Family Theme Night Blog

The Friday faith-filled family fun blog is a series of weekly posts with fun activities based around Bible stories.

This week instead of a regular blog post, I thought I would share some new Christian online resources!

For those looking for just faith-based family fun night materials (or Sunday school material), check out these links:

Are you on Pinterest?

The Friday faith-filled family fun blog is a series of weekly posts with fun activities based around Bible stories. Today's activities go with the story of the Tower of Babel found in Genesis chapter 11.

Yesterday I had a blast helping out in MOPPETS, the childcare program of MOPs (Mothers of Preschoolers). As a former MOPs coordinator and MOPs mom, I know how important it is to have a high quality children's program and happy kids. Moms with young kids need the refreshment they receive at MOPs, and it is a lot easier to enjoy that time if they know their children are happy and well cared for. So I took some initiative and planned a super fun lesson for the kids!

Here are five fun steps to teach kids about the Tower of Babel:

1. Introduction: Small Towers and Building Blocks

In January, our family took a trip to Disney* World, and my kids became enamored with the Kim Possible* World Showcase Adventure at EPCOT*. In case you are not familiar with this Kim Possible EPCOT attraction, there are Kim Possible kiosks at various locations where your family can pick up a pre-programmed cell phone. The cell phone sends you on a series of tasks to complete a mission (and includes a lot of cool effects and fun on the way). My six year old left EPCOT wanting more, and I promised him that we would have a similar adventure when we got home. This weekend I made good on my promise.

With help from some friends, we had an amazing adventure here in our hometown in upstate New York. Since the weather was far from pleasant, this adventure included more driving than walking. We made it a GPS adventure (and even my husband was kept in the dark about the locations along the way). The adventure ended up being somewhat elaborate (my adventure-loving mom friend added some amazing embellishments!), so to explain the concept I will break it down into the basic components.

The Friday faith-filled family fun blog is a series of weekly posts with fun activities based around Bible stories. Today's activities go with the story of Joshua and the Battle of Jericho, found in Joshua chapter 6.

How do you get your kids to rake up the leaves?  We recently had a family fun night (actually a fun night with friends) that included raking the leaves AND having fun learning about the Bible story of Joshua and the Battle of Jericho!

Here are five fun activities that go with the story of Joshua:

1.  Wall of Jericho made of leaves:

The Friday faith-filled family fun blog is a series of weekly posts with fun activities based around Bible stories. Today's activity is on the topic of the Psalms..

I love the Psalms. They express every imaginable emotion, and I find them to be very comforting. I'd love for my kids to experience the Psalms in the same way, especially as they grow up and experience all sorts of struggles. When is the best time to introduce the Psalms? I think it is now! And if you have read my blog before, you know that I love to have fun with my kids (and sneak in a little learning at the same time). Since the most famous Psalm is the 23rd Psalm ("the Lord is my shepherd"), I think that is a great place to start. And to understand the meaning of the psalm, it makes sense to learn about sheep and shepherds! Have some fun as a family learning about sheep, and talk about Psalm 23 at the same time.

Three Fun Ways to Learn About the 23rd Psalm:

1. Toys

The Friday faith-filled family fun blog is a series of weekly posts with fun activities based around Bible stories. Today's activity is on the topic of prayer.

I know what you must be thinking:  "She's getting in a rut, writing about kids and prayer again."    My original plan was to pick a different topic.   I had high hopes of listing one of our super fun (and crazy) family night ideas to teach a lesson from the Bible.  Then something unexpected happened—my eight year old taught me something about prayer this week!  I just had to share.

My son (my rough and tumble all-boy son) found a decorative "prayer box" that a dear friend had given to me.  He looked inside it and asked, "Mom, why don't we ever put prayers inside this box?"  (The secret is out:  I obviously am NOT the perfect spiritual mom that I dream to be.)  I'm not sure what answer I mumbled as I was caught off guard, but my son kept the subject going.  He asked, "Can we write down prayers and put them in the box?"

