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Can I be honest? This week of INCREDIBLE LOVE has been hard for me. I’ve wanted to lash out at my kids, roll my eyes and breathe heavy aggravated sighs at almost everything they do. Today I had a few minutes before lunch and was planning on doing this activity with them but I was so incredibly tired of interacting with them, of correcting them and leading them.

How incredibly UN-loving am I being if I can’t even do a LOVE craft with them? So, I swallowed my pride (aggravation? sin?) and grabbed a Bible, my computer and the kids.

First I turned on Seeds’ Greatest Commandment song and the kids had a dance party! (Ooh, look! I just found a LIVE video of the song!) This song is from Mark 12:30-31 and is Jesus quoting Deuteronomy 6:5 and more…

Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength.’ The second is this: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’ There is no commandment greater than these.

So, if we want to be super, not only do we need to love God with all of us, we need to love others the same way we love ourselves. I asked the kids if they loved themselves. And I’m happy to report Lydia hugged herself and said, “I looove myself!” We talked about how we know we love ourselves because we eat food we like, read books we like and do the things that we want to do!

This was an easy thought to switch over to loving others. How can we love our friends and family like we love ourselves? To help us figure this out, we made this paper heart garland and wrote our “neighbors” on the hearts. As we made each heart and wrote each name we talked about how we could love that person (sharing with someone from church, obeying our teachers, etc).

Now. The garland. It’s easy peasy.

Grab some construction paper and cut it into 1″ strips. (I do hope you have a paper cutter!) Take two strips and staple it at the bottom.

Fold the top two ends to the middle to make  a heart! But don’t staple it yet!

 We’re going to stick the next two pieces of paper in.

Once the second heart has been made, staple both hearts together.

Continue this until it’s as long a you like! It was a great activity to do together–one could hold it, one could put the strips of paper in and the other could staple. Then everyone can write friends names on it!

The kids absolutely loved thinking of all their friends and writing their names down. And I’m glad I worked at loving my most important neighbors–my children and did this activity with them. It softened my hard heart and helped me show them an example of incredible love (well, as incredible as I can muster!).

We only got to do two INCREDIBLE LOVE activities this week, but tomorrow I’ve got a round-up of some other fun LOVE books, music, Scriptures, crafts and activity ideas. You’ll love it!

Don’t forget to grab your free Super Hero badges!

Thank you! THANK YOU! I am totally giddy with excitement about how well received Truth in the Tinsel has been! I hope you’ve bought the book and joined the Facebook page. It is going to be SO fun to do this whole advent-ure together!

I have literally been GLUED to my computer since the release of Truth in the Tinsel. Reading about all the fun advent calendars and cool ideas you’ve come up with to do with Truth in the Tinsel has made me in full Christmas mode! I’m thinkin’ the rest of the year Impress Your Kids will be devoted to Christmas. Will that be ok? (Seriously, I feel like I might start dressing in red and green from now on!)

Today, Lydia came home with the most fun ornament! I love Lydia’s teachers because they are always sending extra fun things home to do with the kids–we always get papers about fun food crafts and even songs and fingerplays. This would be a fun gift or just a fun activity to do with your kiddos!

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All you need is a clear glass ball ornament, about 1 teaspoon of popcorn kernels and a paper bag. Take the top off the ornament and fill the ornament with about 1 teaspoon of popcorn. Put the ornament inside the paper bag and fold down. Put bag in microwave for 1-3 minutes (ours took about 2.5 minutes).

Take it out of the microwave and…

Is that not the cutest thing you’ve ever seen?! The kids thought it was magic. Wonder if you could do it with colored popcorn? That would be fun!

Do you have a fun handmade ornament to share? Leave a link in the comments!

linked to Show & Tell, Too-Cute Tuesday and Take a Look Tuesday

{alternate title: Look! It’s Day 22 and I’m just now mentioning a craft!}

I like doing crafts with my kids. I love scrolling through Pinterest and my favorite blogs for new craft ideas for the kids. When I was a little girl, I wanted to do every single thing in my Childcraft Make and Do book. I can’t sew or knit, but I still love being creative with paper and glue!

What makes crafts so good for teaching kids about the Bible is that you are engaging another of the five senses. You’ve probably heard statistics and research on how kids learn by doing and feeling and experiencing instead of just listening and filling in the blanks. It’s why kindergarten classrooms have interactive stations for kids instead of 8 hours of worksheets at a desk. It’s why Montessori type schools are so popular. Kids learn when they DO.

If kids can hear, see, taste, smell and touch they are more apt to remember and to internalize what they are learning. Art teachers recognize a simple art project can teach patterns, colors and more. We can use this same idea for our own kids when teaching them God’s Word. We can help cement God’s Word in a child’s heart and mind simply by engaging more of their senses!

I’m not talking about making a baby Jesus craft with macaroni (although, that might be fun!) or gluing a clip art Moses to a paper plate. I’m talking about incorporating what your kids already love to do—make messes with art supplies and using it to teach a lesson!  Here are some of our favorite crafts–not because they are especially adorable crafts but because they have a good message and my kids still remember it!

1. John 3:16 Necklaces   2. Colossians 3:23 Trucks   3. Philippians 4:13 Superhero Cuffs
4. Mrs. Rosey Posey & The Yum Yummy Birthday Cake    5. Matthew 5:16 diy Tshirt   6. My God Can

And a few more ideas that engage the 5 senses…

1. Matthew 12:34 Experiment  2. Resurrection Rolls  3. Psalm 40:1 Slime

photo source: freakgirl