Seize the Summer: June

Summer is a great time to strengthen your family with parent-child activities. While a quick Internet search will give you hundreds of things to do with your kids — build forts, swim, create a scavenger hunt, draw chalk outlines on the sidewalk and twirl in the rain — Thriving Family is taking summer fun to another level.

We have compiled easy-to-do ideas that will help you enjoy the summer with your children while teaching them biblical principles. Print this out and put it on the refrigerator or near your family calendar. We want to empower you to help your family thrive spiritually — while you have fun!

This is the June calendar. For July, we have another month's worth of activities.

So get ready for an amazing summer! If you'll take just 10-50 minutes a day to do these fun — and spiritual — activities, you'll be amazed at how God grows your children in their faith!

June
1	Over the summer, create an alphabet scrapbook with your children to better appreciate God's creation. Have them create images of things God made (e.g., draw an ant for the letter A, or take a picture of a watermelon for W). You can talk about God's purpose for each. Today, gather all the supplies.
2	Plant flowers with your children. When you're done, tell them to wash by cleaning the dirt from under their fingernails. Explain how sin is like dirt that needs to be washed away. When we sin and ask God for forgiveness, He "washes" us clean. (John 13:1-11)
3	Place toothpicks in cut-up fruit, and savor the sweet flavors. Talk about how a tree may produce several bushels of delicious fruit. Explain that God also wants us to produce "fruit." Talk about the fruits of the Spirit — love, joy, peace, kindness, gentleness and joy. (Galatians 5:22-23)
4	Help your children make a page for the letter A in their creation scrapbook.
5	Introduce the Clubhouse Jr. summer service challenge to your children. Find the details in Clubhouse Jr. magazine or online at clubhousejr.com.
6	Ask each family member to be kind to someone during church today. At lunch, share what each of you did for others.
7	Choose one Scripture verse for this week. Write it on a card, and post it on the refrigerator. Help your children create a Scripture song using the verse. Sing this song together every morning this week.
8	Help your children make a page for the letter Z in their creation scrapbook.
9	Don't open the blinds this morning. At breakfast, ask your children to open them. Explain that there's no reason to sit in the dark — by pouting or being mean — when God's light is available. Asking for forgiveness opens the blinds on our heart and lets God's love shine in. (Acts 26:12-18)
10	Go to a park. When your children ask you to push them on a swing or merry-go-round, ask them why they need a push. ("To get started.") Explain that the world began with God creating everything and breathing life into humans. That was the "push" that got it all started. (Revelation 4:11)
11	Help your children make pages B and Y in their creation scrapbook.
12	Introduce the Clubhouse summer challenge to your children. Find the details in Clubhouse magazine or online at clubhousemagazine.com.
13	Ask your children to count how many times they can legitimately say "thank you" to those around them.
14	Sing your Scripture song. Choose a new Scripture, write it out and post it. Create a new song and sing it every day this week.
15	Help your children make pages C and W in their creation scrapbook.
16	Take a drive, and ask your kids what each road sign means. Then ask, "What would happen if we ignored it?" Explain how signs and rules help keep us safe. Then talk about how God's rules help us, too. His rules are in the Bible, and obeying them keeps us from hurt. (Luke 11:28)
17	Switch labels on two cans of fruit. At a meal, ask your children what they think is inside each can. Then open the cans. Discuss how disappointing it can be when the inside of a can doesn't match the outside. God wants our thoughts and actions to be the same inside and out. (Matthew 23:26-28; Luke 10:27)
18	Help your children make pages D and V in their creation scrapbook.
19	Sit outside and ask your kids to identify sounds they recognize. Because God wants us to recognize His voice when He speaks to our hearts, we have to learn what His voice sounds like. We can better listen to God's still, small voice when we find a quiet place to pray and read the Bible. (John 10:2-4; 27)
20	Before church, ask your children to be ready to talk about what they learn today.
21	Sing your Scripture song. Choose a new Scripture, write it out and post it. Create a new song and sing it every day this week.
22	Help your children make pages E and U in their creation scrapbook.
23	As you work on a puzzle, discuss how you can't see the whole picture until every piece is in place. Then explain how our lives are like an incomplete puzzle. Though it's hard to understand how certain events fit in God's plan for our lives, He sees the whole picture and knows how all the pieces fit together. (Proverbs 3:5)
24	Enjoy a sunset painting party. With watercolors and paper or fabric, paint the sunset. Explain how God is the master Artist, and we can see His handiwork in nature. (Psalm 102:25)
25	Help your children make a page for the letter X in their creation scrapbook.
26	Collect leaves or berries that have fallen to the ground. Talk about how they stop growing when disconnected from the tree or plant. Explain how Jesus is the Vine, and we are the branches. If we quit praying, reading the Bible and going to church, our spiritual lives stop growing. (John 15:5)
27	Ask your children to greet at least two people at church today by telling them that God loves them.
28	Sing your Scripture song. Choose a new Scripture, write it out and post it. Create a new song and sing it every day this week.
29	Take a walk with a compass. Go east. Ask your kids when they think the compass will says they've gone as far east as possible. After awhile, explain that you could travel east — or west — forever. Discuss how this is similar to God's forgiveness. As far as the east is from the west — that's how far God has removed our sins from us. (Psalm 103:12)
30	Help your children make pages G and S in their creation scrapbook.

Did God surprise you this month as you and your family did these activities? We'd love to hear what worked at thrivingfamily@family.org.

The ideas came from the following authors: Charlotte Adelsperger, Darla Noble, Karen Arneson, Kristi Martin, Marcy Lytle, Renee Gray-Wilburn, Sharayah Sharrod. This calendar originally appeared in the May/June 2010 issue of Thriving Family magazine. Copyright © 2010 Carlotte Adelsperger, Darla Noble, Karen Arneson, Kristi Martin, Marcy Lytle, Renee Gray-Wilburn, Sharayah Sharrod. All rights reserved. International copyright secured. Used by permission. ThrivingFamily.com.