5 Fun Activities to Nurture Your Child’s Faith This Spring Break

Spring is one of our favorite times of the year! The leaves have shaken off much of their frost, flowers are beginning to bloom, and children everywhere are rearing to get outside and have some fun.

If your kids are anything like ours, they’ve probably been looking forward to spring break since January 1st.

Yet for us parents, it can feel tough to navigate this week-long reprieve. With the kids home for five full days, how do we fill their time with fun activities and meaningful connection—without boredom setting in, everyone retreating to their rooms, or screens taking over?

While keeping your kids busy with fun activities is important, this break is also a special chance to nurture their faith in a meaningful way. Children learn best through play, and building a strong, child-like faith happens most naturally through joyful, engaging experiences. Even better, the right activities can bring your family closer together while strengthening their faith at the same time!

Today, we are sharing five of our favorite fun activities to nurture your child’s faith this spring break (plus discussion prompts you can use to spur deeper conversation with the kids!):

1) Blessings Memory Game

“I will remember the deeds of the Lord; yes, I will remember your miracles of long ago. I will consider all your works and meditate on all your mighty deeds.” You are the God who performs miracles; you display your power among the peoples. – Psalm 77:11-12, 14

Sit in a circle to get ready for the memory game. Begin by saying, “God loves me and gave me…,” and name a blessing beginning with the letter A. Have the next person repeat that blessing, and add another beginning with B. Continue on, adding to the list of God’s gifts to your family.

Going Deeper:
Are you afraid you’ll go hungry tomorrow? No, because you’ve had food each day of the year. Do you worry the sun won’t come up in the morning? No, it’s risen in the sky from the beginning of time.

Fear and trouble come out of nowhere and we don’t know what to do. In those times, the Bible says to remember. Remember God’s power. Remember his love. Remember the way he answered prayers and stayed by our side. When we remember God’s faithfulness in the past, we find peace for today and courage to face the future.

Can you remember how God took care of our family? How he guides our steps? Forgives our sins? Provides what we need? Heals and helps us, over and over? When we’re sad or afraid, let’s remember God and trust him.

2) Friendship Bracelets

If an enemy were insulting me, I could endure it; if a foe were rising against me, I could hide. But it is you, a man like myself, my companion, my close friend, with whom I once enjoyed sweet fellowship at the house of God, as we walked about among the worshipers. – Psalm 55:12-14

Mix one part white glue with one part water. Cut magazine pages into long, triangular strips. Paint one side of each strip with the glue mixture. Starting at the wider end, roll the paper tightly around a narrow stick or straw to form a paper bead. Slide them from the stick. Once dry, string them to make friendship bracelets to share.

Going Deeper:
A parent, a brother, or sister knows us well. They know our strengths and the struggles we’ve overcome. They’ve prayed for us and celebrated our victories.

Because of this, mean words and put-downs hurt the most from people we love. We take their insults to heart. We feel betrayed. Embarrassed. Rejected. We become insecure and wonder if their words are true.

In our family, words matter:

We’re called to “encourage one another and build each other up.” (1 Thessalonians 5:11)
Instead of teasing, we honor each other as God’s creation, made in his image. (Genesis 1:27)
Rather than name-calling, we remember we bear the name of God himself. (Acts 15:17)
Before pointing fingers at mistakes, we patiently overlook the offense. (Proverbs 19:11)
We commit to “slander no one, to be peaceable and considerate, and always to be gentle toward everyone.” (Titus 3:2)

3) Musical Notes

“The Lord your God is with you, the Mighty Warrior who saves. He will take great delight in you; in his love he will no longer rebuke you, but will rejoice over you with singing.” – Zephaniah 3:17

Line up eight water glasses in a row. Add water to the glasses, filling them with increasing amounts as you go down the line. Tap the glasses with a plastic spoon or a chopstick to play musical notes. Can you play a worship song on the glasses?

Going Deeper:
Singing and celebrating go hand in hand. When you turn a year older, we sing “Happy Birthday”. Christmas carols play nonstop during December. Graduates march to “Pomp and Circumstance” to receive their diplomas. A wedding is filled with music as the bride walks the aisle. A party isn’t a party without music. Through singing, we rejoice in God’s blessings in our life.

Did you know God celebrates you and me when we believe in Jesus? “There is rejoicing in the presence of the angels of God over one sinner who repents” (Luke 15:10). When we turn from unbelief to faith, from darkness to light, and from sin to obedience, God rejoices with singing.

