When your child reaches about four years old, it is a great time to establish a pattern of including fun family times in your schedule to foster communication, laughter, and faith formation. It is important to have a consistent routine of creating intentional moments that will help your family deepen relationships and have faith discussions. Regularly scheduled family time activities are a great way to make that happen.

For some families this might be a particular night of the week after dinner. For another family it might be after Saturday morning breakfast.  Decide what works for your unique schedule and then protect that time. You might need to say “no” to some good things to make family times a priority. We suggest scheduling a family time experience weekly, but no less than twice per month. Setting and keeping a regular schedule will show commitment and value to all involved.

Plan for success by finding resources to help make your family times a great experience. We have listed several recommended resources below to help you get started. As your child gets older, ask them if there are specific topics they would like to make a part of your time together and let them help plan your activities. Don’t forget that the Bible is the most important resource God has given us to instill truth in the hearts and minds of our children.

Family Times that are fun are a great context for effective faith formation. Be creative by acting out scripture together, doing crafts or object lessons that reinforce spiritual themes. Avoid becoming overly serious, rigid, or stressed while leading family times. It’s okay for kids to be silly and it’s important to fill your home with laughter.

• Set a day and time that will work for "Family Time" each week over the next month. Let your child mark it on the calendar to help build anticipation!
• Consider choosing a "Family Time" theme song that you can play to gather everyone together each week. Use the opportunity to sing, dance, and be silly for a few moments to help get everyone in the mood for the best part of the week!
• Use the "Just Like Air" activity (see below) to test-drive a fun activity together or choose a tool from the recommended resources that will provide object lesson activities to help you reinforce biblical values and lessons on an ongoing basis.
• OTHER IDEAS
  • Pick a family verse that you want to memorize and say together. Make up or use some fun games to learn the verse.  
  • Discuss a movie that is age appropriate for your child. Make some popcorn and watch the film together. Afterwards have a “faith talk”about the choices of characters and other aspects of the story that catch your attention.
  • Share with your child something that God has been or is teaching you.
  • Cook a meal together and use the time for sharing and talking.
  • Take time to ask each member of the family to share his or her “high” and “low” of the day.
  • Go on a family walk and spend the time praying for each other, the neighbors, or others.
  • Capture family prayer requests using a prayer chart or on a refrigerator white board.
  • Create impromptu “God-moments” by taking advantage of unplanned and unscheduled opportunities to discuss your faith in the daily routine of life.

FAMILY NIGHT ACTIVITY: Just Like Air

Supplies needed: Several balloons and a Bible.

Follow these steps for a creative way to teach how a God we can’t see can be real:

1. Start by asking the children the following questions and discussing their answers:
   • Why can’t we see God?
   • How can we believe God is real when we can’t see Him?
   • Can we think of anything else we know is real that we can’t see?
2. Hopefully, one of the children will include “air” in the list of things we can’t see but know exist. (If not, suggest it yourself). At this point, pull out the balloons.
3. Explain that air is not only real, but it has power. Ask each child to use the air in their lungs to blow up his or her balloon. Remind them to hold the end so that it doesn’t fly away.
4. Once everyone has an inflated balloon ready, compete to see who can make their balloon fly farthest.
5. Once you’ve had fun repeating the balloon-flying contest, read several scriptures that describe God as a spirit (John 4:24, Luke 24:39) and use the illustration of wind to illustrate the work of God in our lives (John 3:8).
6. Now tie off a few blown-up balloons and use the fan to have fun blowing them wherever you want them to go.
7. End by memorizing the jingle “Just like air, God is there!”