This is a lot like sweets prayer but with mini eggs. The concept is simple: 1 For each colour egg, decide on one category of things to thank God for. 2 Take it in turns to take a mini egg and thank God for something in that category before eating your egg. Prayers can be … Read more
I love paper decorations. I can recycle them after the season instead of storing them and it gives my family a chance to have fun making them each year. Discuss: What do angels look like? Do they have wings? Are they male or female? Can angels be children? Do they have swords? Discussing these questions … Read more
Title: Jesus was a Refugee Written by: Andrew McDonough Series: Lost Sheep Books Published by: Sarah Grace Publishing Price: £5.99 Buy from: Malcolm Down Publishing Useful for: parents of children age 3-10 years old Best bit: Beautiful re-telling in the first person – Jesus and Joseph write their own story, explaining how they had to escape … Read more
Title: Bethlehem Town Written by: Andrew McDonough Series: Lost Sheep Books Published by: Sarah Grace Publishing Price: £5.99 Buy from: Malcolm Down Publishing Useful for: parents of children ages 3-10 years old Best bit: The fun, quirky, colourful pictures and well-rhyming text, describes the birth of Jesus taking place in a house, which from what I’ve … Read more
This year, I’ve been wondering about The Star. I love decorating my house with story-themed decorations and this year is going to be stars, so I wanted to spend some time reading and exploring this part of the Christmas story in Matthew 2:1-15. So I started with this question: What do you notice in this story? … Read more
These cute little books are a fab way to explore Bible stories from the perspective of a character in the story. This could be one of the main characters or someone who observed, one of the crowd or the family of the ‘main protagonist’. Thinking about what they saw and heard, what they might have … Read more
Cut out paper angels and write or draw prayers on them and send the to the person you are praying for. Sometimes when praying for people, we wish we could be there, but actually, someone else is there who is much more useful! God, who is everywhere, is with them, and I believe also commands … Read more
When I put together the Held in Hope series, we included activities in the books to help families dealing with issues of illness and death. I’m putting together some activities for a funeral next week, so I’m doing an activity from Sam’s Special Book. In the book the children remember being told that Jesus said … Read more
Have you seen my family activity sticker book: GodVenture through the story of Lazarus? It’s a collaboration with Yvonne Morris from the Diocese of Oxford, and perfect for use during Lent due to the poster in the middle with 40 days of Bible verses and activities. Don’t worry! It’s designed to be easy to use, … Read more
Title: Story Stacks Author: Becca Stileman Useful for: parents of children age 3-10 wanting to do faith together at home, childrens groups where Bible stories are shared Best bit: large sturdy, bold character cones Worst bit: the cardboard box they arrived in was a bit worse for wear to use to keep them in Price: RRP £34.99 for 25 … Read more
This activity provides an open-ended opportunity to respond to a story using words. I’d probably use it for children age 7+ after sharing a Bible story with them as I don’t want negotiating the words to become the focus for early readers. For them I’d use something similar but picture based like this. This set … Read more
Free Download! I love making books (being a publisher, that helps!) so here’s a way to make your own Christmas story photobook. We often make photobooks with FreePrints which print 20-page photobooks for reasonable prices. All you need to do is download their phone app, upload the photos and wait for your luscious new book! … Read more