Bible Activity Book: Abraham's Descendants Family Tree FREE PRINTABLE!!

I havent had a chance to do it much since becoming a mom, but I LOVE genealogy! What I loved the most-other then stumbling upon strong Christians who had been major influences in the lives of those around them-was how it made history come alive for me. Somehow, understanding how their lives all wove together made them feel more real.

This drew me to want to make a family tree for Abraham and his descendants. We are getting ready to talk about Joseph and the coat of many colors, and I wanted the kids to understand that Joseph isnt some random dude in a new story-he is Jacob's son, and Isaac's grandson, and Abraham's great-grandson. I wanted to be able to show them how it was the same relation as our own great-grandparents. So I came up with a family tree printable to put into our Bible Activity Book.

We discussed the family of Abraham as Mustang and Charger cut out all 22 people.

I actually thought long and hard about what to do about the 'questionable' story of having Bilhah and Zilpah in the story. Should I leave them out, should I say they were wives, or what? I finally decided just to tell it like it is, figuring it would be more confusing to untell my made up story and explain why I had mislead the kids in the future. Turns out, the kids didnt even bat an eye.

I DIDNT go into the entire story of how Jacob worked for Rachel 14 years and the fighting between Rachel and Leah. I mentioned they were sisters, and that Bilhah and Zilpah were maid-servants and we just discussed how many kids each of them had. The Beginner's Bible that we follow leaves this story out completely, so I didnt want to get into it too much.

When it came time to glue all the people down, they were a little disappointed-apparently I'm going to have to make a second set for story telling. The little people ARE pretty darn cute.

In the end the project took a VERY long time-well over an hour. I wished I had thought of this earlier and added to the tree with each story. Oh well!

I used a file folder and glued Abraham, Sarah, Isaac, Rebekah, Jacob and Esau on the first page.

On the inside, we put Jacob again (file includes two Jacobs), Rachel, Leah, Zilpah and Bilhah, and all the kids. In case you dont want to look it up, place the following kids with their moms:

Leah-Reuben, Simeon, Levi, Judah, Dinah, & Issachar
Zilpah (Leah's maid)-Gad & Asher
Rachel-Joseph and Benjamin
Bilhah (Rachel's maid)-Dan and Naphtali

I didnt worry about putting all 13 in order, as it would be confusing, but I did put the kids in order under their moms. I intend to have the kids refer to this tree in the future-and maybe even when they are a bit older, so I want some accuracy to the tree.

If you would like to make the family tree with your children or Sunday School class, it can be downloaded FREE here.  ****This link was updated as of 3/2/2014 to Google Docs***

All graphics used in this printable were purchased from Just So Scrappy or Digiscrapkits.com

I hope you enjoy the printable!!

God Bless!

BTW, yes it looks like I forgot Zeb!  So sorry!!  I am not likely to get a chance to fix it, I have gotten out of the printable making!

Bible Activity Book: Isaac and Rebekah's Wedding

One of the fun things we did this week was to make a new page for our Bible Activity Book. For this page we focused on Isaac and Rebekah's wedding-perfect timing to also discuss the Royal Wedding tomorrow! This wasnt the only thing we did, we also learned about Dung Beetles-which you can read about here. But, I figured this was the highlight.



Last fall I found a kit at Hobby Lobby with all the pieces to make 10 Native Americans. I had intended to use the kit at Thanksgiving, but we didnt get to it. The people came in perfect for this page-though, yes, Isaac and Rebekah do resemble the Wampanoag Indians a little more they probably should.

I used the Native American woman's dress as Isaac's robe, and traced it to make a white robe for Rebekah. I found wedding stickers in my scrap booking stash and used pipe cleaners and tulle for Rebekah's veil.





On the verse sheet, I printed Genesis 24:67. It is slightly paraphrased since the Bible verse simply uses he for Isaac and she for Rebekah.



On the page, I asked my children to draw Sarah's tent. I'm not sure what Charger had in mind :).



Charger's completed page, Rebekah and Isaac.



Mustang went ALL OUT for hers :). She even drew the food buffet.



We taped an envelope to the back of the page to hide Isaac and Rebekah until the big day!



Even Mini Cooper made a little person (maybe a wedding guest?). She decided that she should use it with our puppet stage. She and Charger played puppet show for quite awhile with their people.

This page was probably our favorite so far!

Hope you had a great week!! God Bless!

We are linked up at:




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Our previous Bible Activity Pages:

Creation
Adam Names the Animals
Adam and Eve
Noah's Ark
Tower of Babel, Abram and Lot, Sarah's Baby (all three are on the same blog post)

Isaac and Rebekah Story Box {Godly Play}

I've been working hard on another Bible Story box for our shelves. They are inspired by the Montessori Sunday School program, Godly Play. This box is based on Genesis 24.



When Abraham's son, Isaac had grown up, it was time for him to get married. Abraham wanted Isaac to marry someone from his homeland, but he did not want Isaac to leave the place where they were living. So, Abraham decided to send his servant to find a wife for Isaac and bring her back to him.



The servant was happy to help his master, but he was not sure how he would know which girl was the right one. He took 10 camels and lots of gifts for the new bride and began his long journey. As he walked, he prayed that God would help him to know how to find the right wife for Isaac.



When the servant reached Abraham's homeland, he saw a well. Then he had a plan! He prayed that the girl who was to be Isaac's wife would come to the well. He would ask her for a drink. If she gave him a drink-AND offered to give water to the camels without him asking-then he would know she was the one.



A girl did come up to the well!



So he went and asked her for a drink.



She happily got him a drink and offered to give water to his camels, too!




Just like he had prayed!! God had answered his prayers!



The servant went to her and gave her beautiful jewelry. He asked her who her father was, and could he and his camels stay the night at her house?



She took the servant back to her home, where he met her brother, Laban. When they learned that Abraham had sent him and the Lord had shown him that Rebekah was the special woman that God had chosen for Issac's wife, they were so happy.





They left the camels and gifts with Laban and headed for Isaac's home.



When she saw Isaac in the distance, she was so excited. Rebekah wanted to be a special surprise for her husband, so she put on a veil.



Isaac and Rebekah got married right away.



And Isaac loved Rebekah very much-muuuah!





The Cast from left:
Abraham (who once had long flowing hair...Mini Cooper played with him and decided right away that he looked better with an Albert Einstien hair-do), The servant, Isaac, Rebekah and Laban. I tried using paint this time instead of marker (except Laban) and wasnt too pleased with my results. Next time I will try paint pens.



The Animals-2 Little People camels who willingly pretended to be a herd of 10 camels. I will be on the lookout for more.



The props-Wishing well, bucket, coffee cup, and jar are all from Hobby Lobby's dollhouse miniatures. Watering trough is a baby food jar lid with blue felt.



The costumes-pipe cleaners became necklaces (in lieu of the nose ring and bracelets), and I used a pipe cleaner threaded from tulle still left over from my own wedding for Rebekah's veil.



Previous Bible Story Boxes:

Adam and Eve
Tower of Babel