Books

Here are some books that we have really enjoyed.

This is one of the best kids' "Bible" we have read to our daughter.  A good friend lent it to us and both my husband and I think it does a really good job of communicating the main points from the Bible stories.  The narrative is short as are most kids "Bibles." Our daughter loves it.  We have read the NT portion in one sitting several times to her.
Big Picture Story Bible can be found here

This book attempts to explain what it means to give your heart to Jesus.  It is about a mom who tells her daughter she gave her heart to Jesus and the little girl figuring out what that means.
A Heart for Jesus can be found here

This book was also shown to me by a good friend but since it didn't have many pictures, I didn't get very interested in it.    It is probably one of my favorites books ever!  Our daughter loves it too even though it lacks pictures.
The book takes a Bible verse and then tells a positive story about a family and how this verse applied to their experiences that day.  I also love that they are constantly talking about how the Holy Spirit reminded them or helped them to do what God was wanting them to do.  It communicates that we don't try really hard to obey but that we cooperate with the Holy Spirit.
You can find the book here

These books are very nice.  They use stories to illustrate truths that might be hard to understand.  The three books deal with God's Love, Salvation, Forgiveness, Obeying, The Bible, Conversion, Helping others, Joy in Jesus, Trust, Choices, Prayer, and Jesus.  We have appreciated having them since they use everyday life to explain some of the terms kids will hear a lot being raised in the church.

You can find them here

This is part of the story illustrating Salvation

Books

This is a very good parable about several orphan kids who have been told that the king is coming to get them.  All but one start working on special talents to impress the king.  One girl had no talent but took time for others.  When the king comes, everyone is too busy except this little girl.  It is a very good book but I can't say that a 3 year old understands the significance yet.  I have been told it is out of print so it is one that we have and will use in the future.
You can still get it here

This is a nice book with good pictures that goes through the last week of Jesus' life.

You can find it here and it's on sale.

I am a big fan of this book!  It uses a story to illustrate and teach about tithe and offering.  It is British, therefore using pounds instead of dollars but an excellent book.

You can get the book here

This is a nice book about a girl who had a grumpy elderly neighbor.  Through love, she and her family brought him to Jesus.  It is also centered around Easter, but good anytime of the year.

you can get it here

This a nice little board book for Valentines day.  It talks about what we do and also talks about God's love.

you can find it here

Service

Random acts of kindness.

I found this really good post on a friend's pinterest page.  It is something that could be done most anytime.    

35 Random acts of kindness

Sabbath

Church Bag items

A lot of people bring a bag of special goodies to church for their kids to occupy them during the service.  These are "toys" that are saved only for Sabbath.  Our daughter looks forward to her special playtime during church, and she gets upset if we leave after Sabbath school.

This is a book of puzzles.

You can get them here.  There are a lot of different options.





Felt bible story book

This is a little book with different Bible stories. The children can use the pieces to tell the bible story.

This book can be found here

Other books are also available and can be found here.

_________________________________________________________________________________

Christmas is an amazing time of year with so many opportunities for focusing on Jesus.  We had our first Christmas at home last year and these are some of the things that we did and are repeating this next year.  It was a blessed Christmas focusing on Jesus.  

Christmas Eve, waiting for baby Jesus

Nativity:
This is our nativity but each piece gets wrapped up and put under the tree.  I only have 15 different pieces, so each evening (the 15 days before Christmas) our daughter opens up a present.  She is delighted with each one and our worship that night focuses on the part of the Christmas story that the object represents.  As she get older we will get more in depth with the lessons.

Christmas morning opening up baby Jesus

Presents:

We have asked everyone in our family give our daughter one present for Christmas.  We do the same.  We don't want Jesus to get lost sight of in the midst of "getting."  We have talked a lot this year about the way we give Jesus presents for His birthday is by giving to others.  “The King will reply, ‘I tell you the truth, whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers of mine, you did for me."  Matt. 25:40  Therefore we are looking for the "least of these" to help.  Growing up, we adopted a family every year and brought Christmas to them, we are wanting to continue that tradition.  We are also planning on visiting an elderly person with no family on Christmas day and taking them dinner.  We want to focus on giving special gifts to Jesus.

Advent Wreath of sorts:

Instead of a wreath we have four candles on the mantle (hard to see in picture, will put up a better one soon).  Each candle represents a different part of Christmas, we did peace, love, joy, and hope.  The four Friday nights before Christmas we would light a new candle until all four were lit.

After lighting the candle, we had little cards to hang on the Christmas tree.  One for each person present. On the card we wrote how we had experienced each of the four characteristics (love, joy, peace, and hope) of Christmas that year.  Then we wrote how we thought God had experienced each (love, joy, peace and hope) because of our lives in the past year.  Then the card was hung on the tree.  

Birthday cake for Jesus:

We have a birthday cake for Jesus after Christmas dinner.  My mom sent some ideas for the cake.  Here is the link if you are interested. 

Cards:

One fun part of Christmas is receiving Christmas cards from friends and family.  At dinner each night, one can pray for the families of the cards that were received that day in the mail.  

Santa:  

At this point we are telling our daughter about the historical character St. Nicholas.  We have also been telling her that Santa celebrates Jesus birthday by giving presents to people.  Trying to focus it on the giving aspect.  

These are some of the things we are doing this holiday season.  I would love to hear about traditions you have. I will try to post more as I get time, time has been lacking lately...  

Chad Stuart, a pastor and good friend, has a blog that is really good for those who are interested.  He shares thoughts on things of God.  I am referring you to a post he wrote called "What My Parents Did Right."  He shares some good things to consider and apply. 

Sabbath Pajamas

We have previously posted on Sabbath PJ's but have added some elements.  On Friday evening baths are taken and then white pajamas, worn only on Sabbath, are put on.  While dressing we talk about how Jesus takes away our dirty clothes and gives us clean white clothes.

Some verses that we use to go with the lesson are: Zechariah 3:1-6, Rev. 3:4-5, 18

REQUEST:
I know most people have special things for kids to play with during church, things they only get during church.  If you have anything that is special, that your child likes a lot, I would love to know what it is.  If you could send a picture of it to growingtoknow@gmail.com, that would be wonderful!  Thanks so much! .