My east coast grandkids are getting over a round of the flu coupled with colds so today was another non-church day for them. Their folks and I did the round robin with them. They went to early service while I babysat. Then it was my turn for late service – and a VERY good service it was. If you didn’t make it to church and would like notes, write me and I’ll type them up and send them to you. It was so encouraging!

I wanted to do a Sunday School with the grandkids but wound up not sleeping much last night so opted for a singing Sunday School instead. After I finished all my old favorites and they were busily playing with their toys, I started thinking, “I need some new songs to add to my repertoire!” So off I went on a hunt for new songs and I I found some good ones, right in my own bookshelves.

In one bookcase I found a book I’d picked up for a song at a yard sale. “100 Action Songs for Toddlers” by David C. Cook Publishing isn’t available straight from Amazon, but you can order it from them via a second party either used or new. It’s part of an older series that I really like. This particular book has 100 songs with actions and they are all set to familiar nursery rhyme tunes. It’s great for at home, but also for a school or Sunday School. One example from the book is:

Who is Jesus – set to the tune of Are You Sleeping?

“Who is Jesus? Who is Jesus?

Shrug shoulders

He’s God’s Son. He’s God’s Son.

Point up

Jesus is my Savior! Jesus is my Savior!

Clap hands

He loves me! I love Him!

Hug self”

It’s small enough to tuck into my purse and the hand motions will help hold their attention.

In a second bookcase I found a book I bought at the Christian bookstore and love. It’s part of a two book series and I really want to buy the second one as well. This one is “Pray & Play Bible” by Group Publishers. The writers have taken several Bible stories, retold them in a simple yet interesting manner with large and bright pictures. After each story there are simple songs, crafts, snack ideas, and prayers to go with the story. One example is from the story of Abraham and Sarah:

Trust the Lord – also sung to the tune of Are You Sleeping (Honest, I didn’t do that on purpose )

“Trust the Lord, trust the Lord

Every day, every way.

Turn to Him and pray.

Trust Him and obey.

Every day, every way.

Along with that song are several others, as well as a game to teach our grandkids how God keeps His promises, a science experiment to look at the starry sky, a footprint project, making a praise altar and several other fun ideas.

Both of these books would make excellent additions to your library or your grandchildrens’ libraries, as well as to your church or school libraries. Even more important, the Scripture truths you will instill into their hearts by singing these songs will grow wonderful fruit in their hearts.

Multi-tasking is a popular buzzword and one I am particularly fond of. People who work with computers think they were the originators, but all of us caregivers know that we’ve been doing it long before someone invented a word for it. One way I love to multi-task is as a grandmother. I enjoy taking my playtime with my grandkids, incorporating some educational bits and pieces, and often wrapping it all up in a bow with Scriptural truths, or vice-versa – thus doing two or three things at once which is the perfect definition of multi-tasking. “How?” you ask. Read on and join me in this fun plan.

1. STORY-GO-ROUND – We enjoy doing this in the car, but it works anywhere. One person starts a story, tells a few sentences of it, then stops. The next person continues on and adds to it with anything they want. Then they stop, and the third continues, and so forth. I’ve done this with four year olds, and suspect even some three year olds might have fun with it. Generally, the younger the child, the shorter their part of the story. Then again, some toddlers can amaze you with how long they’ll go on. Older children can really have fun being creative and telling longer stories. You could even do this at home and write the story down. Then type it up and add hand-drawn pictures or family photographs. If you do something like that, I would suggest using Smilebox – http://www.smilebox.com/ . It’s quick and easy and something like this would make a great gift, especially for their parents or elderly relatives. For that matter, it would be a great gift for the children who created it. Think what a great motivator it can be for a child to see their words in print. We may be contributing to future famous writers!

2. RANDOM RHYMING – I pick a word and each of us takes turns rhyming it. Lots of fun with a great educational thrust. Then go a step further and add Scripture and Scriptural truths. For each word that is rhymed, give the meaning of the word. Whenever possible, give a Bible verse or Bible word meaning. For example – Kite, Might – “Not by might nor by power, but by My Spirit,’ says the LORD of hosts.” (Zech. 4:6); Height – “For I am convinced that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor things present, nor things to come, nor powers, nor height, nor depth, nor any other created thing, will be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.”  (Romans 8:38-39); and so on. Now I have to admit, I don’t have those exact words at the tip of my tongue. Well, I do have the Zechariah one at the ready, thanks to a song from the Psalty kids’ Christmas album which my children loved when they were young. But for the Romans verse, I’m more likely to say that “ God loves us so much that nothing can separate us from Him, no matter the height nor the depth.” It gets the point across simply and easily. Now you’ve got English, Bible and fun all rolled into one.

3. HIDE AND SEEK AND COUNT – We love to play hide and seek. It’s one of my grandkids’ favorite games. Instead of counting the normal way, 1-2-3-4-5, I started counting really loud by different numbers. For example, 2-4-6-8, or 3-6-9-12-15, or 5-10-15-20. It gives them a chance to hear the different ways of counting, and the more you do it, the sooner they’ll learn to count that way as well. I was thrilled when my four-year-old grandkids counted by 2’s to 20 the other day! Of course, they’ll also be learning this in preschool, kindergarten, and/or homeschool. But this is a fun way for us to reinforce what they’ve been learning.

What fun, educational, and multi-tasking games do you play with your grandkids? Please tell us about them in the comments below or by sending an email to Kaye@SandwichINK.com . Have fun! And here’s the link for the Psalty Christmas album – http://psaltyskidsstore.stores.yahoo.net/bcachcodi.html