Home Archive by category "Kidmin" (Page 13)

Category: Kidmin

BLOW UP Your Object Lessons!

squarecircle

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…

Continue reading

BACK to SCHOOL Kidmin Resources!

It’s BACK to SCHOOL Time! BACK TO SCHOOL!!! Well, the kids are headed back to school. Unless you home school, your home will quiet down once again. Peace will settle in, well, for a few hours anyway. School is a BIG part of a kid’s world! Keep in touch with your students by learning about their schools! Know what schools your students go to! Call your kids and ask about how school is, especially if they went to a new school. They may need your encouragement. One little girl came home this week and said, “I hate school. I hate my teacher. I never want to go back again!” What an opportunity for encouragement! (and prayer) Find out if you can visit your students at school. Most schools will allow lunchtime visitors. Slip a note into their locker after your visit, or if you can’t visit. Give a note to parents for them to slip into their kid’s lunch! Get involved in the schools in your community. Perhaps you could put together an anti-drug or positive self image program for classrooms or assemblies! I’ve had schools willing to send home church flyers with their paperwork after serving them with some…

Continue reading

A Lesson without a Story is an Incomplete Lesson.

In Bible College I learned that the theological definition of faith is ‘active belief’. This means that to believe something is not enough; you must act on that belief in order for that belief to be transformed into faith. Therefore, if you want to put your faith in Jesus, you can’t just believe in Jesus, you need to act on that belief by putting your faith in Him. That active belief becomes faith. I could now go on with various biblical references to unpack this concept from James, John, and the Apostle Paul, but instead – let me shift to another way of explaining faith. In Sunday School, as a young boy, my teacher told me a story about a young girl whose bedroom was on the second floor. In the middle of the night, she was awakened by the smell of smoke followed almost immediately by the sounds of sirens out in the street. As her dad had taught her, she felt the door and, noticing it felt warm, she knew not to open it. She went to her window and opened it instead. As the cold night air rushed in, she heard the firemen below instructing her to…

Continue reading

Always Bring Your A-GAME!

Always Bring Your A-Game! One cannot over-emphasize the eternal impact and importance of your weekly investment into the lives of the children God has entrusted to you. It is during these formative years that children make decisions that will shape the direction of the rest of their lives. They need your best! Too often we compare ourselves to others and wish we were better – or get discouraged by what we can’t do. God makes no such comparisons. He asks only that we do our best and be our best. I call it bringing our A-Game each and every week, regardless of ministry size, number of kids, or what challenges we face. God sees that dedication and faithfulness and I believe He honors and rewards it with results in changed lives. Here is a checklist to help you bring your A-Game to your classroom! Appearance. First impressions make an impact! What do kids think when they see you? From our outfit to our smile – we need to be attractive to kids. Fun hats, playful jewelry, costumes, and most of all, a big smile will communicate to kids instantly that they are going to enjoy learning from you. If you…

Continue reading

Tell kids you LIKE them… it means more to them than “I love you.”

Many years ago, I was visiting with family and having fun tussling with one of my nephews who was about seven years old at the time. He was a kid I only got to see a few times a year, but we were pretty close. One of our favorite games was “Pillow Monster.” I would pile pillows on top of him while he was on the couch, and then “attack” the pile of pillows. I would “never notic” that he had escaped from under the pile as I trashed the pillows, jumping up and down on them pretending I was attacking him. He would laugh hysterically completely unaware that I could hear him behind me, knowing he wasn’t under the pile of pillows. Then, he would cover me in pillows and jump on the pillows, but of course, I wouldn’t be able to escape! It always ended in an exhausted heap of hugs to watch TV or something more relaxing. One time as we settled down to catch our breath, I blurted out, “Michael, I love you.” His response surprised me but had a profound impact on me. He said, “Uncle Karl, of course you love me. You’re my uncle.…

Continue reading