5000 Hungry Hippos

Enoch had his first "Family Fun Night!"

We read and acted out the story of Jesus feeding the 5,000. Elijah played the part of Jesus, and Abby was the boy who provided the 5 loaves and two fish. Enoch and I, as well as a bunch of stuffed animals, were members of the crowd. We gave Abby a basket of 5 slices of bread and two fish sticks.

After "Jesus" prayed, miraculously, enough fish sticks and bread appeared to feed the whole crowd. We discussed the concept of sharing and talked about ways we can share what we have with others.

Last we played the game, "Hungry, Hungry Hippos." We tried to relate the hunger of the hippos to how we hunger after Jesus. I know, a big concept for a little girl and baby, but it will sink in some day!

Family Fun Night: Homeward Bound II

We had another Family Fun Night last night.

We watched the movie "Homeward Bound II." The first movie was much better than the sequal. We had to fast forward through some dog fights and dog napper parts, but overall it was good.

We were able to relate the theme of this movie to God. In case you haven't seen it, the movie is about 3 pets that get lost from their family. We talked about how when we disobey God, we are lost from Him, and how happy God is when we return to Him.

It was neat because earlier in the day Elijah had lost a penny, when he found it, he rejoiced and related it to the "lost coin" parable in the Bible.

We also recalled how earlier that day Abby had lost the flashlight she was playing with and we talked about how sad she was when she couldn't find it. But later that day, she found it and we "rejoiced!"

That's just how sad God is when we are "lost" from Him and how happy He is when we return to Him.

Yes, we realize this is an advanced concept for an almost three year old to understand, but if nothing else, she understands what the word, "lost" means now. We're just trying to plant seeds!

Sherbet & Charades

Tonight was another Family Fun Night.

We started off by eating Orange Sherbet that Andrea made in the powerful Vita-Mix machine.

Then we proceeded to play charades in our living room. The above video details the events of the game. It was like a zoo entered our home! We all had a great time playing together.

Later Abby showed me some dance moves and we played on the floor.

Alligator Mouth

We enjoyed another "Family Fun Night" together yesterday. Abby and I had a rough afternoon together, I'd kept her out too late when she needed a nap and she was having trouble using kind words with her friends.

We decided to do a little devotional before we played our game (the alligator game where you push the teeth down and try not to get "bitten" by the alligator). Elijah read us a few scripture about the tongue (Proverbs and James). One of the scriptures talks about putting a guard over your mouth. So I got out "Mouthy Mouth," the mouth puppet I used to use in speech therapy, and asked Abby what do we use our mouths for? She said, "To eat." I said, "Yes, what else do we use them for?" I was thinking to talk, she stood up and said, "To stand up and PRAISE the Lord!" with her little hands lifted high. I almost cried, it was so precious! That is after all why God gave us our mouths isn't it?

Anyway, so we talked about how are mouths can either give blessings (Kind words) or curses (unkind or mean words). Mouthy Mouth gave us some examples of kind words and unkind words and she had to tell which was which. When Mouthy Mouth used unkind words, we put a guard over our mouth-literally putting our hands over our mouth. I think she got it, later that night she told her Daddy, "NO!" in an unkind way, she immediately covered up her mouth!

After this, we played the alligator game and dominoes. Then we made popcorn together. It was great! We hope you'll have time to have a "Family Night" at your house soon, remember to share your ideas with us! For more Family Night ideas see the Girl Talk blog.

Game Night

We decided to have another special family night, but we don't want to make movie nights a common experience. So, we tried a game night.

Andrea and Abby made popcorn again and we played Leap Frog Dominoes. The first level of dominoes is to match the color ends of the pieces. We had a great time playing together.

If any of you have any good ideas for family nights together, please share them. We would love to try them.

Movie Night

Well we decided it was time to have our first movie night with Abby and introduce her to the wonders of Disney & Pixar.

Before showing the movie Andrea and I did some internet research about the sea creature names and made a matching game for Abby.

Andrea and Abby made popcorn and I pulled out the gummy bears.

Abby loved watching Finding Nemo, as do many young children. To be on the safe side, we made sure to fast forward through the scary parts (shark attacks, etc…).

It was a great time had by all!

Do you have good ideas of how to make a movie night an educational experience as well?