This Sunday I decided I better get back on the wagon re: teaching my kids about the Bible. I’d given up on our Sunday morning “Bible Story Club” routine when I got disenchanted with the gimmicky curriculum I had bought on line. The girls got a few Bible stories over the Summer, and lots of lessons in gratitude (see our Summer book). But we didn’t do anything formal as far as religious education goes.

This Sunday morning we all sat on the window seat in our jammies. The girls wanted to read the story of Jesus calming the sea, so we did that. Then we tried to make a storm-in-the-bottle thing that came with the aforementioned dorky curriculum. That didn’t work, though it was fun messing about with food coloring and glitter. Not done doing “Bible Story Club,” but more than done with the curriculum suggestions, I offered to help the girls make prayer beads. Eden’s been digging my stones from COTA and I’ve been cooking up some kid versions of the prayer cycles. We spent the next two hours stringing beads and here’s what we came up with:

From left to right you’ve got:

1) The green prayer chain Eden made for her friend Rosie. You invite each member of the Godhead to be present by touching each of the first three beads and saying the names of God. Then you use each of the following beads to represent one of the phrases in ‘Jesus loves me’ (modified to be gender neutral, of course! Finally, you round the whole thing off with a big “AMEN!” at the end bead. The “Amen Bead” was Eden’s idea. P.s. Rosie is not religious, but Eden had to share this treasure with her friend.

2) The “Jesus Loves Me Necklace” Cate made to wear to school on days that she feels sad. It’s basically the same format, except for we added a purple bead in the shape of a cat, because “kitten-cat” and “cate-cat” are Cate’s nicknames. Cate chose a bell to represent the Holy Spirit, which I really love. Then the gold beads on either side of the necklace are for the “Jesus Loves Me “song. The rest are colorful filler bead that Cate chose.

3) A plastic baby prayer braclet for my two year old godson, Berto. The white bead is a special “We Love Berto!” bead that Catie wanted to add. The other beads are for the phrases of Jesus Love Me, with the three round beads being the “yes Jesus loves me” part of the chorus. The cross is a shrinky dink that the girls made.

4) Eden’s very ornate prayer chain. This follows the same pattern as Rosie. Eden is also busy writting other prayers she can do with it, and adpating some kid’s rosary prayers that I’d already written. I’d post my kid prayers here, only Eden took the only copy of them with her to school today! Eden wanted her chain and Rosie’s chain to have a ring at the top and a saftey pin so they could wear them on their belt loops. Today Eden went to school in jeans, the prayer chain dangling almost to her knee — along with the fringe and torquoise beads on her faux leather belt. I love that kid!

Eventually, I’m going to put close up of these pics, along with better how-to’s regarding the prayers — if y’all want ‘em.