The Parenting Pathway Team produces resources to support and enable parents to be the spiritual leaders of their homes. Our desire is for you to raise children who passionately love Christ and are eager to rescue and protect those around them. We regularly produce new printable material to share with you. These resources are free and available to download at any time.
Shower Your Family With Love
I love the idea of making our kids feel loved and cared for, especially for those that don’t always feel seen or heard in the world outside of our homes. It doesn’t take much effort to Shower Your Family with Love with these conversation hearts. We created a set of conversation hearts that allows you to customize them to each member of your family. Phrases such as I LOVE WHEN…, I LOVE TO WATCH YOU…, I LOVE WHEN WE…, provide the perfect jumping off point for you to write in something personal, so you can share what you love about your family member and how special they are to you.
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Guide to Creating a Family Mission Statement
One of the biggest benefits of the last couple years and our journey through a global pandemic is that it has given us the opportunity to step back and really evaluate what is important. Whether you noticed it or not, when everything was canceled off your calendar, you began to see what you really missed and, in some sense, you were relieved when some things were gone. As we started to reassemble our lives, in most cases, we were more aware of what we allowed to crowd our time and drain our resources. Before we get too far from this new awareness, now is a good time to pause, take what we’ve learned, and create a family mission statement.
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Lunchbox Notes
As we start to send our kids back to school, we realize this time of year can be a little intimidating and challenging for many kids. Even if they have been in the same school or program for years, there are new teachers, new students, and new rules to follow. So much change can be really hard for them. We created a set of nine scripture based affirmation cards for you to print at home and use to encourage your kids. These cards help them see that they are loved by God. Print, cut them apart, write a personal note on the back. You can slip them into your child’s backpack or lunchbox to find during their school day. Such a great way to bring a smile to their day.
Related Post: Five Tips to Overcome Back-to-School Anxiety
Family Prayer Journal
We created this 20 Days of Prayer, Family Prayer Journal to help you change the conversation during your family time. Each day has a prompt, a scripture, and a place to reflect. But we hope that you will document your prayers. The days can be done in as short as five minutes or extend the time longer depending on your schedule. They also do not have to be done 20 days in a row. The desire is to see God move in your family through prayer. We encourage you to take notes, write prayers and requests together, and reflect back on the journal from time to time. Enjoy this journey together as a family.
You can read more of the story behind the creation of this prayer Journal @FamilyPrayerTime
Teaching Responsibility
As children learn to participate in the operation of their home, they recognize their valuable contribution to the family. It helps reduce their sense of entitlement when they better understand the effort required. And finally, when children are held accountable for completing regular chores, they are learning responsibility. In Teaching Responsibility, we have provided a resource to help you train your children to participate in household chores starting as young as two and continuing through their teen years.
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Family Media Kit
Managing screen time, filtering, monitoring, modeling healthy technology relationships can seem overwhelming to any parent. If you are technology challenge, putting a media safety plan in place for your family can seen insurmountable. We put together this easy to follow resource to help you gage the introduction of technology and its use in your family. This kit has age specific guidelines for kids from preschool through high school for general technology usage, cell phones, social media as well sample family contacts and suggestions for strategies for filtering and monitoring.
You can learn more about Raising Digital Natives by listening to our Parenting Pathway Class – Raising Digital Natives.
Planning for Tough Conversations.
Throughout your parenting journey, there are times when you will be faced with challenging conversations. You may find your child breaking the rules, lying, or watching media that is inappropriate, or your child may be on his third fender-bender since getting his driver’s license. You might also have a child who wants to know all about the world, including uncomfortable topics. These situations can be exasperating, frightening, or just hard to tackle. Your first response can have a huge impact on your children’s willingness to trust you when they really need you. But with some planning, preparation, and practice, you can tackle even the most challenging of topics.
What’s for Dinner?
What’s for Dinner? is a guide designed by KIDMIN to help you and your kids discover the importance of regular family meals. Research shows that kids who regularly eat meals with their parents do better in school, are socially more comfortable, and are less likely to get involved with drugs and premarital sex. If you were to start increasing and tracking the number of meals you eat together, the results might surprise you. Through the use of conversations starters, games, and activities, this What’s for Dinner? guide helps you develop meal routines that benefit your whole family.
The Proven Benefit of Eating Dinner Together as a Family
This infographic is a great resource to help clarify why family dinners are so important to the growth and development of your child and the health of your family.
Related Post: The Family Dinner Challenge
Bring the Adventurous Journey Home
The summer represents the ideal time to stretch our kids to gain new levels of independence, try new things, and participate in new activities. It is also a great time to expose them to people and communities that are different from their own. By being intentional about summer activities, we can help our kids develop new skills, higher levels of confidence, and empathy for people around them. We created this resource guide to help you identify the skills to target during each stage of development. We then provided a list of adventure suggestions (ranging from free to low cost, age-appropriate risk, and connection to family) to help you enjoy the adventure this summer.
Template Summer Planning
There is a point every summer when even the best mom reaches the end of herself, her kids, and their summer. This is high season for parents, so to help you through, create a Summer Bucket List! Have each child create a list of things they would like to do this summer. You can set guidelines about cost, distance to travel, etc. Then schedule Adventure Days on which one child gets to choose an adventure from his or her bucket list, and rotate between the kids and their adventures throughout the summer. You can use the same list from year to year, or have the kids create a new one each year. This is such a great tool to teach your kids creativity and planning.
Related Post: Pathway Through The Wilderness of Summer
Journey Through the Season of Lent
The season of Lent is typically celebrated during the 40 days prior to Easter to reflect Jesus going into the desert for 40 days and 40 nights. Jesus went into the desert to fast and pray about His upcoming ministry. Although it was a time of deprivation, it was also a time of dedicated prayer and communion with the Heavenly Father. Using this as a model for worship, Lent is known as a time of prayer, repentance, and recommitment leading up to the celebration of Christ’s resurrection at Easter. Lent is a time of spiritual preparation for the most important religious holiday for believers. It is common to hear that someone has given up chocolate or social media for Lent. The idea is to abstain from pleasurable activities and instead use the time and energy usually spent in those activities to focus on taking stock of one’s own spiritual condition. We have created ten family devotionals to use during this time to help you guide your family. We pray when Easter arrives you will find your family more firmly rooted in your faith and ready to welcome the risen Savior.
Related Post: Celebrating Lent with Your Family