familytime Archives - Parkview Church

100 Sensational Summer Bucket List Ideas for Kids 2024

Justin Vander Waal — Fri, 12 Jul 2024 15:37:15 +0000

We found these 100 bucket list ideas for you and your kids to do this summer! Click here to view this free resource!

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Making the Most of Your Summer

Justin Vander Waal — Tue, 28 May 2024 16:58:53 +0000

Summers with kids can be challenging. Whether you’re working and feel like you don’t have enough time with your kids or you’re at home with them and feel like you have too much time with your kids, it can be hard to know how to use what time you do have together. Here’s some ideas of rhythms you can pick up this summer to build meaningful family time into your lives and make the most of your summer.

Eat Together

For many of us, the idea of the whole family sitting down around a healthy, home-cooked meal every night feels like a thing of the past. We’re just too busy. But something powerful happens when we eat together. When we sit across from each other and eat a meal, it bonds us in unique ways. Jesus knew this, and we find that he was constantly sitting down with people to share a meal (Luke 5:29-32, 7:36-50, 9:10-17, 10:38-42, 11:37-53, 14:1-24, 19:1-10, 22:14-38, 24:28-32, 24:36-43).

If we want to be able to eat together as a whole family, we might have to change our picture of what that looks like. Maybe you’re always eating dinner on the go so you keep a picnic blanket in your car so you can sit down and face each other while you eat. Maybe dinner time is too hard, so you choose to make breakfast or even a snack your time to eat together. Maybe you’re too busy to do it often, so you block off one night a week to be intentional about it.

And while you sit down to eat, be intentional about limiting distractions and talking with each other. Talk about what’s going on in your lives and be active listeners. You could even look up dinner conversation starters for families to find silly and serious questions to prompt great conversations. Don’t miss this opportunity to build memories and get to know your family better!

Play Together

Especially when life is busy, it can be really easy to get distracted and forget to stop and have fun with your kids. But fun is such an important part of how kids connect and learn, so we need to be intentional about building fun into our family time. This could look like pausing to get down on your kid’s level and join them in what they are doing, or it could look like planning family play time. Find a board game or card game. Go outside and pick a sport. Use your imagination and play pretend. Build a blanket fort. Let them teach you how to play their favorite video game. Play one on one with your kids and play all together as a family. However it looks for you, find a way to have fun together.

Playing with your kids also gives you an amazing opportunity to model important life skills for them. You can model winning and losing graciously. You can model not taking life too seriously and being able to laugh at yourself. You can model being an encourager. You can model being willing to make a mess and learning how to clean it up. Kids learn through play, so teach them in a way that speaks to them.

Learn Together

Another great way to make the most of the time you have with your kids is to find something to learn together. Maybe you pick a skill you want to learn, like baking or crafting or gardening or building Lego machines or magic tricks. Or maybe you find a topic to learn about, like dinosaurs or history or space or animals. Try to find something you don’t know either so you can learn together.

Then, work together to research. Go to the library and find books about it. Search for videos to teach you. Find out what tools you need. Show your kids how to go about learning new things. And as you learn, you’ll fail or hit roadblocks and be tempted to give up or take shortcuts. But what a great opportunity to teach perseverance and to learn from our mistakes! Life is full of failure and roadblocks and our kids will need to learn how to face them and keep going. What better place to learn than right by your side?

Serve Together

It’s good for all of us to have opportunities to look outside of ourselves and look for the needs of others. Teaching this to kids at a young age is going to help them develop compassion and learn to be active in their love for others. This doesn’t have to be big, it can be as much as making cards together for someone going through a hard time or pulling weeds to help out a neighbor. It could be something ongoing like weekly visits to a lonely older family member. Or you could find an organization to serve with as a family (check out this list of Parkview’s trusted local partners for ideas.)

However you choose to do it, your family will have the opportunity to practice seeing the needs of others and doing something about it. Your family will learn to humble themselves and love with action, just like Jesus did. Your family will learn to be the hands and feet of Jesus and be a part of sharing God’s love with the world.

