kids ACTIVITY

Go on a walk with your family in your neighborhood or on a walking trail.  Allow your kids to pick which turns you take.  After a while, ask your kids if they remember how you got to where you are.  Take some time talking about how we can end up in places in life without knowing how we actually got there, but God has a way for us to get back to Him.

Build a blanket fort together as a family.  Talk about how God protects us and we can trust God to fight battles for us.  Then, have a family movie night together in the blanket fort!

Sign up as a family for serve day to be a part of serving someone who comes from a different background than you.

As a family, have each person draw something they are afraid of.  Talk about how God can give us peace anytime we feel afraid. Pray for each person’s fear, and then take the pictures and rip them into tiny pieces.

Sit down as a family. Pick one person, and then have everyone else tell that person something they have in common, and something that is different.  Do this for each family member.  Take time to celebrate both the similarities and differences.  Then talk about how amazing it is that God made you all different but put you together as a family.  

As a family, each of you use paper plates to make a happy face and a sad face sign. Be as creative as you want with the signs. Have dinner together and talk about something happy and sad in each person’s life. Allow each other space to feel, and then, as a family, bring all of those feelings to God.

Find a place tonight to go outside with your family and look at the stars. Talk about how big God’s creation is and how His love for us is even bigger than that!

Sit down together for dinner as a family.  Take turns going around the table talking about something you are thankful for.  End in prayer praising God for what He has done for your family!

 Go outside with your kids. Draw a long, narrow, curvy boundary on the sidewalk/driveway. Ask your kids to walk the boundary without stepping out of it.  If they step out, squirt them with a water gun.  Explain how God loves us and has a path for us. By following God’s path, we can avoid a lot of bad things that can happen when we leave God’s path.

Place a piece of candy or some other treat somewhere in your house.  Blindfold your child and tell them to carefully find the candy.  After a while, start giving them step by step directions to find it. Talk about how just like you led your child to the treat, the voice of the Holy Spirit leads us in God’s plan for our lives.

Ask your children if there is anything they know happening with a friend, in the community, or in the world that makes them really sad. Pray with your children about the situation, and then encourage and help your children think of ways they can do something to help. If there is a serve day opportunity that lines us with this, sign up as a family. 

Do a puzzle together. While you do the puzzle talk about how it’s a lot like God’s plan. We may only see pieces, but God sees the whole picture from the very beginning. If we stick with God, and don’t give up, we will see eventually see the picture that God saw the whole time.

Make dinner together. After dinner is made, each person prepares someone else’s plate. Make sure to ask that person what they would like on their plate.

Take your family to a nearby body of water. Have fun as a family (picnic, skip rocks, etc...) Take a picture together for social media and tag Summit Park Church when you post it.

Take your family to a nearby body of water. Have fun as a family (picnic, skip rocks, etc...) Take a picture together for social media and tag Summit Park Church when you post it.

Find a spot the differences picture to do with your kids.  As they are finding all the differences, explain that these differences are found in the details. Then talk about how God is concerned with and wants to be a part of even the smallest details of our lives.

Read a story together as a family.  Talk about who everyone thinks the main character is.  Then talk about how we can feel like the main character in our own stories, but really our lives are meant to be lived for God and to point everyone to Jesus.

Find some old costumes to put on or play dress up as a family! While you are having fun in your costumes, think of ways that God may have shown up in your lives that you may not have even noticed!

Sit down to dinner as a family. Take turns saying something that God has blessed you with in your life.  As a family, brainstorm ways you can use the ways God has blessed you to show His live to others.

Have dinner as a family. Talk about love from today’s reading in 1 Corinthians 13, and see how many people you can name in your lives who love you like that.  Finish by praying and thanking God for all of those people!

Find a feelings wheel on the internet.  Use this as a tool to talk to your kids about different emotions.  Help them to understand that their emotions aren’t inherently bad things, but we shouldn’t let our emotions be the boss of us or make decisions based completely on how we feel.
https://www.imom.com/printable/printable-feelings-wheel/

Find some toys or makeshift instruments in your house.  Have everyone trying to play their own song at the same time.  Then have everyone try to work together to play something.  Even if neither song sounded great, the one where you worked together probably sounded better.  Explain how this is a lot like God’s church.  When we each do our own thing, it can get messy, but when we work together, it is a whole lot better.

Go outside and play hide and seek! After you have played a few rounds, ask your kids if they couldn’t find someone, that means the person wasn’t there.  Explain that this is similar to God.  Sometimes in our lives we will experience moments where it feels like God isn’t there, but just because it feels that way doesn’t mean He isn’t. God has promised to never leave or abandon us!

Sit down to dinner together as a family. Talk to your children about what they want to be when they grow up. End dinner by praying for these dreams while also asking the God’s will to be done in the lives of your children.

Set aside time today, whenever works best for your family, to worship God together. Talk to your kids about what it means to worship and help them understand that we don’t just worship at church, but we can worship wherever we are!

Set up a race in your yard. This could be as simple as running from one end of your yard to the other.  Give everyone different starting positions, some closer to the end and some farther, and then run the race.  Explain that this is the world is set up.  Some people are born with or given advantages that others don’t have.  But this isn’t how God’s kingdom works.  All people are viewed the same and are loved equally by God.

Buy a Slim Jim (or something equivalent) at the store. Explain to your kids that this is the “beef stick.” Anytime you are frustrated, or “have beef”, with someone you can hold the beef stick, and everyone has to listen to you.  You must, however, express your frustration in a way that is still loving and respectful.

Hide a treat for your kids in your house or in your yard.  Tell them what you hid and let them go find it.  If your kids ask you where you hid it, go ahead and tell them.  Explain to them that this is like looking for wisdom.  We can search for it anywhere, but only God can give us true wisdom. Because God loves us, all we have to do is ask for wisdom, and He will give it to us.

Play a game of “Simon Says” but add in a special rule.  Anyone who can play and NEVER mess up will get a piece of candy.  After everyone messes up, tell them that because you love them, they can have the candy anyway. Explain that this is how things work with God. God has called us to live a certain way, but sometimes we will mess up.  Even though we mess up, God loves us, forgives us, and still allows us to live the plan He has for us.

Grab a flashlight and turn out all the lights in a room in your house. Turn the flashlight on and shine it all around.  Ask your kids where the light comes from.  Are you making the light or is it the flashlight?  Explain that this is like us.  We carry the God’s light, His love, with us every day, but we aren’t the source.  We are the ones God uses to shine the light in the world around us.