Faith at home for kids amid COVID-19

Hello parents and grandparents, 

With school being cancelled Malini and I know first hand how challenging this is for both parents, caregivers and children at this time.  

To try to help, we are putting together some thoughts and suggestions for practicing your faith at home, to keep the faith strong and bored kids active.  
As there are so many emails like this we are curating our list to just a few ideas a week.  If you’ve found something that is particularly helpful please feel free to pass it along.

Online Sunday school with a craft!  Malini has not stopped teaching Sunday school – she’s just brought it online.  Click on this link to have her lead children in a prayer, share with them a story and take them step by step through a craft to biblical principal home.  

To accompany this video she has sent the lesson plan with questions to talk with your children about and this weeks memory verse.  Once we gather again members of the Sunday school will be quizzed on how much they learnt and a prize will be given to those who do best! 
This weeks video is about Mary and Martha – on Sunday we will be hearing from the two sisters again as Jesus visits their home to raise Lazarus from the dead!  A video for Sunday’s lesson will be sent out early next week for you to do at home.  Home Devotions:  Since everyone is at home try using this time to deepen your family’s spiritual life.  Every morning our family is starting our day with an extended time of prayer where we open in prayer, sing a praise song (from the Bede’s Praise – youtube channel), read a bible story from a children’s bible, then we each then share an intention about how we wish to spend the day, and we let the kids know anything significant on the days agenda (and they can do similar with us) before we finally close with a prayer.  My daughter likens this to the school announcements.  
I’m finding that the advantage of doing this at the start of the day is that it starts us out well for the day ahead.
Books and colouring sheets: Check out Zonderkids and the large listing of reading, teaching and colouring materials they have made available for free at https://www.zonderkidz.com/resources/freebies/

Educational/Information about Coronavirus:  If you are looking for a way to talk to your kids or explain covid19, Brainpop.com is an education website and they have a great video for kids about the coronavirus and some fun online activities about it too.  Best for kids 6-12 .  https://www.brainpop.com/health/diseasesinjuriesandconditions/coronavirus/
For kids under 6 – think about going through this colouring/activity book to help kids name their emotions and learn more about covid19 which they’ve been hearing people talk about.  

Screen Time:  At times like this, sometimes screen time is needed for parents to work or get a break.    Keep track of what kids are watching or playing by checking out the site: commonsensemedia.com – it’s a review site of movies, books and video games and gives a quick and easy breakdown of age appropriateness and what to expect.  Each review also has a section called “Talk to your kids about” so you have questions to ask your kids about what they watched, read or played during the day.  This site also has some resources about speaking with your child about coronavirus. 
If your kids haven’t already watched all the veggie tales there are the Big Idea youtube page has lots of free videos of these crazy Christian vegetables https://www.youtube.com/user/BigIdeaInc/videos

Other activities: 
The “Are you bored?” Jar: this can be accomplished with pieces of paper, popsicle sticks, or any vehicle for writing down and pulling out an idea. Brainstorm with your children about every single thing they like to do (e.g. lego, puzzles, dress up, play dolls, remote control car, draw a picture, read a book, call a grandparent, etc.). Try to think of toys they haven’t played with in awhile, games that are out of the ordinary, or activities that might surprise them. Write each one down on a piece of paper, and put it in a bowl or jar. Then, whenever you hear the ubiquitous “I’m booooored”, have them pull it out. You can always say, the rule is you have to do one of the first three things you choose (sample picture attached!)