When teaching my children about the Bible, I decided to "start at the very beginning - a very good place to start." Genesis 1:1 say, "In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth." So the Creation Story is the beginning.
- Kids' Sunday School Place offers a complete lesson plan about "God the Magnificent Creator." Although this is intended for a Sunday School class, this would work well at home, too. The Creation Blocks craft is easy and appealing and helps the children to remember what God created each day. The skit about Adam naming the animals encourages your child to think about different animals that Adam named.
- Danielle's Place offers directions and an illustration of a Paper Quilt Craft on her Paper Crafts for Kids Page 1. Have your child use light-colored construction paper to draw pictures for each of the 6 days of creations. He can make more than one picture per day if he wants to make a big paper quilt.
- Kids4Truth/Art Works page offers a free color sheet for each day of Creation.
- MSSS Bible Lesson offers several pages of Creation ideas: Creation (general), Days of Creation, Adam and Eve (for "God made man"), and The Sabbath (for the seventh day). I especially liked the Days of Creation page which offered various activities for each day of Creation. Day 1 includes a link to this Earth Pendant craft. Day 2 offers directions for transforming your child into "Cloud Nine." Day 3 links to this Learn About Flowers Craft from DLTK's Growing Together. Day 4 offers a Sun Mask craft from KinderArt.com. Day 5 offers a cute and simple Footprint Fish from Idea Box. Day 6 ideas include Enchanted Learning's multiple egg carton animals. Day 7 emphasizes that this is the Lord's day when we need to go to church to worship Him. This Matching Pieces Church
10 comments:
Brainwashing our children with Bible stories before they have the faculties to understand fact from fiction or develop their own ideas about morality is criminal. Freedom of religion should not be reserved for adults.
Anonymous, thanks for stopping by and taking the time to comment. I will tell you that I thought long and hard before publishing your comment. Here are the reasons why I didn't want to publish it:
1. You wrote a negative comment anonymously. That's both immature and cowardly. I do not mind dissenting opinions, but be courageous enough to leave your name, even if you don't make it a link.
2. Your comment was dishonest. You are not truly concerned about freedom of religion or even about a child's ability to distinguish fact form fiction.
a. You want freedom FROM religion, and that's a horse of a very different color. Freedom of religion guarantees that we can worship God as we see fit. If you were truly concerned about confusing children with fiction before they understood the difference between that and fact, you would protest against the teaching of ALL fiction, including everything from children's stories/fairy tales to Santa Claus, the Tooth Fairy, and the Easter Bunny. I'm sure you do not object to reading a child a story that is fiction. Do not present yourself as being righteously concerned with confusing a child's perception of what is real and what isn't. That's simply hypocritical. Do everyone the courtesy of being honest when you leave a comment.
Now, as far as your actual comment goes, it is the right and duty of parents to raise their child as they see fit. That includes training their children in the tenets of their faith. Furthermore, there is no such thing as "not teaching." Raising a child is not a neutral occupation. There is absolutely no way to NOT influence a child you are raising; even if you were to bend over backward to teach them nothing, they would LEARN that nothing matters and there are no real rules or absolutes. From your comment, I would assume that, if you have any children, you are "brainwashing" them into believing either that there is no God, or that He is just a story book character, or that He does not matter. Any way you put it, according to the premise of your comment, no one can avoid "brainwashing" their children.
As far as taking away our children's freedom of religion, I only have this to say: just because we train a child one way does not guarantee that the child will stay in the path we have taught them. God gave everyone, including you and the children for whom you are so "concerned," the freedom to choose our own beliefs. That means that we even have the freedom to disbelieve ourselves right into hell.
While I am glad that you took the time to comment, I will not publish anymore negative comments unless you put your name (don't try to use some smart-aleck pseudonym, either). And I will only publish dissenting comments that remain courteous in tone. We can remain civil even if we can't agree.
You have such a great site here! I'm glad I found it. I can see a lot of reasons to bookmark your blog. I'm always looking for links on the web to help with homeschooling. Looks like you've done your homework and found some great sources.
Love the Bible links too! I'll be sharing from the sites you've listed with my kids.
Hats off to you on the way you handled the comment from anonymous. I think we know who here has been brainwashed. ;)
Hi, Wendy! Thanks for your kind comment, particularly meaningful after the previous comment. (wry smile) I'm glad you think I handled that well. Honestly, it took me 2 days to decide whether to publish the comment and how to respond if I did publish it.
I'm very glad you are finding this site helpful. My goal is to post at least 6 times a week, if not more. So there is sure to be new material whenever you come back. I look forward to "seeing" you here again.
Dear Revka,
I've found your site very helpful as my committee comes up with Junior Church (3-5 ages) appropriate material. Keep up the good work - I've bookmarked you!
Hi Ellen. Thanks for dropping by. Posting has been kind of slow here since I began working in full-time ministry, but I hope to begin posting something every week. Until then, there's plenty in the archives to keep you busy. :)
Thanks for the webpage! I will bookmark it to surf when I have more time and print out what I need for Creation now :) thanks
again and keep up the good work!
Linda
I love this idea. I am teaching a group of kids ranging from 1 to 8. This is the greatest idea. It has so many variations I can use to make it easier or more challenging for the older kids.
Hi thank you so much for all the help. Iv just started teaching Sunday school and appreciate all the help i can get! God bless
I found your blog through this page because I am looking for ideas for creation activities to do with a summer bible club. I took a minute to look around you blog and I love the idea. A few of the links on here no longer work, but that is understandable since this post is years old :) I pinned you blog to get ideas for the future. Thanks for posting!
And I wanted to let you know that I also really appreciated the way that you handled that negative comment. Very well done!
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