Pray Together

Most of us know, theoretically, that we should pray and talk about God as a family. But whether it’s because we don’t know how or because we just get so busy we forget, this is something that often gets forgotten. But Deuteronomy 6:6-7 gives us ideas of how to do this: “The commandments I give you today must be in your hearts. Make sure your children learn them. Talk about them when you are at home. Talk about them when you walk along the road. Speak about them when you go to bed. And speak about them when you get up.” These are things we can do woven into other parts of our lives.

In the car, say “God, thank you for…” and let each member of the family list something they’re thankful for. At bedtime, read a story out of a children’s Bible like the Jesus Storybook Bible. At mealtime, practice the memory verse they’re learning in church. Go for a walk and point out all the things God made. Read a short devotion at breakfast like Jesus Calling for Kids. Don’t stress about doing the right thing and just do something. What’s more important than what you actually do is that your kids are seeing you prioritize your family’s faith and connect with God regularly. Your imperfect example has a much bigger impact than even the best devotion you could find.

When summer hits and all your routines are up in the air, don’t miss the opportunity to be intentional with your time and create joyful memories and meaningful connections with your kids. Experiment with what works for your family and do your best to make it fun. How will you eat, play, learn, serve, and pray together with your family this summer?

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10 Screen-Free Things to Do With Your Kids Over Spring Break

Justin Vander Waal — Fri, 22 Mar 2024 15:22:22 +0000

As a student, spring break was exciting! It came as a welcomed and well-deserved gift after making it through a few long months of school and winter. As a parent, the thought of spring break can bring some anxiety and pressure. What do we do to keep busy for a full week if we don’t have plans to be on a beach? We don’t want them staring at screens all week, but what do we do to keep them busy and have some fun? This article shares some great, budget-friendly ideas to keep your family entertained during the break from school! Happy spring!

View Article

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Read About It Together

Artillery — Mon, 30 Oct 2023 20:12:45 +0000

Your child is wonderfully made!

We’ll tell your child they’re wonderful in Parkview Kids, but we know it’ll mean much more coming from you! They can never hear it enough. Check out these books you can read to them at home to remind them that God made them special.

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End the Night Right

Artillery — Mon, 30 Oct 2023 20:06:18 +0000

Kids don’t always have the words to tell us about their day, but it doesn’t mean they don’t need to. End the Night Right is a tool designed to help create a bedtime habit where kids talk with their parents about their day and parents can point them to wisdom from God that can help!

Purchase “End the Night Right” →

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Play the “SAY WHAT?!” Family Game

Artillery — Mon, 30 Oct 2023 20:03:17 +0000

We know kids need to feel seen and known and loved by their families. And we also know they love to hear funny stories about their parents growing up!

Our friends at North Point Community church created the Say What?! Family Game, a brand-new app for you to play during dinner, on the weekends, or whenever there’s time as a fun way to learn more about your kids and for them to learn more about you!

Download the "say what?" ios app

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Read about Jesus together!

Artillery — Mon, 30 Oct 2023 19:57:07 +0000

Check out our favorite Bibles

Help your child learn more about Jesus by reading about him together in the Bible! Don’t have one? There are some great options created especially for preschoolers. Check out our favorites!

The Jesus Storybook Bible →

The Beginner’s Bible for Little Ones →

The Beginner’s Bible →

The Tiny Truths Illustrated Bible →

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Family Fun Night

Artillery — Mon, 30 Oct 2023 18:36:49 +0000

I don’t know about you, but growing up in my house “Family Fun Night” consisted of card and board games, and usually ended with “Family Fight Night.”

I probably have (know I have) an unhealthy amount of competitiveness. I LOVE TO WIN! Now, put my six family members in a room with a game of monopoly and we end the night with threats of divorce, screams of “you cheated” and only the winner feeling good at the end.

With my own children, I see my most undesirable characteristics rubbing off on them. We’ve tried family fun night with games, but it always ended with someone in tears. As I tried to use the life lessons of “we can’t always win,” and “we need to be happy for our winner,” I really wanted to find something we could all enjoy, and where we all felt like winners.

That is when I came up with Family Mystery Dinner Night.
This idea started with my in-laws doing a Mystery Dinner while on a family vacation. We were given a sheet that said first course, second course, and third course with only numbers 1-12 listed, not food items. Only my mother-in-law knew which food item went with each number.

