Families

Our study of creation and our desire to experience Christmas converge beautifully during the season of Advent.  It is the perfect time to talk about people and how God created families for us.

We had books, songs, props, and of course previous life experiences to help us construct comparisons between our families and Jesus' family.  We had a little project that we did over two days.  First, we talked about our families and together we made a graph of how many people were in our families.  Then the Bunnies represented the people in their families by gluing people shapes onto the top half of a large piece of paper.  You can see one child's family in the top half of his blue paper below.  He has three sisters and parents.

The next day, the children represented the people in Jesus' family buy gluing nativity people shapes on the bottom half of their paper.

Below is one example of the finished product.  As a reference, Mary is light blue and she and Joseph are kneeling and the Baby Jesus looks like a face peeking out of a white blanket.

We did not provide markers for this activity, but this particular Bunny asked for a marker and got busy adding faces to her people! 

Parents, I know it can be a challenge to share aspects of faith with your young children.  Faith is hard to explain, especially when we are constantly developing and refining our faith in our own lives.  Here is some food for thought and hopefully you will be able to seek opportunities to make your faith come alive in your young children in ways that are meaningful for their current stage of development. 

So many aspects of Christian life are abstract and young children are not abstract thinkers (yet).  They learn from what they experience through their senses and by what is right in front of them.  The key to faith development is to provide children with concrete ways to represent abstract concepts.  By making a simple visual comparison of two families, children can begin to conceptualize God's plan for Jesus to live as a human and for all His people to live in families He created especially for us.  They will never have as rich as a perspective as an adult who has heard and experienced principles of faith for many years, but they will have the perspective that is appropriate for their age and stage.  Each time they have chances to hear and experience faith they will internalize the ideas, and like rings on a tree, their faith will develop in layers upon layers, year after year.  How divine!

Benjamin Bunny

The children absolutely LOVE hearing about Benjamin Bunny's adventures as he visits each friend in our class.  Between Thanksgiving and Christmas, Benjamin took a little break from his travels and he hung out with us at school (his home!).  The children got to read his journal and snuggle him every day.  Would it surprise you to know that several children memorize what Benjamin has done at each house?  That little bunny has gotten lots of loving from his sweet friends!

It may seem just a little silly to send a stuffed animal home with a journal, but it is so very valuable.  First, it's a fantastic way for parents to extend a school activity at home.  By spending a few minutes snapping photos and jotting down a few events, parents teach their children that what happens at home is important enough to share at school.  Secondly, the children love telling us what they did with Benjamin, and the rest of us get a peek into each child's family.  It's such a powerful connection between home and school.

If he hasn't been to your house yet, don't worry.  He'll be there in the coming weeks.