The flowers are springing up,
and the time of singing birds has come,
even the cooing of turtledoves.
Song 2:12 

 In Matthew 6:25-34 , Jesus must have been enjoying spring time as He taught His friends about how much God loves them.  He noticed the birds flying around and said,  ”Look at the birds! They aren’t worried about having enough to eat because God feeds them.  In the same way, you shouldn’t worry about what you will eat.  God will feed you too!”  Then Jesus picked up some flowers that were blooming and said, “These flowers don’t have to worry about what they will wear because God has beautifully clothed them.  You don’t need to worry about clothes either for God will make sure you have something to wear.”

I hope your main activity with your children during this season can be outside enjoying nature together. Share with them that the Bible says in Psalm 145:10 that all God’s works shall praise Him.

As yall observe the beauty of God’s creation, join with the flowers, trees, and birds in praising God.  Here’s some songs to sing as you do.

This one is an old recording, but you can get the idea, or better yet, you can make up your own:

 Now the Flowers Are Growing

And another about God’s Beautiful World:

http://youtu.be/AbWgeJOMQ4U

Isaiah 55:12 says the mountains and hills will burst into song, and the trees of the field will clap their hands! So even if we don’t praise the Lord, creation still will.  Here’s a song about this that was recorded for me and my children by a friend, Patti Bennett:

 The Rocks and Hills Will Cry Out

These next two are from children’s musicals when my children were small.  Yeah, I know they are dated, but give them a listen:

http://youtu.be/W8wFjhWztcw

http://youtu.be/HLsh3lwKv5c

Happy Spring!!!

Daniel 2:21
And He changes the times and the seasons;

Celebrate each season, emphasizing God’s hand in it all.  Autumn is such a fun time to enjoy God’s beautiful world with your children. Go outside and play in the leaves – build a leaf fort, bury each other in leaves, walk on the dry leaves and hear them crunch, see who can find the most perfect, colorful leaf.  Be sure to thank God for the leaves as you play. And don’t forget to sing!!!

Do not be frightened, and do not be dismayed, for the Lord your God is with you wherever you go.
Josua 1:9

Just as the verse promises, God was with Moses wherever he went throughout his life and He will be with us wherever we go.  Have fun teaching the life of Moses and this wonderful promise to your children.  I recently spent a week doing this with my grandsons and we had a blast!!

Read the Scripture passages and retell the stories in your own words.  Also read the stories to your children from a children’s Bible.  Share  Joshua 1:9 often as you do the following activities.

Moses is born
Exodus 1:8 – 2:10

(Make a basket out of paper and put a baby in it.  Hide in real grass or make paper grass)

God Calls Moses
Exodus 3

(Put bits of yellow, orange, and red construction paper in a bush to represent the burning bush)

Crossing the Red Sea
Exodus 14

(Take blue construction paper and fold the ends to the center.  Glue sand or brown construction paper in the center)
(Use toy figures and don’t forget the army men)

Eating and Drinking in the Wilderness
Exodus 16:1 – 17:7

(Let manna fall from heaven (soda crackers or popcorn cake or any kind of white wafer)

(Run a hose pipe under a rock and have someone turn on the water as the child strikes the rock)
(Notice the backpacks packed for their trip in the Wilderness)

Here’s a song with motions to help memorize the verse:

I received this question from a mom last week:

“We are having a problem with our preschool son being sneaky. We tell him no and he waits until we aren’t looking and then does it.
Any scriptures for this one? Ideas? Help.”

Below is my response:

“This one verse comes to mind:
Genesis 16:13 Thereafter, Hagar referred to the Lord, who had spoken to her, as’the God who sees me,’ for she said, ‘I have seen the One who sees me!’
Here is a week long lesson I used with my children using this verse:”

God Sees Me

Genesis 16:13 God Sees Me

Bible Stories: (Tell a different Bible Story each day)

Genesis 3 Adam and Eve disobeyed God. They ate some fruit from a tree that God had told them not to eat. They tried to hide themselves from God in the garden. But God came looking for them. He knew what had happened. God saw them. God was very disappointed with Adam and Eve. Remember that God sees you and you can’t hide from Him when you do wrong.

Genesis 16 There was a lady name Hagar who ran away from her home. She ran to the wilderness trying to hide from everyone but God knew where she was and he told her to go home. Hagar said, “You, God, see me: and she went home like God had told her to do. God sees me everywhere I go and He sees you everywhere you go. God sees everyone.

Proverbs 15:3 The Bible says that God’s eyes are everywhere and He sees all the good things we do and He sees all the bad things we do. Even when mom and dad aren’t watching you, God is watching you. God sees you; He keeps His eyes on you to take care of you and to keep you out of trouble. Always remember that God sees you and when you are tempted to do something bad, ask yourself if you want God to see you doing that.

