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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