Gems from the ECC 4s & 5s

"Actually, I'm scared of a lot of things... like bears, and tigers, and iguanas..."-Seth

"My mom said once that the great thing about legos is if you break them you can just put them back together!"-Patrick, always the optimist

The Servant King

The kids in the 4s&5s class drew these on the chalk board wall today during the first service. I forgot to take a picture until after the second service kids had colored over and around it, but I think you can still see most of it. The person on the left is the "traditional" view of a king. The kids drew a crown, purple robes, a sack of gold coins (rich), a sword, and muscles (strong.) On the right is Jesus... a different kind of king. No crown (although the kids took creative license and decided that he had blue spikey hair), plain robes, no money, and a hammer (carpenter) although I think that got erased. Our story was about Jesus washing the disciples feet before the Last Supper; it's titled "The Servant King" in our kids Bible. Big props to Eliza, Kate, Gunnar, and James; they all did a great job with the drawings and thinking about what makes Jesus a different kind of king and why that's important.

Also, without any prompting, the 4 of them spent the last 5 minutes of story time telling me about how Jesus loves them, and God is with them all the time even though they can't see him, and He lives in their hearts. :) It's so awesome that these kids understand these truths at such a young age.

The ultimate never-ending story

"We've already finished that book." --Zachary, 4 yrs old.

He told me this as I got out the kids' Bible to tell them the story during Sunday school.

Haha. :)

4s&5s and Abraham

Tomorrow morning I am back in the beloved 4 & 5 yr olds class at ECC after a summer-long stint in the 2 yr olds room. Have I mentioned how much I love the 4 and 5 yr olds? I love them. I love all kids, but particularly the 4 and 5 yr olds. They're at the age where they're just starting to figure things out and ask questions that stump you and say profound and funny and sincere things like thanking God for butterflies and dolphins during prayer and yelling "YAY GOD!" after hearing the story of the parting of the Red Sea. (Both unprompted, true stories from our own ECC kiddos). I love them.

I was just reading through the lesson plan for tomorrow since I'm on schedule to teach. I love The Jesus Storybook Bible that we use in the 4s & 5s. So much so that I bought my own copy and I wrote a post about it. We're talking about Abraham this week and God's promise to make his family a HUGE blessing to all nations.

In the lesson plans it also mentions singing songs. Most of the time I don't do this with them because I can usually only get a few of the kids to actually do it. [this puzzles me. i always loved the song portion of kids' church growing up.] But this week Father Abraham is listed as a possibility. What 4 yr old doesn't love Father Abraham?! And I realized that it only has two chords in it so I'm totally taking my guitar. I figure participation odds are better with a guitar. :)

So I'm a tad bit excited for tomorrow morning with the 4s & 5s. Can you tell? :)

A Bible for all ages

A book I ordered from Amazon came in the mail for me this week and I'm pretty excited about it: The Jesus Storybook Bible (written by Sally Lloyd-Jones.) That's right, I ordered a children's Bible. As an avid reader growing up who had at least 3 children's picture Bibles that I can remember, I have to say that this one is better than all of them. We've been using it all year long in teaching the 4 & 5 yr old class at ECC and I've fallen in love with it's method of storytelling--it connects every story back to Jesus. Also, its illustrations are pretty great too. Here, let me show you just a bit of why I really like it. This is from the introduction:

Now, some people think the Bible is a book of rules, telling you what you should and shouldn't do. The Bible certainly does have some rules in it. They show you how life works best. But the Bible isn't mainly about you and what you should be doing. It's about God and what he has done.

Other people think the Bible is a book of heroes, showing you people you should copy. The Bible does have some heroes in it, but (as you'll soon find out) most of the people in the Bible aren't heroes at all. They make some big mistakes (sometimes on purpose). They get afraid and run away. At times they are downright mean.

No, the Bible isn't a book of rules, or a book of heroes. The Bible is most of all a Story. It's an adventure story about a young Hero who comes from a far country to win back his long treasure. It's a love story about a brave Prince who leaves his palace, his throne--everything--to rescue the one he loves. It's like the most wonderful of fairy tales that has come true in real life!

You see, the best thing about this Story is -- it's true!
There are lots of stories in the Bible, but all the stories are telling one Big Story. The Story of how God loves his children and comes to rescue them.

I just had to get it, because as much as I love reading it, it's best when shared with some kiddos. And at some point I'm banking on the fact that I'll have some to read it to, whether they're my own or cousins or nieces and nephews or neighbor kids or whoever.

God uses little people to do BIG things

Inspiring, Empowering, Delight-filled, God-glorifying

After an innocent question from his 6 yr old daughter, Jon Acuff, blogger and author Stuff Christians Like, decided to set a goal to raise $30,000 by Dec 31st to build a Kindergarten for kids in a low income area of Vietnam.

This morning he posted the idea for the first time and asked his SCL readers to join the cause: read the post here.

Hearts overflowing with generosity, the SCL readers came through big time. Right now, less than 24 hours after the original post, over $30, 500 has been donated. Read about it here.

Yesterday, in the 4 and 5 yr olds room we talked about David and Goliath and how God can use little people to do BIG things. How he can swoop in to save his people with just a boy and a rock. He just did it again. He used a blog... an online group of his people... to give kids in an underprivileged area a chance to go to school and to learn about Him.

If that's not inspiring, I don't know what is. To quote Bob's last two sermons, live generously and light a candle in the darkness... and watch how God will use you to bless others.

Why I think four-year-olds are great

Today in the 4s & 5s room after the story was told and the construction paper crafts were put away, I played legos with Gavin, a sweet four year old with a great imagination. No better way to spend a joy-filled Sunday morning. There's no one like a child to bring you out of a self-centered outlook. Suddenly you find yourself elbow deep in a tub of legos trying to get a four year old interested enough in the fort you're building so that he won't be as concerned about being in a group of kids he doesn't know so well. And it's just fun to be absorbed in the whimsy and imagination of a four year old. There can be windows without walls and a dog that's larger than the lego people and the steering wheel in the middle of the yard that may or may not control something--it doesn't have to make sense; it can be whatever you want it to be, no rhyme or reason. On the other side of the room Maya and Eli were jumping up and down because they had finished a 100 piece puzzle that they started before story time. Christopher beamed when he managed to spell out his entire first name on a piece of construction paper--11 letters is no small feat for a four year old! They make me smile and laugh and get excited about things that I wouldn't have batted an eye at yesterday. I love looking at life through the eyes of a kid and I think they teach me just as much as I try to teach them.

The latest from the Swem's

November 17, 2008

Is it Christmas yet? I'm aching to see these kids.

Joy in the small things

November 9, 2008

Yet another reason why kids are amazing: they remind me to find joy in the small things and that everyday should be lived with laughter and friends.

Conversation between Nicholas and Zane (both 5 years old)

Nicholas: My name starts with an "N."
Zane: Hey, my name has an "N" in it too!
Nicholas: Really? Cool!

...and later...

Zane: I'm 5 years old.
Nicholas: Me too! Cool!

(Then they looked at me with something akin to pity when I told them that I was not 5 years old. :) )