Jonah

The kids loved learning about Jonah this week! Our daughter is really catching on and can tell me bits and pieces about what we're doing in family time. And I love how she asks all day if it's Family Time yet and runs to it when it is time. By the way, ever since Noah, she plays in the "boat" every day but tonight, to end Jonah, we turned the kitchen table into a whale... so I'm sure we'll be playing in the whales belly for the next few weeks. HAHA!

Here's what we did this week so you can see some ways that we made the Bible come to life for us and hopefully see how fun and easy it is so you can implement it yourself.

* We got home late one evening and weren't able to do one Family Time, so we combined 2 in one night.

Day 1: Introducing Jonah
         I copied Jonah as best as I could from what he looks like in the Bible onto a person cut out and introduced him to the kids. We made him "walk" the way that God asked him to go but then when we read that he got in a boat and went the other way, we put him in our boat---or baking dish. HAHA! And she had fun pushing him around.

This is just an extra picture that I wanted to share. I had shared on my face book page this question:
If your kids saw you reading your bible as much as they see you (fill in the blank), how would their perspective change? She loves it when I read and she wants to as well.

Day 2: Tossed out of the boat
        I don't have a picture for this one but what we did was Jonah was in the "boat" and he got tossed out into the waves. We just flopped a blue blanket around and watched Jonah ride the waves. :)


Day 3: The "whale"
        Just to keep it simple for her since she knows what a whale is, we just talked about how the whale came. I we put together this whale which I made from a small paper plate and then cut another paper plate in half and then cut out a small connector piece. I drew on a smile and we colored it, added a googly eye and bent a blue pipe cleaner to make it look like water coming from it's spout and taped it on the back.
        ---She loves tape so the tape became more of a distraction for us for this activity than the whale.

Day 4: Jonah gets in the whales belly!
        You will need a clothespin, blue construction paper or foam, something white for the water, maybe a googly eye and a small Jonah.
         This one could have been done better... I used just scotch tape to attach the whale to the clothespin and it wasn't sticking well so this craft lasted all about 10 seconds before falling apart but was cute!
           I showed her the whale and then opened it up and she was so surprised to see Jonah in the belly!

 Day 5 (and 6): We happened to have this shape sorter whale for the bath so we practiced putting things in the whales belly.
                And then also, I found a whale matching activity and a whale template that had a cut out for lifting the flap and seeing Jonah in the belly.

Day 7: Get in my belly!
         I turned kitchen table into a whale by putting a round blue table cloth over it, adding two paper plate eyes and some pipe cleaners for water spouts on the top and of course Jonah had to come along! Everyone LOVED this activity. She had to get out and in the whales belly many times :) And Henry had a great time too!

 

Such a fun week learning about Jonah!! There were so many fun ideas that I found on pinterest so it was hard to pick and choose which ones to do but I would love to hear about how you make Jonah happen in your family! 

Noahs Ark

There's so many fun ideas for how to bring the bible to life during family time for learning about Noah! Before the activity, we read part of our story and then after the activity we pray. Here's what we did:

Day 1: Noah builds the ark
            What you will need: a laundry basket
           I remember growing up and loving to play in laundry baskets---and this proved the same for our almost 2 year old. Plus, she has wanted to play with the "boat" every day since. We had the kids get in the boat and then they rode the waves so to speak. It was so much fun!

 Day 2: The animals come on the boat
             I printed out 6 different pair of animals and they all got on the boat and went for a ride! I taught how there were 2 of each animal so I had her put the animals on the boat in pairs.

Day 3: The animals got on the boat (again)
           I took the previous days animals and taped them to little arks that I cut out of brown construction paper. We then turned it into a matching game where we started with the ark side face up and she had to turn them over to find the match and then put them on the ark.

 

Day 4: The rain came

            We made a rain stick!

            What you will need: aluminum foil, a broom, paper towel roll, rice, beans, stickers, and tape.

            I prepped some of this before Family Time: Wrap 2 feet of aluminum foil (bunched up) around a broom and then slide it off and put it inside your paper towel roll and tap one end. I then put some rice in a bowl and beans in a bowl and we were ready for Family Time! 

         She had a blast putting the beans in the tube and then the rice (we read the part of the bible story in her room where we typically do Family Time but then moved to the kitchen floor for this activity). After she put in the rice and beans, we taped up the other end and then she decorated the tube with stickers and had fun turning it upside down over and over again to hear the "rain."

 

Day 5: Another Rainy Day

           I prepped for Family Time by cutting out a white cloud, blue rain drops and different lengths of fishing line. I taped the rain drops to one end of the fishing line and taped the other end to the back side of the cloud. For the activity, we gave her a glue stick and had her make the cloud "fluffy." 

Day 6: The Dove
           I cut out a bird shape, that I copied off google, out of a paper plate (I didn't have card stock or I would have used that.). Then I poked a small hole through the top of the bird and attached a fishing line through and tied the line to a popsicle stick. I also prepped by creating a leaf out of a green pipe cleaner and pre-hid that before family time (you can see it in the pictures below her owl wall sticker and above her mirror).
         For Family Time, she colored the bird and made it fly around and then flew the bird to try to find the leaf, like in the story. I then twisted the "leaf" to the birds beak to make it carry it,

Day 7: Rainbow
           This was a HUGE HIT!
           We made a rainbow chaser.
           I bought one of those Styrofoam wreath things (just go with me lol) and ribbon for each color of the rainbow. We cut out the ribbon and tied them to the wreath. Then we waved it around and made the rainbow! Both kids loved this activity!

So there you have it! Another week of simple and fun ideas to create your own family time at home! I would love to hear how you're making your family time fun in your home! Check out google or pinterest for more ideas.

Tip: If all else fails and you don't have time to prep for the evening or forget to do something, a hide and seek game with an object like what you're studying seems to always go over well.