Lesson 23: God wants us to...be thankful

Even though it's not quite Thanksgiving season, this lesson fit perfectly with our family right now.  Being thankful/grateful is something we've been talking to Jenna about so it was the perfect time for a Bible lesson about it!

1.  Verse - "Oh give thanks to the Lord, for He is good."  Psalm 107:1

Jenna asked why there was a pumpkin, and I told her because it reminds us of Thanksgiving, which is a holiday about being thankful.
(I still haven't found our other verse cards, which have become misplaced in the move!  I'm hoping they show up this weekend, when we organize the basement.)

2.  Lesson -

• Pray with your child about the lesson.
• Read the verse.
• God wants us to be thankful.
• What does it mean to be thankful?
• God gives us many wonderful things.  What are some wonderful things that God has given us? 
• God gives us good things because he loves us!  When God gives us good things, they are called "blessings."  We should be thankful to God for all our blessings.  We need to tell God, "thank you."
• God also wants us to be thankful to other people.
• When people give us things, or do nice things for us, or help us, God wants us to be thankful to them.  That's why we say, "thank you" to each other and write thank you cards.  
• For example, when one of you teachers helps you with something at preschool, you should tell them thank you!  Or when Nana sends you something special, we write her a thank-you note. 
• God wants us to be thankful all the time, to him and to other people.
• Another word for "thankful" is "grateful."

3. Craft - "I am thankful" tree
I found the most perfect craft for this lesson on Ministry-to-Children.com!  It really is a blessing to find free crafts like this online and it was exactly what I was looking for!  So, I am thankful to them ;)
Here's the link: http://ministry-to-children.com/thanksgiving-coloring-pages/print/
It's two pages, a tree and leaves.

 Fill in the leaves with things that you're child is thankful for, cut them out and glue them on the tree.  (Jenna did the coloring and gluing and I had her practice cutting by cutting out a few of the leaves.)
This was Jenna's finished product:

4. Song - "Praise Him, Praise Him" #31 on Wee Sing Bible Songs

5.  End by reviewing the new verse one more time!

Lesson 22: God wants us to...obey our parents.

1.  Verse:  "Children, obey your parents in everything for this pleases the Lord."  Colossians 3:20

2. Lesson:

• Pray with your child about the lesson.
• We've been learning about Abraham and Sarah.  Remember that they trusted and obeyed God?
• First, God told them to move to a far away place.  So, they obeyed God and packed up their stuff and moved!
• Then, God told Abraham to give Him Isaac as a sacrifice.  So, Abraham obeyed God and brought Isaac up the mountain to the altar.
• God wants us to obey Him too!
• What does it mean to obey somebody?  (Listen to your child's answer, then direct them to...it means you do what the the person tells you to do.)
• Mommy and Daddy obey God everyday.  God wants us to take care of our children and teach them about Him, so we obey God and take care of you and teach you about God!
• Now, God has a special message for children...(read the verse).
• God tells you to obey your parents! 
• What does "obey mommy and daddy" mean? (Do what they tell you to do.)
• God wants you to obey us because we keep you safe, we teach you how to be a good girl, we teach you how to be nice to other people, and we teach you how to obey God. And we love you so, so much and we will take really good care of you.  So, God wants you to obey us.
• Then the verse says, "for this pleases the Lord."  What does this mean?  It means that it makes God happy when you obey mommy and daddy!

3. Craft: "family" picture
For this craft, I found some pictures around the house that I could cut up and I cut out the heads of each of the four people in our family.  Then, I wrote the verse at the top of a piece of construction paper.  I let Jenna glue the pictures onto the paper (with elmers glue) and then I told her to draw our bodies.  I wasn't sure how this would go, but it ended up being a hilarious "family portrait" that I'll treasure forever! 

She asked me for a picture of Chaucer (her teddy bear) and when I said I didn't have one, she drew her own picture to add him to the family.  My husband and I laughed because it's just so appropriate that he's floating higher than everyone else in the center of the family!!  haha!  She's too in love with that bear!  (And this was the first time she successfully drew him by herself!)  But enough about Jenna...I hope you all have fun with this craft and get some cute family portraits of your own!

4.  Song -
"The Lord is my Shepherd."  #9 on Wee Sing Bible Songs  (I think we've done this song quite a few times.  I probably need to start mixing it up a bit with the songs!)

5.  End by reviewing the verse one more time!

Lesson 20: God wants us to...Trust Him.

*Note about this lesson - So, I decided to do a lesson on trusting God to go along with the Abraham and Sarah story.  However, "trust" is kind of hard to explain to a preschooler.  I had trouble thinking of a picture to represent the verse (settled on a large "T") and I also had trouble finding any sort of craft or coloring page to go with it!  So, as I was planning the lesson, I thought, is it even worth trying to teach her this?  But I decided that yes, it was.  This lesson is WAY simple and basically just an introduction to the word "trust."  God reminded me this week, that with these lessons, friends, we are planting seeds in little hearts!  We are being faithful to teach our little ones about God and his Word, however simple the lessons, and we pray that God will use these seeds to grow beautiful fruit in their lives!  So, on to the lesson about trusting God...

