The Gift of Godly Play

I've written before about the excellent Sunday School curriculum our little Lutheran church uses.  Godly Play is a very Montessori-like approach to teaching Sunday School.  My children love it, and I love teaching it and watching the way Bible stories reside in our children's hearts after repeated and intentional exposure.  

A dear friend of mine at church is solely responsible for implementing this program, obtaining the resources, and advocating for Godly Play instruction.  It is/was probably the SINGLE MOST IMPORTANT Bible training resource in my children's lives.  

Godly Play instruction in our church continues through the third grade.

{ To see a Godly Play story being told, visit Living Montessori Now, where there are lots of pictures and also videos.  It is a beautiful thing to watch.  It is also something that can be used in your homeschool! }

Our story last Sunday was Jesus and The Twelve... such an interesting explanation of the 12 Apostles and the story surrounding each of them.  The painting of The Last Supper forms the backdrop of the story, and each Apostle is described by his shield.  My favorite is John, who was supposed to drink poisoned wine, but a serpent drank it instead and saved his life.  Or, there is Matthew, the tax collector, whose shield has three bags of money on it.  

I never cease to be amazed at the quiet WONDER the children have as you tell the story... each story of the Apostles so intriguing and tragic.... all but one of Jesus' Apostles was killed for their belief and support of him.  In a class of K-3 students this point was not lost, believe me.  

The children then heard The Great Commission, from Matthew 28:

Then the eleven disciples went to Galilee, to the mountain where Jesus had told them to go.  When they saw him, they worshiped him; but some doubted.  Then Jesus came to them and said, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me.  Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit,  and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age.

The children took outlines of different continents and painted, colored, or whatever their little hearts desired.  We also talked about ways we could help spread the Good News.

What have you been using for telling Bible stories in your home or at your church?   

This Week's Mustard Seed

Today I'm linking up with Jennifer and Rebecca for Mustard Seed Planting. Rebecca and Jennifer have inspired me to be more intentional about learning God's word and MEMORIZING God's word as well. I'm starting with baby steps, which essentially for me is a longer Bible study time with my children and memorizing verses with them.

Over the past month we have been working our way through the book of Acts. I am ashamed to say I had never read through that book before, until now. We are learning so much, and what is sticking with my children is Paul's transformation and his fervent spread of the gospel during his journeys.

I thought this was pretty cute. In our Bible it said something about Paul being a "man of action". My six year old piped in "MOM! PAUL WAS A VERB!" We laughed so hard. But he's right, isn't he? Paul was a verb and shouldn't we all be a verb - a verb for God?

Out of the mouths of babes....

What We Do For Bible Time

It's been a couple of weeks since I linked up with Rebecca, at Mom's Mustard Seeds. Today I just had to write about what has been going on in our house for the past several days, because it is very exciting to me to see my children learning to love the Bible so much.

To go along with Rebecca's theme today - REST - I have to preface all of this by saying we are trying to make a concerted effort to not do as much this year. We are limiting extracurricular activities and just keeping what we feel is valuable for all of us. In fact today, my daughter was given the chance to take a Spanish class (for free!) and she chose not to do it, because she said she didn't want to become too busy. I was proud of her.

Each morning we sit at breakfast and have a devotion. We are using a new book, and I think it's just perfect for my nine and six year old. In addition to a Bible verse and short anecdote each day, my kids have come to see this as our "calendar time" - we look at the date and our calendar at the same time.

After our devotion we read a larger portion of the Bible. Since the beginning of the year, we have been working our way through the book of John. My daughter's Sunday School teacher issued the challenge to read through the book in the month of January, and sent a reading plan to the children. We finished John today! Today my daughter started to mention how conflicted Pilate seemed when Jesus was to be crucified - observations like these show me she is now thinking more deeply about the Bible. The stories are no longer STORIES to her, and I love this. I also love how much I am getting out of our readings together - seeing the stories through my children's eyes makes them fresh and exciting for me. What a gift.

We read out of The Discover's Bible for Early Readers. I highly recommend this Bible. I find myself reading from it even when the children aren't around, because I like the simple way it is presented. It is not, however, babyish by any means.

After our Bible reading, we work out of the scripture box. I have posted about this before, and it has been one of THE best things we have done in our homeschool so far. Our whole family is committing verses to memory this way - hiding them in our hearts.

Today after our readings, we were looking up the text for a children's sermon I'm helping with this Sunday. We got out the storybook Bibles each of my children have and my daughter sat down to read to my son - all of a sudden, my son was running upstairs to get his Noah's Ark and act out the flood story.

They spent half an hour together, reading stories and acting them out. This WOULD NOT be possible if I didn't homeschool. I can't believe I ever thought it was ok that my children had to leave God out of their school days! Thank goodness I saw the light!

I'm trying to be intentional about giving everyone in our family enough REST - I think this rest leads to a deeper yearning for and understanding of the Bible, and just for happier families in general. I believe REST is what is lacking in our society today.

Do you have a Bible time/curriculum that you just love, or something that your kids just can't do without? Let me know!