Making the Sabbath Special

I've been thinking a lot about how to make the Sabbath special for my babies. I want them to look forward to it as a day of wonderful traditions and meaningful "rest" from the world. I don't want them to think of it as a day of things they can't do.
So...I've been researching ideas and traditions and I am coming up with some things I think are making it special for them. Here are some of the things we've been doing.
Of course Sabbath starts of Friday night, and we try to make a noticeable change around here in the things we do. It all begins with lighting candles for supper. We put out tons of candles (mismatched and all we have right then). We light them all and it makes welcoming Sabbath more exciting for them. They love to eat around the candles and can't wait to take turns blowing them out. We usually have a "no fuss dinner" for Friday night. We're so busy with tidying up the house, etc. that an easy dinner is a must and a good tradition too. We end up usually having Grillers (vegetarian hamburgers), or hotdogs, or subs....something fast and easy to prepare.
This week, after supper, we had our first ever interactive family worship. We're started using this book
as family worship and I hope to use it every Friday night. It is family worship with a hands-on twist. The kids hear and participate in the story. Participating makes it come alive for them so they can internalize the story and hopefully apply it better to their own lives. Kirk Weaver has a whole set of Family Time Activity books for every age group from 2 years old-high school. We began with the story of Baby Moses, which Baby Girl loves. We read the story from her Bible and then we had a "Baby Moses" hidden somewhere in the house. We searched all the sinks, bathtubs, and even toilets to find where the baby was hidden. Our little guy found him floating in our bathtub. Then we talked about how God protects us and we had prayer asking for protection for our family. Needless to say, the kids loved it!


I've been thinking a lot lately about making the Sabbath

Sabbath morning, I decided to make a extra-special Bible themed breakfast to start the day. I got up a little bit early, but it was worth it. I whipped up a batch of pancake mix and brought out the squirt bottles and food coloring. Then I set about creating some Daniel in the Lion's Den pancakes. They were a hit! (I'm already making plans for next week!) (excuse the crazy looking lions....I'm still mastering my technique...hahaha...but the kids loved them and that's the important thing. Check out this site and this site.


After church and naps are taken, when the kids wake up, we have some activities planned for them. I've been trying to do a craft page with Baby Girl each week that pertains to a Bible story we've been talking about. Since the cradleroll class stays on the same story for a whole month, I've had to use some additional stories that we read during our nightly family worships. Since we had talked about Moses this week, we did a page about Moses. Last week it was all about Sarah and Abraham welcoming Baby Isaac into their homes. I found the idea for her book from this website (go to the Bible Activity Books video) and just searched online for resources to create the crafts. This site also has many other great ideas and I've used some of them too.
Sometimes we'll watch a Bible video too...Our favorite set right now is this set because the stories are so short and simple for our young children. I think each story is about 3 minutes long. So each DVD has many stories.
We also love taking walks and finding things that God has made. One week we found a bunch of stick cocoons from a moth. We were able to bring some home. Another time we did a scavenger hunt along the way. Mostly, we just walk. It's nice getting out of the house and into nature. We're hoping to get a pass to the county parks soon. There are several parks nearby with nature trails, but we don't have a pass yet.
One last way we try to make the Sabbath special is that we put away our everyday puzzles, books, and toys on Friday and bring out a special box that looks like a wooden treasure box. Inside we have toys and games and things that are all Sabbath ones. The kids love to see that box come out. It does make it special for them. (I'll give you a peak at the box next week. I don't have any pictures of it yet.) And that is how we're working to make Sabbath meaningful and fun to a two and three year old in our family.