Are you looking for something active and creative your kids can participate in during some of the upcoming colder winter days? Are you also interested in seeing how your kids view Christ as the focus of the Christmas season?
Try out this create-a-game activity with your family!
This activity can include all ages (in either idea-creating or playing) to work cooperatively together.
“Create-a-Christmas-Game” (originally modified from here)
Children can pair up (or work in a family unit – groups of 3 work well for this activity) and come up with their own fitness game focused on a Christ-centered Christmas!
Provide each pair or group with 3-5 pieces of “equipment.” Offer fitness equipment (like weights, and jump rope, mind spots, sildenafil hula hoops, medicine balls, stability ball) and provide 2-3 objects related to Christ’s birth story (ornaments, nativity pieces, verses on strips of paper, etc.) Allow your kids to grow in their creativity by coming up with a game that includes everyone playing.
Your family “teams” will need to work together to come up with and write down the set of rules to play the game. Encourage your children to test out their games to check to see if they work, plus get some exercise! Give your kids one to three hours (spread out over a couple of days, if possible) to create their game.
Issue some criteria for your kids to meet as they create this activity. Ideas for criteria points include:
- Everyone must participate.
- The game must be fitness-oriented and teach truths about Christ’s birth or the gift He gives through Himself.
- All of the equipment given must be used.
- The game should not exclude or eliminate people (no “getting people out”). None of the equipment should be used to hit people.
- The game must have some focus verses that are used somehow in the game and could include a “fruit of the Spirit” as its “character” emphasis.
For upper elementary and older ages, your kids can create a “write-up” with directions explaining their new game, including the concentration of the game (what aspect of fitness it concentrates on and what the focus verses are) and all rules to play, written so that anyone new could read their directions and play within a few minutes.
To culminate this creativity, involve other family members or neighbors in playing the game. Your kids can teach others how to play, or let the “new” folks read their written directions to test clarity. Then enjoy some fun fitness while focusing on the reason for the season!
Note: This “create-a-game” idea can be modified to fit any season, event, or core subject within the year, too!
How will you and your family focus on Christ this Christmas? How can you do so while adding in activity, too?
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