We, at random, had to choose 4 numbers for each course. This had the entire family (all 20 of us) having a different plate of food for our first, second, and third courses meals. Some had ice cream with a side of mostaccioli, or a bread stick with a piece of apple pie. It was an extremely fun night with tons of laughter and giggles.

When we got home from that vacation, my kids were begging for another Family Mystery Dinner Night.

Wanting to be intentional with family time and trying to create moments my kids would remember, I changed up our family mystery dinner. Instead of prepping and cooking a three-course meal, which sounds exhausting, I blinded folded the kids and had them try different foods.

There is seriously nothing better than watching your kids try something thinking it’s one thing, but really another! We found out that when you blindfold kids, THEY WILL TRY ANYTHING!

We’ve had so much fun trying new and different things over the years. Here are some of our favorite Family Mystery Dinners. . .

Different lunch meat
Do our kids really like turkey the best? All lunch meat feels the same, so this was fun having them guess which was which. We also added a condiment dip test with Ketchup, Mustard, Mayo.

Dessert tray
I went to Mariano’s and bought a variety dessert tray. Of course, the kids loved everything that was on there.

Popcorn shrimp/chicken/fish
Your kids might say they hate shrimp or fish without even trying it first. This gives them the chance to try something before saying they hate it. The key to this is cooking it without showing them the boxes!

Fry night
cheese curds/fried pickles/mushrooms/cheese sticks/french fries/pizza bites

If you are feeling adventures and frying food on your own, then the possibilities are endless! We’ve tried Oreos vs Kit Kats, two day old frozen pizza and mac and cheese.

Frozen Pizza
This took us two months to complete! Each Sunday night we would have battle of the frozen pizza. I would buy two different brands of pizza and we had to vote on our favorite. My family has decided that Home Run Inn pizza is the winner.

Exotic fruit
This is a dangerous one! First, my kids found out they love dragon fruit, but it’s so expensive! Second, we also found out that my son is allergic to papaya. It wasn’t anything serious, but he did get hives all over his body.

Basic fruit
If you want a good laugh stick to the basics. Lemons/Grapefruits/Limes/Oranges

Pop
Remember the Pepsi challenge? Try it with your kids. If you are like me and rarely have pop in the house, this will be a special treat. We added root beer, cream soda, and Dr. Pepper.

There is an unlimited number of food items you can get your children to try! Plus, for a family fun night, you just took care of dinner and your game!

I hope you enjoy these suggestions as much as my family has over the years!

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Memorizing Scripture with Your Children

Artillery — Mon, 30 Oct 2023 18:15:01 +0000

Memorizing scripture with our children can be a powerful tool to tuck truth deep in their hearts.

Deuteronomy 6:6-9 encourages us to impress truth into our children. “Talk about them when you sit at home and when you walk along the road, when you lie down and when you get up. Tie them as symbols on your hands and bind them on your foreheads. Write them on the doorframes of your houses and on your gates.”

Raising our children in Truth is no small task. This month as a church we are talking about prayer and specifically how Jesus prayed, which is modeled in Matthew 6: 9-11. This passage of scripture, often referred to as The Lord’s Prayer or The Our Father, is meant to be a starting point and model of how we can pray too. Challenge yourself as a family to memorize the words of Jesus and tuck His truth into your hearts. You can find a free printable of The Lord’s Prayer here. There are a few different designs to choose from. Pick the one that you want to learn as a family and print a few copies to hang throughout your home. Talk about one line at a time and commit it to memory. Build on that phrase and commit the next phrase to memory. Each time you or your child see the scripture, read it out loud. Little by little you will tuck these truths in your hearts and minds, rising children in the way they should go (Proverbs 22:6).

Get your free lord's prayer printable

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Cues for Every Family Rhythm

Artillery — Mon, 30 Oct 2023 18:08:54 +0000

Routine is critical for me and my family. I’ve noticed that when we are out of routine (or out of rhythm) we all are crankier, more easily “set off”, and just downright unpleasant. But with the pace of life most families face (think work commitments, school commitments, sports schedules, time with family and friends) is “routine” even possible anymore?

This article from Parent Cue talks about making the most of our time in our ever-changing pace of life. Hopefully it can help you, as a parent, build repeatable daily habits for your family that will help things feel “routine” even when your schedule isn’t.

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