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23rd August 2020View past Sundays

This is our final week learning about prayer which is another word for talking to God.

If you have a chance, take a look at this 2 minute video about chatting to God with young children (see the video here). We would also recommend watching this video as well if you have time, you will need to create a login to watch it, but it is free and this video and the whole course are really fantastic (see the video here).

As a quick overview, we are going to be thinking about this concept of ‘chatting’ to God which is taken from the Parenting for Faith course and books (which we would really recommend). ‘Chatting’ encourages children to use informal language, as well as non-verbal forms, to communicate with God. It’s about reinforcing our children’s understanding that they have their own relationship with God. All our activities this week hopefully will help with this.

Verse ‘Always be full of joy. Never stop praying. Whatever happens, always be thankful.’ 1 Thessalonians 5v16-18

Book My Very First Prayers by Gabrielle Mercer (see link here). Tamsin, one of our Nest team, has recorded a wonderful video of this term’s story using Makaton signs (see the video here).

Songs For this term please choose whichever are your favourite songs from our Nest resources page (see the videos here).

Activity 1 This is a chance to practice chatting to God with your child. We are going to include this activity each week of the prayer term and although it might feel a bit awkward at first, we hope that with a bit of practice this will become easier and help to encourage our children to chat to God themselves. Your child naturally learns by copying you and we want to show them that they can have their own relationship with God. It is also something we can try to do every day by letting our children see and hear us chatting to God out loud. For example ‘Thank you God for this dinner I am making, I really love spaghetti, God isn’t it funny that it looks a bit like wiggly worms!’.

Grab a cushion and ask a question (some ideas are below). Then tell God your answer into your cushion and encourage your child to do the same. If children are non-verbal or don’t want to speak then you could suggest the following: God is a proud parent just like us, who wants to see their new skills, so they might want to show Him how they can clap their hands or the funniest face they can make. Just remember to keep directing it as communication with God, not a performance for you.

What is your favourite animal? What did you have for breakfast today? Who is in your family? What is your favourite colour? Do you like singing or dancing? What food do you love to eat? What is your favourite toy? Do you like it when it’s sunny or rainy?

Activity 2 Make some paper dolls (see example here). Decorate these with whatever things you have available, you could colour them in, cut and stick items on, paint them etc. Either create them to look like people your child would like to thank God for, or while you are decorating talk with your child about people we can thank God for or ask God to help.

If you can't come to us, we decided we would come to you! Some of our Treehouse children and families have been telling us what they have been up to in our first episode of Doorstep Diaries.

This week Treehouse looks a bit different, we are pausing our ‘Everything Has Changed’ series, for our …

SUMMER CHALLENGE

Let's have some fun together! . 

So, with the help of Jacob Derry, Treehouse brings … the SUMMER CHALLENGE.

Here are the challenges …

• Say the Lord’s prayer 5 times - Timed
• Find and read Isaiah 61 – Timed
• Catch a ball 10 times – Timed
• Dress like someone from the Bible - take a snap and send it in
• Find the Treehouse playlist and listen to a song
• Think of 10 things to cheer someone up
• Do ALL 10 things on your list to cheer someone up
• Help someone out
• Make someone in your house a snack
• How many items of clothing can you put on in one minute? Time one minute and count the layers.

10 challenges – 1 week!

If you attempt all 10 challenges, you will receive a small prize!

Throughout the week, I would LOVE to see how you are doing, so please do use the Treehouse Parents Facebook group to keep in touch, or email me pictures or videos I could use next week to show everyone what you have been up to - lucy@theoakchurch.co.uk 

Let the Summer Challenge begin! 

• Feel free to make up your own rules, or adapt the challenges to suit your household.
• If you want to know how you got on compared to others in Treehouse, send Lucy Munton your times via email, we will announce the winners next week in the video. Maybe you would prefer to compete within your household? Or not at all … please do what suits you.
• You have 1 week to complete the challenge, you can do it in a day if you choose or spread out across the week.
• When you have completed a challenge tick it on the checklist you should have received. If you didn’t receive a checklist, please contact Lucy Munton to have one delivered.
• If your child attempts all 10, let lucy know via email lucy@theoakchurch.co.uk and she will arange a drop off of their prize 
• But most importantly, have fun!

Content coming soon