Summer Break!

School is ending and summer is FINALLY HERE!!!

We have found some great resources to make the most of summer break. These resources are FUN things to do as a family this summer with purpose!

1. First and Foremost....Take time to rest! You and your kids deserve it after a long school year. 

2. Thriving family puts out a FREE activity calendar every summer (remember last year's around the world calendar - click here). This year, they have a detective kit where you decipher clues, crack codes, participate in fun family activities and solve 21 "Who am I?" Bible mysteries. Click here to download. SO EXCITING!! (that link also has previous years calendars if you are looking for something else!!)

3. Remember to sign up for  B&N Reading Journal Program or PBK Reading Challenge! Have your child read through the Jesus Story Book or other books that help your child learn who Jesus is! Bring in the journals to the appropriate store to receive a free book!

4. Make a purposeful summer bucket list....we have one on our blog but also check out Compassion International's Make Summer Count List or Missional Women's 25 Summer Missional Activities for kids. Remember to have the kids journal their activities!

5. Feel free to comment to share any other ideas you have for purposeful summer pointing our kids towards Jesus!

St. Patrick's Day at Home

St. Patrick's Day is coming up on March 17th!

I have heard that the true story of St. Patrick is actually one of a great inspiring Christian man. I wanted to learn about St. Patrick so where else would I turn to as a reliable source than to Veggie Tales. Check out this 8 minute super cute video of the story of St. Patrick. 

Didn't I tell you it was super cute. Now on to some fun St. Patrick's activities that keep the focus on God. 

#1 First set the stage. Dress up in all green and talk in your best Irish accent. Top of the mornin' to ya!

#2 Start your morning with a healthy green smoothie for breakfast (1 banana, 1/2 cup strawberries, 1/2 cup of spinach, 1 cup water - blend well) or you could go a little less healthy with these green mint chocolate chip pancakes.

#3 Compare and contrast Noah's rainbow vs the Leprechaun's rainbow. Although St. Patrick was a man of faith who became a missionary in the very place he was sold as a slave, Irish folktale tells a very different tale of a silly leprechaun. The tale states if you catch a leprechaun, he will tell you where the pot of gold at the end of the rainbow is. Their rainbow leads to a pot of gold. Our rainbow found in the Bible is a rainbow that leads to God....a rainbow of promise not luck. A promise that God will always protects us and be there for us.

There are thousands of rainbow crafts or recipes you can do if you search on-line but the one that we did was print a rainbow template and fill it with the rainbow colors of froot loops.

Then we got out pipe cleaners and made candy or rather froot loop bracelets.

They loved eating their bracelets - I couldn't even get them to stop eating it to take a picture! Did you notice the subliminal message of Noah's Ark in the background....stay with me people :)

#4 If you have lucky charms at home - this is a cute activity (found at this link) to do with your kids. St. Patrick shared the Bible with as many people as he could in Ireland. Find the different marshmallows in lucky charms (lets be honest the marshmallows are the only part of lucky charms that the kids eat anyways) and talk about the different promises of God found in the Bible.

#5 Compare the 4 leaf clover vs the 3 leaf clover. On St. Patrick's day you often hear about the lucky 4 leaf clover. However, St. Patrick used the 3 leaf clover to talk about the trinity. Just like the 3 leaves on the 1 clover leaf, there are 3 parts to the trinity - God the Father, Jesus, and the Holy Spirit but only ONE God. Again, I would take God over luck any day! Coloring sheet here.

#6 St. Patrick was known for his intense prayer life. Take time to pray to God as a family today!

Around the World in 60 Days

I am seriously so excited about the Focus on the Family Thriving Family's FREE Around the World in 60 Days Calendar. This is such an excellent calendar that provides daily activities that will get your kids to learn and pray for other countries in such a creative way! 

From their website: 
Have you ever wondered what life is like in other countries? This summer, Thriving Family invites you to join us on a trip around the world! Over the next 60 days, you'll have the opportunity to explore 27 different countries on six continents. For each day of the trip, we've packed a short biblical lesson and an activity that will give your family a glimpse into another culture. We've provided a map for you to use during your travels. Post the map to your refrigerator and track your progress with a magnet or put it up on a living room wall and circle each country you stop at. 

If you get the free Thriving Family magazine, then the map and calendar is in the centerfold. If you don't get the magazine, you can get it on-line. When you click on this link, it will take you to the website where you can print out a map, passport and itinerary. The calendar starts on June 2nd so download it soon!! First stop....is Oceania the region of the pacific ocean that includes Australia and several island nations. See you there :)

The Bible Doodle Book

Just wanted to share with you one of my favorite gifts my son Isaac got for Christmas from his Uncle and Aunt... THE BIBLE DOODLE BOOK. {They also have a "pocket" edition) This thing is so great! It's just like those doodle books you see everywhere, but this one helps you focus on Bible stories and challenges you to complete the pictures. I look through it all the time and smile. It's great for road-trips, quiet-time and even LifeGroups! {It also makes an AMAZING gift for the kids in your life!}

Family Friendly Apps Part 2

I have finally entered the world of smart phones (Yes, I am a late bloomer). Pastor Lori's recent post about this app sparked an interest in me to find more family friendly apps. 

