Sunday School Roundtable Chats
A new series of live Web chats sponsored by TMC Youth
Part 2: Teaching the (Littlest) Children
With Shannon Hodgins and Susie Rynerson
Sunday, March 30, 2008,
3:30 p.m. - 4:30 p.m. EDT
Join us for our new series of live chats with Sunday School teachers and superintendents around the world.
This month, in part two, we’ll explore the fun and expansive opportunity to teach the very littlest children.
- There’s no lower age limit for Sunday School, so how can we teach infants?
- What are good learning activities for children who haven’t learned yet how to walk, talk clearly or read?
- As they progress, how can we be sure we’re still instructing children “…according to their understanding or ability to grasp the simpler meanings of the divine Principle…?” (Church Manual, p.62)
TMC Youth host, Susie Rynerson, will share news of her recent Sunday School workshops in Australia and California. She along with Shannon Hodgins, Superintendent and teacher for the Sunday School at First Church of Christ, Scientist, Victoria, BC, Canada, will take up your questions. Shannon has a degree in child and youth care focused on early childhood education, but has drawn most heavily on the Manual and weekly inspiration from the Bible Lesson to guide her as she has taught Sunday School for the littlest ones for over 20 years.
The chat will be hosted on this site live in English. Shannon and Susie will field questions sent in via computer during the hour. If you can’t join the chat, you can post questions beforehand here in the Sunday School Discussion Forums or listen to the recorded chat afterwards.
Part 3: Prayerful Preparation for Sunday School
With SR and Eberhard Lasche, CSB from Mexico City, Mexico
Sunday, May 25, 2008, 3:30 p.m. – 4:30 p.m. EDT
Download the Song Book:
Song book for the littlest students about Bible stories: “My Song Book“
Listen to the chat replay:
Download the MP3 audio file: (right-click and save)
Listen to the MP3 audio file: (hit the play button below)
Share This
can you share any ideas you have about maintaining good communication with the parents of these little ones? for example, as the teacher, how do you keep the moms and dads informed about what’s happening in class?
can you share any examples of teaching the Easter story to little ones in an age-appropriate way?
Laurie: It’s helpful for my class to have a ‘refrigerator sign’ which encapsulates the day’s teaching….it’s a Bible verse, or a special prayer “Thank you, God, for loving me.” something that serves as a summary of the day’s lesson. I type the verses on the computer, and then paste them to colorful construction paper, and cut the background in crazy shapes that they often laugh about. I always try to be sure the parents have the signs for safe-keeping and often that’s an opportunity to tell them about the class. If I don’t see them, the sign often prompts a discussion between the parents and children and the kids do the summary.
For Easter I was led to type out the first verse of “Give me, oh Lord, an understanding heart.” which seemed weird but we have been working on the idea that when somethings goes wrong, we can ask God to give us understanding. Easter is a great time to introduce them to the reality that some people were afraid of Jesus, and he knew they would try to kill him.
That was a VERY scarey time for Jesus, but he had courage because he
knew God would raise him from the dead. In the Garden of Gethsemane Jesus was asking God to give him strength, willingness and understanding in that very tough struggle, especially when his disciple-friends weren’t able to be much help.
Thanks so much for your focus on “the littlest children” including babies and toddlers. I’d like to share what we did recently at our church nursery in Danbury, CT. Just a few months ago, we purged our church nursery toy box of Disney, Mattel, T.V. & movie, etc. toys and replaced them with Bible toys, religious board books, coloring books, etc. With the non-speaking babies/toddlers, our focus is to just have them familiarize themselves with the symbols and stories of the Bible. There are plenty of Noah’s Ark toys out there, but other toys are a little harder to find. Here are a few: Toys-R-Us carries a Fisher-Price Little People Noah’s Ark play set; www.talkingbibledolls.com carries a Moses doll that recites the 10 commandments (they also offer 3 other dolls, including Jesus); www.CBD.com has, or used to carry, alphabet blocks with pictures from Bible stories on them. Really cute! www.catholiccompany.com carries a 10-Commandments/Beatitudes coloring book. I also shop everywhere - eBay, tag sales, thrift stores, etc. for baby/toddler Bible/religious toys. Some great toys are only available for a short time. If you miss them, then you have to look for them in the secondary market. My favorite toy is a stuffed lamb that plays Mrs. Eddy’s “Feed My Sheep.” I don’t know where this is available now, but if anyone knows, please post here! It used to be available through The Mailbox (now Rock & Feathers).
I also instituted a LESSON PLAN for the church nursery. Not that we cover everything every week, but I allow time for 1) reading books, 2) playing with toys 3) coloring 4) singing/music. I try to ensure that all this activity has some religious point or symbolic value.
I made some super-simple coloring sheets just by enlarging certain font characters - a bible, a cross, a dove, and bell - in Microsoft Word. I used Character Map, a tool in Microsoft computers, to choose the fonts Wingdings and Webdings, etc. and look for interesting characters that had white space in them. Then I enlarged them to size 250 or so. And I bought washable crayons, as my 20-month old doesn’t always color on the paper!
I could go on and on. Again, I send up a wholehearted thanks to the people responsible for encouraging church nurseries to consider themselves part of the Sunday School. No more checking baby at the door of a generic playroom while Mom&Dad enjoy some spiritual refreshment. Hooray!
-Lori Schaffer, CT.
p.s. I would like to add that my little one’s 10th word was Jesus! when he was about 8 months old, and he could hum the first line to “Feed my sheep” when he was just over a year.
I just discovered that the wind-up lamb that plays Mary Baker Eddy’s “feed my sheep” is again available at: http://www.rockandfeathers.com/Children.html
This is a must-have for every Christian Science nursery (in my opinion!)