Posts Tagged ‘children’

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How Do You Teach Your Child to Pray?

Friday, January 31st, 2014

how-do-you-teach-your-child-to-pray

How do you teach your child to pray?

  • If the child is young, you can have the child repeat simple phrases about real issues. For example, “Please help me not to be selfish and to share with my sister.”
  • Give your children a good example yourself by praying in an honest way in front of them, without using lots of conventions and religious words that sound like God is unapproachable. Your kids become you; they will imitate how you pray.
  • Don’t be afraid to confess sin openly. Admit your own sin before God in your prayers, so that they learn how to confess sin openly without condemnation, expecting forgiveness and change in their lives.

What can you learn from children as they pray?

Jesus says we are to become like little children to enter the kingdom of heaven. (Matthew 18:1-6) What does this mean? What attributes do children display in their prayers?

  • How to be trusting
  • How to be open to God
  • How to be humble
  • How to have a wide-eyed wonder
  • How to adore God in a fresh way

How to Lead Your Children to the Lord

In the audio I share how my husband and I led each of our children to the Lord. We wanted to make sure that they understood their depravity before coming to Christ, so that they could understand why they needed a Savior. We didn’t want to just pray a prayer with them and give them a false sense of being saved when they weren’t. On the other hand, we didn’t want to block our children from coming to Christ. After all, Jesus said, “Let the little children come to Me.” (Matthew 19:14) That said, this is how we led each of our children to Christ:

I share each of these stories with you because maybe one of your children falls under one of the personalities listed above. For example, what do you do when you have a good kid who can’t see that he is a sinner? On the other hand, how to you reach a child who is ruled by anger? Is it possible to teach spiritual things without speaking a word? Hear the full stories in this powerful audio:

Right-click the link, “Save as,” and choose “Desktop” to download the audio.

To keep up with my prayer posts, follow my Prayer page on Facebook.

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Posted in Parenting, Prayer | 16 Comments »

Statue of Liberty Unit Study

Monday, July 1st, 2013

statue-of-liberty-unit-studyMy children had a fabulous time with this Statue of Liberty Unit Study.

We started by making a Statue of Liberty model. We bought a large hunk of white self-hardening clay. I took it out of the box and placed it on wax paper on top of a cutting board. I sliced it with a butcher knife into four pieces, one for each of my children.

At the table, I placed wax paper for easy clean-up. You will be banging your head against the wall if the self-hardening clay dries like cement straight onto your table, so be sure not to skip this step.

Each child should have a picture of the Statue of Liberty, to help the child draw the shape onto the front of the hunk of clay, using a plastic sculpting knife. You should cut away the clay that you don’t want. It comes off like butter. If the head looks flat like Frankenstein, you can always add more clay and fix it. If you want to erase a line, just rub your finger over it.

After getting the main shape, start adding details. Add the torch, the arm with a tablet, and the pedestal at the bottom of the statue. Then add the finishing details: the spikes coming out of the crown, the facial features, and the folds in the clothing. When you are finished, let the clay harden for two days. Take a look at how much fun my kids had with this activity:

We read the book How They Built the Statue of Liberty so that the children could understand how it was constructed. Step by step drawings helped the children see how the statue was assembled.

Here is a printable model of the Statue of Liberty, from Paper Toys. Be sure to print it on white card stock paper and watercolor light green paint on it before cutting it out and gluing it together.

Here is a free printable book full of activities from the National Park Service:

Here is a virtual tour of the Statue of Liberty:

Here is a short video tour of the Statue of Liberty:

Hundreds of unit studies like this are instantly available when you join the Unit Study Treasure Vault.

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Posted in Fun Summer Activities, History | 8 Comments »

Shadow Puppets Behind a Sheet

Wednesday, September 19th, 2012

shadow-puppetsI tied a rope to two trees and hung up a white bed sheet. The sun shone through the sheet, so the kids started doing pantomime and shadow puppets with their fingers. This was a completely unexpected activity, since I hung up the sheet for the kids to do a painting. (You can see what they painted here.)

You can also do shadow puppets on a white wall while projecting a bright light toward the wall in a dark room. Slide projectors without a slide in them work especially well. The children combine their fingers into different shapes to make animals and objects. You can even play a game of charades by silently acting out a shadow puppet and trying to get the other people to guess what object you are making. Shadow puppets are great fun!

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Posted in Art | 2 Comments »

Japanese Activities for Children

Tuesday, May 15th, 2012

Japanese-activities-for-childrenIn this fun hands-on video, I show some Japanese activities for children. The activities include the following:

  • wearing kimonos
  • eating Japanese food
  • playing with Japanese toys
  • brush painting calligraphy
  • tasting green tea at a tea ceremony
  • folding origami, including a windmill and a frog
  • playing with an abacus
  • fishing with a net
  • flying Japanese kites

Japanese-activities-for-children-2My family attended a Japanese Day at a local community college, and the college students (exchange students from Japan) had booths with the different Japanese activities for children. Each table was set up and ready for the children to mill around and enjoy the different displays. We listened to some Japanese music, too. After spending about an hour on these engaging Japanese activities, our family went out to eat at a Japanese restaurant. My children were able to sample more Japanese foods.

This would be a fun co-op activity to do with other homeschooling families. You could choose a different country once a month and set up hands-on activities at each table in a church gym, so that the children can experience different aspects of each culture. What a great way to learn geography!

More fun ideas for teaching geography to children: Living Geography: Travel the World from Your Living Room

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Posted in Geography | 2 Comments »

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