What a great idea!  I wish I had thought of it. I decided to implement the plan.  That "prayer box" is now prominently displayed on our kitchen table.  I quickly noticed that when we said "grace" at mealtime this week, the prayers were slightly longer and much more meaningful.

The Friday faith-filled family fun blog is a series of weekly posts with fun activities based around Bible stories. Today's activitiy is on the topic of prayer.

Candy Bar Prayer

Here is a quick and fun activity for busy families.  Learn to pray for the people of the world using your dessert as a guide!

The Friday faith-filled family fun blog is a series of weekly posts with fun activities based around Bible stories. Today's activities go with the parable of the talents.

With Labor Day approaching, I thought it would be appropriate to have some family time learning about work and God's perspective on work.  One story came to mind: the parable of the talents, found in the Bible in Matthew 25:14-30.

The story:

The story of the parable of the talents goes something like this; a master goes on a trip and gives his servants different amounts of money.  (The type of money is called a "talent." ) One servant is given five talents, one servant receives two talents, and one receives one talent.  Then the servants went to work.  Or at least some of them went to work.  The first two servants went to work and doubled their earnings.  The servant with just one talent buried his money in the ground (not a good idea).  When the master returned he praised the first two servants and entrusted them with more responsibility.  The servant that buried his money was chastised, and his little bit was taken away.

What does this story mean for kids?  And how can this story be translated into fun family time?

The Friday faith-filled family fun blog is a series of weekly posts with fun activities based around Bible stories. Today's activities go with the story of Daniel and the Lions' Den.

A while back I did a post about our Daniel and the Lions' Den family fun night, but since my youngest begs to do it again, I thought it was worth repeating. Here are the basic elements of a Daniel family fun night!

The Story:

The Friday faith-filled family fun blog is a series of weekly posts with fun activities based around Bible stories. Today's activities go with the story of Queen Esther.

We recently had a family fun night with a Queen Esther theme! For this fun theme, we had some young friends join us for the "royal banquet." In fact, some of the younger set even helped set up the royal banquet table:

If you look carefully, some of the flatware is not set up quite right, but the young royals experienced so much joy setting the table that I didn't have the heart to interrupt them.

The Friday faith-filled family fun blog is a series of weekly posts with fun activities based around Bible stories. Today flips that concept around—Bible stories to go with an activity, your backyard barbecue!

The latter part of summer can get so busy with backyard barbecues and other outdoor activities.  Are you finding it hard to squeeze in that special family devotional or Bible lesson with all of the busy summertime activities?  Try weaving in one of these Bible stories as you enjoy your next barbecue, and make some memories your kids will treasure forever.

Fishers of men:

Grill up some fish or salmon, and talk about how Jesus told his disciples (in Matthew 4:19) to follow Him and He would make them fishers of men.  It could be the perfect opportunity to talk about what it means to be "fishers of men."  (Of course, if you are going on a real fishing trip, this is the perfect story to discuss on the way.)

The Friday faith-filled family fun blog is a series of weekly posts with fun activities based around Bible stories. Today's activities go with the story of Joseph in Egypt.

Our family loves having "family fun nights," and some of those fun nights happen to be Bible fun nights. This summer I used the same concept, but we invited some friends over for a fun-filled Bible study. I know, "fun-filled" and "Bible study" don't usually go in the same sentence—but maybe they should! My boys are having a blast with their friends, and they are learning about the Bible at the same time.

For this fun Bible study, we learned about Joseph, particularly the part of the story when Joseph interpreted the Pharoah's dreams, and the Pharoah put Joseph in a place of power and responsibility. I found out what the boys already knew about the story of Joseph, we read Genesis 41, took a fun quiz and talked about the passage. Mind you, these are young boys (ages five to barely eight), but they were actually engaged in the story! But to keep them engaged, we added some fun elements to the evening.

Pyramid building: