The story of the prodigal son holds some great lessons for our children. These prodigal son craft and activities will help you teach your toddlers forgiveness, good sibling relationships, the unconditional love of the Father and you can do a pig craft to help your children remember the principles of the story.

Forgiveness

There are so many things that happen in our children’s lives and they are generally quite quick to forgive when they are little. Around 3 years of age some children tend to use that heart breaking phrase: “I won’t ever play with you again…” when hurt or upset by another. This is the best time to share this story of the prodigal son.

Draw your child’s attention to the way the Father forgave his son without a moments pause. You can also tell your child that we often find it hard to forgive and love on our own but when the Lord Jesus is asked into our hearts, He comes in and makes all the unforgiveness and sin go.

Demonstrate this with this prodigal son activity. You need to do this outdoors.

You will need: A glass, some garden soil and a jug of water.

Half fill the glass loosely with soil. Tell your child that this is like our hearts when we don’t know the Lord’s forgiveness or when we hold unkind thoughts towards others. Then take the water and pour it into the glass explaining while you go that this is what it is like when we ask the Father to forgive our sins and Jesus comes in and washes us clean.

Your child will see that the water begins to replace the soil…make sure you have enough water to continue pouring for a while until the glass hold only clear water.

Siblings

The prodigal son’s brother is not normally focussed on in most bible teachings, but his part in this story can teach your children about forgiveness as well as being glad for others in the family. If you read the story you will also see that the son who did not squander his inheritance had an attack of the “fairness bug”.

Children who complain when others get something and they do not need to learn to be content with what they do have and not always long for what someone else has.

The brother of the prodigal also felt that he had a right to feel upset with his dad throwing a banquet for his wayward son. Teaching your children from an early age to yield their rights to their siblings will go a long way to bringing peace into your home in years to come.

Unconditional love

God loves us with an unconditional love the same way that the father in this story shows unconditional love to his returning son. Do this prodigal son craft with your toddler to teach them of Our Father’s love for us.

You will need: red cardstock, scissors, glitter and glue or glitter glue tubes. Cut out a large heart from the red card. Write in the centre “God Loves Me Always” with a black marker and then let your toddler sprinkle the glitter on.

Glitter Tip but glitter in shaker bottles or loose in a pack. Save your old spice shakers and put the glitter in there. This prevents glitter going in eyes which is very painful.

Pig craft

While the prodigal son was away from home, his job was to feed the pigs. Create this paper mache pig, just scroll down for the pig instructions.

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