#1 FOCUS ON THE FAMILY APP

I am a BIG fan of focus on the family so I was thrilled when I found they have a free app. This APP is A*MAZ*ING! It has 3 parts - focus on marriage - focus on parenting - and - focus on kids. 

Focus on Marriage has conversation starters, encouragement & tips, insights, and date night ideas. They also give you an option to send the article or tip to your spouse after you are done reading it ;)

Focus on Parenting has spiritual growth for kids articles, age appropriate insights & guidance, family activities (for example, during family tv night, press the mute button and make up your own dialogue... the wackier the better) and dinner table conversation starters...spin the spoon and whoever the spoon lands on has the answer the question that pops up! (LOVE!)

Focus on Kids has audios of adventures in odyssey to listen to, a clubhouse and clubhouse jr brush you spin to get a craft or activity, and jelly telly videos.

#2 PLUGGED IN APP

This FREE app is also by Focus on the Family. It provides the following:

• Watch or read Christian movie, music, TV and game reviews
• Use their Family Friendliness Rating and member ratings to quickly find the best movies for your family
• Watch movie trailers and Plugged In video reviews
• Find nearby theaters playing your movie and purchase movie tickets 

This app is great in finding an appropriate and family friendly movie. It makes it really easy to find out if a movie contains something specific you want to avoid. If you find a movie you like, you can go right to your local movie theater and look up times it is playing. It also allows you to add tv shows or movies you find to your netflix queue! This is a great app since Tommy and I tend to be last minute movie goers and are always quickly trying to find out if its appropriate to watch. Happy watching!!!

$1.99 of pure genius.

I purchased my 1st app today.

Yes... I am a "free app" kind-of girl.

This was worth giving up my daily Biggby drive-thru today!

Check it out: Parent CUE
 

There are weekly ideas for BED-TIME, MEAL-TIME, DRIVE-TIME and HANG-TIME... plus some extras for PARENT-TIME

Here's the 411 taken right from their mouths:

What’s a CUE? It’s a prompt. A nudge to talk about God, faith, life or to just have fun together.

It’s a way to incorporate conversations about God and His big story into everyday moments—during mealtime, while playing a game outside, and in the car.

These CUEs will help parents do three things:

Connect to God’s story. Uncover something about life.
Experience something together.

Deuteronomy 6:5-9 says: “Love the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength. These commandments that I give you today are to be upon your hearts. Impress them on your children. Talk about them when you sit at home and when you walk along the road, when you lie down and when you get up. Tie them as symbols on your hands and bind them on your foreheads. Write them on the doorframes of your houses and on your gates."

Prayer Bubble

I found these today as I was searching around for Bible coloring pages for an upcoming outreach. I was immediately drawn to them because of a question I asked my kids the other day..."If you could ask God anything and He had to give you an immediate answer, what would you ask Him?" One of them would like to know why He decided to make the grass green and the water blue, and the other wanted to know why God made our 2-year-old son so crazy. I love the idea of sitting the kids down and having them write or draw the things they would like to say to God.... might be really interesting what they come up with!

Praying Girl PDF
Praying Boy PDF
You can find more wonderful coloring pages from ministry-to-children.com here.

scripture scraps

I needed a solution for all of the wonderful papers my kids bring home from church. I'm not as sentimental as most, so I have no problem purging myself of things I don't feel any attachment to. I keep the things that I love and discard the things that I don't. Recently though, I have been having a hard time getting rid of the stuff that comes from church, because it is saturated with things that we are discussing throughout the week in our family time and in our LifeGroups. I wanted a way to hang on to it so the kids could reference it, without having it clutter my kitchen counter or refrigerator. I decided to purchase composition notebooks for each of the kids (only $.50 right now at Target) all in different colors.

I started to take each of the things the kids brought home, cut it to size and place it inside the notebooks. It doesn't look pretty, but the kids love seeing what is new in their book and start telling me the lesson that goes with the page. It's not only a way to organize, but a wonderful way for the kids to review what they are learning each week.

I got this great idea from lowercase letters and you can check the original out here. As with most things I try, mine is so amateur compare to hers, plus she used some TLC and made scriptures by herself for her kids. Whichever way you choose to go, it's a great way to continue to surround your children with the Word of God.

love notes.

This past 2 weeks our church was a part of Champions For Life Kids' Camp, a camp for foster kids in our area. One of the focus' of the week is a "love note" station, where kids and adults can come and write notes of love and encouragement to one another. It may seem like a simple thing, but some of these kids have never received mail for themselves, and a lot of them keep them for years.

