Get Ready For Easter

This Sunday Noah's Club will be starting a new series called "Get Ready for Easter." We will be learning about Jesus and how to accept hard things and how to worship him building up to Easter Sunday learning about the good news that he came back to life. I love the title Empowering Kids used for this curriculum. In planning Easter services for kids and adults staff and volunteers need to prepare well in advance to "Get Ready for Easter." More volunteers, more planning in communicating effectively this life changing message of what Easter brings.

As parents and teachers there are things we can do at home to prepare our hearts and our kids hearts for this significant day.

Maybe find creative ways to explain Lent to kids using ideas from here.

One family I know is having a weekly tea time. Each Sunday around 4 pm they will bring out their nice china cups and pastries and have tea together. While the little ones enjoy their delicasies their mom will read a picture book to them about Easter.

The Sunday's leading up to Easter can be just as important as Sunday, March 23. Here are a few ways we can prepare ourselves before we see our kids on Sunday:

- Pray for the kids throughout the week that we will be coming into contact with. Maybe God will bring one specific name to mind that we should be spending extended prayer time on. Maybe send a note in the mail to the child or family that keeps coming to mind. Preschoolers LOVE getting mail.

-Read through weekly lesson a few times and anticipate what questions kids might ask you.

-Instead of getting to class right when service starts or a run in a few minutes late feeling rushed and frazzled get there 15 minutes early to greet the kids that get there early. Or better yet arrive thirty minutes early to pray with the other volunteers serving that day.

One thing I did with my kids this year was plant Spring bulbs in the backyard. My son likes to check on them periodically and this gives me an opportunity to talk about new life in all of it's different forms.

What are some things you might be doing to "Get Ready for Easter" this year?

Can Learning Be Fun?

As a mom of a pre-schooler and a toddler I'm becoming more and more aware of how much my kids pick up from the world around them. Whether it be a cartoon they watch in the morning or something I say in passing to a friend it seems to go into their head and inevitably later out of their mouth. This is causing me to be more intentional about the words that I say and more protective over the use of their time. These little sponges that are entrusted to my care seem to walk around waiting to learn something. One of my responsibilities as their parent is to keep their learnings on the positive side rather than the negative. One would think if learning is so natural for children why is it that some have such a hard time developing the skills needed for kindergarten? Forget graduating from highschool or college some parents just pray they will make it through these challenging pre-school years.

I'm not sure what the answer to that would be. I do think kids have different learning styles and we can't expect what might work for one child to work for another. Sometimes the best thing we can do as parents is let go of the control that grips us to try and make our kids what we think they should be and take more time to watch and listen to what their individual learning curve is. One way that might be universal for all children in how they pick things up is through television. I have found a show on PBS called Super Why. I love this show because it's helping my son learn how to sound out letters and read words in a fun, entertaining way. Parents can also log on to this website so kids can play fun games while learning reading skills. Even at this young age homework is already feeling forced so when tv can sneak in some academic learning when kids just think their watching their usual cartoons it's a good thing.

This show makes me wonder what the church can do better to help learning about God and his love more fun for kids? What would you say?

Saying Goodbye

As everyone should know by now pre-school director Natalie Mascari will be leaving her role to focus on her growing family.

Come join in to say goodbye February 24 at 12 noon.

We will be meeting and having lunch together as soon as the second service gets out at the Galaxy.