6 Days of Creation

At church, we did big murals with the K-3 kids when we learned about creation.  I think they turned out pretty darn cute and think it would be a fun thing for kids at home to do too.

Day 1: Light

 Day 2: Sky/Heavens

Day 3: Dry Land and Animals

 Day 4: Stars, Sun, Moon

Day 5: Birds and Fish

 Day 6: Land Animals and Humans

Easter Week

My dad has gifted us a subscription to Focus on Family's Thriving Family magazine.  I like their articles for inspiring godly growth in families.  This year I have decided to use their suggestion for helping kids prepare for Easter.  The article is called "Exploring Easter: Simple ways to celebrate Easter with your kids."  I am chronicling my efforts in this post (as well as summarizing the article's suggestions).  I'll come back and add to it each day until Easter is here.

SUNDAY

• Read John 12:12-13.
• Have your kids make palm branches out of construction paper.
• Decorate the dinner table with branches.
• Place extra branches on the floor as a path from the door to the table to mark a path a honor.
• Before dinner, discuss the meaning of "Hosanna." 
• Ask your kids what they might shout if they saw Jesus coming down the road.

We were out of time to make our own palm branches, so we went out and picked some branches from various trees.  The kids enjoyed waving them and shouting "Hosanna."

Abby said if she saw Jesus coming, she would shout "Hooray Jesus!" 

Isaac said he would ask Jesus to wait and he would go get all his friends to meet Him.

MONDAY

• Bake bread as a family.
• Read John 6:35.
• Discuss why Jesus called himself the Bread of Life.
• Put bread in a basket along with Easter goodies and deliver to someone who may be in need of extra kindness

We bought a box mix of Auntie Annie's Pretzels (mmmm...).

The kids helped make the dough and we had our little "bread of life" discussion.  They needed much assistance in getting the concept.

We wrapped up some bite-sized soft pretzels fresh out of the oven and delivered them to our retired neighbors who have no grandkids to do sweet things for them.

TUESDAY

• Send your children on an Easter scavenger hunt to find items that symbolize parts of the Easter story:
• A rock (the tomb)
• two sticks (the cross)
• something black (sin)
• something red (blood)
• something white (a clean heart)
• something green (growing in Christ)

This one was super fun and required no preparation.

Two sticks representing the cross:

Something black representing sin:

Filling up his basket with something green to represent growing in Christ:

WEDNESDAY

• Read the story found in John 13:1-17 (can find this story in a children's Bible too).
• Fill a bucket with water and grab a towel. 
• Take turns washing each other's feet and praying for each other.

After reading the story of Jesus, the Servant-King, washing his disciples' feet the night before his crucifixion, it was special for us to get to wash our kids' feet and pray for them.

Mommy washed Isaac's feet.

Daddy took care of Abby.

The kids enjoyed the chance to wash Mommy's feet too.

(And things got rather silly when they tried to wash Daddy's feet because his feet are too ticklish).

THURSDAY

• Visit a garden or park.
• Read Luke 22:39-46 (can find this story in a children's Bible too).
• Have your kids talk about what plans they have for tomorrow.  How do they feel about their plans?
• What do they think Jesus may have been thinking/feeling on the night before His crucifixion?
• Pray together.

I liked doing this one at night in our "garden," as the darkness may have reflected more of what Jesus may have experienced.  The downside was that I waited so late that the kids were too punchy for a serious conversation.

FRIDAY

• Place a white carnation in a vase.  Read 1 Peter 1:18-19 (or the story of the crucifixion from a children's Bible).
• Discuss with your children what it meant that Jesus was a "lamb without blemish or defect." 
• After cutting the stem diagonally, add a dozen drops of red food coloring to the water.  Watch what happens over the next few days.  Use the red flower petals as a reminder that Jesus took our sins upon himself when he died on the cross.

Jesus, the "lamb without blemish or defect."

Each kid added some drops of red food coloring to the water, representing their sin. (By the way, that is my dad's hairy arm in the picture below, not mine!  ;) 

Two days later, we look at what happened to our white flowers and talk about how Jesus took our sin upon himself when he died for us.

