I love the free printable Bible 3D calendars and pictures available here. I plan on printing some of them on felt and turning them into quiet book pages. Didier Martin also makes wonderful printable toys and MiniWorlds, which can be put together to make a scene to inspire imaginary play.
There are an ton, and I mean a tonne, of Children's Bible Activities, Crafts & Printable Games available on this website - and they are all free. You can print, make and take many of the activities to your Bible class or Sunday School. So many of these ideas are brilliant, excellent quality Bible class activities. I highly recommend this site, despite it's lack of picture appeal.
Whilst you do have to buy some of these resources, they do have many good quality ones available for free. There are colouring sheets, crafts, puzzles, games, MiniBooks, worksheets, holiday themed and file folder printables and even whole curriculums for download.
This website is full of wonderful child evangelism tools that you can use to teach your children how to share their faith with others. This is such an important skill to develop in children to give them confidence and to learn to stand up for their beliefs.
This website is all about conveying Bible truths through fun and captivating activities. You will find a variety of free games suited to all ages, and each one includes Bible lesson suggestions.
Let me know if you find these websites useful!
To get free ideas, tutorials and printable templates to make your own Bible quiet book pages for the children in your life: Follow Faith and Felt Obsession on Facebook, Pinterest and You Tube
In Genesis 13, Abram allows Lot to choose which part of the Land to use because their families and herds have grown too large for them to stay together.
Memory Verse: “Is not the whole land before you? Please separate from me. If you take the left, then I will go to the right; or, if you go to the right, then I will go to the left.”” Genesis 13:9
Materials needed to create the Abram and Lot Separate quiet book page:
A4 felt background sheet - I used light blue
felt scraps
shiny blue material scrap for the lake
clear craft glue (optional) - I used polyacetic acid & ethylene resin based glue
Cut out a section of shiny blue material to fit where the lake goes. My material was very prone to fraying, so I folded it over the edge and glued it down and then zig zagged around the sides at the back once it was dry. The front was covered by the mountains and foreground so I don't think I worried about zig zagging around that, but I did glue it down.
Next I sewed down the mountains followed by the foreground and a series of decorative ribbons to look like rows of fields and vegetation on the same side as the lake.
To make Abram and Lot, first sew the hands to a piece of the same coloured felt and cut them out. Wedge these under the sleeves of their coats when sewing the coats to a piece of the same coloured felt to double it up and cut then cut them out. Sew a small button hole in the center of their coats to thread them onto ribbon with for sliding across the page.
Cut two heads for each person - you can't sew one to a larger background and then cut it out for this one as it will be difficult to cut out afterwards because the coat is in the way. But it doesn't really matter if the sewing is messy here anyway. It will be covered up by a beard and turban.
The beards have a slit up the middle to allow them to sit correctly over the coat. I only cut one side of the beard and left a large piece of felt on the other side so it could be sewn neatly from one side and cut away on the other later.
Sew the turbans in a similar way, cutting the back felt piece away after sewing.
Thread Abram and Lot onto a piece of grey ribbon each and cut it to the length of your page. Melt the edges of your ribbon - see my post on How to Stop Ribbons Fraying.
Cover the bottom section with grey felt and then cover the line where the grey and foreground meet with grey stones. Thread the word 'left' using alphabet beads onto Abram's ribbon on the left side and the word 'right' onto Lot's ribbon on the right side. Sew down both ends of the grey ribbons using zig zag stitch so that Abram and Lot can slide along the bottom of the page. Cover the ends with more rocks so you can't see the ugly stitching.
Finished!
Difficulty Level = Intermediate.
Getting the beards and turbans right is the most difficult part of this page, but I have shared my tips on how to do this in the tutorial.
Key Learning Areas and Skills
Genesis 13 - selfishness often harms us without us even realising it.
Directions - this page teaches about right and left. There are very few quiet book pages that teach this.
Imaginative Play - would you choose the left or the right side?
Fine Motor Skills - all quiet books encourage fine motor skill development
Hand-eye Co-ordination - all quiet books encourage hand-eye co-ordination
I did consider putting Abraham's tent on the left side, but I decided against it -
the starkness of the landscape contrasts better with the lushness of the right.
