Fun Family Evenings
How We Got Our Groove Back
BY Carolyne Destiny
Covid 19 struck and with it came, as hard as it has been,
some changes which in the long run maybe working together for our good. In this
season, I have seen families do picnics in their front yards, kids play with
their parents and couples take long walks together. While the circumstances
around Covid 19 have forced many families to adopt this new lifestyle, I pray
that this wonderful family and marriage strengthening activities continue even
after the pandemic.
On our end, we discovered that we had also gone on a go-
slow as far as family evening activities were concerned. One of the reasons our
evening were not synchronized was because my husband was hardly home on time
for the activities. After trying a few times, we dwindled and let go
altogether, something we shouldn’t have done. Now that we are all home, we
decided to pick up from where we left and it has been amazing. We introduced an
activity after our daily devotion which has made our evenings magical. Here is
a peep at our evenings. I hope you get inspired to create fun activities for
your family.
Comedy
Night – We didn’t quite plan this one, on the contrary, it just
happened upon us. After our daily devotional, we decided to play what is
commonly known in Kenya as ‘harambee’ story or song. One of us was to start a
song or story and we would carry on and on. Off course with a five year old
whose imagination and fantasy is ten times wilder than ours, our story soon
moved from a nice story in the woods to excavators and transformers and a robot
called Kenya that was going to crush the Corona virus boom! And we were all
reeling in laughter watching our story go south and trust me, those moments
can’t be found on Netflix. And thus
our comedy night was born, we shall see how to build it up further.
Praise
Night – Praise is one of my favorite forms of worship. Again,
after our devotional, the idea is to go on a longer session of praise than we
would normally do. This one also comes with a little drama as our budding
drummer boy drums the table. We have a good time making up praise songs. We
would like to amplify this with an acoustic guitar.
Game Night – There are countless games on Pintrest that you and your family can
choose from. However, we prefer to make games up, or at least come up with our
own variation that do not require us to buy anything. One of them is table
bowling using a bead and chess pieces standing on a line. It’s fun and
competitive. We play guessing games and humming games. Our daughter has created
a treasure hunt that sends us savaging through the house. One of our favorite
games, which we have played for almost ten years is called tablets. It’s a
simple game where we pick a folded paper and do as it says. God has used this
game to speak into our lives several times by having us pick exactly what he
desires of us. On the same note, we have board games, spinning games and
survival challenges.
Prayer
Night – Just like praise night, this is an extended time of
prayer. I recently came across an article from a blogger I follow, Prayers and Possibilities, how to keep your
prayer life inspired. In it, she shares several ideas that I have adopted
for us. When praying with young children, you also want them to develop a love
for praying. You can make it practice and remove the mundane out of it. In the
article, Kathryn recommends prayer walks, though common, I like that when you
involve your kids, they can point out their friends’ homes and you can pray for
each home as you pass by. You may not know their needs, but God does. You can
also take a virtual prayer ‘walk’ through your Facebook feed and WhatsApp praying
over their needs as you see them. When praying for other cities and nations, spread
a map on the table and point to a city or country to pray over. This is a good
time to pray over the countries most affected by the Corona virus.
Movie Night
– This
one seems to be a highlight for most homes. It is in ours, so much so I see
some people rushing the devotional to get to the movie. A movie night is a
great way to spend time as a family. Thankfully, there are many movies to
choose from that are wholesome, entertaining and educative. We are currently
watching the series Chosen which
takes us through the lives of the people Jesus interacted with. It’s so
interesting to imagine Peter’s life before he became a follower of Jesus or
Mary Magdalene before she was delivered. So much Jewish history and imagination
has gone into the making of this series.
Family
Meeting – The main purpose for this meeting is to find out in a
deeper sense where everyone is. It’s
a review of how everyone is doing. Ask each other, how was your week? What
challenges did you encounter? How were they solved if at all? What are your
three biggest wins for the week? What are your 3 biggest loses? Which character
trait or Fruit of the Spirit was tested this week? This conversations are
helpful in building a strong family where everyone feels understood and
listened to. Family meetings are a good time to discuss or cast a family
vision. Simply, what are you about? What are your values? What or who are you
pursuing in life? It helps families to be on the same page and therefore limit
conflict.
Bonus
Tip – How to make devotion time fun for younger kids
Simply reading a passage of
the bible and telling a story can get a bit boring for younger kids (though it
depends on who is telling (wink wink) and also the learning styles for each
kid). Here are some ideas to make your bible study more engaging.
Use
art
– I found that with my youngest, a bible story is best told as we draw and
color the story. For example, when reading the story of creation, I draw (never
mind how) and he colors the things God created on each day. When reading the
story of Jesus calming the sea, I will try sketch a boat and an ocean under a
heavy storm and he will color. Apart from this being an engaging activity, I
find that he remembers such stories better than the ones we did draw and color.
Use
toys
– Blocks are our favorite go to toys. With blocks, you can build a bible verse
or even a story. Our favorite bible verses that we started with are found in
Proverbs 18:10 and psalm 125: 2. We have had so much fun building a tower as
well as a city. As we build, we memorize the verses. Which verses can you build
out of toys?
Act
it out – On the day we were reading the story of Jesus calming the
storm (for the thousandth time), heavy winds were being reported in various
parts of the country, our town included. I remember our little one putting on
his ‘superman’ cape, standing at the door and commanding the storms to calm down,
just like Jesus in the story and I realized enacting a bible story is a great
way to study the bible with kids.
What
activities are keeping you and your family creatively engaged this season?
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