As a hen gathers her chicks.....

Need a family home evening idea?

Tell your kids about Hens. There's a scripture somewhere, but I can't think of it right now. Tell them how Hens gather their chicks whenever dangers coming. Snakes, foxes, wolves, rain, they all could get the chicks. So the hen clucks and they all come under the hen's wings. (This would be great with pictures of chicks and hens, having kids stick them to a chalkboard or holding them. )

Then explain that Mommy and Daddy are like Hens, they protect their young by telling then when danger is. And telling them what to look out for.

Then play Mama Hen: Have the kids pretend to cluck like chickies. One parent comes in, acting like a fox, and the Mama Hen clucks, and they all run for cover (we did it with a yellow blanket over our back). Act out different danger scenarios.

Then have the kids pretend to be kids, and have something come: rainstorm, a car into their yard, a bad person. We played out one scenario where John played as though he was a child and didn't listen, then he got hurt.

Close by talking about Jesus protecting us from danger, and teaching us how to look out for danger. List some dangers- Bad food, Bad things to play, Bad places to go, Bad things to do.

We did this tonight and the kids LOVED it. So much fun playing the chicks. And then playing the different dangers and attacking the baby chicks, who run away just in time.

Try it sometime.