Family Ideas Archives - Let their light shine!

Easter egg with cross symbol craft

Easter egg with cross symbol craft ideas for children of all ages! The basic printout of the symbol of the cross hidden in an egg shape can be used in several different ways. Very young children can decorate the egg with crayons and tissue paper. Older children (10 plus) can trace the picture onto tracing paper and use felt tips to create a beautiful stained glass effect. Just be careful of smudging. Tracing paper is a little more tricky to use. Important Note – you do need to be careful with Sharpies and other Permanent Markers because of the smell they give off – they aren’t suitable for young children. Check if there are rules about their use in your country before using with anyone under 18.

Easter egg with cross symbol craft ideas

Print out the egg and heart shapes (PDF below) Cut out the hearts and if you want to cut out the egg shape. (You can do this before or after decorating). Then use tissue paper strips, crayons, felt tips to decorate and add the red heart. We did this at Toddler Group and they had a lovely time (make extra hearts as toddlers like to add several!). We also made this at a Children’s after school club and they enjoyed it too.

Older children can colour the cross first and then layer strips of tissue paper across the egg shape. Then trim the tissue paper to fit and add the red heart

Egg with cross on tracing paper

This version of the Easter egg with cross symbol craft takes a while to complete – older children can add extra lines and shapes and then carefully colour the egg – bright colours are best! I made the outline of the cross and heart thicker so they would stand out. Once completed place in a window. I think this would be a great craft to try at home.

Easter-Egg-Pattern-with-Cross-A4-1 Download

Heart-shape-3×4-1 Download

If you can print the hearts on coloured paper.

Wax Resist Pictures

Wax resist pictures are fun and easy to create. All you need is some paper, wax crayons, watery paint and a paint brush. You can make patterns and pictures – it’s very easy and relatively mess free.

If you want to create a pattern then it’s fun to start with taking a crayon for a ‘walk’ around the paper. Create swirls and shapes. Then use bright wax colours to fill in some of the shapes you’ve created. You can use colour blocks, stripes, stars and circles – anything you like! Use white crayon on white paper to create some shapes. When you are happy with what you have made paint it all over with a thinned watery paint. I used blue ready mix paint that I watered down.

Let it dry and enjoy your wax resist picture!

You can also have fun making marks with a white wax crayon on white paper and painting over the colour wash.

This is a fun activity for a rainy day – here’s a link to a cup cake case craft that’s also great for the holidays.

I used crayola wax crayons which worked really well – and are bright colours.

Foy young children use chunky crayons

Hey there! This post has some affiliate links. So, if you click on them and decide to buy the product, I get a little commission. And here’s the best part – it won’t cost you anything extra! Cool, right? Thanks a bunch!

Use what you have Christmas Collage

Use what you have to make a Christmas collage. There is so much for us to spend money on at Christmas that it’s a nice change to use what we already have have to make crafts.

I always keep Christmas cards as they have great pictures. And those bits of wrapping paper that aren’t quite big enough to wrap any of the gifts I’ve bought come in handy too.

If you have any paper punchers you can cut out shapes but if not just use scissors. Older children can doing the cutting out themselves.

Just use what you have – sweet wrappers, greeting cards, wrapping paper, pictures from magazines. Whatever you fancy!

Sometimes we do a ‘cover the paper’ challenge. The idea is to fill an A4 piece of paper with collage materials. It’s a lot of fun!

This year we have quite a lot of sequins left from other crafts so we’ll be adding those to the selection of materials that the children can choose from. I think that is part of the pleasure of making – choosing what to use.

Here’s a couple of my attempts – the children will no doubt do a better job than me!

A use what you have snow themed collage

These crafts would be great to make at home between Christmas and New Year. Keep your wrapping paper and cards and enjoy giving them a second life!

Here’s a link to some family ideas on the blog

Ascension Day Craft (5-11 year olds)

All you need –

A3 paper x2
Cloud shape cut from A4 card
Green and blue paper to make sky and hill
Glue
Cotton wool to add to cloud
Verse from Acts 1:11 (see download below) Cut into a size to fit into the cloud

men-of-galilee-acts-1v11 Download

To make the eleven disciples make a paper chain of eleven men. To do this cut a long narrow strip from the A3 paper. Fold like a concertina into eleven sections. Draw a man outline on the first one. It’s important that the arms and legs go to the edges as these connect the men. Cut out carefully, making sure that the arms and legs stay connected. Then make the cloud from the A4 card. Stick on the Bible verse. Then on the A4 paper make a sky and a hill and then carefully add the eleven disciples and the cloud.

