Engaging Your Kids with Our Weekly Liturgy Guide
Parents of Providence Road,
This Sunday the Family Liturgy Guide will have a few sections designed to engage your kiddos and will include them in our virtual gathering of believers. One thing I want to address right away is not to get discouraged if your home gathering doesn’t go the way you anticipated. Remind yourself this is good, important work to engage your families in gospel-centeredness. Give yourself some grace and know that this time doesn’t need to be “perfect.” If it isn’t going the way you had hoped, ask the Lord for strength to sustain you as you push through in encouraging your family to take time for intentional family worship.
I’m going to go over some logistics of how to walk through the Liturgy Guide as a family. If you have questions please don’t hesitate to reach out to me by phone or email me at kaylee@provroad.org. Truly, I am on your side and want to be a resource and encouragement as we reconsider what family life and church gatherings look like during this time.
Something you will want to do prior to starting your time together is download the New City Catechism App from the App Store or Google Play. This app is something we use weekly back in the KIDS area. Each class has a few specific questions they are working on for the year, but in an effort to streamline things a bit we will be doing one question each week as part of the Liturgy Guide. These questions have a song that covers the content and at one point in the Guide it will ask you to play that song.
It will also be beneficial to think through some quiet time activities for your little ones to help them have something to occupy their hands as they listen to the message with their ears. You can download the Kids Sermon Notes printables that we make available on Family Sundays. Having these available for kids that can read and write is a helpful way to engage them. For children who can’t read and write yet, having several quiet time activities lined up will help keep them happy and help you be available to concentrate and listen to the message. Some suggestions of what may work well would be Legos or Magnatiles, coloring pages, a cozy fort to watch from, a stack of books to look through, or – for my youngest – a snack is always a great strategy to keep him content and quiet.
There will be a portion of the guide where it lists a story from the Jesus Storybook Bible for you to read with your family. If you don’t have a copy of this on hand, please let me know.
One way we are encouraging families to engage in intentional connection is via “Fun Day Sunday” activities. Your family will choose a few activities they enjoy doing together and this will serve as a way to slow down on Sundays and connect with each other. I’d love for you all to make a physical list that you can hang on the fridge or post somewhere in your home. Another fun idea is to write each activity on a craft stick and put it in a cup. Then one family member gets to grab a stick and the activity listed is what you all will do for that day. Some examples of these activities would be a family walk, playing hide and go seek, looking through old photos and videos, Facetiming a friend or family member, baking a special treat, playing a board game together, running through the sprinkler, having a backyard campout, and the list could go on forever! So take some time this week to make your family list! It doesn’t need to be anything extravagant. Relish these sweet moments of loving on your kids and enjoying each other’s presence.
I miss getting to see you all and can’t wait for the day when we can see each other weekly again!
All is grace,
Kaylee
