Church summer "Take out" box

 

This has been around for a couple of years, but I still think it's a neat idea :)  I did it one year at my last church.  Basically, it's a pizza box filled with fun activities that your kids can do over the summer.  It is especially meant for road trips!  When your church families are traveling (or when your own family is traveling), it's great to still give them a connection to their home church!  Let them know they are being thought of, even if they are hundreds of miles away.  Since most church services can now be found online, this can also be an enhancement to those services - if they are being watched while at the beach, on road trips, etc.  While parents are watching the online service, the children can be there with them, using these materials :)  Win-win for everyone!

Assuming you're on a budget and you don't have hundreds of dollars to spend on these, here are some ideas to help you cut the cost, but still provide fun and meaningful materials!

----------------------------------------------------------------------

First off, the box.  You can buy them in bulk online, or you can ask around at different pizza places and ask for donations.  I got small ones for us thinking we wouldn't need anything large...but if you don't get ones big enough for 8 1/2 by 11 papers, you're going to be doing a lot of folding.  Since most restaurants have their names on the box, many will be more than happy to donate 10-15 for the cause.  You may need to hit 2-3 restaurants if you have a lot of families.  I gave out one per child, but you could also do one per family.

You also want to include any summer bulletins/newsletters, etc that you have for your specific church.  Include a piece of paper (or glue it to the inside of the lid) with the website and social media info so they can watch online.  

-----------------------------------------------------------------------

Now for the Fun stuff - 

I went to oriental trading and bought 3 things that I knew my kids loved.  

Scratch offs!  My kids love these, and I loved the idea of giving them a postcard that they could create and write on while they were on a trip somewhere!  You could even write the church address on it and put the stamp on it to encourage them to send it while they're gone!  You could display them somewhere in your church :) 

Sticker scenes to do on long car rides...OR, you could get religious ones to do during their at-home worship services!  There are tons to choose from.  If you'd like to get a religious one that goes along with the lessons that I am including in my bundle, there is a good one for the story of Joseph.  

Lastly, you can get fidgets or little logic puzzles that would fit nicely in the box.  

Other items...

You could also put deflated beach balls in the box and write conversation starters on the ball so they could play a game together as a family :) 

Other things to include - glow sticks, crayons, colored pencils, and stickers to decorate their box :) 

I also found a finger labyrinth printable online that I included.  I've discovered that tracing them can be calming for kids.

Jokes are also fun!  Search "free printable jokes for kids" and include some of those :) 

--------------------------------------------------

I have also created some fun things that you can include in your box!  There are 7 things total and you can get them all for $4 - and make enough copies for all your kids!  This is what I'm offering in the bundle (some are free and you can get them all separately or together).  

1.  5 Bible Story lessons to do at home. I actually have ten available for free in my store (5 OT and 5 NT), but that is too much to include in your pizza box.  So, I picked out 5 that are well suited for trips away from home or at home.   Those five are a "bonus" item in the bundle.

2.  Religious Car Trip Bingo - God's Creation. - (.50) this is a little printable you can print out on cardstock or laminate and include in the pizza box.  There are 48 things on there for them to find on a car trip and they are all God's creations! :) 

3.  Would you Rather questions!  ($2) This is a fun game you can play at the dinner table, in the car, wherever!   Play this with any age.  You can print them in color or black and white.  You can let them cut them up, or you can do it for them.  Rubber band them together and there ya go!

4.  Lego stem tasks ($1) - Any age can play this.  most families have either small or large legos at home and they could play this game.  However, if you want to make sure they have some, Target sometimes has the knock off brands in their dollar bins!  They actually work pretty well - I've used them!  Include them in their boxes.  This set has 21 cards.  If you don't want to give all 21 to each child, you can print out a few sets and give each child 5 cards.  

5.  ABC Wordsearches (.50 each) - This is just for readers.  These wordsearches are special :)  I give them the starting letter of the word (A-Z) and how many letters are in the word - and they have to figure out the words in the puzzle.  Click this link to see a free sample for Holy Week.  In this bundle, I'm including the Joseph wordsearch (because that story is in the Bible lessons) and a generic "Bible character" wordsearch.  