‘Thank you God for yummy food’ craft

To Make

You need A4 card with holes punched at the top (landscape) centre and thread added

Stick on lots of pictures of fruit and vegetables (from gardening catalogues)
Add the ribbon/banner. See download below.

banner-thank-you-god-for-yummy-food-1 Download

Hang up in the kitchen!

While you are making talk about the names of the fruit and vegetables, their colours and where they grow (in the ground, on trees etc). When you eat something that is on your picture you could add a smiley face 🙂

Beautiful flowers and Jesus’ promise (Sermon on the Mount)

This is a craft and something to read and think about from the Bible. It’s an idea to help families to look at the Bible together. Enjoy!

You need a Bible, glue, paper/card, flower photos from catalogues/magazines, scissors (adult supervision required) and some time to do this together! If you want you can seperate this acitity into two halves – do the cutting out one day and the sticking on another.

To make – use photos from gardening catalogues

You will also need a blue piece of paper or card as your main piece of paper and a brown pece of paper (or any colour you like) for the flower pot. Cut out a flower pot shape that is as wide as your paper (or almost – you will be able to fit more flowers in)

Before you start sticking, place your flower pot on the paper and draw along the top with a pencil (you don’t have to do this but it will make things neater)

Then remove the flower pot and start arranging the flowers. You can stick them straight away or try out different arrangements. If you have drawn a pencil line then make sure that it is covered enough for there to not be a gap between the edge of the pot and the flowers.

Once you have glued the flowers in place add the pot. You can add a couple more flowers so that it looks like your palnts are tumbling over the edge.

The Sarah Raven catalogue had a beautiful photo of one flower

You could also have a go at covering the piece of paper – this can be quite a challenge for children

This is a great activity to talk about colours – name them, talk about favourite colours, what do we have at home that’s a similar colour.

It’s a good activity to practise skills – using a glue stick or glue spreader and for older children scissor skills.

Thinking spot – looking at the Bible together.

Read about how God made the plants from Genesis 1

And God said, ‘Let the earth sprout vegetation, plants yielding seed, and fruit trees yielding fruit in which is their seed…And God saw that it was good.
Genesis 1:11,12b

God made the plants and the trees just by speaking. When a plant flowers it starts the process of producing seed!

When Jesus walked on the earth he did lots of things. He healed the sick, he spoke to people individually, he answered questions, he calmed the storm. He also taught his followers how to live and taught them about God. In Matthew’s Gospel we are told that Jesus went and sat down on the mountain and his disciples came and sat with him. Then he started to teach them.. one of the things he said was about the flowers..

Jesus taught his followers not to worry about what they should wear because of the flowers.

And why are you anxious about clothing? Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow: they neither toil or spin, yet I tell you, even Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these.
Matthew 6:28,29

Toil and spin are words that mean work. The flowers don’t work but they still look beautiful. Solomon was a great King. The flowers look even better than his expensive clothes. It is God that takes care of the flowers. Therefore Jesus doesn’t want his followers to spend time worrying because he is able to care for them and give them what they need.

Say thank you to God for the clothes you have.

Star Christmas decoration to make – using lollipop sticks

Star Christmas decoration to make to hang on the tree! Lots of sequins are needed for this simple star shaped decoration for the Christmas Tree. It’s a fun craft to make and looks lovely as a special home made decoration. The printable banner, ‘Joy to the World’ is a reminder of the great news of the first Christmas.

Luke 2:10-11 And the angel said to them, ‘Fear not, for behold, I bring you good news of great joy that will be for all the people. For unto you is born this day in the city of David a Saviour, who is Christ the Lord.

