Minivan Ministries

Making Jesus the Driving Force in Your Family

Join the Picnic Parade: The Sign Painter’s Dream

by 19 Comments

disclaimer
Welcome back to the Picnic Parade!  While today’s book may be a bit hard to buy, we were easily able to find a copy at our library.  Used copies are available for purchase.  There is also a Reading Rainbow Episode (Season 10, Episode 17) of A Sign Painter’s Dream that you buy for only a couple of dollars.  This story is just too good to pass up! Without further, ado, here is The Sign Painter’s Dream Picnic by Joan Eppehimer of KidFrugal. 

The Story

The Sign Painter’s Dream, by Roger Roth, is a little known gem in the world of children’s books. The story is heartwarming and the illustrations capture the characters well. In my opinion, the picture of the sign is worth the price of the book. You might have to pay a great price to purchase it these days too, because it is out of print. We first discovered it at our local library. There are used copies available though at a fairly reasonable price. I found my copy at a library’s used book sale.

Here’s the story line: Clarence is a crabby, old sign painter who loves history, especially Revolutionary War history. One day a woman walks into this shop and asks him to make a sign…for free.

“FREE?” he boomed. “Why should I do it for free? Do I look like Santa Claus?”

The apple lady seemed surprised. “But I give away my beautiful apples for free, don’t I?…”

That night Clarence has a dream and General George Washington himself enters the shop. He orders a sign saying, “SEND SHOES TO VALLEY FORGE!” And of course, he wants it for free. He sets Clarence straight using some of the same words the old apple lady had used. Clarence wakes up and has a change of heart.

Working through the night, Clarence arrives on the woman’s property the next morning and erects the new sign – for FREE of course. And here it is:

It is the classic change of heart story, like Ebenezer Scrooge. People stopped calling him crabby and he got lots of new orders. And once in awhile he even makes a sign for fun – and for free.

Lessons
The lessons to be learned from the story:

  • It is more blessed to give than receive. (God blessed Clarence’s business after he made the sign for free. More importantly, Clarence is blessed by being changed as a result of his giving.)
  • God loves a cheerful giver (2 Corinthians 9:7). Clarence became a cheerful giver. Was the apple lady a cheerful giver? Do you think her attitude helped to change Clarence?
  • How do you think making the sign for free helped to change Clarence? How did that act of kindness help to become less crabby?
  • Doing nice things for others can help us to become nicer people. Ephesians 4:32

Picnic
Why not have a colonial picnic in celebration of this book? You can do your own research and find other colonial foods, but here is a suggested menu for a colonial picnic:
Journey Cakes (also called johnny cakes) https://whatscookingamerica.net/History/Johnnycakes.htm
Maple syrup (for the journey cakes)
Baked Beans (a favorite in Boston, along with brown bread)
Apple Cider
Berries
Cheese
Apple Pie (or apple tansy if you are real daring) http://toriavey.com/toris-kitchen/2011/03/what-the-colonial-virginians-ate-2/

Make the journey cakes (also called johnny cakes) at home. You will have to eat them cold unless you can devise a way to keep them warm. Same with the beans.

Pack it all up and head for the park. You might even live within driving distance of a park with colonial ties. Google it to check.

Games
So we have our colonial food (sort of), our book, and now we need some games from that time period.

  1. Graces was another popular game. You can make your own set using dowels and embroidery hoops. If you can sharpen one end of the dowels, you will be able to fling the hoops better. Tie some ribbons onto the hoops. To throw the hoop, with one rod in each hand, place the hoop over both rods, then let the hoop slide slightly down the rod and cross them in an X shape. The hoop should be on the lower triangle of the X shape. Then pull the rods apart quickly. The hoop should slide up and shoot away from the player in the direction he aimed for. The other player tries to catch the hoop using one or both rods. First player to catch the hoop ten times is the winner. Hoops are generally 9 inches and rods 15-24 inches.
  2. Hop Scotch – which was known as Scotch-Hopping was popular. Take some giant sidewalk chalk in case you can find a place to draw a board.
  3. Jump Rope – this site has a rope and book with colonial day rhymes and games.
  4. Marbles – If you want to really be authentic, you can purchase clay marbles like children would have used in early America.
  5. 9 pin – outdoor bowling. Take 9 bowling pins and a ball and play it on the grass.
Joan Eppehimer is a pastor’s wife, former worker in the children’s room at the Prendergast Library, and current Children’s Ministry Director at her church. Joan has two grown daughters, Joella and Julia. Joella and her husband are serving with Wycliffe in PNG until July 2017. Julia works in photography and lives near home. 
Joan blogs at KidFrugal. She created this blog to help resource, equip and encourage other children’s ministry workers. It is a blog about doing children’s ministry with little or no resources (including not many kids). It’s a blog about being a David in a Goliath world. Just because you serve in a small church doesn’t mean your kidmin can’t have a significant impact. She includes many of the Bible lessons they have done in their Sunday School program.
link up
Related Products

Comments

  2. Erin says

    I love books like this. No agenda other than simply to steer our kids into doing what’s right and good. ❤️ I’ll be looking for it!

    Reply

    • Joan S. Eppehimer says

      Thanks Heather. Someone read it to my kids years ago in storytime. Then I used it when I worked at the library. It went out of print relatively early. My daughter found it for me at a library sale!

      Reply

  5. Heather Zechman says

    First of all, the food sounds amazing! Secondly, I love these ideas for themed picnics. I told my husband the other day about it and last night when I saw your posts I showed him what I was talking about. This is such a nice way to incorporate God and history into a fun family day!

    Reply

  8. Scott LaPierre says

    Hi Joan (or maybe Tara? I’m sorry i can’t tell who wrote the post),
    Thanks for the review, but what I found most beneficial was the section with lessons. While reading I was wondering what Christian principles were communicated, so that part was great to see. The game, or craft suggestion, is appreciated too. I can imagine others will like something hands-on.
    Scott LaPierre recently posted…Don’t confuse discipline and trialsMy Profile

    Reply

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

CommentLuv badge

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.

Ad

Products