Our new school year is off to a great start! I’m still trying to fine tune our weekly schedule (and figure out how to possibly accomplish all my goals for each week and keep up with everything I need to keep up with!) but at this point we are spending our Thursday afternoons studying science. We (the younger children and I) will be working our way through the beautiful Life Is Precious Unit Study this year, in addition to Focus on Geology for Elementary and Middle School, while the older boys attend their weekly Physical Science Lab.
Note: Links to American Life League (ALL) are not affiliate links, but ALL is currently a sponsor here at Shower of Roses. I was given a complimentary copy of Life Is Precious in exchange for my honest review. It is such an excellent program and I am really enjoying using it with my children this year!
Yesterday afternoon we read Angel in the Waters for a second time during Lesson 1, Day 2 of Life is Precious: A Parent-Guided Culture of Life Unit Study for Elementary Students.
My older girls asked if they could read the book aloud this week. Twinkle Toes read it this time and Chiquita will get her turn to read it to our little ones next week for Lesson 1, Day 3. As I mentioned last week, each Lesson is broken up into 4 days and I’ve decided to complete one of those days each week, spending a month or so on each lesson.
After discussing all the questions provided in the unit study we moved on to the activity. The theme for this lesson is “Mother” and the suggested activity for reinforcement is The Miracle of Life flipbook. All the coloring pages you need to create the flipbook are provided in Appendix A on the included Companion CD-ROM. I ended up making a couple modifications to the project and had my children create Miracle of Life Picture Books instead, which include pictures of me pregnant with them and pictures from right after they were born! It was so much fun!!!
Miracle of Life Picture Book Supplies:
- Angel in the Waters
- Miracle of Life Coloring Pages from Companion CD-ROM
- Crayons, Colored Pencils and/or Markers
- Pregnancy and Baby Pictures (I just printed some digital photos on cardstock)
- Blank Books, 14 sheets, 28 pages, 6″w x 8″h (I purchase these from Rainbow Resource. You can also find a single book or 6 pack over at Amazon.)
- Self-Adhesive Laminating Sheets (one 9×12 sheet cut in half is enough for the front covers of two small blank books)
Note: I love the little blank books! I’ve used them for many projects in the past including my Wisdom of the Saints Journal and Primary Arts of Language Who/Which Projects (you can see Snuggles’ here). I’ve also used the larger sized blank books for Writing the ABC’s on Little Hearts and Bible Narrations and Picture Book of Saints.
They were beyond excited when I brought out the picture of me pregnant with each of them, along with a few pictures from right after they were born.
 |
| “MOM! Why you so FAT?!” |
 |
| His FACE when his older brother told him HE was inside my tummy. |
Snuggles was really curious about the priest who was holding him at the hospital (and giving him a blessing) just after his birth, so I pulled up a couple photos from this blog post while telling him about Monsignor Cihak.
He was pretty excited to see a few photos of this same holy priest next to the Pope:
Next the children worked on coloring the provided coloring pages with images of the baby at different stages of development.
The older girls asked if they could “please make books too!” so I have placed an order for a couple more blank books! I need to (hopefully!) dig up some (pre-digital!) photos for them. In the meantime they have started their coloring pages while helping their younger siblings.
Instead of using the provided cover photo, the children decided to use the photo of them in my tummy for their personalized Miracle of Life picture books. After gluing the picture to the cover we laminated it as well using half of a 9×12 Self-Adhesive Laminating Sheet.
On the inside of the front cover they glued their coloring picture of the baby inside of Mother.
Appendix A also includes a list with the baby’s age and facts for each stage of development. My older children are writing the text in their books on their own, but for my littlest ones I created worksheets with the text for them to trace. There is enough room in the book for them to use the last couple pages to include additional pregnancy and baby pictures for each of them.
We didn’t have enough time to completely finish our Miracle of Life picture books and will continue this project next week instead of creating the additional Miracle of Life poster board (activity for day 3), before moving on to the final day (4) which is all about Guardian Angels just in time for their upcoming feast day on October 2nd!
So… Have I convinced you to order a copy of Life Is Precious yet?
