Family VBS!

Last week, we had the wonderful opportunity to participate in our church’s Vacation Bible School. This was a unique experience in that it was actually “Family” VBS – made for entire families to engage in together! All of our children agreed that this was their favorite VBS year ever, because they loved having the whole family together. Iron Man and I enjoyed it too!

As an added bonus for our family, the theme happened to be Rome: Paul and the Underground Church. A bonus because during this homeschool year, our focus of study is the history period from Rome to the Reformation. Our VBS theme gave the children a nice, hands-on jumpstart on their studies for the school year! Here are a few pictures from the fun and exciting week. For the sake of privacy of other families, who may not wish to have their pictures posted on the internet, I have been careful to blur out photos of any children outside our family.

Our little Romans

The Animal Sacrifice Area included cats, dogs, hamsters, and snakes, among other things. No, there was no actual “sacrifice” of animals at this VBS! There was simply a sign posted with prices, and parents explaining to their children that in Roman times, people would buy animals to sacrifice to their “gods.”

Each night, we started in a large group for singing, followed by a circle time with our smaller family group. Each smaller group was given a Roman name; ours was “Marius.” We had 6 families in our family group, which included about 17 children. Iron Man was the leader of the Marius group, and it was wonderful for him to simply be able to lead the discussions and direct the flow of activities. The parents were able to do the actual caring for their own children and helping them with crafts and games!

Then we were off to the marketplace, where we could choose to visit a number of different shops and trades, such as metalworking, architecture, leatherworking, and calligraphy/scroll making. Here are a few of our children making wreaths.

We also went to “Grammaticus” – or Roman School. The children learned about how Roman children were educated, learned a few words in Latin, learned about Roman numerals, tried out an abacus, and got to take one home!

Princess’ Roman numerals. If you look closely, you will see her attempts at “I” “II” and “V” which I thought were rather good – and quite precious!

Little George spent a large portion of VBS evenings right here on my back. He is actually very content there!

Usually during our marketplace or snack time, there would be some sort of “hubbub” in the marketplace. One night, a Roman nobleman released a slave. Another night, a beggar stole bread and was nearly taken off by a guard to be flogged, when the woman he robbed went and paid a gold coin on behalf of his crime. Another night, a guard shut down the metalworking shop because the owner refused to worship the emperor due to her Christian beliefs.

After marketplace and snack, we would go to visit Paul, who was under house-arrest, and his guard, Brutus, to whom he was chained. Don’t let the smile fool you – Brutus was quite an unpleasant jailer, and the kids referred to him as “Mr. Grumpy-Pants.” However, one night Brutus fell asleep on the job, and when he awoke he was very surprised that the kids didn’t try to help Paul escape. He began to soften a bit in the following days, and by the last day, he converted to become a Christian. Poor Brutus… At the news of his conversion, his commanding officer gave him a new post: shoveling horse stuff at the Emperor’s stables.

Following our visit with Paul, we went to visit the “Underground Church” each night. In Paul’s days, Christians could not meet in large, beautiful churches or buildings. They had to meet secretly, in places like dark caves, to avoid arrest.

After visiting the cave – or “underground church,” it was time for the Roman games. There were two or three games each night, and they were so much fun! Here are just a few… Chariot races, with the parents and other adults pulling the kids around on their chariots.

Hoop and stick races…

Bubbles couldn’t resist using her wooden hoop as a hula-hoop.

and building a wall out of boxes.

Then we were back to the sanctuary for more discussion times and music.

It was a great week. Family VBS is truly a wonderful concept that encourages families to share the experience and get excited about learning together. To listen as even little Princess chatted away about Paul and the Underground Church, to engage in discussions of eternal value with the whole family (both at VBS and at home) and to watch the kids get excited about what they were learning… to me, these are priceless!