This activity is very quick to put together and you only need what's lying round you house (which is rather handy when some things are in short supply in the shops [e.g. flour for salt dough]) Grab a tray, or basket if you don't have one, and find about 10 to 15 objects round the house. Ensure they are fairly small as you need to be able to cover them up easily. Suggestions: - Pencil/Pen - Eraser - Torch - Finger Puppet - Baby Socks - Small Ornament - Watch - Thread Spool - Toy Car - Coin - Lego Figure - Tea Light Candle - Button Just the setting up for this activity by collecting various items for this definitely piqued the interest of my toddler! So although you can prepare it all beforehand, feel free to do it 'off-the-cuff' and build the interest (e.g. "We're going to do a special activity now, no peaking! Can you clear the table for us so we're ready?") Once you've got some items, make sure you have a tea towel or scarf handy to cover the items with. Place the tray on a table (or lay out the objects if you don't have one) and cover with the cloth. What to do (explain these steps to your child before you start so they know what they need to do): 1. Uncover the objects and have a good look at them. Take a few minutes to do this (but not too long) by pointing out each one and saying what it is (or get them to tell you). They can pick up the object at this point and have a good look at it but they must place it back onto the tray afterwards. 2. Cover the objects back up again so they can't be seen (cover those corners!) 3. Ask you child to name as many of the items they can without looking at under the cloth (You can either write down their answers or just remember what they guess). For this part I suggest putting a time limit on just so you're not stuck guessing for ages. 4. Uncover the objects again and see how many you remembered! If you want to you can cover the objects again and repeat the game to see if they can remember more this time. Or if you would like to play with different objects you could get your child to choose the objects and have the adults guess!
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Many people would agree that a key part of parenting is not just the feeding, washing and changing of children, it's the teaching of morals and values as well as practical advice of how to get through life (e.g. Don't eat the outside of an orange, peel it like this and eat the middle!)
The values we hold are very evident to our children who live with us and see us day-in-day-out, they know when we might be contradictory about a behaviour or opinion! So it's very important we have a look at ourselves and see what we might be teaching them. There was a horrible realisation a while ago when my eldest was learning to speak that when apologising he would say, "Sorry, I didn't mean to" which was infuriating when it was quite evident that indeed it WAS intended, but then I stopped and realised that the reason he'd apologise like that is because that's how I said sorry to him. I felt awful. It's an innocent enough phrase but actually was teaching something not quite right. With a change in my responses we now both just say 'I'm sorry', forgive, cuddle, move on. Much better! God has a great love of families and raising children is often referred to as a blessing and honour, so it makes sense that He has clear opinions on bringing children up well. In the book of Proverbs it says: "Train up a child in the way he should go; even when he is old he will not depart from it." [22:6] We know that, if we do not teach our children to be loving and kind, they may become mean and selfish. Or if we do not teach them to observe boundaries put in place by us they may run into the road when we've instructed them to stay on the footpath. In the same way, spiritual disciplines have to be learnt in order to become part of the daily routine. For us, reading the Bible, singing and praying together are our staples and something we aim to do at least once a day. It goes like this: - Read a short passage from the Bible (we use the ESV) - Read a short passage from a spiritual book (feel free to email us for suggestions) - Sing one or two songs (we do a mix of traditional hymns [Which are fab for learning theological truths] and children's worship songs [Great Big God is a firm favourite] - Pray (we ask our eldest what he'd like to say thank you for and who he'd like to pray for, then pray those things together) This may seem like a lot but the whole of 'Family Worship' time lasts around 10-15 minutes. Some days the boys are not quite in the mood and struggle to sit still or are wailing because they're tired, and that's ok, we just adapt and maybe read shorter passages or just read a bit of the Bible then pray but we always aim to do as much as we can (it's for our benefit too!). Participation is encouraged but not enforced, however the are required to be respectful whilst we do it (e.g. you don't have to pray but you do need to be quiet when we do). The main point is to rejoice and bring God glory together as a family. "...But as for me and my house, we will serve the LORD" [Joshua 24:15b] For a better write up about Family Worship I recommend to read a piece called "The Duty and Joy of Household Worship" written by Owen: https://undergrowingbranches.blogspot.com/2020/03/the-duty-and-joy-of-household-worship.html?fbclid=IwAR3x6Bz-uDA9kPlqg4fqG29jaIlhhNCynZK6Kqs8dLblRdk2j2Ubus3QkHY Also, check out this book: "Family Worship" Joel Beeke |
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