Lot leaves Abram as a very rich man, having so many herds and servants that they cannot continue to live together. He chooses the best part of the land for himself however, and it is not long until we find that Lot has not benefited from his decision.
It is only the next chapter in which he is taken captive when an army attacks the cities of the plain. Following his rescue by Abraham, he remains living there. Why?
When we find Lot in Sodom, there is no longer any mention of his flocks and herds and servants - the very reason he left Abraham in the first place. I often wonder what happened to them. They must have been sold before the visit from the angels, else surely Lot would have been given a chance to save them as he was with his other daughters and sons-in-law.
I always wonder how different things might have turned out had Lot chosen the other side. I don't imagine that Abraham would have lost nearly everything if he had lived near Sodom. Perhaps that is where Lot went wrong. He moved to a wicked city. Abraham stayed in his tent. And I imagine if he had been given the other side, he would have still lived in his tent. Don't let the priorities of the world sway you. Romans 12:2 NKJV says "And do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, that you may prove what is that good and acceptable and perfect will of God."
I've been thinking about making a hedgehog page lately, but not because I like them. I don't!
I remember a post from a quiet book group on Facebook - Quiet Book hints, tips & ideas by one of the moderators, Cheri Chiles. She blogs over at Fabric and Memories and was wondering why hedgehogs always seem to get things stuck to them and if that was something that real hedgehogs got up to in their spare time. What is the point of doing that as a quiet book activity?! I totally hear you Cheri!! Hedgehogs in a quiet book - I'm just not a fan.
Ok... so why am I thinking of making a hedgehog page then? Good question. Someone I know keeps spoiling me and buying craft goodies online. And she adores hedgehogs. What better way to say thank you than create a quiet book featuring that somewhat-cute creature.
So what is the deal with hedgehogs and quiet books?
You Tube sensation Irina Sorokina of My Craft Quiet Books fame has the answer. Both hedgehogs and quiet books abound in eastern Europe. Hedgehogs inhabit the forests and the fairy tales, and they are very popular with children. I'll leave a couple of folk tale examples below and then carry on with why they get to get stuff stuck to them.
Hungarian Folk Tales: The Hedgehog
Must Hedgehog Be Prickly? [1990]
Soviet cartoon with English subtitles
Irina also says that hedgehogs are predators and whilst they don't eat veggies, mushrooms or fruit, they do use them to repel insects. I found it a rather strange idea so I looked it up, and yes, it exists and is termed "self-anointing". The process often involves chewing things up with their saliva and coating themselves in the mix. It may also serve as a scent camouflage or type of chemical weapon! Ok, so maybe these pages are not so bad after all, but still, hedgehogs are just not part of my culture. I'd take a joey in a pouch over a bio-sludged hedgehog any day of the week.
If you think you might like to make your own hedgehog page, check out this helpful tutorial and free pattern from Irina below. Then you can self anoint the hedgehog to your heart's content.
In Genesis 37, Joseph is given a special coat by his father - his brothers get jealous and sell him as a slave.
Memory Verse: “Then they said to one another, “Look, this dreamer is coming! Come therefore, let us now kill him and cast him into some pit; and we shall say, ‘Some wild beast has devoured him.’ We shall see what will become of his dreams!”” Genesis 37:19-20
Materials needed to create the Joseph's Coat quiet book page:
A4 felt background sheet - I used green
felt scrap in brown for the back of the pit pocket
hot glue and glue gun
Betty Lukens Felt book 01 Bible Stories available at Koorong
sewing thread to best match the page
scissors!
Cut out all the pieces for this page, and the page itself from the set. The Betty Lukens FAQ section has posted a cutting tips PDF.
Cut out a section of brown felt to cover above the pit pocket to as far down the page as you can manage whilst leaving room to sew the page onto the background felt sheet. Hot glue it in position along the top edge of the pit and down both sides and the bottom to form a pocket for the small Joseph.
Sew the page onto the background felt along three sides, leaving the top edge open to form a pocket. Pop the pieces inside (or better yet, play with them)!
Finished!
The pocket is not big enough so Joseph looks like he could easily get out!
Difficulty Level = Easy, plus No Sew version.
A very easy quiet book page!
Just use hot glue wherever sewing is recommended for a no sew version.
