Fun Ways to Teach Kids to Be Watchful

In the last post, I shared the importance of teaching your children how to be watchful for Satan’s traps in order to avoid them. While teaching them those important principles is great, it doesn’t always help them understand how to put those principles to work in daily life. Thankfully, there are some fun things you can do with your kids to help them better understand and practice watchfulness in their own lives.

  • Analyzing streaming content. Even most programs for children contain episodes where one or more characters makes a poor or even sinful choice. Preview episodes to find one that has a temptation with which your child struggles. Explain to your child that the person who made the poor choice missed some of the signs he or she was walking into a trap that encouraged the poor or sinful choice. Ask your child to see if he or she can spot what the character missed. Don’t forget clues like other characters warning the person it would be a poor choice. (Sometimes part of being watchful is listening to other Christians when they try to warn us we are about to fall for one of Satan’s traps.)
  • Charades or skits. Give your kids basic scenarios when they might encounter one of Satan’s traps. They can act out or share ways they could avoid the trap through charades or “writing” and performing a little skit.
  • Obstacle courses. I will admit this takes some effort, but because it is more concrete, the impact might be better understood by your kids. Create an obstacle course using regular obstacle course items. This time though, to even be given the opportunity to pass the obstacle, they must also give a viable solution to avoiding one of Satan’s common traps. You can make it as easy or difficult as you like.
  • Escape rooms. There are templates you can get now that make designing an escape room easier than in the past. The clues should force the players to be watchful of Satan’s common tricks in order to solve them.
  • Strategy board games. If you think about it, avoiding Satan’s traps is a lot like playing a game requiring strategy. Play some favorite strategy games. Afterwards talk about the skill sets that make a player successful How could those same skill sets be used to avoid Satan’s traps?

Have fun with it, but give your kids lots of practice in being watchful. Watchfulness can help them recognize when they are being tempted and help them avoid sinning.

Published by

Thereasa Winnett

Thereasa Winnett is the founder of Teach One Reach One and blogger at Parenting Like Hannah. She holds a BA in education from the College of William and Mary. She has served in all areas of ministry to children and teens for more than thirty years and regularly leads workshops for ministries and churches. She has conducted numerous workshops, including sessions at Points of Light’s National Conference on Volunteering and Service, the National Urban Ministry Conference, Pepperdine Bible Lectures, and Lipscomb’s Summer Celebration. Thereasa lives in Atlanta, GA with her husband Greg, where she enjoys reading, knitting, traveling and cooking.

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