Palm Sunday Resources

Parents, can you believe it's already almost Palm Sunday? I certainly can't. Here are a few of the things that our family intends to do this week in order to prepare our hearts and minds for the beginning of Holy Week.

Palm Sunday lesson for preschool
Palm Sunday crafts and coloring pages
Huge listing of Palm Sunday resources including word searches, mazes, coloring pages, crosswords, and group activities.

Blessings!
E

Lent Game for younger children

What a wonderful resource for families with younger children- check out this Lent game, from "In Lieu of Preschool"!

Holy Experience: a Beautiful Lent Resource

I subscribe to the blog, A Holy Experience, written by Ann Voskamp. I am continually moved and challenged by her humble understanding of her God, and life here on Earth. Today, she shared an intriguing and deeply moving post about what Lent means to her, and I was so touched that I felt I should share it. Understand, Ann is not Episcopalian. At the same time, I feel that we can embrace our similarities and discount our canonical differences in some circumstances.

I hope her words bless you as they have me!

A Place At The Table

The Episcopal Church seems to be moving toward making Lent more than just a time of self-sacrifice in solidarity with Christ. Rather, I see a move toward enhancing our lives- living them more completely, the way God intended. At our church specifically, we are working on physical, emotional, and spiritual health. This involves a variety of things, including physical exercise and eating healthier foods, making time for prayer each day, and giving to others.

I stumbled upon this book recently and I will be reading it during Lent. The author is a Christian who chooses to eat like most of the world does, rather than how Americans tend to do. I'm particularly excited because it chronicles his Lent journey (while I'm doing mine!) and explores our physical health as well as the physical/emotional condition of others. It seems to fit into my own journey over the next 40 days, and I share it here because I suspect it might just coincide with yours as well.

Enjoy!

Valentine's Day

 How are you celebrating Valentine's Day?

We are doing lots of fun things in our house, including making Valentines to give to friends and family, eating pink heart-shaped pancakes for breakfast, and playing a few Valentine's Day games.

This is pretty standard behavior, I think, but I want to be sure that we talk about God's love on this special day as well as romantic love. (I think kids get plenty of exposure to the latter in our society.) So, what to do?

We were off to a great start because in church last Sunday the children all made valentine cards which we will be delivering (as a church) to a local nursing home. We are all excited to be spreading God's love in this way, and the residents are excited to see the kids and their creations!

In our family we are also prepared to be "sneaky" valentines this year, who will be dropping off anonymous messages of love and friendship to our neighbors. (So if you live near us and read this blog, don't spoil the surprise!)

Still thinking about what your family will be up to today?

Check out these links for some more fun Valentine's Day ideas for kids:
Kid-friendly story of St. Valentine and several angel craft ideas
Valentine game and activity ideas
Valentine's Day stories, poems, and recipes

I asked a few kids last week during Children's Chapel about the roots of Valentine's Day- "where did it come from, and why do we celebrate it?" I wanted to know. A few kids had a general idea (maybe it had something to do with God??), but many weren't so sure how this wonderful holiday originated. That's not surprising since History doesn't give us a very clear answer, but I hoped that children would recognize the story of Father Valentine, a early Christian priest who helped young couples marry. Check out this quick video from the History Channel to buff up your own recollection of V-day's origins, both pagan and Christian:

(Note: it's a 4 minute video- please watch it first without your children because you may find that it contains ideas which are a bit "too old" for very young children)

Abundant Life and Forgiveness Idea

This is a link to a wonderful blog authored by a Christian family hoping to raise kids who love God. Because our youth group is focusing on lessons about forgiveness and living an abundant life this week, I thought I would share their post about ways for your family to make a difference.

Extension Activities for the story of Abraham

Follow this link for a free downloadable PowerPoint presentation on the story of Abraham, and click on the CB link for corresponding coloring book pages.

A Promise for Abraham mini-book craft.

Abraham's story Bible Timeline printables.

Abraham storyboard set for kids.

Abraham coloring pages which correspond to the included story.