret to some hidden Christians who were being persecuted by Emperor Diocletian.

As a holy deacon and righteous minister of the Church of Christ, you contended superbly. You sailed over the sea of many torments and afflictions, O all blessed Euplus. Guide us into the haven of heaven. Troparion, Tone 4

For our circle time this week we are using:

• The Angels (from the Garden of the Theotokos)
• My Cross (from the Garden of the Theotokos)
• I am a Little Toad
• 6 Little Ducks

We worked on our main lesson out of the Garden of the Theotokos. We talked about the days of the week and how there are seven, just like how God created the world in seven days. Then we focused on Sunday, the day of Liturgy and Communion, and the day that God rested during his Creation.

We also worked on our “Our World” study and talked about all the different rooms in our home and what each room is used for. Then Theia did her activity page out of the BrainQuest book and drew what her favorite thing to do at home is.

Next we worked on our Letter “A”. Theia practiced the sound that “A” makes, then she practiced tracing the big letter “A” and the little letter “a” from the work pages in her Get Ready For Kindergarten book. Next she made the big letter “A” out of play dough.

Then, we had our structured play time and Theia and Apfeya got to play dress-up. They had a lot of fun – did you know that Elsa has a horse named Lucky who she loves to ride? 😀

The last thing that we did was Art. Today we made some pigs out of doilies. This was really cute and fun!

When their daddy gets home Theia will do her “Share with Daddy Time” and he will work on their Slow and Steady Get Me Ready Activities.

I will let you know what we are up to tomorrow!

In Christ,

D. Kyriake

02/12/15 The Holy Martyr Theophilus the New

Hello there everyone!

We had a fun-filled day today. We had some very special visitors today and we were even blessed to have a visit from our Bishop, Vladyka John! This is such a blessing and one of the reasons I am so glad we were able to move to Colorado Springs. Not only is there an Orthodox community here, but the Fathers are only 2 hours away and we are blessed to be able to visit often.

Silly Faces!

Today our Circle Time songs are:

• Thursday: The Apostles (from the Children’s Garden of the Theotokos)
• My Cross (from the Children’s Garden of the Theotokos)
• Sing! Sing! Sing! (from the Children’s Garden of the Theotokos)
• Listen to the Horses (by Raffi)
• Shake My Sillies Out (by Raffi)

The saint commemorated today is The Holy Martyr Theophilus the New.

As commander-in-chief under the Emperor Constantine and Empress Irene, he was enslaved by the Hagarines and held four years in prison. When he withstood all the Moslems’ insistence that he repudiate the Christian faith, he was beheaded with the sword in the year 784, and went to the Lord.

We did a counting activity with the girls today. We worked on counting and keeping in time with a music beat for 8 counts. We made some “soup” while counting. Basically the girls used a wooden spoon to splash their soup for 8 counts and then stir their soup for 8 counts. They each were able to take turns “putting something in” the soup and in the end they got to “taste” it. After that counting activity, we worked on counting to 12 for the 12 holy apostles. Then, we worked on naming all twelve of them by using the Thursday song from the Children’s Garden of the Theotokos.

Our sensory activity today was with shaving cream. The girls were able to make designs on the sliding glass window with shaving cream. This activity was so simple, but so fun!

Shaving cream mess!

Well, that was the end of our day, and our week. We are planning to go and visit the Cathedral of the Dormition for the feast day of the Meeting of our Lord on Sunday and are looking forward to that trip. We will be back on Monday and I will let you know what we are up then!

In Christ,

D. Kyriake

02/11/15 The Hieromartyr Ignatius

Good Evening!

I hope you all had a wonderful day. I had a really busy day and feel like I can’t keep up! I honestly feel like my life is set at a speed of 10 and I can only go 8. 😦 I just have to trust in God to give me the strength I need to get through every day and try to take it one day at a time.