SATURDAY

• Let your kids help you clean the windows.
• Talk about how much better they can see through them afterward.  
• Read Luke 18:31-34 (or find the story in a children's Bible of when the disciples were sad and confused after Jesus died).  
• Explain that the disciples did not see clearly at first.  They did not understand that Jesus had to die and rise again--until He did!

I left this muddy window up for a few hours before our actual lesson time to get the kids to really wonder what a muddy window had to do with Easter.

They had fun scrubbing it off.

And hosing it down.  And after it was clean, they seemed to get the idea that it wasn't until Jesus' friends saw him alive again after his death that they understood why he had to die.

EASTER SUNDAY

• Read Matthew 27:57-61 (or find the story in a children's Bible of when Jesus' friends discovered his empty tomb...especially the sections of his burial and resurrection that mention his grave clothes or wrappings). 
• Wrap a child volunteer in toilet paper or "grave clothes" and have them break free from the toilet paper.
• Talk about how happy the disciples must have been when they saw that Jesus had conquered death.
• Use a trick candle to show how Jesus, the Light of the World, appeared to be extinguished, but wasn't.  He was dead, but He came back to life!

Wrapping up Isaac in "grave clothes."

He thought it was pretty funny.

In his "tomb."

And he loved breaking free.

We didn't plan ahead to get the trick candle but I think that would be a great visual for the concept of Jesus coming back.  This was a lot of fun.  Looking forward to next year.

Teaching the True Meaning of Easter

Over the past few years, I have really enjoyed gathering and building some great tools for teaching my children the true meaning of Easter.  I wanted to compile on this post my whole tool chest so that it's all in one place.

To start off with, I found the most exciting directions for how to lead a Passover Seder for Christian families in Thriving Family magazine.  Thankfully, they also have an online version I can share with you. Traditionally, Jewish families celebrate a Seder during their Passover celebrations to tell the story of how God freed the Jews from Egyptian slavery.  For Christians, there are many ways that the rituals of the Seder also illustrate the death and resurrection of Jesus.

Here is a link that will help you learn how we hosted our first Passover Seder.

Here are the links to the other Easter teaching tools I have used:

Resurrection Cookies Recipe

Easter Week  (includes daily activities for the week before Easter)

I hope I'm posting this early enough this year for some other parents who had expressed interest to gather the materials and do some of these simple daily lessons with the kids.  My kids loved them.

Kids in Big Church

Our church has AMAZING, FANTASTIC children's ministries (if I do say so myself!).  But once a month, the church hosts an evening service where children age 5 and up are encouraged to attend with their families.

Question: how do you keep your kids engaged in the "Big Church" message on these occasions?

The kids love the worship part, and are fascinated by the communion part (although our family policy is to save participation in communion until baptism, which is of course in turn saved until they are able to express their understanding and acceptance of the Gospel of Jesus Christ!  If you are not sure what that means, check this post for a simple explanation).  The part that is the hardest for them to sit through is the "talking" part.

Although I admittedly regularly abuse technology to keep my kids busy, I did not want to establish screen-time as a way for my kids to "get through" the service.  My solution so far: old school entertainment...pen and paper.  But with a twist.  I am trying to use the pen and paper as a tool to help my kids engage in the message.  During the prayer time, I encouraged my kids to write or draw their prayer to God.  Isaac wrote this:

"Dear Lord. Can you please help me not be scared of ghosts.  And can you make it go to normal."  Yes, he has had a few anxious nights lately since the girls at school have been teasing about ghosts.  But I thought it was great that he thought to pray for it.

During the message, I encouraged the kids to listen to the speaker's words and draw or write what it made them think of.  Abby did great on this assignment:

She also wrote out the Fruit of the Spirit, which is what we are currently teaching in the children's ministry (proving how AMAZING and FANTASTIC our children's ministry actually is):

As a momma who loves Jesus, it makes my heart melt to see their little hearts grow in Him as they express it in words and pictures.  I'm not saying this method makes for a stress-free, relaxing service for me, as I spend a great deal of whispers and energy in redirecting them back to the pen and paper, but the reward of helping them engage in the message is worth the effort.

