Talk to your child about the Cross...one stitch at a time!

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...tie them as symbols on your hands and bind them on your foreheads."  Deuteronomy 6:5-8

Make a moment this spring, this Easter season, for some sweet one-on-one time with your child. Turn off the TV.  Turn off your phone. Find a quiet corner and share your faith, impress your heart for Jesus on your child as you do this simple craft together.  Just like your grandparents or those before you did with their children. (It's amazing the conversations that can happen over threading a needle -again and again!)

 All you'll need is some buttons, a needle and thread and scraps of ribbon, felt, fabric--and even shelf liner works great!  Using embroidery floss or yarn for younger ages makes button fastening quicker with less stitching needed.
                                                

Make an Easter band with symbols - a cross, flowers, butterfly, etc-- to wear around a wrist or even as a headband. Symbols can be traced from a template or drawing. Keeping things simple is good. You'll be surprised at how much your little guy can enjoy a needle and thread too... so don't think this is for girls only.  Here's where the process is even more important than the product... but the product is pretty sweet too.

(Depending on your child, such sewing things may be "new" to them. Threading the needle. Finding a button they like (ones with four holes like a cross - or just two). Knotting the thread and sewing a button on all are good life skills to learn and to learn from you! You may just find there's someone right in your midst to take over the "to-be-mended" pile you've been collecting.)

Can prayer begin with a game?

Let the little children come to Me, and do not hinder them, for the Kingdom of heaven belongs to such as these.  Matthew 19:14

Kids of all ages have so much to teach us about coming to Jesus-- and little ones do it best, don't they? They are the ones eager to climb

 up into His lap. Willing to simply come.  We don't want to snuff out their joy with a bunch of rules... so let's play a game while we "sit on Jesus' lap". 

Remember making "cootie catchers" when you were a kid?  Well this is a "conversation catcher"!Once folded, you "pick a number from 1-10",  hold "pockets"with both forefingers and thumbs and open, close until you arrive at the chosen number.


To refresh your memory from childhood - fold as such.  Copy paper works best, beginning by making a 8 1/2 in square.  Once labelled, you simply make copies, as all writing is on one side.  Another joy in doing this.


  Cut copy paper square   

 Fold in half and diagonally all four-ways

 

Then fold each corner into the center,

flip over to other side and do the same thing.

 

 

This folded game - I've labelled "God You are..." lends itself perfectly to beginning prayer with four different aspects of prayer and who God is. I began with "All-powerful/Friend", "Perfect/Creator", "Generous/Good", and "Merciful/Savior" -- but many others could be used as well. 

 Under each flap is another prayer-step that leads to sharing a personal praise, concern, confession or request. Your child can draw or write personal words or thoughts that will help them with their prayer.

 The simple beauty of this game is that it teaches the child to first speak truth about who God is. It leads them to more than one kind of conversation with God.  It gives them a start that is personal and from the heart. Just the way Jesus wants all God's children to come!

Candy + Cans = a "can-do" lesson about true strength!

I can do everything through Him who gives me strength.  Philippians 4:13

This illustration as corny as it sounds will certainly catch your child's interest (so what's the candy about??) and hopefully spur a good faith discussion afterwards. Certainly the likes of Joshua, Samson, Paul, Peter and other faithful followers have struggled with this issue: trusting in God's strength, not our own.




You see, we all start out the same. Empty and needing help.

We find out that there is a God who loves us-- who is GOOD and FULLY ABLE to help us with whatever problem we face.
Mean kids, hard tests, unhappy homes. You name it - He CAN-DO all things!
 



So we begin to trust Him. We start to "taste" and discover all that He can do! And with each time of trusting, there's a wrapper to remind us that our success came from Him.  We begin to have a bunch of wrappers. What to do?

 

We can use them as reminders so we praise Him even more. But often we don't....

 

 

 

 

Instead, we begin collecting them in an "I Can" can.... or even worse, begin filling ourselves, our minds with them--forgetting the truth that it was all God's doing- Not ours. The candy wrappers (our accomplishments) fill us now. We think that's all we need to help us. We foolishly think "I can" -- without God's help...

We discover what Samson and Peter and others discovered: Without God  there's no true strength -- and lots of sad regret.

 

 

Fortunately, God is GOOD and is always there for us when we come to Him, empty and ready to trust in all He CAN do--once again!

 

 

 

 

 

Making Remembering Fun!

Once again I'll go over what God has done, lay out on the table the ancient wonders; I'll ponder all the things You've accomplished, and give a long, loving look at Your acts. Psalm 77:11 The Message

 We all learn best through review, don't we? Whether in a classroom setting or around the kitchen table, remembering and reviewing what's been said before, can be boring to those who already know it and frustrating to those who have long forgotten.  Games, however, are great tools for making review more fun than tedious -- and here's a NEW twist on an OLD favorite that will capture the minds and hearts of all involved (including you, the teacher).

Tic-Tac-Toe-- a game that all children (over the age of 6) know, right? No need to take time on explaining how to play it....you can get right to playing it-- how great is that?  Traditional Tic-Tac- Toe has a limited strategy, however, and once you're old enough to know the power of that center square, the challenge diminishes.  We want kids listening, thinking and being engaged throughout the whole game (so all the review points can be covered), right?


Team O is hoping there's an O underneath...

Not this time!

"This I Know- Tic-Tac-Toe" has a hidden twist:  the Xs and Os and where they are placed has already been decided by YOU. You have already placed the Xs and Os in winning spots... but just not visible to the players.

 The first person/team gets to choose the first question and when answered correctly, is either an X or an O, depending on what is underneath that question square.  The other team is assigned the other marker.... and thus the game begins.  Kids choose the question square, not knowing whether their marker is underneath. The strategy of "three in a row" still remains, but players won't know if they are helping themselves... or the other team until the question-- and the correct answer-- is said.  That uncertainty -- will keep both sides wondering, pondering and engaged up until the end.

You can make up this version with an activity board painted with chalkboard paint like the one shown -- or simply use a layer of Post-it notes on a classroom chalkboard/ white board.   Making and decorating an activity board (found in the educational section of arts & crafts stores for~$9) looks more fun,  lessens "peeking" and is well worth the time, when this becomes a "favorite".  

Expect playing (thus your review) to go quickly. Keep Post-it notes handy to help with those longer- phrased questions... and to allow for a "just-one-more-time" rematch. For no one likes losing in Tic-Tac-Toe!