Play Through the Bible

I had the opportunity to be on the Launch Team for the book Play Through the Bible by Liz Millay.  She has a website, Steadfast Family, that has a ton of ideas and there's actually a whole series on playing through different Bible stories.  She recently compiled several Old Testament stories into a book with lots of activities and crafts as well as teaching tips for each story.  I got to preview the book and thought I'd share our experience with the creation story.

First of all, she says the target age for the activities in the book begins at 2, so obviously Cooper is not there yet.  So some of the activities are ones he's not ready for, but I still thought it'd be interesting to try out the book.  And I found that there was a lot we could do even though he's younger.

Each chapter focuses on one Bible story.  There is a page with teaching tips and main points to review as well as some questions to ask and help your kids answer.  Then there are several crafts as well as several non-craft activities that are active and engaging.  Each story also has a sensory bin idea, a song to sing, and a snack idea.  

For this day of the creation story we focused on the story, the sensory bin, and the snack.  We have the Jesus Storybook Bible on audiobook, so I played the creation story on there while Cooper ate a morning snack and I gathered the materials for the sensory bin.  Then we sat down together and put the sensory bin together.

The sensory bin idea was-- green and blue filler to represent the land and the water (I used blue shredded paper and green easter grass that I'd gotten at Dollar Tree earlier this year), some leaves and twigs, animals and people.  Cooper sat with me as I put each thing in and retold parts of the creation story.  After I put each thing in I'd ask "Who made ______?" and then answer "God!" and he'd repeat "God."  We had grass, "water," leaves from our front yard, a monkey, a lion, a frog, a duck, and an octopus as well as a crossing guard and a dentist since those are the play people we currently have.

Then he dug in!  While he played I played a few songs from Amazon Music that went with the theme.  Our favorite is track one from the album "Ask me Whoo Volume 1" it asks and answers the questions Who Made You? (God!) What else did God make? (All things) Why did God make you and all things? (For his own glory).  We listen to this one a lot and Cooper can answer the questions Who made you? and What else did God make? pretty regularly.  We also added "God Makes Everything" from Big Stories for Little Ones by Rain for Roots and "God Made Everything" from Jesus Came to Save Sinners by The Village Church.

By the end of those 3 songs, Cooper was pretty much over the sensory bin and our living room looked like this :)  He helped me put it all back in and we put the lid on and put it up to play with another day.

After nap we tried out the snack.  It was to make a silly face out of a tortilla, peanut butter, banana and raisins and talk about how God made Cooper special.  Cooper was not so sure about this snack and it took him a long while to want to eat it, but he did eventually gobble it all up!

And here's a video of part of our "lesson."
Also, I am fully aware that ducks do not, in fact, live in the Ocean even though I said this more than once.  Oh well.

Overall this is a great book with a lot of amazing resources.  I know there's a lot of things that can be found free online, but I love how it's all compiled together.  And I like that we can use some of it now and then come back to it when he's a little older and incorporate different activities.  There's a digital version that can be found here and the print version on Amazon.  Today is the last day of launch week, so orders come with some special bonuses.

I also highly recommend checking out the Steadfast Family website and looking at the other Play through the Bible activities-- there's a ton of free resources.  Those are a little craft heavy, so I like the book because it gives so many non-craft ideas as well as the sensory bin and the snack and it has some stories that aren't on the website, but the website is a great starting point.