Sunday Toys

A few months ago I read a book called 'Hints on Child Training' written by H. Clay Trumball, a Christian author from the late 1800's. Trumball wrote the book after his children were grown, and his purpose was just to share a glimpse into the life of his family when his children were young and being trained at home. I think he does a great job illustrating simple, everyday circumstances that come up regularly in a home with children and how to think about different situations from a Christian perspective. I also like the fact that Trumball is not trying to push any certain methods or ideas but rather allowing readers to see how one Christian family chose to live. It's also interesting to me that although the book was written over 100 years ago, I can understand and relate to almost everything he writes about in the book. One of the specific chapters that I found helpful was entitled 'Training Children to Sabbath Observance'. Since we have been married, Mitch and I tried to make Sunday a different day and that it also stood out as the best day of the week, which is the main point Trumball makes in the chapter. He writes that every Sunday is a like a Christian anniversary and so we should treat the day like we would any other birthday or anniversary celebration....best clothes, best food, etc. We had tried to do most of those things before reading the book, but another thing Trumball mentioned which I thought was really interesting was to have the best toys out for Sundays. He said that in their family they had a Sunday box with several of the most interesting and enjoyable toys for their children so that it would help them be extra excited for Sunday and to help the day stand out in their little minds. So we decided to give the idea a try and I really like it and the kids do as well. Caleb gets excited to play with his Sunday legos and see books he hasn't seen all week. Although it's hard to notice much of a difference in Noah, but he loves playing with the stacking toys and REALLY likes Caleb's toys. Here are some of the pictures from after lunch today:

Caleb making a tree for his Lego guy

Noah just started crawling last night and he looks pretty determined to try it again today!

Noah is done with his toys and ready to help Caleb figure out just exactly what the top of the tree should look like

Finally Caleb's tree is about done and Noah found something that could maybe be water under the tree?!