Praying for people we know is a precious gift. It’s something accessible to us from a very early age, as this picture prayer book shows. I’ve often had a collage on my wall of photos of people I want to remember to pray for, or a photo album of the same. Here’s an idea to keep it accessible even to babies: make … 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
This Saturday I will be speaking at a Lichfield Diocese event in Stoke on Trent about Working with Under 5s. Here are a few of the thoughts I’ll be sharing: Working with under 5s: Seeing Jesus at work among the nappies and play dough There are many challenges when working with under 5s. I’m sure you can list … Read more
These are usually used to inspire children to invent stories, but I’ve found they can also be used to let them choose Bible stories to explore and engage with the stories. It’s an activity which can be done at any time of year, but we’ve done it on not-so-warm days when I don’t want to … Read more
Home is the perfect place to have a nativity scene which children can play with. Often sets are so beautiful and delicate that they aren’t appropriate for children’s touch, which is a shame. There isn’t any other Bible story which has so many versions available, and play is a wonderful way for children (and adults!) … Read more
Cut a set of simple geometric shapes from felt and use them to create pictures of the Christmas story using this template. Here’s how to do it: 1. Choose your felt colours. You could cut all the shapes out of one colour sheet, or choose different colours. I chose colours which lent themselves towards certain … 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
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 … Read more
Today I feel compelled to write about helping bereaved children fueled by the huge sadness I feel after hearing the news of a friend’s death. She leaves behind two little children as well as a husband, family and friends, and will be sorely missed. Since I worked on the Held in Hope series, I’ve realised … Read more
Share a Bible story using Duplo. (This can, of course, be done with any size Lego. We’re just at the Duplo stage, so that’s what we’ve used.) Firstly, you need to know which story you’re telling (can you guess which one we chose?). It’s particularly helpful to younger children for the story to be one … 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