Does bad weather or sickness have you stuck inside the house? Do you need some quality ideas for things to watch? If you are an Amazon Prime member, you can watch some great videos about traveling around the world for free.
If you have never seen the Globe Trekker series, you are sure to enjoy these videos. Different people host each show and travel around the country they are featuring. They discuss things like nature, food, celebrations, people, religions, and traditions. Each episode is different and has different areas of focus, depending on the country featured. Kids will like seeing the different activities and places.
Click on any of the pictures below to go straight to the video:
(Affiliate links)
There are more to choose from, but this gives you an idea of some videos that are available. (Remember that Amazon pricing can change at any time, but at the time of the post, these are free.)
Also, free this weekend is an American Girl video “Melody”. Amazon is allowing people to view this for free in honor of Martin Luther King, Jr. Day. It is about a little black girl in 1963 and the struggles that she faces.
Not an Amazon Prime member? You can sign up for a free 30 day trial. (Just remember to cancel it if you don’t want to stay subscribed.) Click below!
(This post contains affiliate links. If you click on a link and make a purchase, familiesformissions.com will receive a small commission. I strive to only recommend quality products and links to my readers!)
Here’s a fun idea for a family activity … make a kite together! Every year millions of people in cities all over Gujarat, India celebrate the International Kite Festival. This festival marks the end of winter and the coming of summer based on the Hindu calendar. It is usually celebrated January 14th and 15th. People of all different beliefs celebrate this festival together.
There are organized kite competitions, with some very fierce competitors trying to battle it out and break each other’s strings. The strings of the most competitive are prepared by tying them between trees. Glass bangle bracelets are broken into very fine pieces of glass and attached to the string with a special glue. The glass-covered strings, when rubbed on a competitor’s string in the sky, cause them to break. This eliminates the competition.
I don’t recommend that you use glue and glass on your string. 🙂 Just get some lightweight sticks, string, a glue stick or tape, and some tissue paper. You can look up tutorials on how to make a kite online or just wing it and invent your own. Let your kids decorate it with stickers or draw on it. Whether these kites ever actually fly is not important… just have fun and use the time making them to talk about people in other places, like India.
Need some information about India?
India is a country with tons of diversity in cultures, regions, and religions. For a book with fun pictures for kids, check out I is for Indiaby Prodeepta Das.
If you want more information on culture, languages, and religious beliefs, you can check out Operation Worldby Jason Mandryk. This book gives parents some great ideas about how to pray for India.
Want a historical true story of a missionary to India? Check out books about Amy Carmichaelor William Carey. You might even be able to find these at your local church or public library!
Quick ideas for prayer and conversation:
Pray that religious freedom is continued to be allowed and that laws are not passed or upheld that would punish those who want to convert.
Many languages in India still do not have the Bible in their language.
Pray for the safety of missionaries that live in India. Also, pray that they are allowed to stay and work in that country.
(This post contains affiliate links. If you click on a link and make a purchase, familiesformissions.com receives a small commission. I strive to only recommend things that I am familiar with and trust to be of benefit to my readers.)
I recently saw a great post with some reading ideas for parents that want to read more books about missions to their kids. Many of us have this as a goal, but we don’t know where to start. Hopefully this post will give you some ideas!
Check out this post on the IMB website for some great ideas:
I own this book and find it to be a great resource. It gives descriptions and summaries of many different books based on the part of the world they are written about and the age of the child you will be getting the book for. If you are teaching about a region or country, you can look for books from South America or Brazil, specifically. Take this with you to your local library or request books online ahead of time. This can be a huge time-saver for homeschooling families or moms with small children! One bonus of this book is that the books are not all about missions… many are just about life in different countries and cultures. This will broaden your child’s idea of what the world is like.
Don’t be overwhelmed with the idea of needing to read tons of books or follow a specific program! Just start….get one book. If your kids aren’t excited about the first one you try, keep trying. You will eventually find a book that piques their interest!
(This post contains affiliate links. If you click on one and then make a purchase, familiesformissions.com will get a small commission. I only recommend products that I am familiar with and would recommend to others!)
Did you know that in some countries the Christmas celebration doesn’t end with Christmas day? Many people celebrate King’s Day or Epiphany on January 6th (12 days after Christmas). In the Western part of the world, this date is to celebrate the coming of the Magi to see baby Jesus and people meet to eat and celebrate together. In the Eastern part of the world, the celebration of Epiphany is more related to celebrating the baptism of Jesus. The focus tends to be on blessing water, blessing homes, and eating together.
In Mexico, people commonly believe that the Wise Men/Magi or Tres Reyes Magos were named Melchior, Gaspar, and Balthazar and travelled by horse, camel, and elephant to deliver presents of gold, frankincense, and myrrh to baby Jesus.
Growing up in Mexico, we followed some of the traditions of the Día de los Reyes (Day of the Kings). One of these is the tradition of buying a balloon for each small child and letting them attach a list to it. They let the balloon go and send it into the air…it is said that the Kings then receive the list (much like writing a letter to Santa Claus). The children leave their shoes by their bed or the door on January 5th, hoping that the Kings will leave them gifts on the morning of January 6th. My brother sent off a balloon for a year or two, but I felt I was too old for this tradition when we moved there. Of course, this didn’t stop me from putting my shoes out. 🙂 Usually my parents only gave us small trinkets in our shoes, since we had just celebrated Christmas, but many Mexican kids received larger gifts.
Rosca de Reyes
Another part of the celebration that takes place in Mexico is the Rosca de Reyes, which is a special sweet bread in the shape of an oval ring. It has candied fruit on top and a miniature baby Jesus doll hidden inside. Families and friends get together to split the Rosca de Reyes and each participant gets a piece. The person who ends up with the hidden doll inside their piece is supposed to then treat everyone there to a tamale dinner on February 2nd (the Day of the Candles). My parents participated in this with the neighbors, and the person who got the baby Jesus usually hosted a taco dinner, instead.
