Sunday School on Friday - A Net full of Fish

Last Friday we read the Bible story about the apostles who were out fishing but weren't catching anything. Jesus showed up and told them to cast their net onto the other side of the boat. The net was instantly so full of fish that they had trouble hauling it in! Again, we used our favorite little Bible for toddlers.

M is REALLY into fishing lately so this was a great story for him. He has never really been fishing, but he sure pretends to a lot. He fishes in the backyard with a stick, in the bathtub, at Grandpa's farm sitting in a wagon... he is a born fisherman.

For activities we played a fishing game that I made a long time ago. It's made from cardstock and has the letters of the alphabet on it. The "eyes" of the fish are metal grommets. The fishing pole is a wooden dowel with a string glued to it and a magnet glued to the end of the string. Once a fish is caught we name the color it is and the letter written on it.

We also did a craft with liquid watercolors. You can buy these at school supply stores, or simply make your own by mixing regular (washable!) tempera with a little water or liquid starch. We keep ours in a muffin tin and used plastic pipettes to drop the paints onto coffee filters and paper towels. I am so sorry I didn't get pictures of this part. Must've been a little too tired that day. The neat thing about watercolors on coffee filters, paper towels, and tissue paper is that one little drop will soak in and bleed out, making new colors as the paints mix on the paper.

After letting them dry, we (I) cut fish shapes out and using a needle and white thread we created this mobile for M's room. The picture doesn't really do it justice. It turned out really pretty. And, most importantly, it was a chance to be creative and have FUN!

Have a beautiful day! :)

Sunday School on Friday - David and Goliath

We had a lot of fun with this one! We read the story about David and Goliath in our Bible for toddlers.

Then, to help the story "stick" in M's mind we did some fun stuff with rocks.

We painted them:

Then put them in a little glass votive holder for a table centerpiece:

We also drew this on the patio:

And took turns tossing rocks into the squares and saying the numbers:

Whoever's rock landed in the square with the bigger number won. Simple, yet lots of fun for a 2 year old who normally isn't allowed to throw rocks!

I thought about drawing a giant and trying to hit him in the head (like David did to Goliath); but fortunately my brain kicked in just in time to realize that might not be a good idea, and might be pretty horrifying for a small child. Hee hee.

We did have a talk about how we normally don't throw rocks at people, but God told David it would be ok this ONE time because Goliath was so mean and David had to win so the people could be safe. We didn't mention death or anything very gory; neither did his little Bible, which is one of the reasons I love it so much!

For more ideas about Bible stories and activities to go with them for your young child, visit some of these sights:

Christianpreschoolprintables.com

DLTK-Bible.com

BibleStorySundays.com

Have a beautiful day! :)

The Beginner's Bible

This is such a great little Bible. It has very clear language for toddlers and preschoolers, even for older babies. We've been using it for a while now. We take M to church with us; he doesn't go to Sunday School, and while we make sure to talk about Jesus and God and our faith a lot at home, I thought we should start having more of a child-centered "Sunday school" time at home. I want him to learn about how Jesus loves children, and the miracles He did, as well as all the other great old and new testament stories.

I checked this book out at our library first, and loved it so much I bought a copy. We've started making time for "Sunday School" on Fridays (we do read the bible stories on other days too) and I try to include a craft or some other activity to help the stories stick in M's mind. I hope to do some "Sunday School on Friday" posts as we go along. It's been a lot of fun!

If you are looking for a good Bible for small children, I highly recommend this one!

Have a beautiful day!