6.  Joseph dice game (.50) - Preschoolers - elementary can play this.  I have around 5 dice games, but I'm including Joseph since he's in the Bible lesson :)  They only need one die for this.  You can provide it or just let them get one at home.  (Dollar Tree has a pack of dice for $1).  

7.  Lastly, I created a religious summer bucket list that you can print out and give to your families.  This is free, but I've included it in the bundle as well so you don't have to download twice :)  This comes in a one page printout like you see above, or you can print it in black and white, cute up the ideas, and then draw them out of a hat one at a time :)  

Total cost of all the materials is $5 but the bundle is only $4 :)  

If you decide to make a box, let us know below what you put in it that is different from what I've suggested!  We would love to get more ideas!

Thanks and God bless you and your ministry and family :)  🧡

Black light glow parties!

 

Who doesn't love a good black light party??  Elementary groups, youth groups, even adults - every age loves glow parties!  

The problem is, you can get stuck on one idea that eventually gets a little stale.  You get in a rut, right?  So, I went on a search for lots of fun black light glow party ideas - and my facebook groups didn't disappoint!  People have really thought outside the box and gotten creative with this!  So, here are some ideas for games, activities, and even a few suggestions on supplies.  Maybe you'll find something new that you hadn't thought of before!  If you've done something awesome and it's not on this list - please comment below!  Your idea may just be what someone else is looking for :)

Before you get started - here are some fun ideas from other educators on things you can do or tell your group to do to get ready!  

    - wear white or neon clothes that glow...if you make youth group or children's ministry shirts, kill two birds with one stone and make sure it glows in black lights!

    - when they arrive make sure they are adorned with glow sticks!

    - when they arrive, if they are okay with it, you can do face paint/body art with glow body paint!

Black light pickleball

Black light gaga ball

The ever popular black light dodge ball

Black light nerf gun and darts competition - could also put up glow in the dark targets to have target practice.

Black light volleyball - with younger kids, light up balloons make this easier and fun!

Black light 9 square in the air

Simple but fun game idea for younger children - blow up tons of light up glow balloons and put them all over your room.  Divide the group up into two teams and put down glow tape in the middle of the room to partition it into two sections.  When you say "go", everyone on one side tries to put all the balloons on to the other side.  When you call "time", the team with the most balloons loses :) 

Airplane toss!  Have them make paper airplanes and put up glow in the dark targets.  Divide them into teams and see which team hits the most targets.

Paint over the Twister circles and play glow Twister!

Glow in the Dark Wiffle ball - paint the bat, put glow sticks inside the wiffle balls, tape off the bases with neon glow tape, and make sure everyone is wearing shirts that glow.

Black light 4 square (use black light/neon tape on the floor to mark off your court)

Ring Toss and mini golf!

Also, pictured above - Glow Jenga :)  Paint the blocks different colors!

Paint ping pong balls different glow colors and play this game:  toss into neon buckets, or into neon cups.  As a twist, make them earn the ping pong balls somehow.

Spray paint bean bags and a cornhole game to play glow cornhole!

Glow bowling!  There are different ways to light up the water...here are 3 suggestions:  use tonic water (says it glows on it's own!), put a glow stick in a bottle of water (someone else said you can break open the stick as well), or squeezing highlighter liquid into water bottles.

Glow hopscotch - you can use your spray painted bean bags from cornhole :) 

With the water bottles from bowling, you can empty them out so only 1/3 of the water is inside, and do a bottle flipping contest!

Neon Cup stacking contests.

Take the legs down on a table, prop it up on one side, and make a sort of Skeet ball game using glow buckets and glow wiffle balls (or glow balls from the dollar tree).

Make circles with glow sticks, hang them from the ceiling and have football toss contests.

Glow in the dark tic-tac-toe

Dance party - tape glow sticks on their arms and legs so it looks like stick figures dancing :) Add in Toby Mac's Light Shine bright and do a freeze dance!

Do a stem activity - spray paint legos and do some lego stem card activities or build a volcano and let them add in their own cups of baking soda (mix highlighter liquid with the vinegar).  