1 Kings 19 A wicked queen named Jezebel was mad a the preacher Elijah. She wanted to hurt him so Elijah ran away. He ran into the wilderness and sat down under a juniper tree and went to sleep. God saw Elijah there and woke him up and gave him some food and water. Then Elijah went to a cave. God saw him there, too. God saw Elijah everywhere he went. God told Elijah he had special things for him to do and to go back. Elijah obeyed God because he knew that saw him.

Jonah God told Jonah He wanted him to go to Ninevah to preach to the eople there. But Jonah didn’t want to go to Ninevah. He got on a boat going to Tarshish to hide from God. But God saw him on that boat and sent a big wind to disturb the water and cause the boat to almost sink. The men on the boat found out that Jonah was trying to hide from God so they threw him out of the boat. God saw Jonah in the water and caused a big fish to swallow Johan. God saw Jonah in the fish and heard him praying. God made the fish spit Jonah out on dry land. Then Jonah went to Ninevah and preached like God had told him to do. Jonah learned that God saw him wherever he was.

Prayer: Help us to always act with the thought that You see us. Thank you that we can’t hide from You. You are always watching over us to keep us from trouble.

Activities:

• Cut the letters ‘God Sees Me’ out of felt and frame them and hang them on the wall as a constant reminder that even when no one else is looking, God sees me.
• Show glasses, telescope, mirror, camera, microscope, binoculars, sunglasses. Talk about the fact that God doesn’t need any of these things to see us.
• Have child turn their back and you take one of the items away.  When they turn around have them guess which one you removed.  Talk about the fact that God sees what we do when others can’t.
• Go in every room, outside, under the bed, etc and repeat the Bible verse in each place
• Play Hide and Seek with older children and Peek a Boo with younger – pointing out that even when you can’t see them God still can

“You can talk to him about honesty which is being careful what you say and do – Click here for a post on this site for ideas and a song with signing video about honesty.

Hopefully something here will be helpful. Thank you for having a passion for establishing God’s Word in your children.

‘You are doing a great work’ (Jeremiah 6:3)”

Please feel free to email me with any questions at sheilahdaws@gmail.com. Not that I have all the answers, but I would be happy to try and help you find the answers as you train up your child in the way he should go.

Giving thanks produces contentment.  Read the suggested passages for Bible stories or thoughts and tell them in your own words.   Do one each day along with a suggested activities.  Put the Bible verse on the fridge and repeat it often.

(Choosing to be happy with what you have)

Bible Verse: In everything give thanks. 1 Thessalonians 5:18

Bible Stories:
Hebrews 1:15 - God wants us to give Him thanks more than anything. He would rather us tell Him “thank you” than to give Him money. He would rather us tell Him “thank you” than give Him presents. God likes to hear “thank you”.

Psalm 119:1 - David thanked God for everything God did. He thanked him for the good things. He even thanked God for the bad things that happened. David thanked God even when he was hurt because it helped him to learn God’s Word. The bad things that happen to us can help us learn more about God when we go through the hurtful things. God wants us to thank Him when good things happen and not so good things happen.

John 6:1-13 – One day Jesus was teaching a lot of people and they were all hungry. Jesus took what food was given to him by a little boy and thanked God for the food. God made enough food from that to feed all the people. Jesus gave thanks for His food and so should we.

Luke 17:11-19 – One day 10 sick men came to see Jesus. They asked Jesus to help make them well. He told them how to be healed. When they obeyed him, they were healed. All 10 were healed but only 1 came back to thank Jesus.

Psalm 139:14 David thanked God for making him. He said, “I will thank God for making me wonderfully” David thanked God for making all of his body – eyes, nose, mouth, ears, hands, feet, stomach, etc. Thank God for making all of you.

Prayer: Help us focus on things we do have, not on the things we don’t have

Activities:
Thank God for someone special and make a card for them.
Make a ‘thank you box’ and find pictures of things to put in it.
Paste picture of foods (favorite and not so favorite) on a paper plate and write the Bible verse on it. (John 6:1-13)
Make paper cut outs of the 10 sick men and act out the story. (Luke 17:11-19)
Play ball together and thank God for each part of the body as you use them. (Psalm 139:14)

A Thankful Song

Great song to sing on Easter 10-hooray.  Words can be found here.

Ministry to Children posted an awesome 4 minute video for children that wonderfully sums up the message of Easter.

Happy Easter!!

“>

This is a cute video by Kathie Hill Music that teaches your children the fact that they are special and their possibilities are limitless.

It is a live-action video using pipe cleaner characters.  The music is the classic children’s song by Bill Gaither with new tracks.

