G is for Goat

Our section on domesticated animals started off with goats. We looked at information about different breeds of goats and the useful ways that people use goats. We tried goats milk (the boys liked it, but Ardara and I thought it tasted too musky) and we used soap made from goat’s milk. We learned about cashmere and angora and kid leather. We did puppet shows of “Old MacDonald’s Farm” for each other, made a matching game with baby animals and their mothers, and even played Simon says with farm animal sounds.
The parallel lesson from the Bible was looking at sacrifice. We learned about the temple sacrifices of the Old Testament, and how Jesus’ perfect sacrifice replaced those imperfect symbols. We learned what “sacrifice” means, and discussed why sacrifice is necessary for the forgiveness of sins. We realized together how much Jesus must love us to make such a huge sacrifice for us. Our words to remember were “Jesus died for my sins”.
It was really special that this chapter came right before Christmas. We watched a little video called “The Legend of the Three Trees” which went along nicely, and we also read a story called “The Trees of the Dancing Goats” about a Jewish family during the scarlet fever epidemic, who sacrificed their special Hannukah toys to make pretty Christmas trees for all their sick Christian neighbors.