About Me

I am a Christian mother of five, and our highest goal as a family is to serve God in every aspect of our lives. Jesus promised His disciples 'life in all its abundance' (John 10:10) - that has been our story, a rich life, not devoid of challenges, but certainly abundant. Previously writing at www.homeeducationnovice.blogspot.com, we have come to realise that education is just one area where our faith shapes our choices and direction in life. This blog seeks to share our adventure (using font only to enable access in settings with poor internet)

Sunday 15 February 2015

Lent activity: Life of Jesus Timeline

I'm quite excited about a new project that will start this week. When we did the Jesse Tree for advent, I was really encouraged at how the boys embraced the concept and looked forward to the Bible story every morning. It was their idea to also make a large timeline showing all the events that foretold the birth of Christ. We still have the timeline on the wall, but after a week or two, they pointed out that it stopped with the birth of Christ. They wanted to do a 'life of Jesus' timeline, and I was looking for some way to lead up to Easter, and so for 40 days from Wednesday, we will do our new series.

This is how it will work:


  • As with the Jesse Tree, I have made coloured envelopes with the Bible references written on them to hang along a string, and inside each they have a small symbol or emblem to colour. These will be glued onto the timeline.
  • This time I have focussed on events in the life of Jesus. As I went through, I could also imagine a parallel activity on 'teachings of Jesus' - I decided that this might work better when the boys are a bit older, whereas the physical events that took place are easier to conceptualise
  • I've got bigger colouring sheets for each day if they wish to use them, and will try and find appropriate songs that tie in with the Bible passage. 
  • I've got a final column on the schema for additional activities - most likely I will fill this in retrospectively since often it is during the course of a day that things lead on in a logical way, and it is now always easy to plan fully in advance. 
  • I have scheduled readings on Monday - Saturday for a couple of reasons: Firstly, our days tend to be more structured with 'school' type activities which always start with Bible on these days; Sundays can be a bit more random and we try to focus on the Bible teaching from church. Secondly, it adds a sort of 'firebreak' because it can be discouraging to fall behind and then struggle to catch up. 
  • There are two activities on Good Friday - this is because we will aim to spend more time reflecting on the events on Good Friday. It might be that we end up doing more or less on one particular day at Easter itself - and I hope the timetable allows a little flexibility.


Here is the outline - please feel free to try it too! (And if you can think of a better name for it, I am very open to suggestion). If you find particular activities that go best with a particular reading, I'd also like to hear!

Date
Story
Bible Passage
Timeline Picture
Other Activities
(Plus songs, colouring sheets etc for most)
W 18th Feb
Birth of Jesus
Luke 2
Baby

T 19th Feb
Dedication of Jesus
Luke 2:21-38
2 pigeons

F 20th Feb
Flight to Egypt
Matt 2:13-23
Silhouttes on camels

S 21st Feb
Child Jesus in Temple
Luke 2:41-52
Studious boy

M 23rd Feb
Baptism
Matt 3:13-17, Mk 1:9-11, Luke 3:21-23
Jesus being baptised

T 24th Feb
Temptation
Matt 4:1-11, Mk 1:12-13, Luke 4:1-13
Bread basket

W 25th Feb
Calling of first disciples
John 1:35-51
Jesus with disciples

T 26th Feb
Water into Wine
John 2:1-12
Wine jar

F 27th Feb
Jesus clears the temple
John 2:13-25
Table

S 28th Feb
Nicodemus by night
John 3:1-21
Moon and stars

M 2nd Mar
Woman at Well
John 4:4-42
Well

T 3rd Mar
Healing of Leper
Matt 8:2-4, Mark 1:40-45, Luke 5:12-16
Face with lesion

W 4th Mar
Paralytic on mat
Matt 9:2-8, Mark 1:40-45, Luke 5:17-26
Man on stretcher

T 5th Mar
Calling of Matthew
Matt 9:9, Mark 2:13-14, Luke 5:27-28
Tax collector

F 6th Mar
Beatitudes
Matt 5-7, Luke 6:20-49
Mountain

S 7th Mar
Healing of centurion’s servant
Matt 8:5-13, Luke 7:1-10
Roman soldier

M 9th Mar
Widow of Nain’s son
Luke 7:11-17
Man leaping for joy

T 10th Mar
Woman with alabaster flask
Luke 7:36-50
Woman with jar

W 11th Mar
Jesus calms the storm
Matt 8:18-27, Mark 4:35-41, Luke 8:22-25
Boat and storm

T 12th Mar
Demon possessed man (and herd of pigs)
Matt 8:28-33, Mark 5:1-21, Luke 8:26-40
Pigs

F 13th Mar
Jairus’ daughter and woman with issue of blood
Matt 9:18-26, Mark 5:22-43, Luke 8:41-56
Girl in bed

S 14th Mar
Feeding of 5000
Matt 14:13-21, Mark 6:30-44, Luke 9:10-17, John 6:1-14
Loaves and fish

M 16th Mar
Jesus walks on water
Matt 14:22-36, Mark 6:45-56, John 6:15-21
Jesus walking on water

T 17th Mar
Transfiguration
Matt 17:1-13, Mark 9:2-13, Luke 9:28-36
3 radiant figures

W 18th Mar
Coin in fish mouth
Matt 17:24-27
Roman coin

T 19th Mar
House of Martha and Mary
Luke 10:38-42
House

F 20th Mar
Raising of Lazarus
John 11:1-46
Man in grave clothes

S 21st Mar
Blind Bartimeus
Matt 20:29-34, Mark 10:46-50, Luke 18:35-43
Eye

M 23rd Mar
Zaccheus
Luke 19:1-10
Man up a tree

T 24th Mar
Mary anoints his feet
John 12:1-9
Woman anointing feet

W 25th Mar
Triumphal entry
Matt 21:1-11, Mark 11:1-11, Luke 19:29-44, John 12:12-19
Palm leaf

T 26th Mar
Drives out the vendors
Matt 21:12-13, Luke 19:45-46
Praying hands

F 27th Mar
Last supper
Matt 26:17-30, Mark 14:12-25, Luke 22:7-20
Last supper

S 28th Mar
Washing disciples feet
John 13:1-18
Jesus washing feet

M 30th Mar
Gethsemane
Matt 26:30-46, Mark 14:26-42, Luke 22:39-46, John 18:1
Man praying in garden

T 31st Mar
Betrayal and arrest
Matt 26:46-56, Mark 14:43-54, Luke 22:47-53, John 18:2-12
Man being kissed on cheek

W 1st Apr
Trial
Matt 26:57-75, Mark 14:43-72, Luke 22:47-53, John 18:13-27
‘Justice’

T 2nd Apr
Sent to Herod
Luke 23:6-12
King

F 3rd Apr
Tried by Pilate
Matt 27:15-26, Mark 15:6-15, Luke 23:13-25, John 19:1-16
Hands being washed

F 3rd Apr
Mocked by soldiers
Matt 27:27-31, Mark 15:16-20
Crown of thorns

S 4th Apr
Crucified
Matt 27:35-56, Mark 15:24-41, Luke 23:33-49, John 19:18-30
Jesus on cross

S 5th Apr
He is Risen
Matt 28:2-15, Mark 16:1-11, Luke 24:1-12, John 20:1-18
Empty tomb



1 comment:

  1. Hey this looks like good. Keep us us posted. Look forward to seeing how it goes.

    Will try it with my family hopefully others will to so that it can encourage and help others.

    ReplyDelete