1.  Verse - "Trust in the Lord and do good." Psalm 37:3

2.  Lesson -

• Pray about the lesson with your child.
• Review the Abraham and Sarah story from the last two lessons:
• Abraham and Sarah trusted God.  If you trust somebody, it means that you believe that what they say is true and you obey them.
• (at this point, I opened to the story in our storybook Bible to use the pictures to review the main points of the story.) God told Abraham and Sarah to move to a far away place.  They trusted God so they packed up their stuff and moved.
• God also told them that they were going to have a baby.  They trusted God and they had baby Isaac.
• God wants us to trust Him the same way.
• God takes care of us, He loves us, and He always keeps his promises.  So, if he tells us to do something, we need to trust Him and do it.
• One way that we trust and obey God is by reading and learning about the Bible, because God gave us the Bible to teach us about Himself and His promises. 

3. Craft - Bible coloring page.
Since I had trouble finding a craft idea for this lesson, I settled on this Bible coloring page and I wrote our verse at the top.  You can find it here.


Jenna enjoyed coloring it!

4.  Song - "The Lord is My Shepherd."  #9 on Wee Sing Bible Songs.
"The Lord is my shepherd, I'll walk with him always..."

5.  End by reviewing what "trusting" means.

*Note - There were two sweet moments during our lesson.  First, while we were singing the song, Jenna said, "We don't see God in the house.  But he can hear us right now when we're singing."  Of course, my mind flashed back to our previous lesson, "God knows me."  I agreed and said, "Yep, he can hear us and he loves to hear us sing to Him!"  Then little sis (20 months) caught on to the song and walked around the house all morning singing, "Ah-way, Ah-way!"  Even these were little reminders of the fruit already coming from these lessons!  How amazing that God is working in the simplest of things, quiet little Bible lessons at home with a 3-year-old.  :-)

Lesson 17: God wants us to...be kind.

Hi friends!  It's great to be back and working on the blog!  I apologize for any cloudy/lousy pictures today.  I know my pictures have never been stellar, but today I'm having additional camera issues!  I think we left our camera battery charger at the hotel on our beach trip and so today I was using an old camera.  They get the point across at least!  Hope you all enjoy this lesson!

1.  Verse - "Be kind to one another."  Ephesians 4:32

When I drew this pictures, I was thinking of my two girls (because we're trying to teach sisterly kindness!), but you can draw the kids however you want to.  And simple stick figures will do!

2.  Lesson -

• It had been a long time since we had done a lesson, so I took some time to review all our previous lessons just by flipping through her crafts and coloring pages (which I've continued to save in a binder).  Before we started the lesson (during breakfast) we reviewed all of the previous verses.  So, if you have time, this might be something good to do!
• Read the new verse.
• Do you know what it means to "be kind"?
• "Kind" is another word for "nice."
• God wants us to be nice to other people.
• He wants us to be nice to everyone!
• God wants you to be nice to other kids that you play with and other kids that you know.
• Mommy and Daddy tell you all the time to "Be nice" to Madeline (little sis).
• We tell you this because God teaches us this in the Bible!
• God wants you to be nice to Madeline and other kids because He loves you and He loves them.
• Being nice or kind shows people that you care about them or that you love them.
• What are some ways that you can be nice to Madeline? (helping her, sharing with her, playing with her, reading to her, helping her learn to do something new.)
• What are some ways that you can be nice to other kids? (a lot of the same stuff)
• God wants everyone to be kind...kids, grown-ups, everyone!  
• Show the craft coloring page:  This coloring page shows people being kind.  What are they doing?  (talk about what is going on in each picture.)

3.  Craft - Coloring page
 
You can find this cute coloring page here at Sugardoodle.net.
It's super easy to print, too!

Jenna started out enthusiastic about coloring it, but then interest waned.  I helped a little!

4.  Song - "This is my commandment that you love one another..."
#19 on Wee Sing Bible Songs

5.  End by reviewing the verse one more time!

Lesson 14: God wants us to ...Pray

Hi friends!  This is a little lesson on prayer.  I don't know about you, but in our house we've been needing to work on "prayer time etiquette," so I thought a lesson was in order!  This ended up being a very sweet lesson with Jenna.  I hope it provides some good connection time between you and your little one!

1. Verse - I'm listing three different versions of this verse.  Pick which one you want to use!  I went with the  NLT version because I thought it would be easier for Jenna to understand.

