"Martha, Martha,” the Lord answered, “you are worried and upset about many things, but few things are needed—or indeed only one. Mary has chosen what is better and it will not be taken away from her." Luke 10:41-42
Crazily enough, the story of Jesus visiting Mary & Martha in their home was a bit hard to come up with learning activities and crafts. As you read the story, the emphasis is that Martha was so busy. She was doing good things, but not choosing the most important thing - which is Jesus. The natural activity choice would be to be still and sit with Jesus. But that's hard with toddlers, as I'm sure you know. I wanted my babies to know that choosing Jesus is the most important thing - the BEST thing - and that sitting with Him and learning from Him is not "boring". In the end, we focused on adding more intentional Bible reading time to our mornings, watched all of the youtube story videos on Mary and Martha that I could find, and retold the story many, many times through play.
Preschool Bible Books
Mary & Martha Story Bibles:
"Good, Better, Best" Me Too book by Marilyn Lashbrook
"The Best Thing To Do" Little Me, Big God book by Steph Williams
"Mary and Martha" page 385 of the Beginner's Bible
Other Great Toddler Bible Stories:
Baby Believer "Primer" Series (my favorites - board books, beautiful pictures, simple phrasing, with lots of room for creative reading and learning)
Pattibooks (out of print, but can sometimes be found on eBay - these are our favorites. The kids insist I read every one when I bring them out)
"Seek & Find" Old Testament Bible Stories (the kids love to look at this one often and for long periods of time!)
"Lift the Flap Bible" by Sally Lloyd-Jones - author of Jesus Storybook Bible! ( a winner if your kids love lift the flap books!)
"Beginner's Bible" I need to order another of these. It is literally my kids' favorite Bible book. They love the bright pictures and simple wording. They will bring this one to me to read at any time all day.
Click the title link above. I'll continue to add things here as I find or come across more ideas and resources.
Mud Kitchen (or indoor play kitchen)
We have a great, simple mud kitchen setup in our backyard. This week we spent lots of time there, cooking and imagining all the muddy things. As we played I asked things like, "What do you think Martha made for Jesus?" "Wow, you are so busy making so many things! - Just like Martha... busy, busy, busy!" And always bringing back to Jesus: "Making food is important! - But what is the most important thing?"
Jesus Over Anything
I've just discovered draw and print from my iPad pro through Adobe Sketch and it's so much fun. I don't have a copier, so this makes it easier to make 4 copies of our projects. For this activity, I asked the kids what their favorite things in the world are and drew simple images of them for a coloring page. I ended up with a girls' sheet and a boys' sheet. They were so excited to color all their favorite things. They also colored a picture of Jesus. After they had finished coloring, I cut out all of their pictures, gave them a glue stick and a paper plate. They glued each picture around the plate saying, "Trucks! I love trucks! Dinosaurs! I love dinosaurs!" - and so on. We talked about how all of these things are good things and how God gave us good things to enjoy and love. We put a clock face on this paper plate. These are the things that we fill up our days and time enjoying and doing. I gave them another paper plate and had them glue their Jesus to it. We set the Jesus plate on top of the favorite things plate. The visual was that Jesus is the most important thing. He comes first, by Himself over anything else.
Busy Bee & Quiet Mouse
After Reading Steph Williams, "The Best Thing to Do", I began referring to Martha as "busy, busy, busy", and had the kids repeat this (which they thought was hilarious and fun). But Mary; Mary, was quiet. Mary sat and listened to Jesus and heard everything that He had to say.
We compared Martha to a bee. Bees are always busy, busy, busy. Trying to get all their work done. Building their hive, making honey... They buzz here and they buzz there. Always working, always busy!
But Mary, we compared to a mouse. Mice are quiet. They listen for every sound. They stay very still so the bird or the cat doesn't see them. Mary was quiet and still. She sat with Jesus and listened. She wanted to hear everything Jesus had to say. She didn't want to miss anything.
Each kiddo got a glue stick and a piece of paper. I gave them each shape one at a time, and told them what it was and where it went on their critter and let them arrange it how they wanted for their mouse and bee.
When the pages had dried we played a couple of games with them.
Martha & Mary - Game
We played this game both inside - down the hallway, and outside - on the trampoline.
It's basically a game of Red Light, Green Light. When I shouted "Martha!", they ran, walked, or jumped (busy, busy, busy). When I said, "Mary!", they had to stop immediately and sit down (to listen to Jesus). This was especially fun on the trampoline where going from jumping to sitting is a game in itself. :) We also played using the cards. When they saw the bee, they were busy, busy, busy; when I turned the card to the mouse, they stopped to sit and be still.
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