I’ve said it for decades, “You should BLOW UP your object lessons!” But before you try to go buy dynamite and end up with the ATF knocking down your front door, let me explain!
First of all, I LOVE OBJECT LESSONS! Did you know, Kidology.org started as an object lesson website back in the Fall of 1994? The same time that Amazon.com started. (Why am I not a billionaire? LOL) We still have hundreds in the Object Lesson Zone.
Object Lessons are one of THE most effective ways to teach kids – because while most spiritual concepts are abstract and invisible – words like faith, love and propitiation (Huh?) are challenging to explain to kids who are concrete relational, meaning, if they can’t see, touch, smell, hear, or eat something, it doesn’t exist! Object lessons help link these abstract concepts to concrete physical objects (or experiences) so that children can relate to them. Children’s teachers aren’t the first to use them – Jesus used object lessons all the time, and he was teaching adults!
But here is what I mean by “blowing them up.” Often, in an object lesson book there will be an idea of an object that can be used to illustrate a spiritual concept. Perhaps a magnifying glass can illustrate what it means to “magnify God.” (Psalm 69:3) Instead of showing a small hand-held magnifying glass, which is fine, I like to ask myself, “How can I blow this up so the impact of the illustration is truly memorable?” Then, the idea may occur to find an old overhead projector that can project a picture or shadow of an object up onto a wall very large – really magnifying something very large, and letting the kids enjoy getting to do this as well.” When you “blow up” an object lesson, you not only teach effectively, you create a powerful memory so that the lesson will last longer and its impact will therefore live longer!
One of my favorite “blown up” object lessons I just added to Kidology. Honestly, it’s one I’ve kinda kept to myself for decades so that when I did it, I was sure the kids would have never seen it! But I decided this month to finally share it with you.
It is a powerful and visually effective object lesson your kids will LOVE! You display a GIANT square made of solid metal brackets attached firmly at the corners and announce to your audience that you can instantly transform it into a circle! It sounds impossible! And, of course, it is! A SQUARE cannot become a CIRCLE!
And yet SUDDENLY – instantly – right before their eyes, it DOES!
It visually demonstrates dramatically that often what appears to be IMPOSSIBLE is actually possible. What we often need is to SEE IT and gain a NEW PERSPECTIVE!
Twice in the Bible it says, “With man this is impossible, but with God, ALL THINGS ARE POSSIBLE!” (Matt. 19:26 and Mark 10:27)
You can watch a video of me doing this last Sunday at church and a tutorial on the technique by going to Kidology.org/squarecircle.
My prayer is that not only will your kids be amazed and challenged by this object lesson, but that you will be inspired to “blow up” some of your own object lessons! If you do, post a video or tell about it in our Kidology Facebook Group! I’d love to see or hear your ideas for object lessons gone BIG!
