This is a guest post by Mina Munns of the super Flame: Creative Children’s Ministry blog. If you’ve not seen it, take a look! It’s full of fabulous ideas for prayer and stories and faith suitable for families, children, including under 5s and adults. If you’ve never heard of Play dough mats then you have … Read more
I’ve recently joined a Facebook group called The Five O’Clock Club. It’s a group of Mum’s endeavoring to get up early to spend time with God before their children wake up. For me, it’s more like the 6.20 Club, as my children don’t usually wake before 7. The mornings I’ve managed to get up and … Read more
Every family should have these books! That’s what I used to tell people, anyway. It’s 4 years now since I published the Held in Hope series with Christian Education and the Chaplains at Birmingham Children’s Hospital. Our remit was to produce some Christian stories for young children (under 7) about sickness and death. At the time, … Read more
This weekend I was in Hudderfield at an event for under 5s, where I was invited to share about Player Together and Praying Together. As part of my workshops I took 10 activities to play and pray with under fives and made a little leaflet of them. Here’s the 10 activities I included: 1 fuzzy … Read more
This is a a great way to pray with people of all ages, including very young children. Get out the bubbles and say that they represent the blessings of God, that is, all the good things in our lives, as the Bible says that every good and perfect gift comes from God (James 1:17). I … Read more
Teaching Children to Pray This may not immediately seem like an idea for children, but more and more research and experience show how little space we all have in our lives and how some quiet and silence can help us connect with God. This activity is inspired by Rachel Turner’s Parenting for a life of … Read more
If you’re doing a pumpkin carving, the first job is to cut off the ‘lid’ and scoop out the inners. I came across this idea by Sharon Ely on how to use the scooping as a reflection. As you empty your pumpkin, reflect on Jesus who emptied himself by being human. This is also translated … Read more
A few years ago, I worked on possibly the best set of books I’ve ever been involved with. The series is called Held in Hope, and they are Christian stories about sickness and death for young children (under 7). I worked with the experienced, wonderful and wise chaplains at Birmingham Children’s Hospital and a talented artist, Rhiannon Molart, … Read more
This activity comes from Josh stays in hospital, about how Josh has to spend quite a while in hospital but discovers that God is with him and will help him. It’s part of the Held in Hope series produced with the Paediatric Chaplaincy Network. Draw faces on prayer stars to represent one sad prayer and … Read more
Here’s a way to allow children to experience a Bible verse and think about it. It takes a bit of preparation but children will love it! Make meringue and pipe it in the shape of these words from Psalm 119:103: “Your teachings are sweeter than honey.” (See below for the meringue recipe.) Read the verse … Read more
Here are five, simple ideas to pray using playdough. This works well with under 5s, but plenty of children, teens and adults would also appreciate this very kinesthetic prayer. These ideas are those used at the mini-make session at the Hand in Hand conference in January. The dough I like to use is the 4-minute dough … Read more
I first heard about Godly Play years ago but had no cause or curiosity to follow it up. However, I recently developed both and also opportunity in the form of a course being run 20 minutes from where I live, AND childcare!I found the core training inspiring, challenging and refreshing, and I intend to follow … Read more