- Pregnancy
- Baby & Toddler
- Parents
- Getting Pregnant
- Baby Names
- Product Reviews
-
Registry
- Community
-
More
Want a personalized experience?
Download the free app
Houston Babies
CallMeKel
member
Teaching Christianity to young children
CallMeKel
member
I was wondering if those of you who are actual practicing Christians could offer some specific insight as to how you teach Christianity to your children.
For instance, I have a friend that, now that Christmas is over, is taking all their Christmas cards and each night at dinner, having her family (Kinder & age 3 yr old) re-read the cards, discuss the sentiments, and pray for that particular family. I just think this is wonderful.
Does anyone have any specific things they do outside of the normal things (attending church, saying of prayers at bedtime & at meals, etc.)?
I would love any new ideas!
***KrisB and M&M, I'm counting on you two to have some great ideas!***
Warning
No formatter is installed for the format bbhtml
This discussion has been closed.
Re: Teaching Christianity to young children
Damn Nest ate my reply!
I have a friend here who is a very devout Christian, and they have a book that has bible verses written in language that the kids can understand, and then they talk about how it relates to their world. I think they do one verse per week, and then touch on it throughout the week.
And this isn't strictly a Christian thing, but goodwill in general: they teach them about charity by having them set aside a portion of any monetary gifts they might receive. They also sponsor a family in Cambodia (I think), so they're able to teach them that many people have much less than they do.
I've found this website to be so so useful in helping me find everyday, crafty ways to introduce Christianity - Totally Tots
Really though, like everything in life, I think the `best way to teach our children abouwt Christianity is to let qthem see uws living Godly lives
j+k+m+e | running with needles
I obviously am not who you were asking this question of, but I wanted to relate a few things from my early childhood that I remember to this day:
Like Kat said, live it. I remember seeing my parents reading their bibles. The book Freakonmics says one of the indicators of how much your child will read is how much you read, I think that this applies to the bible. I started spending time in God's word early in life because it was an example I saw.
My parents always read bible stories to us. I remember the book they used had beautiful pictures, so I always wanted to read it. I actually bought this children's bible a few years ago because the pictures in it were so great, reminded me a little of my childhood bible story book. They would also make sure to point out that these were real stories that actually happened. When we read fiction books like The Little Engine that Could, they would point out that was not a true story, just from someone's imagination.
We prayed together before dinner & at bedtime. But also anytime that we were sick or scared or frustrated. We also did family devotionals after dinner for a while, something from a book my Dad found. (I think their real motivation for this was actually to get us to clear the table, Dad didn't start reading the story until after the table was cleared & dishes were in the dishwasher. It worked.)
Also, church was a big part of our lives. We went every Sunday & my parents always made it a point to get excited about church. There was never any grumbling about wishing they could sleep in or be lazy instead. Church was a joyful occassion. I know now that they didn't always feel this way, they just made sure to put on a good face for us. We went to Sunday school, my mom always taught Sunday school & my Dad always went to an adult Sunday school class (again, they led by example).
Church also wasn't just a Sunday activity. We did volunteer work at the church, whenever there was a cleaning or work day at the church, my parents would be there, with us in tow.
Every Sunday they put an envelope in the offering plate & they'd give us a dollar or some coins we could put in too.
Sorry that was long. My parents really made it a priority to bring us up in the church & it made a lasting impression on all of us.
Like Halfpint's parents, my parents led by example as well. We were very involved in our church, in fact my mom worked for the church for a long time and my first job here in Houston during college was working as the evening receptionist at the church. We volunteered by working with a variety of organizations that needed us, my parents often steer-heading the efforts. We also ALL (yes, all 5 of us) played in the handbell choir and me and my brothers were in the children's choir. We also attended CCE every year (my mom was the director) and we were involved with the preparations for it and other youth activities. My parents eventually became the youth leaders for our congregation so we were held to that standard once again....lead by example.
