Category Archives: ABCJesusLovesMe

Jesus Returns to Heaven

We are rapidly coming to the end of the Bible lessons from the ABC Jesus Loves Me 3-Year Old Curriculum!  This was Week 34, covering the ascension of Jesus into heaven from Acts 1:8-11.  I also extended the lesson to talk about Jesus’ Second Coming and heaven in general, since the Bible memory verse was, “In my Father’s house are many mansions… I go to prepare a place for you.” John 14:2.

Retelling the story for Daddy

We had a great time discussing the lesson this week.  We started out bright and early Monday morning reading through the story in ALL our story Bibles: The Beginner’s Bible (by Karyn Henley), The Bible in Pictures for Little Eyes, The Rhyme Bible Storybook, Classic Bible Stories: A Family Treasury (Confession: the kids had woken me up much earlier than usual and I was just trying to fight off the grumpies.  Pulling them into my lap and reading Bible stories was the only “good mom” thing I could come up with in my drowsy state.  Luckily it satisfied them until I was more fully awake and in control of myself.) Later that day we listened to the actual Bible passage on our iPod playlist (see below) as we ran errands.  On Tuesday I retold the story from the ESV Seek and Find Bible using our flannel board set.

I loved the questions that came up this week!  Ian and I talked a lot about heaven.  He asked if I was going to be there, and I told him yes, because I love Jesus and follow Him.  I don’t remember exactly how the conversation went, but Ian expressed his own faith for the first time in course of that discussion.  He’s usually very reserved about making faith personal (doesn’t like praying on his own, at least out loud), so it was very sweet. We followed up on this discussion by reading Heaven is for Real For Kids.  I loved how it was full of Scripture, as well as being told from a child’s perspective. (There are some details that are extra-biblical, but they don’t contradict Scripture, so we just talked about what the Bible DOES say.)

One idea I liked for telling this story was releasing helium balloons and watching them ascend into the clouds like Jesus.   Sounds great, right?  Well, it helped the boys visualize what happened.  NOTE TO SELF: next time, buy balloons to KEEP as well.  Every time we read the story after this activity, Ian would comment, “I do NOT like letting balloons go.”

  

  

It would have been worth an extra $2 to have balloons to play with for a couple days rather than just two sad boys who associate the Ascension with losing balloons!

That was it for us this week (at least for our Bible lesson).  No notebook page, but here’s the Bible portion of our iPod playlist:

Resurrection Day!

I think this was the most meaningful Easter I’ve ever celebrated, probably because we were so intentional about focusing on the story of Christ’s death, burial, and resurrection all week with the children.  Actually, I think from now on I want to take more time (as in 2-3 weeks) to focus on it, the same way we do with Christmas.  There were so many things I wanted to pack into this past week, and we didn’t get to half of them because I wanted to take at least a bit of time to really enjoy what we did choose to include.  I’ll definitely have to keep a file full of ideas to use in years to come!

I’ve been timing our Bible lessons so that we would be on Week 32 of the ABC Jesus Loves Me 3-Year Old Curriculum, which covers the story.  However, I ended up pretty much just doing our own thing.  Not only did we not get to everything I planned, we ended up changing our focus completely.  I had intended to use The Parable of the Lily by Liz Curtis Higgs as our “book of the week”, but we never even got to it because Ian got so into Benjamin’s Box and “Resurrection Eggs.” (In case you’re not familiar with them, a Resurrection Eggs set is made up of a dozen plastic eggs, each a different color and each containing a small object that represents part of the Passion story–except for the last one, which is empty to represent the empty tomb.)

Resurrection Set

Resurrection set from Oriental Trading

Okay, confession time. I had heard of Resurrection Eggs before, but to be perfectly honest, I was skeptical of how well they’d be received.  It just seemed a little too commercial somehow.   I was SO wrong!  Something in me (hmm, Holy Spirit maybe?) prompted me to go ahead and buy some the week before.  (I know some people have put together their own sets, but I just wasn’t sold enough on the idea to devote that much time and energy to it.) I put them out on Monday with the resurrection scene I’d gotten from Oriental Trading Company and all our Easter books.  Ian was immediately intrigued and wanted to know more about them.  I had him come over to sit with me and told him he could open one egg at a time as we went through the book Benjamin’s Box.   (Another confession: I wasn’t so sure about this book either.  It seemed like a gimmick to get me to buy the eggs.  So I hadn’t bought it, just put it on my Paperback Swap wishlist after hearing people talk about it last year, and lo and behold, it became available and I thought, “Sure, why not?”  Again, SO glad we had it!)  I don’t think Ian would have sat through the book if it hadn’t been for the eggs, but having them there kept him engaged the whole time.  He really enjoyed getting out each object and talking about how it fit into the story of Passion Week.  Later, when we watched watched The Animated Passion video together, Ian kept the eggs with him and opened them as we got to each part of the story.  So I am now an avid fan of Resurrection Eggs!  They helped Ian grasp the details of the story in an incredible way, and he enjoyed using them to tell the story to himself and to others in our household over and over.  Even after Easter Sunday, he wanted to keep going through them.  (We’re taking a “Spring Break” this week so I hadn’t rushed to put away anything from last week.)Anyway, that became the main focus of our week.  (For our Bible notebook, I kept it pretty simple: “He Lives”  Cross Make-a-Sticker Scene sticker set from Oriental Trading Company.)  We did read through a few other books, though we didn’t get through everything on our list (but I’ll share the whole thing):

