several readers have emailed me about our jesse tree so i thought i’d answer their questions here for anybody else who might be curious.
what’s up with the advent goblins?
in years past, we’ve had an advent calendar that had readings from the bible, a short thought or meditation to go with it, and a little gift from the advent goblins. because ella was so little when we first made it, i didn’t want to tempt her by putting everything in the calendar at once, so the first night i put in the note and the gift after she had gone to bed.
the next morning when she found something in the envelope, she leapt to the nature conclusion that our goblins had put it there, and i just didn’t see any reason to take that sweet fantasy away from her yet. so ever since then i’ve been putting the notes in when she is asleep, and she looks forward every morning to finding out what they have left.
this year ella was hoping the advent goblins would have something different in store for her—something for a seven year old—so they decided to have a jesse tree and make her a more active participant in the daily reflections.
the focus of our jesse tree:
there is no set rule about how to make a jesse tree, who to include, what order, or what readings to include, and to me that is the beauty of the thing. it makes it very flexible for the needs and circumstances of each family. if we lived in a smaller house, or if ella were younger, we would have done something much simpler.
taking into account ella’s interest in learning more about the people of the bible, i chose to make the principle characters in the salvation story be our focus for this year. for each character i chose the parts of the story that i think are most appealing to children and that i think a young child can relate to, and each craft is designed to serve as a reminder of that character and the lesson his/her story provides us today.
thus, for the story of elijah, i chose to use the part about the ravens, rather than the part about the false gods, as young children are still very drawn to the idea of a god who provides for them as opposed to a prophet who gets touchy when people don’t agree with him. :)
for next year i am considering a focus on the prophecies, rather than the people themselves. i will make the final decision when we get closer to that advent—i’ll have to see where she is then to know what direction we should take.
the crafts: i originally hoped to introduce lots of different materials and techniques because i thought that would prevent boredom and keep ella interested over the course of the season. however, a few days ago i realized that i was becoming too focused on making a cool craft, rather than on designing a craft that had some meaning for the day. so i scaled back, and ella has done what every child does: she brings her own meanings and understandings to the table and exercises a depth of contemplation that i think would have been impossible if she had been distracted by a page full of complicated instructions. AND she’s having fun, she tells me every day how much she enjoys each of the projects the goblins give her.
the meditations and comments on the readings: for this season i decided to do something that i rarely ever do: borrow the words of someone else. :) in general i just prefer to express my own thoughts in my own words, but so many people before me have thought and written much more expressively and fluently on the bible than i have any hope of doing myself, at least at this stage of my life, and i want her to have the benefit of those minds and hearts. any day when i have quoted from someone else i have included links to the pages where i found each section.
the notes the goblins leave: each note has a picture at the top to give her a hint about the day’s reading, and sometimes it is used when making the craft (such as the picture of the world on day 2, or the example of the lamp on day 11). i try to prepare the notes a few days ahead. if i were really organized, i would have had them all done before advent started but i seem to be congenitally incapable of that level of advance planning.
what will happen at the end of advent: i’m considering the possibility of continuing the jesse tree thru epiphany. in this way we can also celebrate the wise men, the shepherds, etc. please leave me a comment with suggestions on this part. :)
