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In Kids Kingdom, your infant or toddler children are currently participating in a unit called "God Made the Animals". Even from infancy, babies can start learning that family devotionals are an exciting and fun event! Children this age are generally able to maintain an attention span for approximately 15 minutes, especially when you are involving many of their sensory systems (sight, touch, smell, sound, and movement). Following are some sensory and fun-filled ideas you can incorporate into your family devotionals to help reinforce what your child is learning in Kids Kingdom. Gather the whole family together and begin with a few songs: Good Old Noah Built an Ark (for this one we gather as many stuffed animals as possible and have them pet each animal, in the end talking about how God made each animal-- sung to the tune of "Old MacDonald"): Good Old Noah built an ark, Like God told him to. And on his ark he had a dog, Like God told him to. With a woof woof here, And a woof woof there, Here a woof, there a woof, Everywhere a woof woof . Good Old Noah built an ark, Like God told him to. And on his Ark he had a.... (song continues with any of the stuffed animals you can find in your house.) God Made the Animals (to the tune of "Jesus Loves Me"): Cats and dogs and bluebirds blue, Tigers, lions, zebras, too Fish and frogs and birds that fly- So many creatures, my, oh, my! God made the animals. God made the animals. God made the animals. He made so many kinds. Ostriches with pointy toes, Elephants and buffaloes, Rabbits, snakes, and kangaroos- God made them all for me and you. God made the animals. God made the animals. God made the animals. He made so many kinds Pat the Bible Take a Bible and teach that God wrote it, singing "Pat the Bible", passing it to each family member and having your baby/toddler pat it as it passes (to the tune of "Did you ever see a Lassie?"). How I love to pat the Bible, The Bible, The Bible. How I love to pat the Bible, with hands God gave me...." If you have a toddler Bible, (we use the "Play and Pray Bible" by Group Publishing) you can read the creation story and tell about how God made the animals, pointing to pictures of animals and imitating their sounds. Below are some sensory-filled ideas to also incorporate into devotionals (some are very messy and will take some preparation/cleanup work): Having a bucket of dried beans, rice or sand (watch out for your child placing objects in the mouth to avoid choking) and pulling miniature plastic animals out to imitate their sounds or actions. Drawing animal faces with crayons on paper plates. Using either a glue stick, or some liquid glue as paint, and using a paintbrush to brush the glue around. Finally place some yarn or cotton balls on as hair. Rolling out play-doh or squashing it with their hands into a "pancake" and then cutting out animal shapes with cookie cutters. Helping your child draw pictures of animals with their hands in vanilla pudding or cool whip onto a mirror/table and acting out the sounds the animals make. With each of these activities, teach that God made the animals by getting you child to verbalize or communicate that God made the animals. At the end of your devotional, say a short prayer thanking God for all the fun and beautiful animals God has made.