Our family friends were for the most part all Catholic as well. I think that made it easier on my parents as many of their friends (and their children) shared the same moral values that we did and it made it easer to have that consistent reinforcement of our family values while around others. I will say that I find this to be completely the case with raising my kids. My closest friends all share the same core religious beliefs that I have and it's making it easier to keep and open dialogue with A about Jesus, about church and about being kind and generous toward others.
One thing we always did during Lent was save our change (our allowance) in our rice boxes to send to the needy. I always looked forward to it and now I look forward to sharing that tradition with my girls.
We also purge toys and clothes every few months and donate them. Amelia helps to pick things out to give to others from her own things and she helps me shop when we're shopping for a sponsored family. That's one way we teach her how to give and share and that's a huge part of our religious foundation.
I think at this age it's less about Church history and the story of Christ and more about general morals; giving/sharing, being compassionate and loving.
We do prayers beyond the normal bedtime and meal time. For example, when we see an ambluance speed by with their lights on, she now knows that someone is hurt and we say a quick prayer in the car for that person and for the EMT, Drs.
We also read her bible stories and also for every holiday (Easter, Christmas, etc..) I have kid books related to each and we read about it to get a better understanding of what it's about.
I know you asked for hints from practicing Christians, and I don't know whether you consider me practicing or not because I don't go to church very often.
I think there is a lot to be said about the formal indoctrination of faith by going to church. But I found God without that and sought Church out on my own. My grandparents took me occasionally so that gave me exposure. But what I found thrilling and exciting were the little Children's bible story books in the doctor's waiting rooms, lol. And mom had a huge white Bible with gold leaf trim and those onion thin pages on our coffee table. I was so intrigued by it and would read for hours from it.
I'm trying to give Maddie exposure to everything I loved about having God in my life at that age. So we have a lot of books about God and Christ. And we love music so we have songs too. This book is pretty neat and we will listen to a song and read the corresponding lesson regularly: https://www.amazon.com/Ways-Know-Loves-Songs-Love/dp/1400311578/ref=pd_sim_b_1
This one is cool too:
https://www.amazon.com/100-Bible-Stories-Stephen-Elkins/dp/1591452392/ref=pd_bxgy_b_img_a
Leading up to and following Christmas, we also read "Santa's Favorite Story" which is about Santa telling the animals in the woods all about the first Christmas - Jesus' birth:
https://www.amazon.com/Santas-Favorite-Story-Santa-Christmas/dp/141695029X/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1295368428&sr=1-1
Kendall is probably too old for these books but we have these lift-the-flap books about God and Maddie still likes them now and then (this is one example - she has 3):
https://www.amazon.com/Lift-Flap-Bible-Growing-Light/dp/0784709653/ref=sr_1_fkmr1_3?ie=UTF8&qid=1295368483&sr=1-3-fkmr1
However, I want to thank you for posting this because the idea you shared - about reviewing the Christmas cards and praying for those families - I think that is WONDERFUL. I keep Christmas cards in a big scrap book (I don't scrap them all beautifully - they basically go in the plastic sleeve behind a scrapbooked copy of our card from that year). I think it'd be great to include Maddie in the scrapbooking piece and incorporate prayer for those families too.
- Paula Deen to 104.1 KRBE's Producer Eric 9/17/2011
Thank you for posting this! I have been looking for things to do with our son. Some great ideas and books ladies!
We have a book called Give Me Grace that has a prayer for each day of the week.
Then we have a shepherd's book full of night time prayers.
I add his name in the prayers to make it personal.
We go to church, he will go to VBS and Sunday school when older as well.
We sing Christian songs, ect ect. I just talk about God and giving and being grateful to him all of the time.
I just love it!
I'm outsourcing to school.
They do morning prayers and discussions of Bible stories. Those seem to include a Christian lesson backed with a more general virtue lesson. For example, this week's religion lesson is: The students will learn how to pray to God and ask for a blessing fortheir families.
