Every year it is the same struggle. Will I let the busyness of the season overwhelm me or will I focus on the real gift of Christmas – the birth of Christ? Gift giving can me stressful and expensive, and as I watch my kids’ wish lists expand as quickly as my own I worry that we are drowning the joy of Christmas with our wants and desires. Gift giving is an important part of how we celebrate the holiday, so today I’m sharing ten gift ideas to help your family have a Christ centered Christmas. As a bonus, the generous folks at Zonderkidz are giving away five of the books I’m featuring to one lucky reader. Read on find out more, enter the giveaway, and then hop over here to find 75+ Gift Guides and Holiday Ideas for Kids from my favorite Kid Blogger Network friends.
Tag: jesus
DIY Resurrection Eggs for Toddlers and Preschool Kids
Easter is one of my favorite holidays, bringing a joyful celebration of faith to our family every year. Though the holiday itself is filled with joy, the season of Lent reminds us of the suffering of Christ and is difficult to teach to young children. While teaching about Christmas is easy, because babies are fun and easy to celebrate, the Cross and Easter are a bit of a challenge. I created a set of DIY Resurrection Eggs for toddlers and preschoolers and paired them with stories from The Jesus Storybook Bible to help us teach our kids about the real meaning of the holiday. We still celebrate with bunnies and chocolate and cute Easter outfits, but this activity is simple to create and really explains it in a way kids can understand. Be sure to check out our other fun ideas for Easter here.
Bringing the Story of King David & Samuel to Life by Anointing and Blessing Your Kids
We did something really special and fun with our kids this weekend that we’d never done before but definitely will do again – we gave them a blessing and anointed them with oil. It was simple and sweet and our whole family loved it. I felt funny about it at first and thought it might be kind of weird, but it was really the most special thing. We are trying our best to teach our kids about Jesus and bring the bible to life for them using the Jesus Storybook Bible, and this was another way to accomplish that. We simply read the story of Samuel anointing David as God chooses him as Israel’s future king and then gave our kids a blessing. I’ll share with you how we did it so you can try it with your family. Be sure to check out the entire Jesus Storybook Bible Activity Series here at My Mundane and Miraculous Life.
A Preschool Water Experiment to Teach about Moses and the Red Sea Using the Jesus Storybook Bible
This week we read the Jesus Storybook Bible version of Moses parting the Red Sea during our home preschool, and got the kids involved in a little water experiment to help bring the story to life. Our Moses and the Red Sea preschool activity is part of the Jesus Storybook Bible Activity Series. Kid Blogger Network writers are sharing a different interactive activity to go with each story and you can find them all here.
Preschool Read & Play ~ Reading The Giant Staircase to Heaven: The Tower of Babel from the Jesus Storybook Bible & Building with Blocks
We love to combine our favorite books with fun activities to enhance learning through play in our home preschool. One of our favorite books is The Jesus Storybook Bible. I’ve shared before how we use it in my post Simple Ways to Bring Jesus in to Your Child’s Daily Life. Today I’m joining in with a group of great Kid Blogger Network folks for The Jesus Storybook Bible Hands On Activities Series. Visit the main page over at My Mundane and Miraculous Life to find activities to go with every story in the book. Read on to find out how we used a block building activity with the story The Giant Staircase to Heaven: The Tower of Babel.
Advent with Kids – Reading Song of the Stars & Playing with the Nativity
The Advent season is one of my favorite times of the year, as we celebrate the awaited arrival of Jesus. My goal this year is to involve the whole family in our Advent traditions to make the joy of Christmas real and full for our kids. We will be using a Jesse Tree and the Jesus Storybook Bible each day starting November 30th, along with a fun activity each day. I’ve joined with a group of other Kid Blogger Network bloggers to bring you a special Storybook Advent series to help you incorporate books and kid activities in to your holiday celebration, as well as a Christmas Read and Play series all about our favorite holiday books. I’m sharing a quick and fun way to bring the Christmas story to life with your kids using The Song of the Stars: A Christmas Story along with a children’s nativity set and a few extra friends.
Create a Thumbprint Cross to Teach Your Child About Easter
Holy Week is one of my favorite times of the year because we get to take the time to focus on Christ’s work on the cross and what it means for us. I’ve shared with y’all about simple ways to bring Jesus in to your child’s daily life here, but talking about Easter and what it means can be a bit more difficult. Christmas is easy with the baby Jesus and all of the manger scene and Jesse Tree activities. Death on a cross for the sin of humanity is slightly more difficult to discuss with preschoolers, am I right? One way we’ve made it personal for our kids this year is to create a thumbprint cross with each of them. Their unique thumbprint represents the personal nature of Jesus’ death and resurrection – that it means the possibility of real relationship with God and eternal life for them. Plus, they are super fun and easy to make.