Autumn Folder for our Compassion Children

Front cover

Here in Tasmania the days are getting shorter and the temperature is dropping as we approach Autumn and then another long winter. As many of my Compassion children only have two seasons, “the wet and the dry” I decided to create some folders for them about Autumn in Tasmania.

To start I folded an A3 piece of light card in half. Using www.pizap.com I created a collage of myself, the child and 2 photos I had from my garden last Autumn. This I had printed at the local BigW so I had a large glossy A5 size photo for the cover. The Autumn title was created by using a photo as the background and writing the title over it then printing it with a normal printer.

 Inside the folder I used 4 photos from last Autumn taken in our gardens and added a little bible verse I found on the internet. (sorry I can’t remember where I found it). The leaf I made by doing a crayon rubbing over a leaf on thin good quality paper. The little coloured Autumn leaves were from a craft shop.

centre pages



back cover

 On the back I used a bit of wrapping paper with Pooh and Piglet just for fun. The leaf collage was also using

www.pizap.com

 but just printed from a printer. I also added a photo of my grandson playing in the Autumn leaves last year. For the older children aged 15 to 19 I will just send this and an autumn bookmark from www.avtivityvillage.com.uk.

 

 For the younger children I have attached with tape a yellow paper page to the edge of the folder and then folded it inside the folder. On this I have stuck puzzles, games etc.

 

 

 

 

 For the very little ones aged 4-6 I added 2 colouring pages (reduced in size by a photocopier) an apple maze and a game of dominoes which came all from www.activityvillage.com.au.

 Also a bookmark. The little activity booklet came from Scholastic Australia as part of a black liner set on Autumn they sell for $10.

 For the7-10 year olds I used the same yellow page set up but I put more difficult puzzles and a set of little Autumn symbol cards ( from Scholastics.au)to be coloured, a book mark and the activity book. One of the puzzles required them to use colour by numbers and as most of my children speak other languages I used a coloured pencil to circle the numbers with the right colour so they will know which colour to use without having to read the words.

 For the 11-14 year olds I have sent a very complicated apple maze, bookmark, Autumn Mandala and the Autumn activity book. The mandala’s came from

www.akidsheart.com.

 There are also some good resources at

                                                          www.education.com

                                                          and www.sparklebox

                                                                           for Autumn ideas.

Hope this gives others some ideas for making your precious children something to enjoy and treasure.

 

 

Easter Fun for Primary School Age Children

Easter time is a time of celebration for both children and  adults and what better time to make a special Easter gift for your sponsor child.

 

This Easter I made some mini lapbooks for my children and my daughters children. I found my daughter hadn’t sent hers off yet, I thought it might give others an idea so I am posting them here.

 

Middle page spread

I used a sheet of A3 paper folded almost in half leaving a tiny piece of paper to make the flap to close the book. I used www.loonapix to create the photo on the front and added the blessing at the bottom.

 

 My daughter has yet to add her child's  name to the front with their Compassion number.

 

Inside I put a mixture of puzzles, colouring in sheets, little books. book marks, and a bunny mobile they can make. Most of these things came from www.activityvillage.co.uk

 

 

 

 

 

 

  I printed and laminated the book mark and wrote a message to each child on the book marks.

 

 The Easter pictures came from

 

www.mesenglish.com .

 

 

 

 

 

 

The Easter mini books came from  www.BibleStoryPrintables.com.

 

Other bits came from :-

 

www.kaboose.com

www.abcteaching.com

 

Many of the sheets I reduced their size on a photocopier  so I could layer them on top of each other on a page.

 

 

On the back page I used a piece of Easter writing paper to send each child a letter asking them about how they celebrate Easter and telling them what our family does at Easter time.

 

Giving a Child confidence in their worth!

Poverty takes away a child's worth, their belief and hope that they are special that they are an important to others and to God. Poverty strips them of hope and they wallow in despaired without Gods love to sustain them. Many of my Compassion children are from large families, desperately poor, their parents are working to provide something for their children's needs but often have to be away from their homes for long periods to find work. Many of the children have fathers who have abandoned them and gone from their lives leaving the mother to provide for 1 to 8 children. There is little time for children to be children, to be nurtured and loved. Life is about survival for many of these families.

 A sad example of this came from one of my 11 year olds in Ecuado this weekr, she asked me to pray for her friend also 11. Her father had left the family some time ago and married another woman, the mother had taken off to Italy (she didn’t say why) and left the 11 year old and a 3 year old sister in the home alone. The little 11 year old is looking after the little sister and the father wants nothing to do with them, he gives her bus money to get to school and that is it.

 Can you imagine how tough it would be for both those little girls, my child says that the little 3 year old won’t eat because she is missing her mother so much. I have no idea how they are getting food or what happens to the 3 year old while the older sister is at school. What worth would these children feel they are, neither parent want them they are left to struggle on their own at age 11 and 3. They need far more than my prayers and they are just 2 of the millions of children facing this life each day.

 When I write to my children I always try to encourage them, give them hope and let them know they are precious to God and to me. I came across a site called  http://www.imagechef.com which is free and you can do all sorts of tricks with pictures and words. They have a section called word art which allows you to write a short sentence and it repeats it into a shape. I used a heart for the girls and a cross for the boys. On the girls I wrote “To (child’s name) with love” and added a star and a heart to the sentence.  For the boys I wrote “ God Bless you (child's name)” and added a cross and a star.

 On the back I added their photo and wrote

 

Children are a gift from the Lord: they are a reward from Him. Psalm 127: 3

(Childs name) you are a gift from God.

 

I hope these words will enter their hearts and stay with them always no matter what they face in life.