So, that builds on last week's, love our family and our family is important.
There is a curriculum sheet they send home each week that provides parents a way to build on the learning in class. I try to read these and help guide the lessons along. My husband does not practice any religion. Although he is supportive, I get most of my help from the school.
I bet if you search you can find a similar kind of curriculum. It helps me to figure out which parts of religion to focus on for his age.
Well, hello! It is naptime. Sorry it's several days later.
I definitely want to reiterate the seeing it modeled. Beyond teaching my children about Christ, my main goal is for them to see me living an authentically Christian life. Meaning, I believe it's important for my children to see me making choices with my love of Christ in mind. I read my Bible in front of them. I give praises and glory to God when things go well. I pray when they don't. I try to explain why we give money to others and why God wants us to. I try my best to walk the walk so to speak.
I do not have it all together, for sure. I didn't grow up in a Christian home. I only became a Christian 11 years ago. I'm learning.
Some other things we do:
1.) Listen to Christian music. I feel like this opens up a lot of conversation between me and Mia. She'll be singing along with a song and then want to know what Grace is. Or Salvation. Among other things. It gives us a chance to talk about things we might not have gotten to otherwise.
2.) Bible stories. I do a lot like HP's parents. We read the Bible stories and then i talk to them about how it was a true story. I point out other stories that are fictional.
3.) Read to them out of MY Bible. So they are hearing the word of God in a different way as well. Especially the Psalms. We love Psalm 91 when they are scared. I also point out that the Bible is the word of God and His love letter to us. It's one of His ways of communicating with us.
4.) For Christmas and Easter, we read the stories from my Bible to them on the days leading up to it. We do a lot of talking about what it means and what really happeend. Christmas and Easter, for us, is also a very scaled down version. We try to emphasize giving, because Christ gave to us. My girls get excited about our giving projects and love it. Of course, they love their presents, too! And they think Santa is pretty special (because he celebrates Jesus' birthday too). We aren't completely nuts. But we do try.
5.) We are radicals in this next area. I will admit... so don't feel like I'm trying to say everyone has to do this. It's just what we do... but: We talk why we don't have cable/the newest car/biggest house etc and the reason we don't is because we can give more. Mia is starting to notice that what we have isn't as "nice" as others. Or she can't watch Nick Jr. at our house. We explain why and talk about how God has called us to this life and we are excited to live it. We don't feel deprived (most of the time). We feel thrilled that God wants to parter with us in this way.
6.) I talk to others about God in front of the girls. This is hard. I'm still working on it. But to a chashier or something I'll say: "God has certainly blessed me" when she/he talks about the girls. Or tell them "God bless" when we leave. That type of thing. And answering questions for people if they ask.
What a great post. I love this! I love the Christmas card idea. I have several friends who do this as well.
My boys go to a Mother's Day Out program at our church 2 days a week, and of course a relationship with Jesus is incorporated into everything they do. My oldest son is 4 1/2 and goes to Cubbies (part of AWANA) at our church as well. This is such a great program that teaches scripture memory from age 3 in a fun, personal way. They get patches and wear a little vest. My son loves it
We do morning gratitude journals (my 3 year old draws in his
Modeling is probably the most important thing you can do as it is what we do and how we live that leave the biggest impact! For us, that is going to church, tithing, praying together, reading our bible, practicing forgiveness, and being a safe place for questions.
We support a child through Compassion International and involve the boys in our letters and prayers to her. They have piggy banks and 10% of everything that goes in there is for "giving". Right now, I let them choose how they give (church, Compassion, Food Bank, etc.)
I love the comment about why we don't have certain things- we also don't have cable and limit our spending. My oldest is really into the wanting stage, and I really struggle with this!
Some books that I have really enjoyed and have helped me as a mom are: The Well Versed Family, Grace Based Parenting, and The Mission of Motherhood.