In my sermon this morning I mentioned activities that I make up after I read a passage in the Bible to my kids. Here are a couple samples of the kinds of activities. Sometimes the activity is very simple, like the Jesus calmed the storm activity. Sometimes the activity is pretty complex, like the Red Sea activity. The complexity depends on how much time we have and what kind of an idea I can come up. Sometimes I do the Bible story one day and maybe do a simple activity, then I think of something more elaborate I can do, so I’ll plan and execute the elaborate activity for another day that week. Most of the time our activities are simple.
Jesus calmed the storm (Luke 8:22-25)
I laid on the floor on my back. I said, “I’m the boat.” I had one of my smallest son sit on my chest and the other one sit between my legs.
I said, “You two can take turns playing Jesus,” and we decided who was going to be Jesus first. I said, “Okay remember Jesus was sleeping.” So, he pretended to sleep. I told my other son, “You are one of Jesus’ disciples.”
I started waving my arms and legs and said they were the waves. I sprayed water on them from a pray bottle. I said to my one son, “Disciple, you better wake up Jesus.” So, he said, “Jesus wake up.” My son playing Jesus came alert and said, “STOP!” And I immediately stopped my waving and spraying.
The first time we did the activity I had to prompt them what to do, but as we repeated the activity, the kids knew what to do. They wanted to do it again and again.
God leads the Hebrews out of Egypt & through the Red Sea (Exodus 13:17-14:31)
We made a sea and a cloud with the art paper. I cut three pieces of art paper about 5 feet long. I laid two of them out on the pavement in the back yard and had my kids paint/roll blue paint all over them. While the kids are painting, take the third piece of paper, grab the ends together and twist them like a twist tie, shove those ends inside the end of the PVC pipe, then crumple the paper into a cloud-like formation. I then took the two painted-blue pieces and laid them side by side in a narrow passage between our play-set and fence, in the back yard.
We stood at one side of the yard, away from the blue-painted-sea paper. I asked my kids, “How did God lead the Hebrews through the desert, by day?” They said, “A cloud.” I held up the paper-cloud on a stick and said, “Okay, follow the cloud.” I lead them all over the back yard, and pretty close but not yet to the blue-painted-sea paper. Once you do the next part, you won’t be able to walk very far.
(this part is optional if you are fearful of fire) I asked my kids, “How did God lead the Hebrews through the desert, by night?” They said, “Fire.” I lit the cloud on fire. They naturally stood back, but were thrilled with it.* “Okay, follow the fire.” I lead them the short distance to the blue-painted-sea paper.
They stood in front of the two pieces of blue-painted-sea paper, at the crack between the sheets. I got on the other side, and used my PVC stick to gently keep them from trying to come around it. I asked my kids, “How did God get the Hebrews through the Red Sea?” They said, “He opened it.” I said, “Yes, He parted the Red Sea, so they could walk through on dry ground,” as I parted the two pieces of paper. My kids walked through.
I then had my kids put on soldier helmets and said, “The Egyptian soldiers tried to chase the Hebrews through the sea.” My kids started to walk between the paper again, but this time I picked up the pieces of paper and ruffled them around their bodies and head and said, “Oh, the soldiers drowned. God did not let them through to chase the Hebrews.”
* I don’t mind using things that would typically be seen as dangerous or scary, because I would rather have my kids experience those things with me there to talk them through it, then have them mess with them on their own and not know the dangers. Kids love fire. They are almost for sure going to mess with it at some time if they can. So, I would rather do some controlled things with fire that they can enjoy, but then be able to talk to them about the dangers of fire and fire safety, which I did at the end of this lesson. And we put water on the burnt paper, together, to make sure the fire was out.
Comments (0)