Many churches have sponsored black light egg hunts, but you can also do regular prize hunts at your event.  Fill up a small space (gaga pit would work well) with lots of glowing balloons and hide lots of little prizes under the balloons.  Let in a small group of kids at a time and give them 10-15 seconds to grab as many prizes as they can (keeping the balloons in the space ;). 

Neon Glow painting - there were a number of ideas with this.  One, was to put up BLACK paper along the walls and let them paint.  Another was to lay out WHITE paper on the floor and let them draw/paint.  Both would work and they would create different effects - the paper would glow if it's white, only the drawings would show if it's black.  Either could be used for a fun photo back drop or decoration for future parties!  According to other educators, there is glow paint available, glow chalk (you can also make your own), or someone else suggested painting with detergent!  If you're using white paper - you can just draw with highlighters!  These were also suggested from oriental trading.

Make glow playdoh.

Make glow bubbles (someone suggested just emptying the glow stick liquid into the bubbles - 1/2 stick for small bottle of bubbles)!

Ask them to bring a white tshirt or provide them - they can decorate their own shirts with glow paint to use for future events.

1.  To illustrate that there is more going on around than we can see, and that God is always with us even though we can’t see Him, we had the kids write their fears on a poster board. What they didn’t know is that during the week we had written truths about God with invisible black light pens on the same posters. So, when we hit the lights and turned on the black lights, their fears disappeared and the truth of God shined brightly!

2.  One educator did a version of the Wordless book (but this idea could be used with other lessons that involve different colors).  Every kid/participant was given a different color glow-stick. As I told the story, I asked those that had the corresponding color to wave it in the air as I related the color to the story. It was cool to see the room filled with blue, then red, then white, then green, then purple, then orange.

Neon Duct tape - on any and everything :) Including pool noodles!

Floor neon tape

LED lights with floor neon tape

neon paint and chalk

Did you know these little guys glow? 

Neon cups from Amazon or Party City

This is a vendor that was suggested for glow products.

Beach balls (evidently they glow?)

This light strip was recommended.

Well, that's all I have for now!  Any other suggestions, comment below so we can all see your ideas!  Thanks!

Did you know I create religious games for elementary and youth as well as religious Escape rooms!?  Check them out! :)  Small group, Large group, active, screen games, you name it!  All are $3 or under!

Thanks for all you do in your ministry!

In Christ,

Laurie J

Religious Summer Bucket List

 

Are you looking for some fun and meaningful things that you and your kids can do over the summer?  Would you like to integrate Scripture into your adventures?  Use this "Religious Summer Bucket List" to give you some ideas!  

                                                 

You can print out the entire sheet and check them off one by one or you can print out the strips of paper, fold them up, then pick them out randomly!  There are 15 ideas on the list - hopefully enough to get you through the summer!

click to download for free!

Mentioned in one of the ideas is to do a RAK around your community.  If you'd like some ideas for that, check out an old blogpost I wrote!

Have fun this summer!

Alternative ideas to VBS

 

Many churches still find success with doing summer Vacation Bible School (VBS), but others have seen a decline in volunteers and attendance and are searching for different ways to engage their community and church members over the summer.  I went on a hunt to try and find ways churches have successfully done this, so that we can share these ideas with each other!  I was not disappointed!   There are some wonderfully, creative people out there!

First, I’ll share with you all the ideas that I found that fall under “alternatives” to VBS.  Although, some churches said they did these events along with VBS.  But, it’s honestly up to where you are located, your facilities, your resources, etc.  You do what works for your church and community!   Personally, I LOVE VBS and it was one of my favorite things to plan all year…but, after reading some of these ideas – I may be revamping some things!  Summer is a great time to reach unchurched families (and, of course, your own families) and I would love to implement a few of these ideas! 

After sharing with you the alternatives to VBS, I’ve included at the end different names people have used for VBS.  Some wanted to get away from the “old school” name and promote it in a different way.  Others wanted to reach out to unchurched families who may not know what “VBS” is all about.  And still others said that they simply wanted to market themselves as something different because they were in an area where there were VBS’s on every street corner! 

If you’ve had success with any of these suggestions, or you have one to add, please feel free to comment at the end and share it with us!  You never know - your idea might be exactly what another church needs!

