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Solomon’s temple activities

June 18, 2014 Ticia 10 Comments

Most Solomon’s temple activities revolve around making your own model of Solomon’s temple, and I have to admit that’s a great deal of what we focused on in our lesson this week at home (our family discipleship), though in my Sunday School class we spend a lot of time talking through his bad decisions.

Solomon builds the temple lesson

Last week Solomon got wisdom

Where did Solomon go wrong?

Because let’s face it, we don’t want to focus on what Solomon did wrong.  We like to focus on the big grand temple he built.  The amazing wealth and prestige he brought to his country.  But, that’s not the whole story.

Where did Solomon go wrong

When did Solomon go wrong?  Was it when he had 40,000 horses?  Or, the 13 years it took to build his palace that was bigger and more ornate than the temple?  At what point did his wives idolatry overtake his love for God?

I don’t know, But I learn from Solomon that wisdom isn’t everything.  You can be incredibly wise or smart and still make stupid decisions.  Just look at the newspaper to see proof of that.

But back to our Solomon’s temple activities.

Build Solomon's Temple out of blocks

First we made a temple out of blocks, and reviewed our tabernacle lesson and the pieces in the temple.

As you can see from the video they had a fairly good memory of what was in the tabernacle and why these items were important.  I was greatly amused they chose to add in a “Bible heroes” section to their temple, so ours may not have been Biblically accurate (adding in after the fact, something which someone commented about on youtube).

Then we moved on to what it might have been like to work on the temple.

building the temple activity carve a statue

We tried carving statues like they might have had in the temple out of plaster of paris.  Originally it was going to be soap, but I had some plaster of paris hanging around, and thought that could be pretty fun to try (and it was for a while).

As we worked at carving our own statue for Solomon’s temple we talked about how difficult it was, and how they must have to concentrate an awful lot to carve out of stone.

It wasn’t too long before the kids discovered this is a ridiculously hard task, and we aren’t particularly skilled at it.  Which led naturally into our next question.

 

What skill will you serve God with?

Right now the kids are quite set on opening a breakfast restaurant when they grow up, you know, because they know how to cook breakfast.

Superman is going to make scrambled eggs.  Batman is going to cook bacon, and Princess will make toast.

Here’s my challenge:

How will you serve God?  What skill will you use? Do you have a plan?

Ultimately, Solomon didn’t have a plan.  He had tasks, but he lost sight of God in the midst of those tasks.

Serving God with your skills, Solomon's temple lesson

Get Solomon builds the temple lesson here, or click on the picture at the top.

 

Resources for Solomon’s temple

(these are affiliate links)

  •  Rose Guide to the Temple (I want to buy this)
  • Rose Book of Bible Charts, Maps, and Time Lines(we used this)
  • Solomon’s Temple Model(also want to buy this, all the other models I found cost a lot more)
  • Solomon’s Temple Board Game(because I need more board games)
  • Solomon Builds a Temple picture book(I highly recommend this series of picture books)
  • Wooden Castle Block Set(I want a set like this, our blocks are just ordinary Jumbling Towers blocks)
  • Mystery of History 1 (great Solomon lesson in there as part of their history that year)

Learn how Solomon’s son did in King Rehoboam’s Folly.

Bible Kings and Chronicles, Old Testament

Comments

  1. Almost Unschoolers says

    June 19, 2014 at 5:59 am

    Nothing like a kick in the pants first thing in the morning 🙂 This is a very thought provoking, and challenging insight.

    Reply
    • Ticia says

      June 21, 2014 at 9:45 pm

      🙂

  2. maryanne @ mama smiles says

    June 19, 2014 at 8:25 pm

    I need to try soap carving with my kids. Thanks for the reminder!

    Reply
    • Ticia says

      June 21, 2014 at 9:45 pm

      It’s challenging, but a good activity to try. The soap will be easier than the plaster of paris was.

  3. Natalie PlanetSmartyPants says

    June 20, 2014 at 2:32 pm

    Love the carving – so good for those fine motor skills! Honestly, I never thought of Solomon’s faults that much – to me he was most of all a great King who built the Temple. Interesting point of view!

    Reply
    • Ticia says

      June 21, 2014 at 9:47 pm

      I guess I was thinking about his faults more because as you study all of the Bible’s history you see how Solomon’s decisions led so clearly to problems later in Israel’s history.

  4. Claire says

    June 21, 2014 at 5:01 pm

    I do love how hands on you make bible study. We can’t seem to find anything that feels natural to us all, although the girls and I are currently art journaling proverbs 31 which has definitely been our most successful bible study so far.
    Thanks for the inspiration!

    Reply
    • Ticia says

      June 21, 2014 at 9:48 pm

      You’re welcome.

      I’m currently working on an ebook about teaching the Bible, and the more I’ve worked on it, the more resources I’ve found for teaching your kids the Bible, it’s amazing what is out there.

  5. Jennifer says

    October 30, 2014 at 7:25 pm

    What statues do you suppose King Solomon would have allowed in the temple of the Most High?

    Reply
    • Ticia says

      October 31, 2014 at 8:48 am

      Quite honestly, none. But, in that instance I was walking the fine line of helping the kids learn what is in the temple and letting them enjoy the creative process of building. You’ll notice in the video they know it was not in the original temple, and they have a fairly thorough knowledge of what happened in the temple and the importance of the different parts.

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Ticia Adventures in Mommydom Hi, I'm Ticia! This is the adventures of my family in life and learning. Follow along with us as we share our adventures. We're having a lot of fun and learning as we go.

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