As San Diego begins celebrating Pride this week, this special edition of “Lean into Sunday” includes a brief read-along video, prayer, and discussion questions surrounding the book Love Makes a Family by Sophie Beer; an inclusive, bright and fun board book about what all families have in common- LOVE!
Before the Video:
- Show the book cover, pictured below and on the title slide of the video. Read the title and ask, ”what is love? What is a family?”. You may want to write down or draw responses to revisit later.
- Ask your children to talk about who is in your family. Talk about how everyone’s family is different, but they are all still families. You may want to point out the presence of “chosen” families and extended family members, if not done so already.
During the Reading Video:
- First, play the reading video through without interruption, but respond to any comments or things children point out. To slow down the playback speed: hover your mouse over the video > click the settings icon (⚙️) > select “playback speed” > choose the best speed for you.
- Take time to re-read the story and pause the video to explore each page. There is so much happening in the illustrations you can look for shapes, point out colors, name and count objects, make animal noises or talk about a time you did the activity pictured.
After Reading:
You could ask…
- I wonder which pages you liked a lot?
- I wonder if we could add to our list of what love is? What family is?
- I wonder how our family shows love?
- You could talk about how God created your family and loves you like a parent. You may also want to revisit the discussion about the diversity of family units.
Activity: “Love is…” Drawing
Modeled after the pages in Love Makes a Family, draw your own illustrated page that says “Love is…” and describe an activity you do as a family.
- “Love is making Saturday breakfast”
- “Love is playing games in the car”
- “Love is telling jokes at the dinner table”
Prayer: Dear God, thank you for our family. Thank you for the love and care we share everyday. We are glad to be a part of Your family, all because of love. Amen!