God isn’t just celebrating our good choices. He’s rejoicing that we’ve “crossed over from death to life” (John 5:24). We’ve been adopted as his children. We’ll be together for all of eternity. Our sin brought pain and suffering, and our salvation brings joy and peace. Since God loves us, he rejoices with singing over the life we find in him.

4) Fill the Bowl

One person gives freely, yet gains even more; another withholds unduly, but comes to poverty. A generous person will prosper; whoever refreshes others will be refreshed. – Proverbs 11:24-25

Give the parent an empty bowl and the kids a large bowl full of water. Have the kids try to fill the parent’s bowl from their own using a small spoon to carry the water. Notice how tiresome of a task it is. Then, trade the spoon for a large scoop or cup to move the water to the parent’s bowl.

After the kids are done, a parent can say:

“Using a small spoon to move a lot of water can feel frustrating. Each spoonful hardly makes a difference. Trying to fill the bowl little by little would make anyone want to quit. When you switched to a bigger cup, the job was finished in no time. Thank you for working to fill my bowl with your water!”

Going Deeper:
This idea is true with whatever we’re giving. If we only share little by little—keeping as much in our own ‘bowl’ as we can—the giving is no fun at all. But when we give generously, we find out we can make a real difference. Our joy in the giving grows bigger and bigger, too.

Let’s think of ways we can be generous right now. What could you give a teacher or coach to say ‘thank you’ for all they do? Who is lonely and needs the gift of friendship or attention? Who might need a helping hand? How can we make a big difference to someone in need?

5) Dye Eggs

Do not be misled: “Bad company corrupts good character.” – 1 Corinthians 15:33

Prepare bowls of dye by mixing a half cup of boiling water, a spoon of vinegar, and a dozen drops of food coloring. Give each child a clean, hard-boiled egg. Dip each egg in the various bowls of dye. As the dyes layer over the eggs, watch how the colors blend in ugly ways.

Going Deeper:
Our clean eggs don’t look so nice or tasty now, do they? Every time we dipped them, the shells became stained. The longer they soaked in the dye, the more the colors were absorbed into the shells.

We’re a little bit like those eggs because we start to look like the company we keep. A friend’s bad attitude will rub off on us. The language we hear becomes the words we speak. We take on the habits, the plans, and the points of view of the people closest to us.

How would you describe your friends? What is their attitude toward teachers and parents? Do they work hard or do the bare minimum? How do they treat younger kids or people who look a little different? Would you say they respect the rules or do they lie or cheat to get what they want? What do you admire most about your friends and hope to imitate?

God cares about your heart. He wants to help you grow up with a strong character so you can think, act, and love people like Jesus. Let’s surround ourselves with those who bring out our best.

BONUS Activity!

And he has committed to us the message of reconciliation. We are therefore Christ’s ambassadors, as though God were making his appeal through us. We implore you on Christ’s behalf: Be reconciled to God. (2 Corinthians 5:19-20)

Create a long, winding path of string from one end of your home to the other. Give two kids each an end of the string. When you say, “Go,” have them follow the string until they meet each other in the middle.

Once they’ve reunited, share the message below with them—whenever your children think back on the memory of playing this fun string game together, they’ll also remember these words.

Going Deeper:
I love our family. You’re my favorite people and I never want anything to come between us. I’d follow a string all the way around the world to be with you! That’s how it is when you love someone with your whole heart.

That’s how God feels about us, too. Yet when sin entered the world, every person became separated from him. It was as if the “string,” or the way to be together with him, had been cut. The world was broken and doomed to die apart from him. God loved the people he created too much to leave them lost and alone. He sent Jesus to be “the way and the truth and the life” so everyone can be united to our Father God (John 14:6).

This is the greatest news the world has ever known! You and I are called God’s ambassadors—his messengers of peace. We’re sent out with the good news so others can draw close to him. We carry God’s invitation to repent and believe. Through our message, the world can know his love.

Lord, thank you for sending Jesus to make a way to you. Show us how to be your ambassadors so others can know your love. Amen.

As spring break quickly approaches, we hope these activities help you spend intentional time bonding with your child and nurturing their faith.

We know all too well the temptation to simply survive spring break by mentally checking out or planting your children in front of a screen to keep them busy—every parent has been there at some point. While relaxation time certainly has its place, we’ve found that with just a little bit of preparation and intentionality, you can make the most of this precious opportunity to connect with your kids and ensure that the time doesn’t merely pass you by.

Looking for more ways to disciple your children and help them develop a faith that will follow them into adulthood? Check out these additional resources: