Sunday School Follow Up

Our children are so blessed to have great kids programs (a.k.a. Sunday School, Kids Kingdom) where they are weekly learning the different stories of the Bible, lesson applications, crafts and learning new songs. We find that it's useful and beneficial to use the reinforcement method by talking over with them the lessons that they learned on Sunday. This is something fun to do with each kid individually before bed by asking them what they learned and taking a few minutes to talk it through with them. If they made a craft that day, maybe they can show you what they did and how that related to the lesson. Some children programs also send home a follow up sheet. Use the ideas and tips given to reinforce what they have learned and use it as an opportunity to bond with your child. We find that bed time is a good down-time to talk so it's another easy way to incorporate talking about Jesus in our lives.

For example, our daughter has been attending Vacation Bible School this week. Every day she comes home with a craft and a Family Page that tells us what she learns and gives us practicals and ideas of things we can do as a family to reinforce the message for the day. It gives us parents something to focus on daily, rather than just having family devotionals once a week.

Spiritual Growth of Children book

Here's a book that comes highly recommended by several families who have kids ages 12 and below. The Spiritual Growth of Children has really helped our family by giving us some great ideas on how to have family devotionals that are fun and inspiring. You can click on the link under Book Recommendations on this blog and it will take you to the Amazon site that gives a helpful review on this book.

Moses and the Red Sea

Teaching obedience is a lesson that is sometimes challenging and is done on a continual basis. Even as adults, we are constantly trained by God to obey him throughout our journey here on earth. We recently did a family devotional with another family where we taught the story of Moses and the parting of the red sea. A fun activity to do at the end of the story is to act out the story. For toddlers and preschoolers, this is fun to add after the story: 

Take two large pillows and have two people hold it across from each other. We would then ask the kids if they were an Israelite or an Egyptian. If they were an Israelite, they would show their trust and obedience by walking safely through the pretend sea between the pillows. If they answered Egyptian, then as they walked through, the pillows would come crashing down on them - gently, of course. Acting out stories is a good way for them to remember these stories of faithful men and women in the Bible and most importantly, reminding them of God's faithfulness and power to do amazing things in the midst of very difficult situations.