Tuesday, August 24, 2010

Teaching little hearts

It's been on my heart and mind for several months to teach my children more about God.  I definitley want my children to know how important God is in my life and how we should live by His example.  I have been struggling with how to do this.  I have been searching high and low for a one stop shop sort of place that has what I am looking for.  My ideal "curriculum" would be a short story with some sort of picture or image for them to look at, a corresponding craft/color sheet, and a life application.  I still have not found it.  Everything I look at is too long and overwhelming for kids my age (in my opinion).  So I have started one of my own and just making it up as I go along.  I am open to suggestions on things you all have used or are using.  For now the plan is to do this just twice a week, but finding ways the rest of the week revealing Christ to my children.  So I started today and thought I would share what we did. 

I began thinking of popular bible stories and came across the good Samaritan story.  I did a search online (in which I won swagbucks as well - super bonus) and found this short story which is attached to the color sheet (see here).  I like this one because I could read her this short story and she had a visual.  We talked about the things in the picture.  Then when we were done, she could color the picture (since Brody has been getting up early still this was a great activity for them to do while I was in the shower). 

Life application - I began thinking of all the people we know who are hurt.  I talked to Reece about how we should take care of those who are hurt...people we know and also people we don't know.  She remembered her friend Lauren who got hurt at the park on Friday.  She remembered "there was blood"...and I talked to her about how people helped them at the park kind of like the story about the Good Samaritan.  We found this simple card online(see here)..I had her put a band-aid on the head of the picture (where Lauren's injury was).  Then I had her color the rest and put stickers on it.  We glued the picture/card to a yellow piece of construction paper and folded it up like a card.  We wrote to Lauren how we learned about the good Samaritan and how it is good to take care of those we know and even those we don't.  We included this bible verse Luke 10:33-34 "But a Samaritan, as he traveled, came where the man was; and when he saw him, he took pity on him. 34He went to him and bandaged his wounds, pouring on oil and wine. Then he put the man on his own donkey, took him to an inn and took care of him."

I really wanted to emphasis how important it is that we also take care of and love others even when we don't know them personally.  So we duplicated the card, included the picture and story of the good Samaritan and sent it to the Children's Hospital.  We are hoping it blesses a hurt or sick child there!

Our prayer for today:

Dear God, help me to be kind today even if


people are not kind to me. Help me to do what

You want me to do. Thank You for loving me.

In Jesus' Name, Amen.

"Knowledge comes from the mind, but wisdom comes from the heart" ~Beth Moore

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

WHAT a great idea! I would love to keep up with these ideas. So easy and fun but also important lessons to teach em.