Tag: Family Activity

Three King’s Day (Epiphany) – Around the World

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.

(This post contains an affiliate link.)

Types of Missionaries – Missionary Pilots

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.

First up…

Missionary Pilots

(Photo from http://ntm-aviation.org/photos)

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.

(Photo from http://ntm-aviation.org/photos)

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-off and landing videos on 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.)

 

Family Activity – Service Project

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.)

fleece-for-scarves

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

Do you have other ideas?

Christmas Around the World

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.

Register now at https://www.wycliffe.org/resources/kids/12days and receive 12 daily emails with info about Christmas in each of 12 different countries.

Kate and Mack in a snowy landscape

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!

Family Activity – Christmas Advent Calendar

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!

Advent coloring page

Have fun!

Reader Tip – 10 Ideas to Teach Children to Give

Check out the Reader Tip that I wrote for MoneySavingMom.com.

children-giving

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 are a few ideas…   Go here to read the rest!

Hopefully you can get some great ideas for how to help your kids learn to be more giving.

Do you have other ideas?  Please share them!

Family Activity – Children’s Map of the World Puzzle

(This post contains affiliate links.)

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″.

img_8645

This would make a great Christmas present…or an activity for the family to do together during the Thanksgiving or Christmas break!

 

Why I Wrote a Children’s Book – Missionary Kid Stories

first-copy-selfie

(This post contains affiliate links.)

As a former Missionary Kid (MK), missions has played an important role in my life. I now live in the United States, and I want my kids to be exposed to missions, too. But this is hard to accomplish when you don’t live in another country.

I have implemented many of the things that I write about on this blog with my family, but I wanted something that would be very interesting for the kids and that would help me with other ideas of how to teach them.  Let me tell you about how Missionary Kid Stories came into existence.

My kids and I tend to read lots of books together, so I started looking for books about missions to read to the kids. I wanted one that had information on different countries and types of ministries, but from a kid’s perspective. In searching for a book like this for my children, I could not find one that talked about different ministry strategies from the missionary child’s point of view. The closest book that I found was: Around the World With Kate and Mack by Melissa Paredes (published by Wycliffe), which has a missionary child traveling around and focusing on different languages, cultures, and people groups. I also found several other books written for children about true missionaries from history, like Amy Carmichael and Hudson Taylor.

So, I set out to write a fun, educational, and informative way for children to learn two main things about missions. The result is Missionary Kid Stories . In it, kids learn:

  1. What life is like for different missionary kids in other countries (Mexico, Brazil, Zimbabwe, France, Indonesia, and the Philippines)
    • where they live
    • what languages they speak
    • where they go to school
    • their favorite foods
    • the weather
    • local arts and crafts
    • important landmarks or interesting topography
  2. Different types of ministries in which missionaries serve
    • printing Biblical literature
    • Bible translation
    • teaching in a seminary for local pastors
    • church planting
    • piloting planes to reach remote locations
    • teaching in an international school

Each chapter focuses on a different missionary kid, each in a different country, each with a different ministry focus. The characters are fictional (for security reasons in some countries), but are based, largely, on real missionary families serving around the world.

This book is intended to plant ideas into children’s minds that will hopefully grow into a desire to serve God in missions. I know that my kids have enjoyed reading this book (or having it read to them), and it has sparked many conversations about things they read about. I have been able to use this book to teach them about the countries included. For example, you can read about ideas to use when learning about Brazil here.

I the coming months, I plan to include more ideas for activities you can do with your children based on the book. I hope that families will use this to help broaden their children’s horizons. I also hope that it will be useful in homeschooling, Sunday Schools, and Vacation Bible Schools.  If you would like to purchase the paper or Ebook version of “Missionary Kid Stories”, click here!

If you have activity ideas that coordinate with the countries or ministries in the book, comment and share! I’d love to know!

Family Activity – Cooking with Kate and Mack

Want a fun idea for an activity to do with the family?  Check out these recipes from Wycliffe sent in by real missionary kids!  You can try to make them with your kids and try foods from all over the world!

wycliffe-kids-cooking-picture

https://www.wycliffe.org/resources/kids/cook

Family Activity – Operation Christmas Child Boxes

One fun way to involve your children in thinking and giving globally is to pack an Operation Christmas Child box.   First, find a shoe box or plastic shoe container. Next, decide what age group and gender you would like to pack a box for. Then, buy things and fill the box. Donate 7 dollars to help with shipping the box to its destination. (If you do this online, your package will be tracked and you will get an email to let you know when and where your package was delivered.)

Why do this?

  • It is practical and hands-on – your kids can help buy things and pack things with you.
  • It can be budget friendly – you can choose to spend as much or as little as your budget allows.
    • One option is to take your kids shopping with you to the store. You can let them help choose items – they’ll have great fun putting things in the cart and helping.
    • Another option is to buy things throughout the year as you find them on sale. This is great for families on a budget. You can get fun stuffed animals and toys at after-Christmas sales and after Easter items go on clearance. Back-to-school shopping can help you find great deals on pens, pencils, erasers, and pencil sharpeners. Many times you can get these for 1 penny!

I am going to walk you through what we put in our boxes and how much we spent.

img_8621

Box 1:

  • Backpack – $2.00 at Walmart on clearance in October
  • Bunny – $0.50 on clearance after Easter
  • Pencil Sharpener – $0.01 at Office Max in August
  • Red and Black Pens – $0.01 at Office Max in August
  • Crayons – $0.01 at Office Max in August
  • Markers – $1.50 at Walgreens in August
  • Scissors – $0.75 at clearance sale at Walgreens in September
  • Balls – (we had a baggy of these at home, so they were not a recent purchase)
  • Toothbrush and Toothpaste – Free (donated)
  • Socks- $0.50 I split a package between the boxes
  • Pencil – we had this at home
  • I threw in some Bandaids and hard Halloween candies at the last minute (not in the picture).
  • TOTAL $5.28 + $7.00 = $12.28

img_8618

Box 2:

  • Backpack – $2.00 at Walmart on clearance in October
  • Eeyore – $0.50 on clearance after Easter
  • Hot Wheels – $0.25 each at a garage sale in the summer (New in package!)
  • Pencil Sharpener – $0.01 at Office Max in August
  • Red and Black Pens – $0.01 at Office Max in August
  • Crayons – $0.01 at Office Max in August
  • Colored Pencils – $1.50 at Walgreens in August
  • Scissors – $0.75 at clearance sale at Walgreens in September
  • Balls – (we had a baggy of these at home, so they were not a recent purchase)
  • Toothbrush and Toothpaste – Free (donated)
  • Socks- $0.50 I split a package between the boxes
  • Pencil – at home
  • I threw in some Bandaids and hard Halloween candies at the last minute (not in the picture).
  • TOTAL $5.78 + $7.00 Shipping = $12.75

Want some other ideas? Check out this post from MoneySavingMom.

What do you put in your Operation Christmas Child box?