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SSTN # 59 - June 25, 2004
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IN THIS ISSUE OF THE SSTN e-NEWSLETTER:
Fourth of July Activity
1) Pros & cons of children in worship
2) Teaching Boys
3) Summer Reading Program
4) Father's Day Songs
Hands
On Lessons of the Bible
5) Music For VBS
6) Bible Scavenger Hunt
7) Teacher Appreciation Sunday
8) Father's Day Songs
--> Bloom & Boom - Lessons for Teens
9) Jesus' Miracles?
10) Who Created God?
11) Deaf & Dumb
12) Disciple Song Lyrics
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Fourth of July Activity
With the "USA Patriotic Catcher" kids will learn the answers to eight
basic USA citizenship questions such as, "Why did the Pilgrims come to
America?"; What is the US Constitution?, and "What does the First
Amendment guarantee?". A great activity for July 4th!
Kids can make it and take it home!
Learn more at:
http://www.christiancrafters.com/curriculum.html
(you may need to copy and paste the address to your browser)
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1) Pros & cons of children in worship
Responding to SSTN #54 about pros and cons of children in worship
service. I favor a children's church. The Bible teaches us that we have
to start on the milk of the Word before we are able to chew on the meat
(I Peter 2:2). The teaching of God's Word must be served to them in a
format they are able to digest. Although some churches like to have a
few minutes before the "adult" service to present a children's lesson, I
still think they need to have their own little service instead. I'm not
intending to be critical of that presentation; just a personal choice of
mine. Some older adults fear that children will not learn to sit
respectfully in a worship service if they don't stay with the adults. I
say that they need to learn and become personally acquainted with God
before they truly understand how to respect Him. These same principles
can be taught during a separate children's worship service. They can
still be taught how to sit still, pray, sing praises, listen to the
lesson, etc. during their own time. Young children just naturally have
the wiggles (especially if they have just sat through a Sunday School
class)!! The cons of leaving them in the adult service would be that the
wiggles could easily distract the minds of adults who should be paying
attention to the sermon. Another con is that, if they're not spiritually
ready to understand the adult sermon, you may just lose them later in
life because they never developed a taste for the Word. This could be
compared to some Kindergarten classes. They get used to being away from
the parents, learn the lesson, have activities that diminish the wiggles,
learn to sit still and be quiet when the teacher is speaking, etc. A
little lengthy but this is just my opinion..........Julie
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2) Teaching Boys
In response to your email about boys and s-e- x, may I suggest a book by
Jane Graver entitled How You Are Changing. It is book 3 in "the new
Learning About S -e-x, a series for the Christian family." Books 1 and 2
are for younger aged children and are also wonderful books. I have 3
children, 12, 11, and 8 years old and each of them has read the book. I
talked with them briefly about the wonderful changes that were happening
to their bodies and discussed how it was all a part of God's magnificent
plan. Then I told them that would fill them in on what they could expect
and that I was available to answer any questions they had. It is important
to make them feel comfortable and to stress that you would never do
anything to embarass them. They need to hear you say that and they need to
think that you are totally comfortable discussing the topic, even if you
are "choking" on the inside. As for the email poem, I try to tell my sons
that s-e- x is a gift from God for a married couple and the book
illustrates this very well. It is a wonderful experience but it should
never be taken lightly and it comes with a tremendous amount of
responsibility. May God bless your efforts.
In His service,
Tammy - tbramlett@bellsouth.net
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3) Summer Reading Program
I don't know if this is what you're looking for, but our Sunday School is
doing a fund raiser for Heifer International called "Read to Feed" this
summer. Basically, how it works is this. The children find sponsors to
pledge a certain amount (25 cents, a dollar or whatever amount they
choose) for each book a child reads or each set amount of time spent
reading (i.e- $1 for each hour). The non-readers add up the number of
books or time that others read to them. Older children can include books
that they've read to the younger children. At the end of a specified
amount of time, the kids collect the pledges and pool them together to buy
an animal for a family in need. We use a rotation style format and I am
tying this in with our last rotation for the school year- "The Feeding of
the Five Thousand" and am focusing on how Jesus performed that
miracle because of the unselfishness of the little boy who shared his
lunch. There is also a whole set of curriculum available to go with the
fundraiser that you could use over the summer.
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4) Father's Day Songs
I found some really cute songs for fathers day on this web site
http://www.songs4teachers.com/
One of my favorites is singing the bingo tune to
There is a man that I love dear and Daddy is his name-o D-a-d-d-y
The childreen already knew the tune so it was easy for them to pick up on
it.