Today our Circle Time songs are:

• Wednesday: The Cross (from the Children’s Garden of the Theotokos)
• My Cross (from the Children’s Garden of the Theotokos)
• Sing! Sing! Sing! (from the Children’s Garden of the Theotokos)
• Listen to the Horses (by Raffi)
• Shake My Sillies Out (by Raffi)

The saint commemorated today is the Hieromartyr Ignatius. Today we remember the translation of his relics from Rome, where he was martyred, to Antioch, where he had been archbishop. I took this opportunity to explain what exactly it means to “translate relics”. I began by describing how you can move things and we moved some things around. Then, I described that translation is simply to move something from one place to another. Next, we talked about what a relic is. I explained that it is the body after one has died. We all have a body and a soul. When a saint dies, their soul goes to heaven, but their body stays on earth and is called a relic. I did not explain yet about how, because many of these saints were so close to God, their relics, or bodies, did not decompose like usual and they remained incorrupt.That is a lesson that I will explain later.

For our prewriting activity we worked on tracing lines again.

Something fun that we did today was building. Theia built a “house for her bunnies” out of legos. Its pretty awesome too. It has carrots and flowers on the roof for them to eat! This sweet little girl thought it through!

In the middle of the day Theia had a dentist appointment. So, that is all of the homeschooling I got done today. Theia did get a “No Cavities!” certificate and a prize from her dentist for being such a good girl. 🙂

I am working on planning what exactly we are going to be doing, both in homeschool and as a family, during the Great Fast. I have found some great resources and am getting approval for some of the activities from our Priest. I will let you know what my plan is once I have it down so that you can follow along with us if you wish!

Have a great evening and I will let you know what we are up to tomorrow!

In Christ,

D. Kyriake

02/10/15 Our Holy Father Ephraim the Syrian

Good Evening Everyone!

We had a fun day today. It was a really nice day outside again! I am getting spoiled to the nice weather here is Colorado. It is like spring right now, but I now we are going to get slammed by a few more storms before spring is truly here.

Today our Circle Time songs are:

• Tuesday: St. John the Forerunner (from the Children’s Garden of the Theotokos)
• My Cross (from the Children’s Garden of the Theotokos)
• Sing! Sing! Sing! (from the Children’s Garden of the Theotokos)
• Listen to the Horses (by Raffi)
• Shake My Sillies Out (by Raffi)

The saint commemorated today is Saint Ephraim. He loved work and was constantly writing books, teaching, or praying. He wrote many beautiful books. His best known prayer is :

O Lord and Master of my life, a spirit of idleness, despondency, ambition, and idle talking give me not. But rather a spirit of chastity, humble-mindedness, patience, and love bestow upon me Thy servant. Yea, O Lord and King, grant me to see my failings and not condemn my brother; for blessed art Thou unto the ages of ages. Amen.

For our outside activity Theia went to her ballet class. She did really well today. She kept beat to the music very well and did a front tumble all on her own!

We practiced drawing some curvy lines today for our pre-writing activity. You can find the worksheet we used here.

For our science experiment we used salt to melt ice. This was a lot of fun. So, what you do is you set out your ice cubes on a plate (with a rim so the melted ice doesn’t spill), you put some salt in an easy-to-get-little-hands-into bowl, and you pick out the colors of food coloring you want to use. Then, you let them sprinkle some salt onto the ice-cubes.

Next, you drop some food coloring onto the ice.

Now, you watch as the food coloring goes down all the little craters and creases.

Fun, fun, fun!

We also had some kitchen time today. Theia helped me make some cookies. I was really craving some! The link to the cookies we made is here.

I hope you all have a wonderful evening! I will let you know what we are up to tomorrow!

