Six Ways to Give Your Child the World...From Home

The Global Stay-at-Home Guide

Make good use of your stay-at-home time and give your child the world (from home). They’ll be braver and smarter in this interconnected—and interdependent world in which we now live.

Are you a parent turned teacher-at-home? You’re going to love all the fun activities, videos, and books in this blog. It’s for the whole family. You’ll get six ways to give your child the world…from home.

One American family. Four Muslims countires. To see what it’s really like. A series of twelve episodes!

One: Watch (and do!) Offroad Encounters

Offroad Encounters is a video series of twelve free, fun, fast-paced episodes, delivered to your e-mail in-box every other day.

It all started when one American family decided to go on an adventure around the world to discover the truth about Muslims. How they live. What they believe. What they hope for. And what values we share. One family. Four countries. Get the real story…that you can only get…off road!

I’ve designed a whole curriculum for your younger kids that goes with each episode. There’s a Let’s Talk About it section so you can have a great socratic discussion with your young prodigees—and fun activities in the Let’s Do Something section like setting up a fake market, putting on a play, painting rocks, and praying in creative ways. Then if you want them to dig deeper, I’ve got links and learning in the Let’s Learn Some More section that relates to the Episode.

This too! Our friends, the Richardsons, used to live in the same neighborhood as our family. I think you’re gonna love them. (And Off Road Encounters is free!)

This series leads you to opt into another series with kids activities, I just found out about today, on WorldView for Kids by Pioneers. Helping your kids understand T.H.U.M.B. Tribals, Hindus, Unreligious, Muslims and Buddhists.

No more bored kids! Just sign up HERE to get access to Episode One right now. Remember, you’ll get an episode every other day with all those creative activities.

Two: Read a Biography Aloud

Reading aloud to your family, whether they’re two or twenty-two, is good for you all. Something magical happens when you read aloud. Give it a try.

Reading biographies of world-changers inspires other world-changers.

My all-time favorite biography is Hudson Taylor’s Spiritual Secret by Dr. & Mrs. Howard Taylor. Short chapters, and lots of adventure, make this a great read-aloud book that takes just ten or fifteen minutes after a family dinner. We’ have a twelve-year old and two teen boys at home. We just read a chapter for two nights in a row now. They might groan at first when you bring out that book, but just do it. They stayed, and listened.

I love the series Christian Heros: Then and Now by YWAM Publishing for younger kids. You’ll find books about heroes William Carey, Gladys Alward, and Amy Carmichal. My 12-year old girl says the book about George Mueller is her “favorite book that showed me how you could do anything if you just have faith” (her words).

If allegories are more your style, the summer I read Little Pilgrim’s Progress to my kids tops my personal “I-am-a-great-mom” moments. We read one chapter a day, and they begged me for it every morning. This story helps your young people see God’s heart for the lost, the suffering required, and the reward for a life following the King. A fantastic free movie for Pilgrim’s Progress by Revelation Media just released too. It’s. so. well. done.

My daughter made this chicken tikka masala and naan bread…yum.

 Three: Make Food

Imagine this: your child makes dinner (and you don’t)! They decorate the table—or themselves—like the country the food comes from. You set out a tablecloth on the floor. Especially if you’re eating food from Muslim Indonesia or countries in North Africa.

You’re all laughing as you try to eat with your (washed-for-twenty-seconds) hands—especially if your food is from Hindu India or Buddhist Thailand. (Notice how I’m sneaking in the learning of religious blocks and countries.) Ready for more laughs? Get out your phones, download Google Translate, and practice speaking in that language. And then you can really surprise your kiddos when you tell Alexa to play Bollywood music.

Two keys to make this idea work: First, let your child lead. Let them choose the country. If you’re a flexible, last-minute type person, twirl the globe and choose a country anywhere your child’s finger lands. Or, for over achievers and planners, go to www.joshuaproject.net. Let your child choose a country in an unreached people group.

Then, just google your favorite recipe site, and search by country. For example, I find so many of my regular great recipes from Taste of Home. So, I just typed in “ethnic food” and it brought me to “66 Best Comfort Foods from Around the World”

Another way to do it, Google search something such as recipes from India for kids. I found a website called 2400 Indian Recipes for Kids. My mouth is watering just browsing through these: South Indian Masala Dosa, Paratha, Chicken Tikka Masala. I even found one for Indian Railways Veg Cutlet Sandwich. I remember those when we lived in India, how fun is that?

