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Here is a suggested routine
This is to help set a rhythm for each day and provide alternatives to screen time. You can download other schedule options by clicking the button below.
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Learning Time
Character Focus for Today: Truthfulness
Truthfulness is: “Earning future trust by accurately reporting past facts.” This means that when you are honest and tell the truth about things that have happened, people will know they can trust you now and in the future. Some ways you can show truthfulness are by telling the truth no matter what, encouraging others to tell the truth, and carefully giving and keeping your word. When you show truthfulness, you don’t have a guilty conscience from telling a lie, you are an example of honesty to others, and you show others that you are trustworthy.
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Truthfulness Activity
Truthfulness Activity: Two Paths
Supplies Needed:
2 boxes, one labeled “Truth” and one labeled “Lies”
10 slips of paper with scenarios written on them; 5 scenarios of a person choosing to tell the truth, and 5 exact same scenarios of that person choosing to tell a lie instead (see below for examples).
Scenario ideas:
-Scenario 1:
Truth: One day, you are putting the dishes away when you drop one and break it. Even though you’re afraid of getting in trouble, you go and you tell your mom that you are sorry. She knows that it was an accident and thanks you for telling the truth.
Lie: One day, you are putting the dishes away when you drop one and break it. You are afraid of getting in trouble, so you quickly sweep it up and throw it away, hoping that your mom won’t find out. Later that day, she finds a piece of it on the floor and asks you about it. You tell her what happened, and she forgives you. But you are also punished for trying to cover up what happened.
-Scenario 2:
Truth: You are playing with your sibling when you see that they have a toy that you really want. You take it from them, but then they start yelling at you to give it back. Your mom comes in and asks what happened. You don’t want to get in trouble by telling her what you did, but you know you need to tell her what really happened, so you do. You have to sit in time-out and don’t get to play for a while, but you are glad that you told the truth.
Lie: You are playing with your sibling when you see that they have a toy that you really want. You take it from them, but then they start yelling at you to give it back. Your mom comes in and asks what happened. You don’t want to get in trouble for takin g the toy, so you don’t tell her about that. You just tell her that your sibling started yelling at you. Your mom tells your sibling to speak kindly, and then your sibling tells her the whole story. She tells you to give the toy back, and you get in trouble for not telling her all that happened.
-Scenario 3:
Truth: Your friends come over to play, and they are telling fun stories of things they got to do over the weekend. When they ask you what you did, you’re embarrassed because you didn’t do anything exciting. You think about making up a really cool story, but you decide to tell them the truth instead.
Lie: Your friends come over to play, and they are telling fun stories of things they got to do over the weekend. When they ask you what you did, you’re embarrassed because you didn’t do anything exciting, so you make up and tell them a story about something really cool. They think it sounds really fun and, as they are getting ready to leave, they mention your “exciting weekend” to your mom. When she finds out you lied, she tells you to apologize and tell them what actually happened.
Write out the different scenarios and put them in their corresponding boxes. Put the box labeled “Truth” at one end of the room and the box labeled “Lies” at the other end. Ask your child to stand in the middle of the room and try to reach both boxes at the same time without moving the boxes. After each child has had a turn, let them choose one box to walk towards. Once they have chosen, let them open it and read the scenarios inside.
Talk About It: In the activity, you couldn’t reach both boxes at the same time. You had to choose. Similarly, you can’t have both the truth and lies; you have to pick one or the other. When you try to mix truths and lies, such as telling exaggerations or half-truths, you are telling full-blown lies. When we choose to do one of those things, we are deciding not to choose the truth because we can’t have both. Even if part of what we say is true, if we don’t tell the whole truth, we still are telling a lie. Sometimes it is hard to tell the truth, and we may have to face the consequences if we did something wrong, but telling the truth is always the right thing to do. Next time you are thinking about saying something that isn’t the whole truth, remember that that is lying, and then choose to tell the truth instead.
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Hands-On Activities
First Activity: Homemade Popsicles
Have fun making popsicles with your child today! You can use popsicle molds that you have or use small, plastic cups with popsicle sticks. Make popsicles using combinations of fruit juices (apple, grape, orange), chopped fruit, yogurt, pudding, ice cream, or your favorite soda! See the links below for more details.
Peaches and Cream:
https://sugarandcloth.com/eats-peaches-and-cream-pops/?fb_source=pubv1
Banana Peanut Butter Yogurt:
https://www.notenoughcinnamon.com/banana-peanut-butter-yogurt-popsicles/
Cookie Dough:
https://www.allroadsleadtothe.kitchen/2012/06/cookie-dough-lovers-cookbook-by-lindsay.html
Homemade Creamsicles:
https://happyhooligans.ca/2-ingredient-homemade-creamsicles/
Watermelon and Raspberry:
https://lifemadesweeter.com/3-ingredient-watermelon-raspberry-popsicles/
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Second Activity: Personal Play Time (30 min.)
This is a happy time when children get to be in their room and play something of their choosing by themselves. Siblings who share a room can be together. The children might greatly oppose this idea at first, but after several days (up to a week) they may be begging you for more time. Keep it positive! Be excited about it! After the time is up, they must clean up what they were playing with and "Personal Play Time" is over. After this, they must come out of their room. Changing up locations throughout the day keeps things interesting and creates anticipation for the next activity
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Creative Play
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Activity: Sneak Around Hide-and-Seek
Today, your children can play hide-and-seek. But instead of staying in one place, the children who are hiding must sneak around the house, or other designated area, and not get caught. Whoever is “it” will try to find them as they sneak around.
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Quiet Time Ideas: reading books or listening to audio adventures.
Audio Adventure Idea: Focus on the Family Streaming
Check out Focus on the Family’s audio books and audio adventures, one of which is The Imagination Station Series audio books, where you can join cousins Patrick and Beth as they travel back in time in the Imagination Station! https://www.lightsource.com/ministry/focus-at-home/?seriesId=20878
See the link below for other options offered by Focus on the Family:
https://www.lightsource.com/ministry/focus-at-home
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As the afternoon is starting to come to a close, have your children update their journal. Encourage them to write or draw something that happened today and also something for which they are grateful.
After the devotional tonight, have your child write down in their journal something they learned about Jesus from the story or from what He taught, along with their action step.
Here are a few review questions from yesterday’s devotional:
Why did the nobleman go to Jesus?
What was the man’s response when Jesus told him, “Go your way; your son lives”?
When was the man’s son healed?
What was the response of the man and his household when his son was healed?
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Family Devotional Idea
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Click the button below to download today's devotional!
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In The Gap Kid's Truthfulness Video
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Watch this fun video to learn how you can show truthfulness!
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If you know of someone who would benefit from this email, please forward this on to them and encourage them to sign up to receive these daily activity emails for themselves. They can subscribe at: https://www.inthegapkids.org/sign-up/
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