Key Learning Areas and Skills
Genesis 37 - jealousy can lead to devastating results
Imaginative play - tell the story of Joseph - his dreams, his coat of many colours, and how he was treated badly by his brothers and sold as a slave to Egypt
Dress up - dress Joseph in his coat of many colours
Colours - name all the colours on Joseph's coat
Inserting - insert Joseph into the pit pocket
Fine Motor Skills - all quiet books encourage fine motor skill development
Hand-eye Co-ordination - all quiet books encourage hand-eye co-ordination
What a difficult life for a young man to find himself in suddenly! One minute the favourite son of a wealthy man, the next a slave in a foreign country. Nevertheless it seems that his father had brought him up with good values despite his favouritism because we find Joseph sticking to his God and his morals through some very tough circumstances.
Whilst scripture doesn't say what the heinous crime that Joseph dobs his brothers in to their father for, the rabbis have recorded it in chapter 38 of the Pirkei DeRabbi Eliezer. While you might not believe everything written in this document, the reason Jacob sends Joseph to check on his brothers and the flocks makes sense in this context. Apparently Zilpah and Bilhah's sons were eating the flesh of the animals in the flocks whilst the animals were still alive. Pretty gruesome no matter how you interpret that. And quite a no-no for a group of people who were bound by kosher law to drain the blood before roasting the meat. If they were in that much of a hurry to eat that they didn't bother to kill the animal, I can only imagine what passed through their lips. Eww.
It may be that Jacob's favouritism of Joseph was well deserved. And it may be that the coat was a present to try to cheer him up after enduring the harsh treatment of his brothers, who knows? There is a lot of back-story missing I think.
The coat of many colours is a bit of a mystery. The fact that Jacob made it kinda says to me that he was still a bit of a Mama's Boy. Weaving was a woman's job. It takes longer to weave using many colours, so that increases it's value. But was the coat made of many colours? Scholars are not so sure. The word is largely unknown in the Bible, being used only one other time in connection to Tamar the daughter of King David. Some think that this coat was 'girly', and I think I remember reading in Robert Alter's commentary on Genesis that Jacob calls his other sons 'handsome' but Joseph he calls 'beautiful', presumably because he looked like his mother Rachel. While this is all very interesting, I can hardly imagine Joseph's brothers being jealous of a 'girly' robe.
Other scholars I read said that the word more likely refers to the arm-length of the robe. I guess it would also take longer to weave a coat with sleeves in it, so it would also be more valuable. It probably reached to the palms of his hands, and a coat like that was not made for hard work. Perhaps Jacob kept him from hard work in order to keep him from being corrupted by his brothers. Or perhaps he wanted to keep him home to teach him God's word as it had been revealed that Joseph was to be the leader of the family through his dreams.
Whatever the case, Joseph's coat has a story to tell. And I am sure his brothers enjoyed dirtying it up on him. But they couldn't stop God's plan for Joseph. In fact their attempt to rid themselves of him ultimately helped Joseph achieve his greatness. So next time you are in a tough situation, just remember that all things work together for the good of those who love the LORD (Romans 8:28) just as they did for Joseph.
The same is true for the story of Jesus. It is well-known that Joseph is a type of Christ. There are many similarities occurring within the two stories. Whilst Jesus started out as the favoured Son of God in Heaven, like Joseph He lost His glory, descending to Earth and was sold, betrayed, and was unrecognised by His brethren, but will ultimately take up a position of power once again. The Jewish leaders betrayal of Jesus ultimately helped Him achieve God's plan of reconciling man to Himself by providing for our sins, just as Joseph's betrayal ultimately led to reconciliation with and provision for his brothers.
The secret to stop ribbons from fraying and ruining your hard work is a very easy one.
This technique will work on most ribbons - anything with a polyester component. It will not work for pure cotton ribbons.
Simply melt the edges with a match or candle. Hold the ribbon close to the flame but don't let it touch or it may catch on fire. It will shrivel slightly so you need to cut the length ever-so-slightly longer than needed. Do this over the sink or a surface that will not burn in case you need to drop a burning ribbon!
Candles are great for when you have a whole lot of ribbons to do - otherwise you may use a whole box of matches in one sitting.