In Christ,

D. Kyriake

02/02-05/2015 Saint Maximus

Hello Everyone,

This is the last time I am going to make this one post for a whole week. I think the day-by-day works much better. Anyway, this is what we did this week…

This week, our Circle Time/Finger Play activities:

• My Cross
• Baa baa black sheep
• Open, Shut them
• Mary had a little lamb
• Alphabet Song

Saint’s Lives:

The Saints that we studied this week were:

Holy Father Euthymius: He lived in asceticism from his youth. He had many other men join him in his labors such as Cyriac the Hermit, Sava the Sanctified, Theoctistus and others. He taught his monks the love of hardship, saying: ‘If you eat bread that comes not from your own labors, that means that you eat the labor of another’. He also said: ‘A tree that is frequently transplanted does not bear fruit,’ meaning that a monastic should not move around from place to place. On love, he said: ‘As salt is to bread, so is love to the other virtues.’ There was a monastery established near his cave. His last command before his repose was that the monastery should be loving and hospitable to all its guests, and that its gate should never be closed.

Saint Maximus the Confessor: One of our chapels here in Colorado is named after Saint Maximus, so we attended liturgy at that chapel to celebrate the feast day. St. Maximus was the greatest defender of Orthodoxy against the Monothelite heresy which says that there is in Christ only one nature, an therefore in Him only one will. I think one of the most profound things about Saint Maximus is that he kept the true faith even when it was only himself and his few disciples against all others. In a way, this should encourage the Orthodox Christians of today to keep the true faith despite all of the heresies around.

The Holy Apostle Timothy: You can read about Saint Timothy in the books of the New Testament of 1st and 2nd Timothy. He met Apostle Paul in Lystra, and was the one to witness Paul’s healing the lame man. Later, Timothy followed Paul to many countries. Saint Timothy worked much to spread and establish of the Christian faith around the world. Paul called him his own son in the faith (I Tim. 1:2). After Paul’s martyrdom, Timothy had St John the Evangelist as his teacher.

The Hieromartyr Clement: He became bishop of Ancyra at the age of twenty. He spent twenty-eight years under torture and imprisonment under he reign of Diocletian. He was so harshly tortured that it is said he was tortured as terribly ‘as anyone has ever been since the foundation of the world’. He worked many miracles during his life.

Activities:

We worked on finger painting.

Theia colored her calendar page for the month of February.

We had our Ballet class.

We made a butterfly out of paper plates.

We did a “study” on emotions.

We worked on counting objects.

We worked on sign language.

We started to learn Russian.

We practiced our Alphabet (English).

We played with play-dough!

I will let you all know what we are up to on Monday. I apologize for the last two weeks of being away. I will get the posts back to normal on Monday and work on explaining the activities more thoroughly again.

In Christ,

D. Kyriake

01/26 – 29/15 The Veneration of the Chains of the Holy Apostle Peter

Hello Everyone,

This post is going to be a little different because I am going to be telling you about an entire week of our adventures! Are you ready for it? 🙂

This week, our Circle Time/Finger Play activities:

• You’ll Sing a Song
• Cluck, Cluck Red Hen
• The Corner Grocery Store
• Boom Boom

Saint’s Lives:

The Saints that we studied this week were:

Holy Martyrs Hermylas and Stratonicus: During the time of persecution under Emperor Licinius, Hermylas, a Christian and a deacon in the Church, was captured and led to court. Hermylas was thrown into the dungeon. The guard of the dungeon was Stratonicus, a secret Christian. Stratonicus sympathized with the suffering of Hermylas with all his heart. When it was reported to the emperor that Stratonicus was also a Christian, the emperor ordered that both of them be drowned in the Danube river.

Saint Nina: When she heard of the Georgian people, as a young girl, she desired to travel to Georgia and baptize its people. She was visited by the Mother of God who promised to take her to that land. She first baptized Georgia’s royal family, then went on to baptize it’s people. She did this all during a time of persecution of Christians by the Emperor Diocletian.

Holy Father Paul of Thebes: When Saint Anthony the Great was about ninety, he was tempted by the thought that no one else had ever lived such a life so dedicated to God as he had. That night, he was told in a dream that there was another hermit in the desert more perfect than himself, who had reached the age of 113 years. Saint Anthony went into the desert, trusting God to lead him where he should go. He finally found St Paul’s cave after being led there by a wolf. Saint Paul and Saint Anthony spent the night in prayer together. The next day, Saint Paul told Saint Anthony that he was about to die, and that God had brought him there to bury him honorably. As he had said, St Paul reposed the next day and, with many tears, St Anthony buried him. Two lions came to help Saint Anthony dig out the grave.

