Bright-eyed and energetic. Full of life. Able to melt hearts with the flash of a baby-toothed smile. Loveable beyond reason.
Yet challenging to teach.
You know exactly what I’m talking about. One boy runs through the back of the room during the Bible story. Attempts to get him engaged with the lesson, or simply to sit down, result in a defiant “No!” Another child, who always sits near the front, interrupts every 10-15 seconds to talk about her dog and her princess costume, or to sing her favorite song. One girl has gone to the bathroom five times in 20 minutes. And two calm, quiet kids who seemed to listen well start to repeatedly yawn.
No one ever labels teaching preschool children as an easy task—especially when the goal is to lay a spiritual foundation that will last a lifetime. Yet, many agree that birth through age five years represents the best time to pour into kids because these represent the most impressionable years. Their young minds act like sponges that will soak up any new idea, and their curiosity seems to grow larger each day. While the time appears right to share simple (yet life-changing) truths like “Jesus loves me,” “God helps me,” and “The Bible has true stories,” the challenge to do this effectively is equally apparent.
So let’s look again at the room scene described earlier for clues about what the children tell us with the challenges they throw our way. The child who runs around the room does so because of his developing body—and he likes to explore how it moves more than he likes the story being told. Kids interrupt because it’s hard for them to focus on someone else for more than a short time. And the frequent bathroom trips and wide yawns indicate boredom.
More often than not, we chose methods to teach children based on expectations we have for ourselves instead of realistic expectations of preschoolers. The process of presenting lessons that help to build strong spiritual foundations begins when we develop those lessons with our preschoolers in mind. To do this, our ministry focuses on these four starting points:
1. Work with their attention spans. With any lesson, expect that you can hold attention for two or three minutes. This does not mean that your lesson can last only two or three minutes. Instead, frequently change what’s happening to freshly engage the children.
Invite the children to take part in the Bible story.
Ask them to pat their hands on their knees to pretend to walk. Invite them to make the sounds of the animals. Have everyone count out loud with you the days of creation.
Use a mystery bag.
Put pictures or small items that relate to the Bible story inside the bag and pull them out one at a time. Children will constantly wonder what you will pull out next. Make sure the items are fun and somewhat surprising. A little suspense—”Let’s see what else we have”—goes a long way.
Ask them questions throughout the Bible story.
“What was your favorite thing that God made?”
“How would you feel if you were David? Why?”
“Noah obeyed God. When is a time that you obeyed?”
2. Use kid language. Read through whatever Bible story you plan to tell and look for words difficult for a preschooler to understand. Most children choose not to listen when they don’t understand the vocabulary. Filter concepts in stories and lessons to ensure they are concrete, then modify as needed. For example replace “Mary and Joseph traveled to the town of Jerusalem,” with “Mary and Joseph went far, far, away.” Or instead of “Adam and Eve sinned,” say “Adam and Eve did some wrong things.” Children love learning new vocabulary, but two or three new words in any lesson are enough.
Make sure, though, to repeat the key concept(s) you want children to remember from any lesson. If the idea that God’s helps us is important to know, then invite the kids to join in as you enthusiastically repeat “God helps us!” Have them say it with a loud voice, then a quiet voice. Or develop a simple hand motion that you do while saying the words—an easy way for concept to become more memorable.
3. Select the right number of details. Preschool children do not have to know all the details of a Bible story. Telling too many details will overwhelm them and wash away any learning. Pick and chose the important details so they can remember the story from beginning to end. For example, let’s consider the Bible story when Jesus fed the 5,000. If your point of the lesson is that “Jesus can do anything,” the children don’t need to know what topics Jesus taught to the crowd of people. They do need to know, though, how Jesus fed all those people. More than three or four important details in a Bible story might create confusion.
4. Use Props. Engage your children by using big, colorful props to help them “see” a story or lesson. Use a puppet to be a lesson character. Show stuffed animals when telling the creation story. Give costumes to people in the room so they can become Bible characters. Paint or draw the Bible story as it’s told—and watch the eyes become bright again.
In fact, when we put adult expectations aside and build lessons that address expectations for preschoolers, we will stop seeing only the challenges. Once again, we’ll look at little people who are full of life, able to melt hearts with the flash of a baby-toothed smile, and loveable beyond reason.
Kerri Mahla serves as the director of early childhood programming in Promiseland, the children’s ministry at Willow Creek Community Church.
Copyright © 2005 Promiseland.
