In the summer, lots of families have more flexible time which you could use to do a treasure hunt style Bible exploration.
Create a simple treasure hunt by choosing a series of locations, depending on the age of your children and the time you have available, and hide a section of the story you want to explore in each location, plus a clue or simple directions on how to get to the next location.
Make sure your story text and clues are age appropriate.
You could try doing this together with another family with one family or one family member setting up the clues then everyone taking it in turns to find the next one.
This is even something which you could take on holiday and play!
For under 5s
For younger children use clues such as ‘under the big tree’, ‘at the top of the stairs’, ‘beside the door’ and use age-appropriate Bible text such as The Big Bible Storybook, and, if possible, have a picture for each part of the story.
You could also photocopy (or photograph and print) pictures from a storybook you own, as under 5s will connect much easier with the story this way. You could also download Bible story pictures for FREE from FreeBibleimages. Hide the pictures instead of writing out part of the story.
For 5-7s
You could have clues such as:
Go to the tree nearest to the door.
Go to the lowest place in the building.
Go to the window in the smallest room.
For 7+
For children age seven and up, use an unfamiliar Bible story such as Nehemiah or Hezekiah. You could also have a letter to collect at each location which they then need to use to spell a key word when they have all the letters.
For an idea on clues you could use, have a look at the Easter Treasure Hunt download