Our overriding goal for our littlest Mungarians is to build a firm faith foundation that they can build on for the rest of their lives. We’ve written about attending church and the importance of teaching our children how to pray (more than once). And another way Munger Kids is working with you to lay that foundation at Munger is to progressively build on their knowledge of the Bible in Sunday school, year by year. And where else to start then right at the beginning.
This semester our preschool classes spent seven weeks learning about the Creation. For those counting at home, that’s a full week per day of Creation – we think it’s that important. And I have to admit that it was an amazing experience preparing the lessons for your children. I’ve read the story of Creation countless times, I’ve talked about it with my Bible study group, and it was still exciting to find new fun ways to teach the story to the little ones.
To make the story come alive for their curious minds, we planted and successfully grew seeds, played animal charades and created classroom number decorations. Through all that and much more we learned about God’s amazing and carefully thought out plan. And every week each child made a page of their very own creation book, that they have now brought home.
We did this for two reasons: first, when kids have ownership of something they take it much more seriously, and second, we want to help you reinforce our Sunday lessons at home. We’ve been looking through our four-year-old daughter’s book at home and she loves telling us the story. To help you let your child lead you through Creation, here’s a short example of how we taught the kids over the seven weeks.
Day 1: (Turn off the lights.) Imagine darkness and emptiness and nothing else…except God. God in His own time decided that He was going to create something wonderful. Then God spoke (turn on the lights) and all Creation began. And God looked at the light and saw it was good. (You can use the “it was good” moments to reinforce to your child that God loves his Creation and thinks it is good. Since your child is God’s creation, how does God think about them?)
Days 2 & 3: God created clouds and oceans. Ask your child why we need water. God created land, seeds and plants. Ask your child to talk about dirt, trees, grass. Both day 2 and day 3 are about appreciating planet Earth for what it is – apart from people and friends and toys. Just the joy of the Earth as God created it.
Day 4: God created the Sun, Moon & Stars. A friend of mine said the other day that when she looks at mountains, she cannot help but see God’s work. (Shout out to Day 3!) For me it’s the stars. What is it in nature that stops you in your tracks and makes you really see/feel God’s presence? Think about it. Tell your children what it is and how it makes you feel. Talk with your children as you take a walk in the neighborhood, be reminded of all the things He created for us to enjoy and be thankful for.
Day 5: See, God didn’t just haphazardly throw things out there. He had a plan. There were oceans and sky. There were trees to build nests in, there were seeds and fruit to eat. It was all good a ready to be enjoyed. So on day five God created creatures to live in the water and fly in the sky.
Day 6: Now the stage is fully set for God’s greatest creation. First God created land animals and then He completed His Creation by making humans in His own image. Explain to your kids why people are the most special thing in God’s creation and different from the other animals – hint we are made to have a relationship with Him. (This is also a good time to remind them of our memory verse for this period: Psalm 139:14a “I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made.”)
At the end of Day 6, God is pleased with His creation, like He was on the five previous days. But, unlike those days, God says that it was “very good”. This is the first time that He said anything was very good. He was pleased with His work until now, but it wasn’t complete. Once He completed His creation, then it was “very good”.
Day 7: God rested. In today’s 24/7 world, it is hard to remember that God spent a full day resting. It wasn’t just something He did at the end of Day 6 when He finished Creation. It’s actually a part of His Creation plan. Remind your children why we go to to church on Sundays, God asks us to set time aside for Him.
Just like God had a plan for creation all along, He has a plan for all of us individually. How comforting that sounds to little ones.
Munger Kids 