Daniel 2:21
And He changes the times and the seasons;

Celebrate each season, emphasizing God’s hand in it all.  Autumn is such a fun tme to enjoy God’s beautiful world with your children. Go outside and play in the leaves – build a leaf fort, bury each other in leaves, walk on the dry leaves and hear them crunch, see who can find the most perfect, colorful leaf.  Be sure to thank God for the leaves as you play. And don’t forget to sing!!!

(This is another lesson from Here a Little, There a Little, a compilation of Bible activities I created to use with my preschool children. It was designed to spend a week memorizing the verse and reinforcing it through Bible lessons and activities.)

Our Big God

God is greater than man.
Job 33:12

Bible Stories:

1. Psalm 104 David wrote about how great God is.  He knew God was greater than man.  It was God that made the heavens, water, and earth.  He puts the mountains and valleys in place..  God walks on the wind, causes the thunder, gives water to all the animals, and causes the grass to grow.  It is God who has made darkness, feeds the animals, causes the sun to rise and set, gives the animals homes, makes the moon to rise and set.  Man could work from morning to night and not be able to do all God does and has done and will do!!  Truly God is greater than man.
2. Exodus 2:11-14; 3:1-22; 14:15-31 Moses saw one of his people being beaten by an Egyptian.  This made Moses angry and he wanted to help his friend.  Moses killed the Egyptian and buried him in order to help his friend.  The next day someone found the Egyptian that Moses had buried and knew that Moses had done it.  Moses ran away.  God followed Moses and told him that he saw how bad his people were being treated and he was going to use Moses to help them.  God lead Moses to gather the people and lead them out of Egypt.  The Egyptian army followed them.  When they got to the sea, God parted the water and let them pass to the other side.  Just when the army started to pass, God caused all the army to be buried under the water.  God showed Moses that He is greater than man.  When Moses tried to help his people, he only helped one, only destroyed one Egyptian, and then didn’t bury him very well because someone found him.  When God helped His people, He helped them all, destroyed the entire Egyptian army, and completely buried them in the sea.  God IS greater than man!
3. Isaiah 55:8-9:25-31 God is greater than man.  God said that His ways are higher than our ways.  The things God thinks and plans are greater and wiser than the things we think and plan.  That is why we should always ask God what He wants us to do because He knows what is best for us.  God is greater than we are and knows more than we know.  Always ask God to show you what to do because He is greater than you.
4. Matthew 14:25-31 Jesus’ disciples were in a boat one night and Jesus came to them walking on the water.  Peter then wanted to come to Jesus and walk on the water, but he began to sink in the water because he was afraid.  Jesus was greater than Peter.  Jesus could walk on the water but Peter couldn’t.  God is greater than man and can do things greater than men can do.
5. Philippians 2:9-11 Jesus is greater than man.  God has even given Him a name that is greater than any man’s name. God says that at the name of Jesus everyone and everything shall bow down.  Jesus’ name has power and we can use His name to help us with any problem.  When we use Jesus’ name everything and every person will have to respect His name.  God is greater than man.  Jesus is greater than man and His name is greater than man.
6. Mark 4:36-39 Jesus and His disciples were in a boat.  Jesus was taking a nap.  All of  sudden a big storm came up with strong wind that was tossing the boat back and forth.  The disciples were afraid.  When they woke Jesus, He spoke to the wind and said “Peace, be still”.  Immediately the wind stopped.  Only Jesus can stop the wind!!

Prayer: Help us to always be aware that You are greater than us and we should depend on You to handle our problems

Activities for younger preschooler:

1. Go outside and point out all God made and share the verse
2. While in the tub, tell the story of God parting the water
3. Let him look in the mirror and talk about only God can make a cute little baby like him.
4. While in the tub, tell the story of Jesus walking on water
5. Sing ‘Jesus, Jesus, There’s Something About That Name’ from Bill Gaither’s Especially for Children
6. Let him feel the wind and talk about how Jesus stopped the wind

Activities for older preschoolers:

1. Put the verse on the refrigerator.
2. Play in the pool or bath and tell the story about God parting the waters
3. Show a rock, sand, water, etc.  Tell him to try and make a rock.  Share the verse.
4. In the tub or pool, tell the story of Jesus walking on water.  Try to walk on water.
5. Print the name of Jesus in block letters and let your child color it while you sing ‘Jesus, Jesus, There’s Something About That Name’ from Bill Gaither’s Especially for Children
6. Stand in front of a fan and try to stop the wind

Songs:

“Jesus, Jesus, There’s Something About That Name“
Listen to it here
Purchase it here

“My God Is So Big”

Books:

Check your children’s Bibles for the stories mentioned above.  If you don’t have any, there are several recommended on the Train Up The Child aStore