I do have one more incentive for you! American Life League sent me a coupon code to share with my visitors here at Shower of Roses following the recent giveaway. On top of the awesome discounted INTRO PRICE you can also receive FREE SHIPPING for the next two weeks with coupon code CLSPLIP. Order your copy today so that you can begin this unit study with your children in October for Respect Life Month!
Update – You can download my documents with the traceable text here:
Thank you for the post. I have just ordered a copy of Life Is Precious. I'm really excited to be able to use this unit study with my children. God bless.
2015-09-18 19:10:35
This looks so beautiful! Yes, you have definitely inspired me to order a copy! My kids are closer in age to your "big girls" but I know they will still love this, and have a lot of fun with it. God bless you!
2015-09-21 00:48:07
Although my kids know they are adopted, I think it might be too hard for them to do this unit study at this time. Maybe some day, but I think it will bring a lot of grieving. Glad your kids are having a great time with it.
2015-09-21 10:03:13
This is wonderful! I use blank books too and they are so useful and fun to look back on later. Would you be willing to share the tracing pages that you made? God bless you and your lovely family.
2015-09-21 12:35:53
You have given your children such an incredible gift, Julie! Four of my dad's siblings were adopted and I can't imagine our family without any one of them. The beauty of this unit study is that it can be easily adapted by the parent depending on what they would like to emphasize. In this particular activity I decided to add emphasis to my own pregnancies with my children, but really the main focus of the lesson is preborn life and fetal development. The next lessons go on to teach about how each of us is unique (On the Night You Were Born), standing up for what you believe in (Horton Hears a Who), and defending the least of these (One). I think these lessons are valuable for all children, but of course you know your family best and will know when/if the time is right for this type of unit study. May God bless you and your beautiful family!
2015-09-21 14:20:08
I am trying to place an order but the code doesn't Work for the free shipping, is it already expired?
2015-09-22 13:31:11
No, the coupon code (CLSPLIP) hasn't expired yet. I just clicked over to try using it myself and it worked for me. It applies a discount of $7.95 to cover the $7.95 postage cost. The total should be $24.95 (plus any taxes you may have in your state, I'm guessing… we don't have sales tax here) which is discounted from the original $39.95. I'm sure that if you call their customer service number they can help you place the order: (540) 659-4171 I hope you are able to figure it out!
2015-09-22 13:48:26
Thanks, Sherri! I'm not sure whether or not I can share the pages I made for my kids, since the text is all from the program. I'll look into it and let you know. 🙂
2015-09-22 13:49:46
I wasn't sure if this activity was part of the curriculum or not. Thanks for clarifying. My kids very much understand that they were not in my tummy but I am worried if the program focused on that relationship it might cause grief or at least confusion. Isaiah was literally saved from abortion during the 40 days for life prayer vigil and his birth mom walked out of the abortion for an unexplained reason. She had already had a few abortions. We talk to him about how their birth parents chose life even though it was a very hard choice for them. My kids have grown up hearing about that tons! I think we might do the unit study with Bella next year. She will be more mature and I think I have enough on my plate this year with 1st grade! Ha ha.
We actually have her 20 week ultrasound picture which she loves looking at in her scrapbook
2015-09-22 22:03:00
OK thanks! My computer skills are limited, and adapting the printouts to make these pages for the Miracle of Life book is so appealing.
2015-09-23 13:41:55
American Life League has given me permission to share the supplemental pages I created for this activity! Yay! I'll try and upload the documents and add the link to this post sometime this week. May God reward them for their generosity!
2015-09-23 14:25:55
Yay! So excited to start our books this month. Now only if my printer would work…may be making a trip to UPS to get copies of the activities to put in their book.
2015-10-01 22:53:09
Hi Sherri! I finally had a chance to upload the pdfs.
Here are the links:
https://www.scribd.com/doc/283892604/Miracle-of-L…
https://www.scribd.com/doc/283892600/Miracle-of-L…
Let me know if you have any trouble downloading them and I can email them to you directly. God bless!
2015-10-07 00:40:12
Oh Jessica, thank you sssoooo much for taking the time to upload the files!! I am so excited! The download worked just fine. And thanks to ALL for giving you permission ! God bless you for your generosity!
2015-10-09 04:17:26