The Gospel in Colors: The Wordless Book

The Wordless book is one way to explain the gospel to children.

Dark represents our sin.  

I like to explain to the kids that God sees even our attitudes.  Even though we tend to think we're good people, God sees our hearts and knows we are far from perfect.  And God's standard for judgment is perfection.  Anything less than perfection is punishable by death.

Red represents Christ's blood.  

Christ had to live a perfect life, to earn that nearness to God that we cannot earn for ourselves.  Then he willingly gave his blood by dying on the cross to take the punishment for our mistakes.  He took the death we deserve.

White represents purity.  

Once we accept and trust in the sacrifice Christ made for us, we get to take His purity, His perfection on us.  From then on, when God sees us, He sees Jesus.  When He judges us, He judges Jesus, and we pass because of Him.  We become His sons and daughters with all the benefits of being heir to the throne.

Gold represents eternal life.  

When this life is over, God promises those who have trusted in Christ, that they will live forever with him in heaven, a place where His glory shines.  With God in heaven, there is no more sadness, no more pain, no more death.

Green represents growth.  

Since we are not yet in heaven, we have a job to do here on earth.  We are to grow in Him.  That means growing in knowledge, in love for him, and in following Him.  

Here are some resources that helped me understand this concept:

The Wordless Book.

How to Make a Wordless Book and Bracelet. 

Teaching the True Meaning of Christmas

My mommy group recently had an awesome discussion on the message board about how to teach kids the real meaning of Christmas.  I liked the ideas so much, I'm copying them here so I can use them now and in the future!

1. We give a gift to Jesus on Christmas Eve- a special tithe to church.  Even the kids can get some money from their piggy bank to contribute.

2. We bought the "What God Wants for Christmas" set at Lifeway, it is a cute way to teach kids the true meaning of Christmas through a nativity set.

3. I know this sounds corny, but we sing Happy Birthday to Jesus on Christmas Day.  I think you can even buy plates, napkins that say happy birthday Jesus online.

4. On Christmas Eve we read the Christmas Story from the Bible (It's in Matthew)

5. We try to teach our kids the importance of giving rather than just receiving so we usually do some type of toy donation. This year we are doing Operation Christmas Child and are adopting a family. She goes with us to pick the presents, helps wrap them and then we deliver them.

6. We do clothes/toy cleanouts pretty often and give to kids who many not be as fortunate.

7.  We participate in the "toys for tots" program.  The kids come and are part of the process, from selecting a toy to wrapping and delivering it. 

8.  One disipline I impose for myself is, I only get the kids 3 gifts to represent the three gifts the wisemen gave to Jesus. 

9.  The Christmas train in Alvin was a neat train ride of the Christmas story (if you're local to League City, TX). 

10.  Before we set up ANY decorations at all we find our manager scene and read the Christmas story and put the manager scene up and then say a prayer together as a family.

11.  Because my husband grew up very poor and spent many holidays without presents, food, we use this time as a way to remind ourselves how blessed we are and we adopt a family (you can call Lighthouse Christian Ministries for a list of needs if you're local to League City, TX). What is great about Lighthouse is that your drop the toys off to the parent or at the door so the kids think that the parent was able to buy for them and they don't know it was charity.

12.  Our annual organization is World Vision where you can donate by giving animals for villages, donating money for sexually exploited children, and even help American children in poverty. You donate $25 and it helps the American children with necessities worth $325. 

13.  When the kids are older I am planning on having them come with me to serve in a food kitchen for the homeless. 

14.  Last year we asked our friends and family to help us pack the food pantry at our church instead of bringing presents to our daughter's birthday party. It turned out so great! We loaded up her wagon and she pulled it into the church. She helped her daddy put cans, diapers, and all sorts of stuff on the shelves. The whole time she kept talking about how she was helping "the babies". 

15.  We mostly have been doing books according to the season. One of my favorites is "Who is Coming to Our House" http://www.amazon.com...

