Fun, Free Christian Learning Activities for Kids (You Can Do at Home)

Fun, Free Christian Learning Activities for Kids- Parenting Like HannahWhen my daughter was younger, I loved when she would have those long vacations from school. We would sleep in a bit and have lots of adventures. Inevitably though, at some point the dreaded words “I’m bored” were uttered. Of course, the go-to parental response is to offer all sorts of fun chores. If you find the boredoms are hitting your home daily though, you may want to be a little more intentional about providing activities for your children.

The good news is you can keep your children occupied while reinforcing Bible lessons and principles and having them practice academic concepts. In fact, our new partnering website Teach One Reach One is regularly adding free activity ideas for you to use. Even though these activities were designed to be used in Bible classrooms and faith based tutoring programs, they can easily be adapted to use with your own children at home.

So look around the website and find some activities your children might like. Grab the needed materials and enjoy the activities with them. When you do things together, you create precious memories your children will carry with them for the rest of their lives. After you have tried your activities, I would love to hear from you. Send me photos and tell me what your kids enjoyed and what was a challenge. You will help us refine our resources and we may even feature your photos on our website (with your permission of course.).

Being the Message for Your Kids

Being the Message for Your Kids - Parenting Like HannahSometimes Christianity can be confusing. There are so many churches, looking at the Bible in so many ways. Frankly, some seem so far removed from what God teaches, it is hard to imagine they consider themselves Christian. Yet, as Christian parents, we not only have to figure out how to teach everything in the Bible to our children, but help them learn how to actually live what they read.

Recently, I was given the chance to review the new book Be the Message: Taking Your Faith Beyond Words to a Life of Action by Kerry and Chris Shook. Throughout, the authors attempt to help readers understand what living God’s Words – being the message in their terms, looks like on a day to day basis.

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Kids, Joy and God

Kids, Joy and God - Parenting Like HannahHave your ever surprised a young child with something they have wanted their “whole life”? If you have, you have probably witnessed pure, unsurpassed joy. In fact for many children, childhood is a time filled with joy. As time passes however, the joy seems to slowly seep out of life for many people and is replaced by what the French call ennui – fancy boredom.

The Christian life for many has a similar trajectory. The moments after a person puts on Christ in baptism and becomes a Christian are often very joyful. Soon the monotony of life intrudes though and Christianity can begin looking boring or worse yet, restrictive.

I want to encourage you to not only live a joyful Christian life, but help your children find and understand the joy in living a godly, active Christian life. There are a lot of things Christians can be joyful about, but in case you were puzzling what to share with your kids about joy and God, here are some of my favorites:

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Kids, Talents, Gifts and God

Kids, Talents, Gifts and God- Parenting Like HannahEver heard of Bezalel? He is the center of what I think is one of the more interesting passages in the Bible. (Exodus 31) We don’t know much about him before this passage other than he was one of the Israelites wandering in the wilderness with Moses. About the time of the giving of the Law on Mt. Sinai, God instructed Moses to build a tent of meeting – a tabernacle.

Enter Bezalel. Apparently, God “filled him with the Spirit of God. I (God) have filled him with skill, ability and knowledge in all kinds of crafts. He can make beautiful patterns in gold, silver and bronze. He can cut and set stones. He can work with wood. In fact, he can work in all kinds of crafts.” (NIrV)

I think that is amazing! We don’t know what gifts or talents Bezalel had before God filled him with the Holy Spirit and all of these gifts. All we do know is that once he received them, he used them to do what God wanted him to do – build the Tabernacle.

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Raising a Child To Be Different (For Christians)

Raising a Different Child (For Christians) - Parenting Like HannahI love little girls when they are in that three to five year old range. They will put together the most creative outfits you have ever seen. I remember I left our sleeping daughter with my husband when she was that age. He was going to help her get dressed and then they were meeting me somewhere a little later. She showed up in let’s just say a very innovative outfit.

Now to the average person, this particular outfit looked as if it had been pieced together by someone who was slightly color blind. When I asked her about it, she proudly replied “It’s all pink!” And she was right. In all of it’s mismatched, clashing glory, it was all pink. She was beautiful because she was confident in her beauty and fashion choices. She didn’t care what anyone else thought in that moment, because she was “pink”!

How great is that? What if we could somehow teach our children to be that confident about their Christianity? About making godly choices even when no one else does? About loving and serving those viewed as unloveable? About sharing their faith confidently with anyone and everyone?

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