Luke 2:7

Our Sunday School classes are working on a new Bible verse this month:

a Thanksgiving prayer

Thanksgiving is one of my favorite holidays. While everyone has different traditions, it's comforting to know that so many people are taking the time to be thankful for all that God has provided. I thought I would share a prayer today that would be easy for little ones to learn and say with you at the dinner table. 

May you have a wonderful Thanksgiving filled with family, friends, laughter, and prayers of thanks for all of our many blessings.

Ho, Ho, Ho... save the date!

I have this personal issue with posting Christmas activities before Thanksgiving... BUT... Thanksgiving is so late this year and I wanted to get this information out so you can put it on your family calendar: 

I am really, mega, super excited about this event! Helping children experience a little of the magic of Christmas warms my heart. Our pastors will be here to mingle and jingle. Prayer request cards will also be available to fill out and leave for our Prayer Chain.

Jesus loves my friends

Today I thought I'd share an easy activity for your little ones. Just print out this page, read and discuss the sentence together, then let the drawing time begin! 

a prayer for Veteran's Day

Please take a minute today to explain to your little ones how thankful we are for our Veterans. There are many Veterans in my family, and I'm very thankful for their service, as well as those who served before them and those who serve now. We are so blessed to live in a country where we are free to worship and pray as we choose.

My Bible

On Sunday, our little bitties will be working on the "vocabulary words" scroll and Bible.  Just like people long ago reading from a scroll to know how God wanted them to live, today we read our Bible so we know how God wants us to live.
We will also introduce a new song:

Psalm 86:11

The Bible verse that the remARKable friends will be working on for November is: 

Solomon Builds the Temple

This past Sunday, our Pre-School classroom listened to the story of how King Solomon built the Temple. Inspired by today's rain and most children's love of building, I thought I'd share an indoor activity today. 

The next time you and your little one are building with blocks, why not try making different church buildings. As you work, you can talk about how church buildings can be very different from one another. Share with your little one that Solomon prayed to God, and God told Solomon how to build the Temple. You could even try to build what you imagine the Temple looked like, including the two very important rooms: the "inner holy place" with an altar, and the "most holy place" which contained the ark of the covenant.

BIG & little

Throughout October, our toddlers have been learning the story of David and Goliath. Part of the lesson yesterday in our Sunday School class was a sorting game. The poster pictured Goliath on one side, and David on the other. The objective was to sort the picture cards of small things onto David's side, and pictures of very large things onto Goliath's side. 
Today I'd like to share an even more active game for playtime. You will need two tubs, baskets, boxes... some sort of container. One should be much larger than the other. You will also need some toys and stuffed animals, or pictures printed onto cardstock. Young children are pretty concrete thinkers, so if you are using printed pictures, try to print them so that naturally large items print larger on the page than naturally small items.

Ask your kiddo to sort the large items into the large tub, and the small items into the small tub. It might be easier to hold up the two items you are comparing at the same time. For example, hold up a large firetruck and a small car while asking which one is a giant like Goliath, and which toy is small like David. 
As your little one cleans up, remind him/ her that even though David was little, he knew God would help him defeat the giant Goliath.

a bag of prayers

Have you ever found something that's just so neat, you want to share it with everyone? I discovered a book called Paper Bag Prayers by Bernadette McCarver Snyder. In the book she explains how she used to put small, everyday items into a paper bag to help children learn that they can talk to God about anything, anytime. I have enjoyed reading the book so much, and it has helped me to spend some of my "idle" moments focusing on God in my daily life. It's been interesting to see the prayer path that one simple item can inspire. I am putting together a paper bag to keep in the minivan for some of those waiting times with my littles.

I think my favorite part about the concept behind Paper Bag Prayers, is that there is no age limit. It's a great exercise for anyone! I prepared these bags for our staff meeting this week, and I hope that everyone finds the challenge as wonderful as I did. 

Dear Lord - 
Thank you for everything you've given us, even the little things. We are humbled by everything you've created, and we thank you for giving us the curiosity and knowledge to create our own trinkets, toys, and devices. Please help us to use that curiosity and knowledge for good, and to help spread your word.     Amen