Everything you need for the star decoration

Six lollipop/ popsicle sticks per star. (plus some spare in case of any mishaps!) Try to buy the coloured sticks. (Please consider purchasing through this link as the blog will receive a small commission at no extra cost to you. Thank you!)
Sequins (different colours, shapes and sizes)
PVA glue and spreaders
A button and thread
‘Joy to the World’ mini banner (download available below)

joy-to-the-world-ribbon

How to make the star

1. Glue the lollipop sticks together – layer the sticks as shown in the photo and wait for the glue to dry.

2. Meanwhile thread the cotton through the button – tie in a knot to make a loop. This will be used to hang the star from the tree.

3. Glue the threaded button to the top of the lollipop stick star.

4. Before you add sequins to the lollipop stick glue the mini ‘Joy to the World’ banner in place and then add sequins to the star.

Diagram showing how to put a lollipop stick star shape together

Star decoration made with lollipop sticks and sequins

Star decoration for the Christmas tree made with lollipop sticks and sequins

Here’s another star idea that’s suitable for under 5’s. A Christmas Star wreath shape decorated with pictures from Christmas cards. If you don’t have Christmas cards use wrapping paper scraps!

A Christmas Carol to enjoy!

Autumn activity for kids!

autumn-activity-for-kids-1 Download

Several years ago when my children were children (and not adults – how did that happen so fast?!) we planted some conkers in plant pots. Once we had kept the squirrels at bay they began to grow and are now abour six feet tall. They are still in pots as horse chestnut trees can become very large if planted direct into the garden and our garden isn’t big enough. Here’s a photo of one of our trees.

Cress to grow at home

Cress is lovely to grow at home with children because it grows so fast! No long wait to see the seeds sprout. Within a week you have something that you can eat. No need for soil – I used an egg box, some tissues and the seeds.

You could make a picture diary of this process – either take photos or do drawings. If you water the seeds at the same time each day it becomes a nice little ritual either at tea time or snack time.

(If someone in your family is allergic to eggs use a different growing container)

Easter Garden to make at home

Easter garden to make at home is a great way to celebrate Easter. The garden is a reminder of the Easter story and is also fun to make. Traditionally an Easter Garden would be made using soil, moss, flowers etc but this version is made entirely from paper and card – if you haven’t got easy access to soil and plants this is for you!

What I used to make the Easter Garden

paper plate (a piece of card would do too)
cereal box to make the cross (make two cross shapes and glue together so it will stand up)
paper ice cream tub for the tomb ( a roll of paper with card glued over an end would be fine)
a paper circle for the stone
tissue paper for the path and grass
pictures of flowers from magazines/garden catalogues.

How to make a cross for an Easter Garden — To attach the cross add a fold and glue the tab

Instructions for making a paper plate Easter Garden — Add the tomb – this might need to be glued and then held in place till it has stuck. Make a fold on the edge of the circle for the tomb then glue the tab that you have made and glue down. If you want to add the words do that first.

Here’s another Easter Garden idea that uses play dough and weetabix

Take a look at this telling of the Easter story for young children.

More Easter craft ideas..

Paper Plate Nativity

Angels, Mary, Joseph, shepherds and the manger with the baby. Great for a nativity decoration and for telling the Christmas story.

Links to ‘how to make’ the characters (specifically the angels but the same basic idea is used for Mary, Joseph and the shepherds too) and the manger

The stable is a cardboard box covered in tissue paper. If you cover the inside of the box with yellow paint or tissue paper the characters will show up better. You can add battery powered tea lights too!

You could make this over several weeks in toddler group or Sunday School or make at home.

Make Your Own Advent Calendar

All you need to make an advent calendar with Bible verses that help us to prepare for Christmas

Advent calendar on a long piece or string

Are you looking forward to Christmas? One way of helping our children understand the real meaning of Christmas is to point them to what the Bible has to say about the Birth of Jesus. This ‘make your own advent calendar’ is a simple way of helping us to re-focus on Jesus as we get ready to celebrate Christmas. There is one picture for each day (tree, sheep, star and a manger for Christmas Day) with a Bible reference to look up and read as a family.

