SMASH IT {genesis}

Even in judgement God gives his people mercy and hope.

As teachers we are always thinking about the best way to reach our kids.  As Christian moms we are especially concerned with how to impact our kids with the Word of God.  

At the start of the new school year I thought I would try to use the various learning styles together and have my kids SMASH their way through the book of Genesis.    

It's been years since I've taught Genesis, but it is such an important book that I knew I wanted to go through it again-  in a way that would stick. 

So this is what we are doing.  First, I read a chapter of Genesis each day and then the girls "smashbook" it.  If you are unfamiliar, smashbooking is very similar to scrapbooking but it's kind of the casual cousin.  Rather than taking a lot of planning to work through a theme and obsess over the perfect layout, smashbooking encourages the smasher to do something different on every page.  You can add random do dads and celebrate messy as you document what moves you.  Kids love that. 

My mom (a retired teacher) always said that teaching was about staying one chapter ahead of the kids and really anyone can do that, right?  What a freeing thought.  

I just give myself a little bit of time each day to prep for the next day by reading the chapter, creating a sample page in my book and printing out some clip art for the girls to use.  I have a bucket of supplies including scissors, scrapbook squares (adhesive squares that allow you to place a picture, then lift and move it without damaging the page), markers, scrapbook pens, colored pencils, stickers and do on.  I try to encourage the girls to get the content down that we discuss but be as creative and colorful in its presentation as they like.  And their pages always turn out better than mine.   

By slowing down the process, we are all getting a ton out of each lesson and it really seems to stick with us through the day. 

I am keeping the clip art files to post here for you as we accomplish various sections.  I hope you will join us in smashing Genesis this year or just go for it with another book!  It's really so fun! 

Praying for your school year!