Here are some songs about family and activities that we can do to show our love:
Songs:
Cuddling (to the tune of 'Go Tell Aunt Rodie' if you know it...pretty old...)
Who can we cuddle
who can we cuddle
who can we cuddle
to love is wonderful!
~Also~
God Made Us (to the tune of 'This Old Man')
God made you
God made me
God made each one differently
But we're all part of one big family
God made everyone we see!
We also sang 'Jesus Loves me' with sign language in addition to the song. Many parents practice sign language with their infants and toddlers, so having them watch you sign in addition to singing this song is very impactful. Plus, the infants just love watching you and the toddlers are longing for new ways to communicate. This is a very traditional song and a very simple 'first Sunday school song' to share with your little one.
Activities
Our activity for the week was a tracing of the family members' hands (picture below:)
Trace the biggest person's hands, then the next smallest inside of that, then the next smallest inside of that, and so on. We just used crayons to do this - with a different color for each person. Of course kids are wiggly and you'll notice that one of my smallest daughters' fingers is all withered-looking. That's OK. It makes it real : ) Or, hey - it's just crayon outlines - start over, why not? At the top you can write 'Family' or 'I love you', or whatever seems right to you. ("this family is a real handful"? Nah...)
The book we read that day was A Night Night Prayer by Amy Parker. Its a story about saying goodnight to God's creation, including a sleeping mama and daddy and the family pets. It's a great book because it is very repetitive and lots of actions (Sssh-ing in the text, which the kiddos love doing, and naming animals and family members.)
Lastly, we also did a great devotion (also involving cuddling) from Little Visits for Toddlers by Mary Manz Simon. We read a poem about hugging and whenever the word 'hug' was said, we would hug our little ones (if they would let us. Sometimes the toddlers just aren't ready to stand in one place for that long!). This devotion is located on page 195 of Little Visits for Toddlers.
