Advent for Little Ones

These are the things we’re doing with the little ones this year:

Advent calendar from ADVENTure of Christmas by Lisa Whelchel. It’s magnetic, so it works great on the refrigerator door. One of the youngest usually opens the window for the day, then Garrett usually reads.

Then we go to the table and light our advent candle(s) for the week. I read the corresponding page to the window that was opened, and we learn about one of the symbols or traditions of Christmas. Tomorrow we will light the second candle for the first time, so we will have the first and second candles lit, and the light will get brighter.

There are neat activities suggested to go with each lesson, but I haven’t been able to do them this year. Maybe next year.

Then we do our Advent Book by Jack and Kathy Stockman. They really like to open the door for the day. We try to remember who opened it last, and then let the next person open it, then Garrett reads the next part of the Christmas story that is revealed.

As you can see, they really enjoy this book.

In the past, I have done an advent activity by Christian Perspective which the younger ones really enjoyed called Jesus – The Promised One. You get the devotional for the parent to read aloud and then a little book for each child to put a sticker in or draw a picture for each lesson. There are physical books and ebooks now. I always bought the physical kits. Each day I would read the devotional and then we would open the little envelope for the day and take out the stickers that each child could put in their booklet. Each child was also given a gold pen that they could decorate or write with in their booklet. This was one of their favorite parts!

I did this with Morgan, Kelsey, Fiona and Garrett two years ago when they were 5, 5, 8 and 10 years old. And I had done it with them the year before that, too. Actually, I did it with Patrick, Anna, Kelsey and Morgan while we still lived in Kansas City the year before that! We have done it in 3 different houses.

I just didn’t think of it this year or we probably would have done it in this house, too with the youngest. But we have plenty of fun advent activities to do. I like to do some things every year, but I also like to mix things up a little, so they don’t get tired of doing the same things or get bored with them.

I’ll probably get The Promised One booklets next year for advent. Abby and Emma will probably be more ready for them then.