Alternatives to VBS

First off, let me preface all these ideas with this:  you need to figure out what schedule works best for your church and community.  After reading through about 100 different ideas, I realized that not only is every church and community unique, but the families that make them up are unique.  So, think about your community – do they travel a lot during the summer?  Do they hop between one VBS to another all summer?  Are they very sports oriented?  Etc.  Think about your own church families.  Do they travel a lot over the summer?  Do you they need full-day care?  Are most of the families working families?  Etc.  And lastly, look at your immediate community around you.  What are their needs?  Is there something missing you can provide?  Put all of this together and it will help you decide if you want something one day a week for a month, or a weeklong camp, or something in the evening, or in the morning, etc.  Once you have THAT decided, then you can move on to what you want to provide.  Most of the suggestions below can be tweaked to be done over one week, 3 days, every Wednesday for 6 weeks, all day Saturday, etc. 

 

1.     LARGE COMMUNITY FAMILY DAY:  There were a lot of these ideas floating around.  It’s like a retreat – but just one day…and at your church.  Many churches created a theme around the day and based all their activities around it.  Others used an actual VBS curriculum and had stations for the families to participate in – but you could use the talents and gifts in your church and offer stations in that (think knitting, wood carving, storytelling, archery…whatever!).  This would be a one day event that would take place sometime over the weekend.  One church suggested live music and meals as well.

2.     FAMILY FUN NIGHTS:  This was a very popular idea that had lots of variations.  Some churches picked an evening and did it for a month, others for 6 weeks, and some ambitious churches did it the whole summer!   Depending on the time, you could provide dinner or dessert.  Then, treat the evening like it’s own VBS.  Have an opening and closing large group time, then break out into different age groups.  Some churches provided activities from birth to adult, others just for prek/elementary.  Each evening, although it could fit an over-arching theme for the summer, was it’s own stand-alone event…so if you missed one it wasn’t a big deal.  Most churches seemed to split up the families and have each age do their own thing – but I could see this being an intergenerational event as well!

3.    FAM JAM: (love the name!)  One church turned their evening VBS into a family 3-night event.  They had meals, worship, family time break out groups and then games.  Sounds fun!  As I mentioned above, this idea could be done a variety of ways – every night for a week, once a week for a month, etc.

7.    Change your VBS to a Family style VBS – Thinking back to a couple of churches where I worked, this wouldn’t work well.  But other churches say that their families LOVE the opportunity to do something together.  So, think about your specific population and if this is something you could do (it would eliminate the need for a lot of volunteers!).  You could have a break out time where the kids, youth, and adults separate for a bit to do their “own thing” and then gather back together.

4.    Bible Adventure Park: (think carnival meets VBS!) This sounds more like a family event then just for kids.  The event is organized like a theme park where every event area is focused on a different Bible Story (you could almost use a VBS curriculum).  There could be storytelling, games, crafts, music, etc.  Have a closing time where the entire group gets together and you can do a short message and sending.  You could also add in other games and stations that are carnival-ish – photo booth, balloon animals, face painting, etc.  You could also put out games like 9 square in the air, bounce houses, etc.  Lastly, you could tie in a mission element by telling people the entrance fee is a donation to a clothing or food bank.

5.    Backyard Bible Camp – This is a very popular model that I saw a LOT of churches doing.  I also saw mentioned that LifeWay has a curriculum for this – “On the road VBS”.  Some churches called it “Pop Up VBS”.  Ask 3-5 of your parents to host a “backyard VBS” at their house (or use various parks).  You do all the work – provide supplies, volunteers, etc – they just provide the location (and kids!).  The idea is to think strategically and plan your “pop ups” in neighborhoods that have a lot of kids.  You limit the amount of “outside” kids that can attend and concentrate on that neighborhood.

6.    Service Week/Serve and Sun– I LOVE this idea, but transportation would be a real pain with younger kids (car seats).  In addition, some of these places might be too much for younger kids to handle.  I can see this working well for older kids (maybe 2^nd/3^rd grade and up).  These churches take their kids out into a different place in the community every day for a week.  Nursing home, animal rescue, homeless shelter, etc.  Another option, is to look for places that are in an area where you could “chill” after serving (a park, pool, restaurant, mall, etc).  Many churches made this an all day event and served in the morning, and then did something “fun” in the afternoon (movie, zoo, swim/lake/beach, etc).  They picked one day a week for a month for their “serve and sun” days.  Or, others picked 3 times during the summer (with the hope that the kids would be able to go 1-2 times).

