Sunday Stations

Last Sunday A3 was reading a Friend magazine, it's a kids religious magazine Grandpa and Grandma send the kids. They love reading through these. At the dinner table, A3 was telling us all about the story she read....Sunday Stations. This is the story, simplified for my blog friends :p

The family in the stories church was not until Sunday afternoon, after lunch. The kids always had a hard time waiting for church to start. So the Mom came up with the idea of Sunday Stations. She had 4 stations in the story, one at the table, one on the couch, one on the computer, and one on the other couch. At each station she set up an activity, she gave some simple instructions for each station, set the timer for 10 minutes and the kids were off, moving around the stations. In the story the stations were table- color/work on personal goals and progress, couch1- call someone Grandpa in the story, couch2- read aloud with Mom, computer-email someone close to you.

Well the A's all thought this was a great idea, and we have decided to have Sunday Stations at our house! Since there was no time to plan, and this was more of a spur of the moment idea. Last Sunday was a test run, of sorts. Here's what we decided to do. One older A would be in charge of a Station, A1, A2 and A3 all teach a station. They will rotate between teaching a craft/activity, reading a story with an activity, and sending Papa Bear an email when gone and doing another activity. Each station will get 15 minutes, and then at the end of our Sunday Station time, we will meet up for Mom to teach a lesson to the family. We will also, usually, make a treat.
here's a few highlights of our last Sunday Stations:

A1, helped with emailing cousins, and Papa Bear.


A2 made "FAITH" key chains.

A3 read another story from the Friend, and printed a color page for the kids.

Since it was so rushed and I was not able to plan anything. We had planned on making cookies, but ended up making brownies together, and I too read the kids a story from the friend.

I think this will be a good time to spend learning the Scripture Stories together. I want to have a simple book to read aloud, and read the Scripture Stories from the Scriptures, along with an activity or project. Then I also want to reinforce these stories and activities during the week with the A's.

I think this will be a nice addition to our Sundays. It will give the older A's some one on one time with the younger A's. It is also fun to watch them "teach" the younger A's. I actually heard a few phrases or statements I would have said, if I was teaching! It will also help to keep the lessons going, learning about the most important part of our lives. I think it will add a new depth to our religious studies and family time.