In Brazil, the Day of Kings is called Día do Reis. The night of January 5th is a night of celebrations with music, food, and treats. Many people put away their Christmas decorations then, as well.
France has two different kinds of kind bread or cake, depending on where you live. If you are from the North, you will probably eat a flat, round, flaky cake that is filled with frangipane or fruit. This is called Galette des Rois, and it usually has a trinket or bean baked into the cake. If you get the piece of cake with the bean in it, you are king or queen for the day and you get to wear a cardboard or paper crown. If you are from the South, the cake might be more crown-shaped and is usually filled with fruit.
Filipino children also leave their shoes out for the Kings to leave treats on Araw ng mga Tatlóng Hari (Three Kings Day). In some parts of the Philippines, three men dress up as “kings” and ride around giving treats to the children in the area.
In my research, I could not find anything about King’s Day celebrations in Zimbabwe or Indonesia (the other two countries found in Missionary Kid Stories). I did however, find information about many other countries. If you search for King’s Day or Epiphany, you can find information about how other countries around the world celebrate, too.
I was recently talking about different types of missionaries with my kids because I want them to know about all different types of mission work. I realized that there might be parents out there that are only familiar with a few types of missionaries. So, I have decided to write a series of posts that will help grownups and kids both learn more about the types of mission work being done around the world. I will try to include links to websites where you can find missionaries with these jobs. I will also try to include activities that families can do that tie into that type of work, when possible.
There are missionary pilots serving all over the world. They normally fly in countries where there are people groups that are difficult to get to (like Brazil, Papua New Guinea, Indonesia, The Democratic Republic of the Congo, The Philippines, etc.). They usually live near a base, where the planes or helicopters are kept in a hangar, and they fly out to villages and remote areas when needed. Many times, they can do a flight in an hour or two that would otherwise take days. They help all kinds of people:
Doctors taking vaccines or medicines to remote locations
Local people who need emergency care or transportation to a hospital or clinic
Missionaries that are working to translate the Bible into local languages in villages
Local pastors that are traveling and preaching in different villages
Missionaries that need supplies
Here are just a few websites that include information about missionary pilots. Take some time to read about a few…some have their own blogs or newsletters that you can subscribe to.
Want some activities for your little aspiring pilots?
Look up countries like Brazil, Papua New Guinea, Indonesia, The Democratic Republic of the Congo, The Philippines on a map or puzzle of the world
Make paper airplanes and watch them fly. Have a competition to see which one goes farthest.
Look up take-offand landing videoson missions websites like the ones above. Imagine landing and taking off from the small, slanted, grass runways!
(Most of the links in this post are to direct you to another source of information. There are, however, a couple of affiliate links and Families for Missions might receive a small commission if you click on those and make subsequent purchases.)
A fun way to teach kids about missions is to do a service project. I suggest finding an organization in your area and coming up with an idea for how to serve them. You might even ask them if they have needs or ideas.
Our family lives near a shelter for homeless men that are trying to get back on their feet. They offer a warm place to stay, meals, and Bible classes for those interested. They also serve the local community by giving out food boxes and supplies.
In the past, we have donated money and supplies. Last year I tried to come up with an idea of how the kids could get involved. They are young, so finding ways to involve them is a little trickier.
I went to the local fabric store and purchased fleece. (If you watch for sales or buy remnants, you can get the fabric inexpensively.)
Then we cut it into scarves to donate. My daughter helped cut them out and loved it. My son couldn’t cut as easily with the fabric shears, but he helped stack and organize the scarves. (He had fun counting them.) 🙂 We talked about how blessed we are to live in a warm house and have warm clothes and plenty of food. We talked about the needs that people in our own community have. They both went with us when we donated the scarves.
This was something they talked about for weeks afterward, especially on very cold days. It made an impact in their little lives and they asked if we could do it again this year.
There are other ways you can help locally, even on a budget:
Serve food at a local homeless diner
Play piano or sing for a local nursing home or shelter
Make Christmas treats or cards to take to nursing home or shelter
Purchase supplies to donate (clip coupons and watch sales to make this affordable)
Help clean or do yard work for a local organization
Collect coins to donate to a local organization – Let your kids do chores to earn extra money to donate
Would your family like to find out what Christmas is like in other countries? Do you need ideas for fun recipes and crafts? Try Kate & Mack’s 12 Days of Christmas.
You may not actually have the time or energy to do all of these activities this Christmas season (because let’s face it – we’re all pretty busy). BUT it will be a great way for your family learn about other traditions around the world, even if you only read them or do a few!
Have you ever used an advent calendar? This is a fun thing that you can incorporate into family devotions or homeschooling. It will help your family focus more on the reason for the Christmas season.
There are tons of options out there, but here is a fun printable from Wycliffe.org. It is called “Kate & Mack’s Christmas Advent Calendar“, and it looks like a fun project for little ones!
Check out the Reader Tip that I wrote for MoneySavingMom.com.
As a parent, we want our kids to be kind and generous with others, but we all know this does not come naturally to most children. So, how do we teach them to give to others when they would rather focus on their own needs and wants?
Here is a great idea for family fun if you and your children like puzzles! We recently purchased this puzzle and our 5 and 8 year olds are loving it! We spend time together working on putting it together, and we talk about the countries and illustrations on it. There are 100’s of fascinating illustrated facts about the world. The finished puzzle measures 24″ x 36″.
This would make a great Christmas present…or an activity for the family to do together during the Thanksgiving or Christmas break!