Four: Binge Watch Travel Vloggers

I bet all your teens follow YouTubers. Or binge watch shows. Let’s get them hooked on travel! Let’s get’em off the couch—at least in their minds. Give them a thirst for other cultures, grow their curiosity, expand their experiences, and take them on a short-term trip experience while they’re stuck at home.

Come with me to Bangladesh in ten fun vlogs on Twinsauce, The Bangladesh Playlist. I took two twenty-five year-old twin brother vloggers—and a retired business guy—on a whirlwind adventure to explore the southern districts of Bangladesh, where there are no long-term workers. Well, we found one couple.

We get into a car crash in Chandpur, dance on the rooftop in Noakhali, get stuck on a ferry getting to Patuakali, meet an elephant who takes our money. And we explore ways foreigners could do business, what the mall looks like, yes, one of these rural towns just build one, who knew? And even looked at a couple apartments to live in. Binge watch these episodes with your whole family, and tell them the story that eight million people don’t have access to the good news of the Kingdom of God—and who is going to move there?!

Also, my 22-year old daughter followed YouTubers Kara and Nate who visited 100 countries around the world. They even went to Bangladesh too, and India. She loves them, and it opened her eyes to so much culture.

Okay, this isn’t travel blogging, but since we’re talking about binging watching shows, I have to give a shout out to The Chosen! The first eight episodes in this fantastic series humanizing Jesus, the hotheaded Peter, a restored Mary Magdelene, a curious Nicodemous, and so many more real characters is free if you google The Chosen LiveStream on Youtube, or check out their app at www.thechosen.tv. If we want to share Jesus with the world, it’d be good for our children to fall in love with Jesus first!

Five: Pray (and Do!) 30 Days of Prayer

We’ve got to get our kids praying. It’s gets them out of their self-centered little world, expands their vision, and stirs up the heavenlies. So, it’s Ramadan, the Muslim fasting month. Muslims are praying five times a day and going without food and water from sunup to sundown.

Here’s a fabulous little booklet called the 30 Days of Prayer Just for Kids. It’s super simple, and gives you creative things to do along with the prayer. Just read a quick minute-long story, like the one I wrote about the Mappila of India and how five million women held hands for miles to be a voice for women. Watch a video of the wall of women, and then make your own wall across your house while you pray. So fun! People in 40 countries and 17 different languages will be praying with your family at the same time.

Six: Get Your Kids Reading the Bible

This generation of children are growing up more biblically illiterate than any generation before them. Basically, they’re not reading the Bible. We cannot send our grown up kids out into the world to point people to the God of the Bible, if they don’t even know what the Bible says.

If we want to grow global kids who love the whole world, the best things we can do is let them experience through story how God longs to reconcile people from every tribe, language, and nation—from Genesis to Revelation.

I get that everyone is working from home, and you’re schooling from home. So here’s two easy apps that can guide your child through the Bible at their own age level. Just set it up and press play. If you have young children, download the YouVersion Bible App for kids. There’s step-by-step audio stories with cartoons that read to them aloud, and even have games they can play to see how much they remembered.

For pre-teens and teens, I love anything by The Bible Project. Sometimes, teens (and we) need a reminder to read every day. The YouVersion Bible App solves this with its Bible reading plan by day. Search for plans by The Bible Project and choose the Gospels, or read through the Old Testament or the New Testament, or even just let your teens choose a book of the Bible. The videos and devotions that go along with any plans by The Bible Project are stellar, and really paint the picture of a God for all nations.

So there you go! Intentionality. Fun. Raising global kids right now. If you can’t decide, first watch Offroad Encounters, as a family! Then choose: Two, Read a biography aloud. Three, make food. Four: Binge Watch Travel Vloggers Five: Pray (and Do) the Thirty Days of Prayer for Kids and Six: Get your Kids Reading the Bible.

If you haven’t read Across the Street and Around the World, grab a copy anywhere you buy books, and it’ll give you courage, confidence and compassion to follow Jesus to the nations in your neighborhood…and beyond.

Stay well!

Jeannie Marie

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