What are your children’s favourite toys at the moment? Why not use them to explore a Bible story together?
My girls are currently into their dolls house, so we used it to tell the story you’ll probably know as ‘man through the roof’. See below for my pictures of the following story:
We started with Jesus coming to Peppa Pig’s house (the doll’s house) and chatting with her about God.
Peppa Pig was enjoying hearing about God so much that she invited the babies to come round and listen too. (Cue babies arrive and Jesus holds one of them aka another Bible story.)
Then Peppa invites her friend, Monkey, who brings two of his monkey friends and they squeeze into Peppa’s house. At this point, my daughter was a bit worried that she didn’t have enough chairs for everyone. “Great!” I think to myself. “She’s getting the point of the full house already.”
And so more and more toys hear that Jesus is at Peppa’s house and they come to hear the wonderful stories Jesus is telling. “I wonder what stories Jesus is telling?”
We chat about this as more animals arrive and hang down from the attic so they can see Jesus. We pile (push/squeeze/jam) in as many toys as we can, then duck arrives (he’s quite big) and my daughter, seeing that there’s no room for him, suggests he can sit in the garden and watch from there.
Right. I think we’re ready to introduce the man with his friends now.”
I’ve ‘reserved’ a little party of play people, one man (the bus driver) on a (pink!) blanket and four friends (including a fairy and a Spanish lady) and I now introduce them, and get them to arrive at the now packed doll’s house.
It is clear they are not going to get in, and my daughter recognises the story and takes them up the side of the house onto the roof. We don’t have any clever way to make a hole so we just pretend to lower him down, and place him in front of Jesus, while the friends still sit on the roof.
We have a quick conversation between Jesus and the man then he jumps up and runs off to play on the swing of the tree house (why not?!).
Interestingly this form of exploring the story brought a different response from my daughter, who commented that her tummy hurt and that she was sad that Jesus was at some else’s house. Cue conversation about how God is everywhere even though we can’t see Him. And how we can pray to Jesus to heal her tummy, which we did right then and there.
What toys could you use to tell this or another story?
I wondered if vehicles and a garage could be used in a similar way? If you try it out, do take a photo and share it!
If you, like me, are a photo taker, you could print them and make a little book of you version of the story, a great way to remember the story and explore some more. I’ve printed 8 pictures, 4 onto each A4 page at 9x13cm which fit nicely into a little book. I may or may not add words to it.
This is one of 52 creative ideas for under 5s in Under 5s GodVenture52
