The Chain Gang

You may have noticed in previous posts that our family likes to make paper chains.  Most often we make them to help us count down to a certain event.  Our latest chain is the Beach Chain.  There are 24 links for the 24 days left until we leave for the beach.  We've made Birthday chains, and Christmas chains, and chains for some of the other trips we've taken.  We will usually pick a color theme (like red & green for Christmas) and sometimes we decorate the chain with stickers.  Each morning a designated person will tear off a link and we watch our chain getting shorter and shorter until the special day is finally here.  This is especially helpful for younger kids since it is hard for a little one to understand terms like weeks and months.

There are many fun ways to use a paper chain.  You can make a prayer chain and write things you are praying about on each link.  The children can tear off a link and pray for a specific person each day.  You can also use paper chains for chores.  Each day a link is taken off the chain, the chore is done, and when the chain is gone the child receives a reward of some kind.  You could put memory verses on the links or use the paper chain to teach patterns or multiplication.  For example we had six groups of four.

There are all kinds of things you can do if you want to get your kids on the chain gang.  Get creative!