At Home Opportunities for Infants and ToddlersEstablishing a routine
Right...so you have a routine for most everything you do in your life. Why wouldn't you establish a routine for faith formation in your home? Believe it or not NOW is the time to establish this routine! If you get in the habit of going to church with your infant or toddler they will not let you quit when they are in elementary school! Likewise choosing not to attend church with your small child is also creating a routine...and if you don't model a faithful behavior to your young child who will? It's also important to develop a routine of prayer, intentional conversation and bible reading with your family! This "Faith at Home" element will help your children grow up understanding their faith. It also is how you can fulfill the promises that you made at your child's baptism. Below you will find several different ideas for establishing a routine in your family. Our hope is that you try something! Just as with everything, you've got to do what works for you and your family...where reading the bible every night while huddled around the fire may work great for some, others may feel lucky to sneak in a prayer once a week at a meal time. The reality is the more you do the more you will benefit. All current research suggests that the more parents model faith at home, the more likely their children will grow up with faith! Feel free to try any of the things below...or design your own way of connecting faith and life. 
Keys in Faith Formation
Vibrant Faith ministries defines several keys to successful faith formation in the home. All are easy to add to your routine and all will enhance your faith life! Click on the titles for a large list of ideas for families of all ages! 1) Rituals and Traditions: This is all about blending faith into your daily routines...by creating a ritual or tradition that points us back to faith. These can include praying together at meal time, blessings before leaving the house or at the end of the day, and more! Click here for a fun Bedtime Routine from Vibrant Faith 2) Caring Conversations Caring Conversations are all about connecting your everyday conversations and every day happenings back to God! Click here for a great activity called, "When Children Ask Why" 3) Bible Stories This is the practice of including Bible Stories at bedtime or at story time! If you aren't reading to your child you should start today! and what better place to start than with Bible Stories? Here's a link to a great activity dealing with fear 4) Family Service This is the simply working together with your family to serve others. At Hope we have a great program called S.A.l.T. that provides families with ways to serve together. Here's a fun Halloween based activity 5) Prayer Praying together as a family is a key in all families! There are many ways and opportunities to pray together as a family. This is as simple as praying before meal times and before bed! There are many other ways that you can incorporate family prayer into your daily lives! Here's a fun prayer activity for fall! Faith Five: a simple 5 step routine that you can do every night! |
At our baby steps Faith Stepping Stones event, parents of infants are given a copy of Rich Melheim's "Holding Your Family Together. If you are unable to attend the event (Or you no longer have a baby to bring to the event) and would like a copy of the book they can be purchased from Paul Goodman for $12 or ordered on Amazon.com
The Faith Five is a simple bedtime routine that incorporates
1) Share: Share your highs and lows
2) Read: Read a bible story together
3) Talk: Talk about the Bible Story
4) Pray Pray together
5) Bless Do a simple blessing with your family.
Many members of Hope have found this to be a tangible and easy way to incorporate a short faith conversation and prayer into their nightly routine!
For more information about incorporating this into your daily routine check out the Faith Five Website!
Teaching Thankfulness to Toddlers
This is a great activity from Vibrant Faith ministries that you can do with your family. Click here to be taken to the site!
The Faith Five is a simple bedtime routine that incorporates
1) Share: Share your highs and lows
2) Read: Read a bible story together
3) Talk: Talk about the Bible Story
4) Pray Pray together
5) Bless Do a simple blessing with your family.
Many members of Hope have found this to be a tangible and easy way to incorporate a short faith conversation and prayer into their nightly routine!
For more information about incorporating this into your daily routine check out the Faith Five Website!
Teaching Thankfulness to Toddlers
This is a great activity from Vibrant Faith ministries that you can do with your family. Click here to be taken to the site!
Splash: Monthly Newsletter for Birth-3
Splash packs are our gift to you. If you have a 0-3 year old you should receive a monthly newsletter with ideas, activities, songs, prayers and more! They even come with a yearly music CD for you to share with your child! If you do not receive these and you currently have a young child, please fill out the contact information below!