16.  We Use a nativity scene as an advent calendar. You can tell a different part of the Christmas story each day as you get closer to Christmas. I made my own so that there were enough things to add to the scene for each of the 25 days (manger, wise men, sheep, shepherds, Mary...of course baby Jesus on Christmas day), but you can also purchase some that have it planned out for you online. 

17.  We help the kids pick out or make a gift for each member of our family. The idea is that they will learn the joy of giving and not just getting. You can give them $1 for each family member at the dollar store or help them make something...and wrap it themselves. 

18.  We will choose an angel on the christmas tree at the mall and have him wrap the requested gift and drop it off.

Don't ya love how the kids put all the ornaments on the same three branches?  I think when they're grown up, I'll do that myself just to remind me of this time.

Teaching Kids About God

I recently had a discussion with a friend who is beginning to wonder how to teach her young child about God. That got me thinking about all the resources we have been given by our generous friends and family who also love the Lord, plus a few we bought ourselves.  You can see I'm pretty crazy about books:

In Books:

Bedtime Blessings is perfect for family nights. It has simple object lessons parents can do with their kids, with prayers to go with them.

The Rhyme Bible Storybook  is great starting at around age two, once the toddler can sit still for a few minutes.  It goes through the major Bible stories set to rhyme.

Devotions for Preschoolers is perfect for teaching a two-to-five year old how to have a quiet time.  One devotion for every date on the calendar, it tells a one-minute story and ends with a bible verse and a rhyming prayer.

My First Study Bible is better for ages three and up and goes through every book of the Bible in age-appropriate stories and descriptions, with pictures.  When a book of the Bible doesn't exactly lend to good storytelling, like say, the book of Habakkuk, it is summarized on one page with the prophet himself giving a short description of the book.  It also includes a small index with names and topics of interest.  Great for teaching first-time Bible study.

The Big Picture Story Bible is my favorite children's bible ever, as it shows how every bible story points to Jesus.  It is good for ages three and up and similar to the The Rhyme Bible Storybook in that it goes through the major Bible stories.  This one goes deeper though and is good for a young child who is really starting to ask deep questions and understand spiritual concepts.

ESV Children's Bible is what we're reading with the kids these days.  It is the real bible, with every verse.  What I like about it is the reading guide in the back, that has a recommended reading list of chapters for older and younger kids.  So they can read the real bible, but skip the stuff that's too scholarly or not suited for children.

In DVDs:

Most people have heard of Veggie Tales, but there are a few DVD series that are less well known but just as good, if not better for toddlers and preschoolers.  One of those is Boz the Bear.  The Boz series is very safe for sensitive children.  It is full of positive God-centered messages in short episodes.

Similarly, the Auto Be Good series is great for any child who loves the action of Disney's Cars, except that each short episode has a Godly value and song attached.

Finally, Adventures in Odyssey is good for ages three and up as the action gets a little more tense.  

In Audio: 

If you get sick of listening to children's music in the car (I do), The Adventures in Odyssey Bible Eyewitness Collector's Set  is great for teaching kids (and their parents) major stories of the Bible.  It's appropriate for ages three and up but anyone under four may have trouble focusing on listening.  These stories are really entertaining.

In Resources:

Finally, Parents' Guide to the Spiritual Growth of Children is an awesome resource put out by Focus on the Family.  It guides parents through rethinking the way to teach their children about God.  Let's face it, some of us were either not taught, or taught in such a way that perhaps did more harm than good.  This book helps give parents a variety of techniques and styles to fit their own unique children and family life.  The idea is to make learning about God relevant and fun.  It also points to tons of other resources to help parents get started.  

Let's Make a Memory is a three-part collection of ways to make special memories and moments with your kids.  Creating Family Traditions has ideas for holidays, Celebrating Special Times with Special People is about creative ways to acknowledge milestones in the lives of loved ones, and Making Ordinary Days Extraordinary has special ideas for everyday moments as a family.  

So that's about it.  Hope you find something good to get you started.  And now I'm going to be in trouble with my sister who is going to say, "Wait a minute...how come you have all those great resources and aren't sharing them with me and my girls?!"