Never stop praying.  1st Thessalonians 5:17 (NLT
Pray without ceasing. (ESV)
Pray continually.  (NIV)

2.  Lesson -

• Pray with your child about the lesson.
• So, we've learned that God made us, He loves us, He takes care of us, and He wants us to love and obey Him.
• Praying is how we talk to God.  He loves it when we talk to Him!
• When do we usually pray and talk to God?  (before meals, before bed, before our lessons.)
• God wants us to pray and talk to Him to thank Him, to tell Him we love Him, when we need to ask for His help, and tell Him what we're feeling.
• You can talk to God any time you want to!  When you're with mommy and daddy, at church, at Bible class, or when you're all alone in your bedroom.  God loves it when we pray and talk to Him any time!
• I (mommy) like to pray when... (share times when you like to talk to God.  For me it was when I'm driving, when I'm doing dishes, when I'm going to bed, and sometimes I pray when you and Madeline are napping.)
•  Now, when we pray, God wants us to be still and quiet so we're not distracted when we talk to Him.  To be still and quiet, we fold our hands and closed our eyes.  Let's practice...
• In the Bible, Jesus tells us how to pray.  This is what he says... Read The Lord's prayer, Matthew 6:9-13.  (I just read this and didn't explain this much.)

3.  Craft -  Prayer coloring page.
You can find this coloring page here.

This was Jenna's....

4.  Song - "Whisper a prayer." #34 on Wee Sing Bible Songs
"Whisper a prayer in the morning,
whisper a prayer at noon,
whisper a prayer in the evening,
to keep your heart in tune."

5.  End by reviewing the new verse one more time.

**Note - When I told Jenna that I like to pray when I'm driving, she proudly said, "Yes, like you pray when you need a parking spot!"  Um, whoops!  I immediately recalled the last time I was searching for a parking space and I had said out loud, "Lord, please give us a parking spot!"  lol!  Wow, they really are little sponges!!  This is why we need to start teaching them truth now....aaaand watch what we say.  :)  (I really was praying for that spot, by the way, because we were almost late for a kids play.  God gave us a spot, BUT later I got a ticket for parking there without a permit!  Hmmm, what was God trying to teach me??)  Anyway, hope your prayer lesson is precious and you all have a wonderful weekend!!

Lesson 12: God wants us to...love and obey Him

During the summer, my husband has Fridays off (yay!) and I had a hair appointment today, so I let daddy teach the lesson today while I was gone!  I prepared everything for him (and instructed him about what pictures I needed him to take for the blog!) and let them roll!  I think they had fun, but he told me later that the glitter on the table was a big distraction and she was really anxious to get to the craft!  Oh well!

1. Verse - "You shall love the Lord your god with all your heart."  Mark 12:30

*As I was writing this post I also found this verse that may be a little better for this lesson..."This is love for God: to obey his commands." 1John 5:3   You may want to use that one instead!

2.  Lesson -

• Pray with your child about the lesson.
• Review all the Bible verses (if you want to!) and introduce the new verse.
• Review the story of Adam and Eve and the very first sin. 
• Before you learned that God made us, He loves us, He takes care of us, He sees us and He hears us.
• God wants us to love Him back and obey Him.
• God made Adam and Eve and he made them to love him back.
• They could choose to love God and obey Him.
• They made a mistake when they ate the fruit that God told them not to eat.  They made a mistake, but they still loved God and He still loved them.
• God loves us so, so much.  He takes care of us and he knows what's best for us!  So, he wants us to love him back and obey him.
• This is just like mommy and daddy.  We love you so, so much!  We work hard to keep you safe and we know what's best for you.  So, we want you to love us and obey us.

3.  Craft -  Glitter heart craft

materials - construction paper, marker, white glue (like Elmers), glitter

The night before, write/draw this on a piece of construction paper:

Then, let you child trace the heart with glue and shake glitter onto it!  Simple, yet fun!  (If you do the glitter on a cookie sheet, it's a little less messy!)

 So, this is what I intended the finished craft to look like and this is the picture my husband took of the "finished product":

But, let's be honest here...He works in elementary education and he doesn't do any craft half-way...this is what was actually on my kitchen table when I came home from my hair appointment:

Haha!  So, feel free to let loose and enjoy the glitter, friends! 


4.  Song:  You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart.

So, I learned this song many, many years ago when I helped with a kids camp in high school.  Unfortunately, I couldn't find it online!  But here are the words:
"You shall love the Lord your God, with all your heart, with all your heart.
You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and soul, and mind.
And you shall love your neighbor as you love yourself.
You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and soul, and mind."

It is such a sweet little song that I wanted to teach it to Jenna.  Since my husband was doing the lesson (and he didn't know the song) I actually recorded a video on his phone of me singing the song.  I'm sharing it with you in case you want to learn the song!  Please keep in mind, I am NOT a singer!!  But, hopefully it will give you the basic tune!

5.  End by reviewing the new verse one more time!