(Adapted from my original post when I created my Advent reading plan in 2011)
The Advent reading plan that I created a few years back uses a combination of THREE different books.
The first is The Advent Jesse Tree Devotions by Dean Meador Lambert. This
book serves as the main blueprint for our readings. The book
explains that "The Advent Jesse Tree seeks to tell the story of God's
redemptive plan for the world through 25 symbols from the Old and New
Testaments. the symbols trace the heratage of Jesus Christ from the
beginning of creation."
The
book
suggests making ornaments that symbolize each lesson, and it also has
suggestions for songs that you can sing with your family for each
lesson, which I really love! We are not going to have a separate tree
for the Jesse Tree ornaments, but rather, I have been working on making a
collection of special felt ornaments for our regular Christmas tree
over the last couple of years.
There are 25
lessons, but I always skip 5 of them, because I need flexibility
in our reading schedule to skip a day here and there... I know that this
season is always busy, and I want to make Advent readings a
priority, but I also want to be realistic with my goals.
The second book is The Jesus Storybook Bible by Sally Lloyd-Jones. This is seriously the BEST
book out there for teaching kids about God's redemptive plan, and
showing how the Old Testament points to Jesus over and over again. The
way that Sally Lloyd-Jones words things is truly amazing! I am a word
person.. and an auditory learner, and I think my little Jamesie is,
too.. This book is totally for us! I could write an entire blog post on
how awesome this book is, but for now I am just going to say, if you
don't have this book, buy it NOW. You will NOT regret it.
I originally got a lot of my ideas for this reading plan from this advent reading schedule using
The Jesus Storybook Bible, and we used it for our readings. I'm was
so excited, because I wanted to incorporate the Jesse Tree idea into our
advent experience, and the more I compared the two books, the
more I realized how wonderfully they complimented each other!
SO, I created my own reading schedule with readings from both
The Advent Jesse Tree Devotions book and either The Jesus Storybook
Bible OR The Family-Time Bible in Pictures for each day that we do one
of our 20 lessons. So, each lesson has two readings... This has worked
really well the last two years, and I look forward to doing the same
thing again this year. You can do
morning and night... or you can just read them both at the same time..
depends on the day, and how things are going. The Jesse Tree devotions
are really short, and they don't have any pictures or anything, so the
other two books will help to bring the Jesse Tree devotions to life.
Which brings me to my third book - The Family-Time Bible in Pictures by Kenneth N. Taylor. Although
I love love love the wording in the Jesus Storybook Bible, nothing
compares to the amazing pictures found in this Family-Time Bible. I used
stories from this bible for Jesse Tree lessons that don't have a
coinciding Jesus Storybook Bible story, but it is worth looking at the
pictures in this book for EVERY story you read this advent season, even
if you are not reading the words from this book. This book will come in
handy for your little visual learners (like my Josiah).
Ok, so now
that you've gone to Amazon and bought all of these lovely books, here is
the schedule that I created that coordinates Jesse Tree lessons with
stories from the other two books. Feel free to use it how you like, or
adapt it to fit your family's needs!
EXCITED!!
Notes:
*This
reading schedule is meant to start on the first day of advent (which is
THIS Sunday, December 1st) and end on Christmas Eve. There are 24 days
total, but only 20 lessons, which will leave you a little bit of
flexibility
for if you need to miss a few days. My goal is to get the 20
lessons read, and leave time for discussing and understanding, over the
course of the 24 days. I actually cheated and started a few days early
(today!), to leave myself even more skip-days. I just can't trust myself
to do it every single day during this crazy-busy season, and I really
want to get them ALL done...
*JSB stands for Jesus Storybook Bible
*FTB stands for Family-Time Bible in Pictures
*I
purposely switched the order in which we will read Jesse Tree's "Angels
Proclaiming the Coming of Christ" and "The Light of the World" for two
reasons. One is because it flows better with the stories out of the
Jesus Storybook Bible this way.. And the second reason is because I want
to be done with our readings by Christmas Eve, so that Christmas Day
can just be a rest day, so in order for the "Light" lesson to fall on
Christmas "Eve-Eve," I needed to switch the two lessons. "Light" is the
theme of our annual Christmas Eve-Eve celebration, during which we
always have breakfast for dinner, drive around town to admire the
Christmas lights, and camp out in our living room, under the Christmas
Tree :)
HERE'S THE SCHEDULE:
HERE'S THE SCHEDULE:
Lesson 1: Jesse Tree: The Light in Creation / JSB: The Beginning: A Perfect Home (Genesis 1-2) p. 18
Lesson 2: Jesse Tree: The First Sin / JSB: The Terrible Lie (Genesis 3) p. 28
Lesson 3: Jesse Tree: Inside the Ark / JSB: A New Beginning (Genesis 6-9) p. 38
Skip Jesse Tree’s Call to Abraham
Lesson 4: Jesse Tree: Isaac and the Lamb / JSB: The Present (Genesis 22) p. 62
Skip Jesse Tree’s Jacob’s Ladder
Lesson 5: Jesse Tree: Joseph’s Coat of Many Colors / JSB: The Forgiving Prince (Genesis 37-46) p. 76
Lesson 6: Jesse Tree: Moses and the Ten Commandments / JSB: Ten Ways to be Perfect (Exodus 16-17, 19-40) p. 100
Lesson 7: Jesse Tree: Canaan, the Promised Land of Blessings / JSB: The Warrior Leader (Joshua 3, 6) p. 108
Lesson
8: Jesse Tree’s Ruth and Boaz / FTB: Unselfish Ruth p. 112
Lesson 9: Jesse Tree: King David / JSB: The Young Hero and the Horrible Giant (1 Samuel 17) p. 122
Lesson
10: Jesse Tree: Josiah Finds the Law / FTB: Good King Josiah p. 166
Skip
Jesse Tree’s Prophecy of Shoot from the Stump of
Jesse
Lesson 11: Jesse Tree: Prophecy of the Lion and the Lamb Resting Together / JSB: A Dream of Heaven p. 342
Lesson 12: Jesse Tree: Prophecy of the Prince of Peace / JSB: The Captain of the Storm p. 236
Lesson 13: Jesse Tree: Prophecy of a Gentle Shepherd / JSB: The Good Shepherd (Psalm
51, 2 Samuel 7, Psalm 23) p.
130
Lesson 14: Jesse Tree: Prophecy of the Suffering Servant / JSB: Operation “No More Tears” p. 144
Skip
Jesse Tree’s Prophecy of the New Covenant
Lesson 15: Jesse Tree: The Prophecy of Bethlehem / JSB: A Teeny, Weenie…True King (1 Samuel 16) p. 116
Lesson
16: Jesse Tree: The Exile / FTB: The Fiery Furnace p. 171
Skip
Jesse Tree’s The Return to the Land
Lesson 17: Jesse Tree: The Star / FTB: The Wise Men Visit p. 191
Lesson 18: Jesse Tree: Angels Proclaiming the Coming of Christ / JSB: He’s Here (Luke 1-2) p. 176
Lesson 19 (Christmas "Eve-Eve"): Jesse Tree: The Light of the World (p. 86) / JSB: The Light of the Whole World (Luke 2) p. 184
Lesson
20 (Christmas Eve): Jesse Tree: The Birth of Jesus / JSB: The King of
all Kings (Matthew 2) p. 192