8.     SUMMER PLAYGROUND DROPOFF – The schools in our area set up this “drop off” service every weekday at different parks around the community.  It was an all day thing (which I think, in the middle of summer, is way too hot for), but this could easily be adapted for a half day event.  I really like the idea of this one as well.  To avoid the hottest part of the day, I would do it 8-11am, and serve a light breakfast when they arrive (so parents don’t have to worry about it), and then a snack.  Parents would pick them up before lunch.  Treat it like an outdoor VBS and have songs, games, crafts, etc.  You could pick various parks throughout your city so you can get your message out to every child…or, pick the park closest to your church so you can reach the kids in your neighborhood.  The logistics would be the hardest part to this I think – you would need all of the safety information for each child, every week.  If you stayed at the same park, this might eliminate some of that as you would have repeat kids each week.  But what a wonderful outreach to the community.  (And if some families are at the park and want to join in with their kids – they could!)  One church said they had a great facility/play area on their grounds, so they set up a “snack and craft in the park” a couple times a week.  Entire families would stay and do crafts, have a snack, and play games 😊 Another church called this “Popsicles in the Park” and would bring popsicles to share while they read a Bible story, did a craft, and then played together on the playground!  Easy and fun!

9.    Skills Camp – MANY churches were doing some kind of variation on this.  Instead of planning a curriculum and finding volunteers, do the opposite and find the gifts in your church and create a curriculum around THAT!  You can offer this for a full week, throughout the summer, in the evenings – whatever!  I read about so many different skills that could be taught – sports, music, knitting, woodworking, leatherworking, cooking, nature activities, drawing, magic, etc!  If you can offer a lot of classes, it keeps the class sizes small (which helps the teacher) and helps build relationships.  You can combine this with a light meal afterwards and/or an opening/closing time when you’re altogether.  If you do a meal afterwards, kids can get up and share what they’ve learned!

     SPORTS CAMP/ART CAMP – This is a very popular alternative out there for VBS.  And, evidently there is a popular curriculum out there that helps you with it!  You pick whichever sports you would like, and then follow their curriculum.  Many churches balance this out with an Arts Camp (which I think is a good idea – many kids aren’t into sports).  One church decided that so many kids in their area loved to skateboard (or wanted to learn), that they held a skateboarding camp!  Way to meet the needs of your community!  They learned to skate, had a snack, learned about Jesus, skated some more, and then shared lunch together.  There is a curriculum that many churches use called Mega Sports Camp – I read mixed reviews.  I love what one church offered – in addition to the “sports” choices, they offered cheerleading and flag core and had the local high school kids help out!  The also made their own flags 😊

     MUSICAL/THEATER CAMP – This is also a fun idea – especially if you know you have kids that would be interested in it!  You spend an entire week learning and rehearsing a musical and then present it on the final night!  Once church stepped this up by inviting their local High School theater department to help out!  The kids can sign up to be in the musical, help with lighting, sound, costumes, or sets!  I love it!

      SUNDAY CAMPS – This is an interesting idea – and I can see how it would fit well with certain churches (maybe smaller churches/growing churches/etc).  If you’re very short on volunteers, you could couple your Sunday morning (or afternoon) activities with a VBS.  A few churches actually held theirs during their Sunday school hour.  They ramped it up, had special activities, guests, tshirts, etc. and then after the church service was over, you could serve lunch for the families in attendance.  Another church held theirs right after church.  Every church that tried this said it was very successful for them and they’d be doing it again!

Alternative Names for “VBS”

Summer Break out

Kids Week

Summer Blast

VBX (VB Xperience) or (VB Xtreme)

Kids Jam

Summer escape

Adventure week

Summer Kids’ fest

Camp (name of Church)

Summer Bible Blast

Summer Family Fun Nights

Simply Summer

Summer Spectacular

Summer Sizzle

Backyard Bash

VBC – VBCamp

ZIP Camp (reaching kids in your zip code)