Popsicle Stick Prayers

"Popsicle Stick Prayers" Hi All, my name is Robin and I am pretty new to this blogger world but starting to get the hang of it thanks to my wonderful friend Summer at http://www.madebymunchiesmama.com/  I couldn't be more thankful that she is letting me crash her blog for the day to not only share my fun kids project, but to also GIVEAWAY a $20 JoAnn's gift card just for liking my FB page and then following my blog.  Keep reading and I will give my links to enter the giveaway at the end.  If you do not know me my blog is called "Three Water Babies" http://threewaterbabies.blogspot.com/ and it is about the fun crafts that I do with my kids to help their creative minds exercise at such young ages, ( 3yrs, 2yrs & 1yr old) and then also to teach them to sit still for a length of time....focus, focus, focus can be hard for anybody at any age.  So daily we practice focusing on one thing for a period of time.  My challenge is to make it REALLY interesting, and if I can do that then I can usually get a good amount of attention from all 3 babies.   Here is the fun project I did with the babies this past week. I call it "Popsicle Stick Prayers"! You are going to paint popsicle sticks on one end, then on the other end you will write a name of someone you can pray for.  Mom, Dad, Brother, Sister, Cousins, Friends, someone you know who needs prayer.  Then every night at bed time we let the kids pick one stick and we say a prayer for them at bedtime along with our normal bedtime prayers.  You go through all of the sticks and then start over when you have prayed for everyone.  The great part is you can always add another stick if you hear of someone who is sick and needs prayer.  It's a great way to teach your children the power of prayer and how to make it a part of their daily bedtime routine. What you will need:  1) Popsicle Sticks - This bag was on sale at JoAnn's for .97 cents  (I bought 3 bags)
2) Paint - these I found at JoAnn's for .57 cents each
3) Sharpies  - to write the names on
4) Jar or something to put your sticks in
5) Rocks, jellie beans or just something to fill the jar with so your sticks stand up
6) Paint Brush - I could not find mine so I used a sponge and just cut it up into small squares

Now you are ready to Paint your popsicle sticks.....oh the book is there so I can put the popsicle stick in between the pages to let dry (see the picture below) 

Here is a picture of how I used the book to let the sticks dry - Sorry the book is for my Medical Classes

Here is what ours looked like after the painting was done

Next is the fun part for the kids.  I actually did not let them paint the sticks but I told them that once they were all dry that they could color on them with markers while I wrote the persons name on each one.  They were totally happy with that, and so they colored on the back side of all the names :)  Here is what they look like with all the names on them!

Last all you need to do is put them in a fun Jar that you can place in your home.  We keep ours in the kitchen since we are there all the time and it helps me to not forget about them.  Here is another trick, once you have pulled a stick and prayed for the person you can put it back in the jar upside down so all you see is the paint.  That helps you to know that you have already prayed for that person and to pick a different stick.  Once all of the sticks are showing paint, that means you have prayed for everyone and you now flip them all over and start again! Our Finished Prayer Jar

I hope you enjoyed reading about our fun craft, and hopefully you will try this in your house too!  Now for the fun part.....Who wants to WIN $20 to JoAnn's.   Here is what you will need to do.   1)Like my Facebook Page  https://www.facebook.com/pages/Three-Water-Babies/166756870093899?ref=hl 2)Become  GFC follower on my Blog Page PLUS Leave a comment http://threewaterbabies.blogspot.com/ Thanks again to Summer for letting me share on her wonderful Blog :)