Paint-Your-Own Bible Figures: A Simple Family Activity

Paint-your-own figures are one of the easiest faith activities to do at home, mostly because the activity does the work for you. Hands get busy, everyone slows down a little, and the conversation just sort of shows up on its own.

Here is what we have learned about making an afternoon of it:

What you need

• The figure and the paint set that comes with it
• A cup of water and a paper towel
• Something over the table, because paint is enthusiastic
• A flat spot where the figure can sit and dry without being admired too often

Setting up

Put down more covering than you think you need. You will not regret it.

Fill the water cup halfway, because a full one is a small dare. And if you have more than one painter, give everyone their own paper towel and a bit of elbow room. Not because they cannot share, but because giving each kid their own little station makes the whole thing feel like theirs.

While you paint

Here is the part that actually matters, and it has nothing to do with painting.

Tell the story while their hands are busy. A child who cannot sit through a story at the dinner table will happily listen to the whole thing while they are painting a beard. Something about busy hands opens up the ears.

Ask more than you narrate. Ask questions like: "What do you think he was feeling?" "What would you have packed?" "Would you have gone?"

And let the colors be whatever they turn out to be. A purple Abraham is a wonderful Abraham. A lion with green paws has clearly been somewhere interesting. The point was never that it matches the picture. The point is that they will remember this story, because they were the one who brought it to life.

When it goes sideways

It will, a little, and that is fine.

If a color goes somewhere it was not invited, just let it dry all the way and paint over it later. Trying to fix wet paint is how a small smudge becomes an adventure.

If someone paints the whole figure one color, that counts. If someone loses interest halfway and wanders off, that also counts, and the figure will still be there tomorrow. Half-painted heroes have a charm of their own, and nobody ever remembers the afternoon as a failure except the grown-up who was hoping for a photo.

Drying and keeping

Give it a few hours before it gets handled, and overnight before it goes on a shelf or into a backpack for show and tell.

One hero at a time

These work best collected slowly. One hero, one story, one afternoon, whenever there is space for it. Kids remember the ones they painted themselves far more than the ones that arrived finished, and they will tell you that character's story back, usually at bedtime, usually with details you did not mention.

Our paint-your-own kits are in the Genesis Origins and Foundations of Faith collections, and there are more heroes on the way.