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Hands
On Lessons of the Bible
For a complete listing go to the Curriculum Creatives page at:
http://www.christiancrafters.com/curriculum.html
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5) Music For VBS
We are doing a purchased VBS, but not alot of the music. Personally, as a
former public school music teacher, I feel that the majority of the songs
written for vbs programs are not good for children. Most of the songs
that
I have encountered are either too wordy for children to learn, out of
their singable range, too difficult either rhythmically or melodically, or they
have words that are just too hard. I'm so excited about this year's vbs
because they have given me freedom with the worship time. So, we're doing
mostly Donut Man songs. I love his music because it is fun, catchy, but
written with a child in mind. My three year old can learn the songs
quickly. But, also the songs are very worshipful and I firmly believe
that
the music time for children's ministry should be teaching them about
worship. You can listen to alot of the music online at the website. And
the cd plus is a great feature - you get the split-track cd plus the pdf
flie of the sheet music for all the songs on the cd. Then you can just
print off the songs that you need.
Gwen
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6) Bible Scavenger Hunt
I just wanted to let you know that we just did a Bible scavenger hunt at
our congregational picnic. We basically took a couple of versions of the
Christian Survival Kit and used the items listed as the objects for a
scavenger hunt. The kids had to look up the Bible passages for each
object to find the clues to the location of each object. If anyone wants
more detailed information I can e-mail my files to you.
NicC
thechans@primus.ca
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7) Teacher Appreciation Sunday
We just had Teacher Appreciation Sunday at our church. We wanted to give
the teachers each a special thank you gift, but, of course, had budget
restrictions. I purchased wooden cross cut outs at a local craft store
for $1 a piece and had the Sunday School children paint them. I offered a
wide range of colors and let the kids use their imaginations....the
crosses turned out precious and the teachers loved them!
Kim Shrull
Sugar Land, TX
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8) Father's Day Songs
http://www.preschooleducation.com/sfather.shtml has several songs to
familiar tunes. You could change some of the lyrics, perhaps, to thank God
for dads. (ex. the first song listed, the last line could be "God, thank
you for my daddy")
http://www.grandpatucker.com/sg-yeadad.html-ssi has one to the tune "If
you're happy and you know it"
Linda in Ohio
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--> Bloom & Boom - Lessons for Teens
A girls and guys guide to growing up. Practical advice from a Christian
viewpoint about the internal and external changes experienced by
teenagers. Learn more in the Christian Education section of our bookstore:
http://www.christiancrafters.com/bookstore.html
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9) Jesus' Miracles
I am looking for
Children's sermons of the miracles of Jesus. I can find
the stories, but they are in adult form. I would be thankful for any help
with this.
Sincerely, Carolyn DuCharme ----- encad@ifriendly.com
--from SSTN: check out "Amazing Miracles of the Bible" in our Curriculum
Creatives section at: http://www.christiancrafters.com/curriculum.html
Half of the book is dedicated to Jesus' miracles and includes lessons,
crafts and games.
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10) Who Created God?
My students are between the ages of 8-10 and are wondering who created
God. I have tried to explain to them that God was not created because
He is eternal - He existed even before time was created, they continue
to have the hardest time understanding it. Can anyone suggest other
types of approach or explanation? Thanks!
--from SSTN: I agree, this is a hard concept, even for adults. It is hard
for us because we ARE created beings and THINK like created beings. We
have a beginning. And because we are "programmed" or "created" with a
beginning, we are incapable of truly perceiving of anything not having a
beginning. I think by admitting this to our students and telling them that
it is NOT possible to understand everything on this side of heaven is very
important. I always say, "This is definitely one of the questions I will
ask Jesus when I meet him face to face!"
Your webservant,
Sarah Keith <><
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11) Deaf & Dumb
>"Okay Keresi Fonmauna what are you meaning when you say deaf and
>dumb.....My son is Deaf and he is not DUMB".
Hi, Karissa! Please become familiar to the term Keresi Fonmauna used,
which was not meant to insult to your child or any other. The term Deaf
and "dumb" is an old traditional term meaning deaf and "unable to
speak". (I'm 39 years old, and I've heard the term my whole life.)
Depending when a person becomes hearing impared, some are able to speak
and be understood, while others require complicated physical lessons to
"feel" their speach.
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12) Disciple Song Lyrics
This is the tune to "Jesus Loves Me".
Jesus called them one by one
Peter, Andrew, James and John
Next came Philip, Thomas, too
Matthew and Barthlomew.
James, the one they called the Less
Simon, also Thaddeus
The twelfth apostle Judas made,
Jesus was by him betrayed.
Yes, Jesus called them. Yes, Jesus called them. Yes, Jesus called them.
He
called them one by one.
Hope this helps.
PK, West, Texas
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