Chalk home blessing for Epiphany/New Year

This is a traditional activity used to mark Epiphany, the day when we celebrate the wise men visiting Jesus. It’s really simple: all you need is some chalk, and you write the following letters and numbers over your door as a prayer asking God to bless your home. This year (2022), we’ll be writing: 20 … Read more

New Year, New Start

I’ve always thought New Year is not really a thing. Nothing actually happens at the point at which we count down and wish each other Happy New Year! However, it’s good to have moments in time when we take stock, look back and plan forward. Whether you’re brand new to the idea of doing faith … Read more

Be Thankful

When things are difficult, it’s good to focus on good things in our lives. This isn’t to ignore the serious situations we’re facing, but to remember that God is good, and that evil is not the only thing at work! I find thinking of three things I’m thankful for each morning really helps re-calibrate my … Read more

Thanks Jar

Thankfulness is so powerful! It really does change how we see our lives, and encourages us when things are tricky. This activity is a way of identifying, focusing on and being thankful for the good things in our lives. You could make a thanks jar at any time of year, but I especially like starting ours on January 1st and reading … Read more

Write-your-own ‘magnetic’ poetry

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

New Year with God

New Year isn’t necessarily a particularly family event especially for younger children. My youngest, currently four, has put in a request to stay up late this near year, and watch The Beegees, which is what she considers to be ‘New Year’. (Just to clarify, last year we DID watch a documentary about the Beegees with … Read more

Mini home rituals to celebrate Bible feast days

In our family, we celebrate Shabbat each week and Passover each year so I wanted to look at the Jewish ‘High Holy Days’ as they are known, to find some rituals we could use to enrich our faith at home. I’m not going to give an exhaustive overview here, (because you have google too!) but … Read more

Thanks Box

This is really similar to the Thanks jar but without the risk of broken glass, either in the session or at home. It works at any time of year, but I like to do it at the start of the year. We did it at our Messy Church, using one box for thank you words … Read more