Greetings and Happy New Year!
Looking back at 2024, it was a year full of exciting moments! I am looking forward to what the year 2025 has to bring in Canopy Kidz. As you and your family ring in the new year, consider these ideas for getting your year off to a great start.
Look Back to Look Forward
Help your kids reflect on the past year so they can choose one goal that is important for them in the coming year. Anything that is a positive change counts. Keep the goals simple and specific. As a family, make a large poster together. Write the new year in large numbers and then list one goal for each person, such as, “I will make one new friend this year at school.” Decorate the poster and hang it in your home as a reminder and encouragement to stick to the goals.
Looking Back on the Year
Create a Memory Jar — an empty canning jar with slips of paper to write down events (both happy and hard) throughout the year. Then on this next New Year’s Eve, open the jar and take turns pulling out a slip and reading the memory on it. This will be a good reminder of the ways God has been with your family through it all.
Lighting Up the New year
At the end of the year, gather as a family in the living room to recall blessings from the previous 12 months. Turn off the lights in the house and place 12 unlit tea lights in the room. Then reflect on each month naming something that happened (either happy or hard). After each month’s reflections, light a candle. By the end, the room will only be lit by tiny candles. Then pray and give thanks for a great year together and ask for God's blessings in the new year.
Wishing you a new year filled with God's many blessings! Happy New Year!
All for the children,
Jenna Morris
Children's Ministry Director
"Let the little children come..." Matthew 19:14
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