Seeing the love note station while I was up there really challenged my heart about the amount of time and effort I put into making my own kids feel loved and special. Sure, I try to meet their every need and I am constantly grabbing them for kisses and hugs... but there is something different about a handwritten note... something you can keep.... something that took an extra effort.

I found these super cute lunch notes at Michaels today for $.20 (I love a good clearance section!) I quickly scooped them up. You don't have to have pre-made notes, even writing on a napkin will do. Just think of ways you can constantly remind your kids of the love you have for them. I know of kids that even have a journal with their parents that they pass back and forth and write to each other... just simple ways to love constantly. I even have notes saved in my memory box from my parents growing up... and they mean so much because it's in their handwriting! Hide them under their pillow. Sneak one by their seat in the car. Put one in their backpack, their Bible, or even send one in the mail!
You can download some fun free printable lunch notes HERE.

God's Great Covenant Session 1: God's Power

Today was our first day home for summer vacation and I was so excited to start a new series with the kids that will take us all the way until they go back to school. (maybe even longer!) It's a study on the Old Testament, called "God's Great Covenant."

Today's lesson was about creation and about Elohim, "the mighty God." We discussed how powerful God is and how he created the entire universe with His spoken word. We discussed the meaning of "omnipotent," the trinity and even "Ex nihilo" (meaning "out of nothing"). The kids loved finding things around the house that were powerful and as we plugged them in we talked about the power of God.

I will post another one of our "God's Great Covenant" discussions and activities for you to adapt to your own home if you so desire, but the main idea is to let you know that there are a lot of resources available for a variety of ages... and some free to you on the internet! The summer is a great time to change up your morning devotions a little bit and have some fun discovering the Bible in depth!

Summer Notepad

With the kids almost out of school, its a good time to start thinking about summer plans. Maybe you have a lot of fun activities planned like our FM Activities Director Nina (her list). Maybe you want to participate in the Summer Reach List from our FM Director Lori.

Whatever your plans are big or small, a fun and memorable idea is to have your kids journal the events and activities they participate in. 

MAKING THE JOURNAL

Buy a notepad for each kid and have them decorate the cover in their own unique way.

Then for your first page, have your child draw a self-portrait of his or herself. Around his or her picture, write his or her name, age and list of favorites things.

JOURNALING

At the end of each day, have your kids write or draw a picture of what they did that day. Talk about how they felt during that activity or about what character was learned that day!

For instance, here is a journal entry of our EACH Nautical Mile Event that we did this month. Alina drew a picture of raking leaves. She glued on some extra leaves from outside. We talked about how Jesus is the servant of all and how it was fun being like Jesus and serving others!

I'm looking forward to many other journal entries and conversations!! This also might be a lot of fun to look back on in the future!

El Roi

There is a name for God, El Roi, which means "the God who sees me."

It's only mentioned once in the Bible by a women named Hagar.

She gave this name to the Lord who spoke to her:
“You are the God who sees me” for she said, “I have now seen the One who sees me."

{Genesis 16:13} 

I've been really studying this name of God out and the more I search, the more in awe of God I am. He sees me.... that's powerful. I wanted to use something simple to show my kids that the Lord is constantly watching them... that He always sees them- not to evoke fear of messing up, but to build confidence in a Creator who loves.

We took some painters tape  and made a road on the ground. Then we took all of the stuff we had around the house and made a little city (bridges from our train table, picnic table from our dollhouse, Animals from our jungle, etc). It was so much fun finding stuff to put in our city... we had a zoo, a construction site, a Monster Truck show... all sorts of stuff. After we were playing for awhile, I had the kids get up on the couch and look down at the city. 

Do you see everything?

Do you know what's going on?

They came to the conclusion that since they were big and because they made the city themselves, they knew everything that was happening. I loved the tie in with our Heavenly Father! Such a successful hands-on Bible story... one that challenged me as well! 

The kids LOVE playing with our city and there are even talks of adding a hospital, a castle and a real-live ant farm! Here are some links to some more awesome ideas for your El Roi playtime.... here, here and here

Or you could make it super easy on yourself and get this.

If you are nervous about the inside... just use chalk outside on a nice day.

...and we sang for joy

We did a fun and simple experiment today to talk about the joy of the Lord.

We made Jugs of Joy

The kids got so excited when they saw the bubbles start to come from the bottom of the jug. We talked about how God wants to give us joy in every situation and all the things the Lord has done for us to give us joy.

Here was the scripture we focused on:

Psalm 126:2

We were filled with laughter,
      and we sang for joy.
   And the other nations said,
      “What amazing things the LORD has done for them.” 