The Veneration of the Chains of the Holy Apostle Peter:

We commemorate the chains with which Peter was shackled by the lawless Herod and which, when an angel appeared to him in prison, fell from him (Acts 12:7). The faithful kept these chains, both in memory of the great Apostle and also because of their healing power, for many of the sick were healed by touching them (as with the towel of the Apostle Paul: Acts 19:12). The Patriarch of Jerusalem, St Juvenal, made a gift of these chains to the Empress Eudocia, the exiled wife of the Emperor Theodosius the Younger. She divided them in half, sending one half to the Church of the Holy Apostles in Constantinople and the other to her daughter, the Empress Eudoxia, wife of Valentian of Rome. This Eudoxia built the Church of St Peter and placed these chains in it, together with those in which Peter was shackled before his death under the Emperor Nero.

Activities:

We worked on tracing lines. I had Theia trace straight lines, curvy lines, and zig-zag lines.

We had some great weather this week, so I took the girls outside for a little “nature walk”.

We also went to the park and had some free play outside. Theia and Apfeya had a blast!

We played in the kitchen and made some cookies.

We did some finger painting.

We went to our friend’s house and made some foil fish and played with play dough. We also practiced our lines and letters by drawing them in sugar (which the girls loved to eat)!

We spent some time working on reading our BOB books.

(This is Theia swimming in her books after we read BOB books)

We also did a guardian angel project for our Sunday School after liturgy.

In Christ,

D. Kyriake

01/20/15 Saint John the Baptist

Good Evening!

I hope you all had a wonderful day today. We had a very busy day and I am exhausted, so I will make this short.

This week, our Circle Time/Finger Play activities are:

• Shake My Sillies Out
• Listen to the Horse
• I’ve Been Working on the Railway
• Who Built the Ark?

For our Saint’s Life today we learned about Saint John the Baptist.

John’s greatest role during his life was enacted on the day of the Theophany, and because of this the Church has, from the earliest times, dedicated the day following that feast to his memory. This day is also connected with an event involving the hand of the Forerunner. The Evangelist Luke desired to take John’s body from Sebaste, where the great prophet had been beheaded by Herod, to Antioch, his own birthplace. He succeeded, though, in acquiring and taking only one hand, which was kept in Antioch till the tenth century. It was then moved to Constantinople, whence it disappeared during the Turkish occupation.

St John is commemorated several times during the year, but his greatest feast is on this day, January 7th. Among the Gospel-figures surrounding the Savior, the person of John the Baptist holds a very special place, by the manner of his birth in this world and of his earthly life, by his role of baptizer of men to repentance and his baptism of the Messiah, and lastly, by the tragic manner of his departure from this world. He was of such moral purity that he indeed deserved the name ‘angel’*, as he was named in the Scriptures, rather than being thought of as just a mortal man. John differs from all the other prophets in that he had the joy of showing forth to the world the One Whom he had foretold.

(*The word ‘messenger’ is, in Greek, ‘angelos’. See Malachi 3:1, Matt. 11-10.–Tr.)

For our “Pre-Writing” activity we practiced drawing our straight lines. 🙂

We also had our ballet class today and then it snowed! So, I am glad we had an indoor activity.

For our other activity, Theia did her craft for Theophany with her Baba. We used a glass bottle that we had found with an icon on it and worked on decorating it. This will be the bottle that we use to keep our holy water in – the water that was blessed on Theophany. If anyone wants to do this, you can find many different types of glass bottles at the craft store. You can also print up an icon to glue onto it, or just place a cross on it. You can buy glass paint to paint it, or you can glue on tissue paper, or something else creative. 🙂 We glued on some gold tissue paper. First, you cut the paper into small squares. Then, you dilute some craft glue or elmer’s glue in water, use a paint brush to apply the glue mixture on the bottle, and place the tissue paper on top. If anyone makes a Holy Water container please post a picture so I can see how it turned out! In Christ,

D. Kyriake

01/15/15 Saint Seraphim of Sarov

Hello Everyone!

