Starting a better FAMILY TIME: Creation

Maybe you're like me and you want to make your personal Bible time go from something you feel like you should do to something you can't wait to do. Something that's a part of your life. And then take it a step further and help your children have a love for God and their Bible and better yet- do it together!

We have started having, what we call, "Family Time" every evening after dinner. We start in the same location, read a part of our story, pray holding hands and then do our activity. My daughter literally runs to family time because she can't wait to see how we make the Bible come to life every night!

We do one story a week, each day working our way through the story a little more with a little review. Family time lasts anywhere from 3-10 minutes depending on attention spans for us-- we currently have a 6 month old and a 22 month old.

Everything we use for our family time I have found at the Dollar Tree or just around the house.

This blog is simply a place where I want to show you what we have done so you can be equipped to start and FLOURISH in your own family time!

I started by figuring out what we were going to cover for the first 3 months and then checked pinterest for ideas of how to do 7 days for each topic.

We use the Candle Bible for Toddlers. (Jesus Storybook Bible is also another personal favorite) We started with Creation.

Here are pictures of what we did each day with how we did the activity. (Remember, we're currently parents to very small children so you will need to adjust some of these things for the ages of your kids--think science experiments! Blowing things up always goes over big HAHA! Also remember, gear your activities toward boys if your kids are older because if they think it's cool then you're in.)

Day 1: Creation: Light and Dark

We turned off the lights and played with a flashlight, turning it on and off saying, "light and dark." Then we had her put the light on different things around the room to make it a little game. And we mentioned several times "Did God make the light?"

Day 2: Creation: Water and Sky

After we read our story, we got in the bath and splashed in the water and then created clouds with shaving cream. We mentioned several times that God made the water and clouds.

Day 3: Creation: Flowers and Trees

I drew a picture of flowers and a tree with apples and she got to color--one of her favorite things to do! While coloring, we talked about how God made all of those things.

Day 4: Creation: Night and Day

 

 

Another flashlight activity! I took 2 pieces of black construction paper and on one I cut out a star shape and the other was a sun. Then you shine the light through them and the shape shows up. You can step it up by having multiple flashlights and have the kids play chase with the different shapes. We mentioned several times how God made the sun and the stars and then sang songs about them like "Mr. Sun" and "Twinkle Twinkle."

Day 5: Creation: Birds and Fish

This one we simply counted the birds and the fish and had her show us which one the red bird is, etc. We mentioned several times how God made the birds and the fish and then practiced making fish faces and bird noises.

Day 6: Creation: Man and Animals

After reading the story, we played an animal matching game (found at the dollar tree but you could easily print some off or cut out your own!), talking about how God made them and then acted like some of the animals.

Day 7: Creation: God Rested

 

After reviewing the days of creation and what we did each night, we talked about how God rested on the last day and we all pretended to take naps and then we acted like we were putting our dolls and trucks and other toys to bed by covering them up with a blanket and making snoring sounds :)


---Almost forgot to add that I also made this as a review and colored in each thing each day!

 

As you can see, 7 days of EASY and FUN activities to make the Bible come to life. As your kids are a little older, you can step your family time up to answer the question, "now how can we live this out today/tomorrow?"

It can be intimidating to talk about God with your kids, especially when a lot of parents don't feel "qualified" to teach them about something that they don't know a lot about. Remember that when your kids ask you a question, it's ok to say, "I don't know" and try to find the answer together and talk it out. The awesome thing about family time is the family gets to GROW TOGETHER. Just start. Make it simple. Make it a habit. Give it time. Allow yourself to fail or forget. Don't set too high of expectations that you know you can't meet. But know you can do this and you and the family will be better because of it. I'm pretty sure no one who ever became more of a friend of God regretted it :) You've got this. We're in this together!

Please feel free to contact me with any questions and to also share with me how your family time is going!

 

Bringing families together,

Tiffany

Wife, Mom, Children's Pastor

 

tiffanyjkoehler-gmail