Here is what you need to make your own Jugs of Joy:

Empty plastic bottle

Water

Cooking Oil

Food Coloring

Fizzy Tablet (alka-selzer/airbornes)

Fill your bottle 1/4 of the way with water. Fill the rest with oil. Let it settle. Put in 10 drops of food coloring. Drop in 1/2 tablet. Watch the bubbles form!

To watch a video of how it works, click here.

remembering God's love for us....

Are you looking for a fun, easy craft for Valentines Day? Right before Valentines Day last year I found a fun recipe for Homemade Gel Paints. The kids had a blast painting old cardboard with the paints, and then I cut them into hearts. I hid the hearts around the house and throughout the month of February the kids had to find them and bring them to me. I plan on doing the same thing this year, except I want to attach a scripture verse on love to each heart. When the kids bring it to me I want to read the verse to them and then display them throughout the house. Just an easy way to remind the kids of the love of God!

Scriptures on God's Love to get you started:

• {1 John 4:10}This is love: not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins. 
• {Romans 5:8} But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us. 
• {Romans 8:38-39}For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord. 
• {1 John 3:1} See what great love the Father has lavished on us, that we should be called children of God! And that is what we are! The reason the world does not know us is that it did not know him. 
• {Psalm 36:5} Your love, LORD, reaches to the heavens, Your faithfulness to the skies.

Recipe for homemade gel paints:

Over a stovetop, heat 1/2 cup of cornstarch and 2 1/4 cups of water.
Wisk until gel forms. Once cooled slightly, pour into heat safe containers.
Mix with food coloring (about 10-12 drops) and stir.
Make sure the kids don't use them until they have cooled off enough.

 

 

IDOP

 Sunday, November 13th is the International Day of Prayer for the Persecuted Church.

Here are some resources for you and your children to bring up conversations
about The Persecuted Church around the world.

Kids of Courage Downloads (Activities, Newsletters, Lesson Plans)

Kids of Courage Videos

Restricted Nations Interactive Map

Duct Tape Wristband Activity

5 Ways to help the Persecuted Church in 5 minutes

Colombian Parachute Ideas

Praise the Lord Around the World Activity

Hidden Treasure Scriptures

This is a fun, little activity to do at your house with your toddler or preschooler to help them become familiar with some of your favorite scriptures. 

Hide envelopes around your house.

Tell your toddler you are going on a special hunt to find some great, secret treasures of the Bible. Then, have your toddler scurry around the house in search of the hidden envelopes.

When they open each envelope, they should find a blank paper with a scripture at the top.

Then, they will have to find the hidden message by using water colors to go over the blank page which will reveal the picture.

This is done by using a white crayon to draw invisible images. Your images will be revealed after painting over it with water colors!

When the picture is revealed, read the coordinating scripture.

Here were my 5 pictures/scriptures: 

House: As for me and my household, we will serve the Lord.

Cross: For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believes in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.

Star: You will shine among them like stars as you hold firmly to the word of life.  

Happy Thought Bubble: Finally, brethren, whatsoever things are true, whatsoever things are honest, whatsoever things are just, whatsoever things are pure, whatsoever things are lovely, whatsoever things are of good report; if there be any virtue, and if there be any praise, think on these things.

Purse: My God shall supply all your needs according to his riches in glory by Christ Jesus.

What does God look like?

Today was the start of our Who is God series. We did an opener that I thought would be a great activity and conversational starter to do at home with kids. 

Start by having your kids take turns drawing on a big art easel what they picture God looking like. Here are some of our results....

 

Then read what the Bible says about the appearance of God.....

1 Timothy 6:16 No one has ever seen God

John 4:24 God is spirit

Gen 1:27 We are created in God’s image

Numbers 14:14 God appeared as a pillar of cloud by day and pillar of fire at night 

Matthew 3:16-17 The trinity - Father God's voice, Jesus in human form being baptized, and the Holy Spirit as a dove

Exodus 3 - God spoke to Moses through a burning bush 

John 1:18  No one has ever seen God, but the one and only Son, who is himself God and is in closest relationship with the Father, has made him known.

In these 2 passages, we get an interesting picture of God....

Ezekiel 1:26-28 Above the expanse over their heads was what looked like a throne of sapphire, and high above on the throne was a figure like that of a man. I saw that from what appeared to be his waist up he looked like glowing metal, as if full of fire, and that from there down he looked like fire; and brilliant light surrounded him. Like the appearance of a rainbow in the clouds on a rainy day, so was the radiance around him.
Revelation 1:14-16 His head and hair were white like wool, as white as snow, and his eyes were like blazing fire. His feet were like bronze glowing in a furnace, and his voice was like the sound of rushing waters. In his right hand he held seven stars, and out of his mouth came a sharp double-edged sword. His face was like the sun shining in all its brilliance.

Try it at home and see what your kids picture God as and why. It can serve as a great opportunity to discuss who God really is and all that HE is to us!