I apologize that today’s post was not done on time. I had my last and final surgery on my foot done today and so, it is a little delayed. Thank God this recovery has been very quick.

This week, our Circle Time/Finger Play activities are:

• My Cross
• Brush Your Teeth
• Down By the Bay
• Baa Baa Black Sheep
• The More We Get Together
• Mr Sun

For our Saint’s Life today we learned about Saint Seraphim of Sarov. For some reason, I got it mixed up in my head that we were celebrating Saint Sergius of Radonezh, so we read his story (which is beautiful). Then, I double-checked the calendar, and oops, it is Saint Seraphim. So, we had a double lesson. Anyway, Saint Seraphim is one of the most renowned Russian monk. He is known for many things throughout his life, but I focused on a story of when he was a young boy. When he was 10, he became very ill. While he was sick, God granted that he see the Theotokos in his sleep. She promised to heal him. During this time, there was a religious procession in Kursk for the miracle-working icon of the Theotokos. Due to bad weather, the procession took an different route than planned and past right in front of Saint Seraphim’s house. While it was passing, his mother put him up to the miracle-working icon, he recovered rapidly. When he turned 18, he decided to become a monk. His parents gave their blessing for this and his mother gave him the family’s large copper crucifix to take with him, which he wore over his clothing all his life. After this, he entered the Sarov monastery.

For our “Pre-Writing Activity” we worked on tracing our lines.

Then, for our other activity we decorated our bowling pins. I let Theia decide what she wanted to use to decorate. We ended up using markers, glue, glitter, and pom-poms.

That was the end of our day and of our week!

In Christ,

D. Kyriake

01/14/15 Saint Basil the Great

Hello again everyone. I hope you all had a great Wednesday. We had a lot of fun today with school, and with play. You know, sometimes you just get so busy doing “mom” things that you forget to just leave the dishes in the sink and get down on the floor to play with your children. That is the best kind of fun, and if you don’t do it, you are missing out. Today was a reminder for me that I need to make sure to really PLAY with my children EVERY DAY. They are growing up fast and I want to try my best not to miss it. Let the laundry be for a while, the dishes will get done, just play with your kids!

This week, our Circle Time/Finger Play activities are:

• My Cross
• Brush Your Teeth
• Down By the Bay
• Baa Baa Black Sheep
• The More We Get Together
• Mr Sun

For our Saint’s Life today we learned about Saint Basil the Great. There are so many things that we could have talked about regarding Saint Basil, but I really wanted to focus in on a story in particular. One time when Saint Basil was protecting the people in his Church and city from an attack, he asked of the people to bring any of their valuable possessions to the Church in hopes that they could pay the attackers to leave them be. To make a long story short, they ended up not needing to spend the valuables because the Mother of God protected them from the attack. However, the people decided to leave their valuables with the Church as a gift of thanksgiving. Saint Basil wanted to return one-third of it, and knowing that the people would not take their valuables back, he found another way to return some of their things. He had some of the workers, in the poor house that he built, bake loaves of bread, and in each loaf he had them place a jewel, or a coin. Then, he distributed the loaves to all of the people and they received a portion of their gift back.

For our “Pre-Writing Activity” we made a paper-chain out of “Frozen” water bottle wrappers. Theia got the idea, but I had to help her quite a bit with this because she wanted to close the two ends together instead of placing one end on top of the other. It was still a lot of fun. 🙂

For our other activity we made Vasilopita, or Saint Basil’s Bread. The tradition is to place a coin inside the bread, but because both my girls are still young I did not do this. I didn’t want them to accidentally choke! Next year we will. 🙂

I hope you all have a wonderful evening. I will let you know how our day goes tomorrow!

In Christ,

D. Kyriake