How to make this advent calendar

You will need…

A print out of the three parts of the advent calendar (see end of the post)
Small colourful envelopes
Number Stickers 1-24 (you can buy stickers or write the numbers on)
Piece of string/ribbon
Small pegs
Small treat if liked

Print the symbols onto card and cut out. Place each one in an envelope with a number on the outside (you can buy inexpensive special advent stickers for this), add small treats to the envelope too. At the beginning of December put up some string or ribbon and use pegs or paper clips to attach the picture each day during advent. You can leave the pictures black and white or colour them. There are Bible verses to read each day – help the children to find the verse in the Bible (some are a bit tricky to find) and read the verse with them.

You can add a chocolate treat too if you wish. When our children were small we’d have eaten the chocolate treat either straight after breakfast or straight after school and read the Bible verses at bedtime. But you pick a time that fits in with your family life!

The envelopes, pegs, stickers and string can be used another year and you can print out as many of the Christmas shapes as you like.

Free printable is here Christmas 3-shapes 3 ( verses) Christmas 3-shapes 2 ( verses) Christmas 3-shapes 1 ( verses)

This post contains affiliate links. If you click on the link and make a purchase it helps fund this blog at no extra cost to you.

Easter egg – messy craft!

This is a craft where you get in a bit of a sticky mess – but it’s fun! The egg shape is polystyrene. (I bought them from Amazon) I covered it in PVA glue and added tissue paper layers. If you finish off with a layer of glue it’ll look shiny. Experiment with the decoration. I added some cut up feathers to one egg. Chocolate sweet wrappers would look great too. Leave the decorated eggs to dry on some clingfilm as they shouldn’t stick to the film!

Easter decorations!

This craft is suitable for all ages – you may have to vary how you decorate the shapes. I used air drying modelling clay to make flowers and eggs. These were cut using cookie cutters. The shapes need time to dry out – a couple of days.

We’ll be decorating flower shapes at Toddler Group. You could make these at home with your children and if you make a hole for string you could hang them on an Easter Tree.

Smooth the edges before the clay dries

Decorate using PVA glue, tissue paper and sequins

A few years ago I made a similar craft using salt dough – I must admit that the shop bought air drying modelling material (long name!) was easier and seems less brittle. The salt dough egg post is here

Teach us to pray activity

Teach us to pray activity to go with the Bible story from Acts 12:1-19 – Peter in prison. The church met to pray for Peter and their prayers were answered. This take home craft is a reminder to pray. It would be great to use as a family too. Each person could pick a card from the bag and use it to say a short prayer.

Teach us to pray activity instructions

To make you will need – paper bags or envelopes, pens/pencils, scissors, print out of the four prayer prompts – praise, sorry, thank, please – and sticky label with ‘remember to pray’ printed on.

Talk about what the four prayer prompts mean – why we can praise God. How we can praise him for what he is like and the things he has done. Why do we need to say sorry to him? We have thought, said or done things against God’s law. What can we thank God for? food, clothes, friends. What can we ask for his help with – the please prayers. These can be for ourselves and for others. The children can write some of these ideas on the reverse of the cards. Encourage them to make the cards their own by adding ideas.

Download the prayer prompt cards – childrens-prayer-card

Paper Plate Christingle

I so wanted to make something like this last year but just ran out of time. So this year I was determined to make a craft focusing on Christingle. This is not necessarily instead of making the real thing. This craft could be done as an extra activity or used for very young children that you would rather didn’t have a candle.

The basic shape is drawn on a paper plate (this needs to be sturdy) and then I used paint. I would have used red ribbon but it was being elusive! The ‘sweets’ are beads on pipe cleaners. Do this for young children or alongside them as the beads are small. I attached these with cellotape.

Have a look at The Children’s Society website for more about the history of the Christingle.

Super-easy icicle Christmas tree decoration

I found this decoration idea on Pinterest. Take a look at the original by Happy Hooligans here. It is so simple and easy to make but also looks great. There is no need for glue or paint either!

All you need are some glittery pipe cleaners, beads – I used circular and star shaped and a pencil to wrap the pipe cleaner around to make the spiral shape.

Make a ‘knot’ at the bottom of the spiral by twisting the pipe cleaner around a few times so that the beads don’t fall off.

Thread the beads on. I chose to leave spaces between groups of three. At the end of the pipe cleaner make a hook shape so it will hang from the Christmas tree.

I loved making this craft. It is so simple but looks fabulous! It is only suitable for children over 5 years old as the beads are a chocking hazard.