We also attempted to make “resurrection rolls,” which I’ve seen mentioned on more blogs than I can count.  We learned one very important lesson: USE FRESH MARSHMALLOWS.  At least I think that’s what went wrong.  (I thought I’d use up what we had in the cupboard. Oops.)  We had SO much fun “anointing” our marshmallows in melted butter, rolling them in cinnamon sugar, and wrapping them in crescent roll dough.  I didn’t do the greatest job at pressing the seams together, so a number of them split open.  But the bigger flop was that our marshmallows didn’t melt away the way they were supposed to!  They still tasted great, but I’m afraid the boys are going to be pretty disappointed next year when the “tombs” are actually empty!

  

I think my favorite thing about this week was listening to “Easter carols” on our iPod playlist.  Most of them were songs that have played a meaningful part in past Easter celebrations in my life, and I found myself tearing up several times throughout the week as we listened.  Do you have any favorite Resurrection-related hymns/songs that we can include in the future?  Here’s our playlist from the week (including our memory verse, John 3:16):

All the things we did this week created such anticipation for Sunday morning.  Some of the songs we sang at church were songs we’d been listening to.  Ian was so excited when he heard, “He is risen!” and he knew to respond, “He is risen, indeed!”  Worship with our congregation was a beautiful, joyous celebration.

I’m already excited about celebrating again next year. I’m hoping to incorporate a lot of the “Sense of the Resurrection” ideas Amanda posted over at impressyourkids.org.  (She also listed tons of other ideas to help you plan a “Meaningful Easter.”)  I also loved some of the ideas from Desiré at whenyourise.com.  What sort of things did you do with your kids to focus on Christ this Easter season?

Jesus Rides on a Donkey (Palm Sunday)

A few years back, our church started what has become one of my favorite traditions.  On Palm Sunday all the children and youth come into the sanctuary toward the end of the music time waving palm branches as the entire congregation sings “Hosanna” and makes a joyful noise.  It is one of the few times throughout the year that we all worship together, and it is a beautiful experience every time.  So as we went through the Week 31 lesson plan from the ABC Jesus Loves Me 3-Year Old Curriculum I was not only trying to teach the Bible story but also prepare Ian and Elijah for this joyous Palm Sunday celebration.  I wanted them to know why we wave the palm branches and to be able to sing along because they had been hearing the song all week.

We kept things pretty simple.  I introduced the story by singing “Hosanna” to the boys.  They looked at me kind of funny, so then I told them it was part of our Bible story and they eagerly gathered around the flannel board to hear Mark 11:1-10.  To be honest, I think they still thought I was a little crazy, but they got into the story more as the week went on.  We read from The Beginner’s Bible (by Karyn Henley), The Bible in Pictures for Little Eyes, and The Rhyme Bible Storybook for Toddlers, as well as listening to our iPod playlist (see below) several times.  By the end of the week Ian was singing “Hosanna” at the top of his lungs as we drove in the car and asked me to stop singing so he could “do it by myself” (luckily he couldn’t see the Elijah was still singing quietly or I’m sure we would have had some issues).

Of course when Sunday came along, he was too shy to sing along with the congregation, but I think he was pleased that he could have done it if he had so chosen.  And Elijah knew just what to do with his palm branch when he heard the worship team start singing “Hosanna”  I didn’t take any pictures during the service, but the boys brought their branches home to play with later.

Here was our iPod playlist:

I also got out a few of our Easter books that mentioned Jesus’ “Triumphal Entry” into Jerusalem, but I’ll include those in my post on what we do next week as we talk about the death, burial, and especially the resurrection of our Lord.

Jesus Loves the Little Children

Jesus Loves the Little Children

The story of the children coming to Jesus takes up only a few short verses in each of the synoptic gospels, but its message is crucial for our little ones to understand.  Jesus wasn’t a distant, untouchable celebrity, nor was he too busy or self-important to be bothered by the impressionable youngsters whose parents brought them to be blessed.  The King of Kings saw the value of these precious babes and made sure his disciples learned the priority of welcoming children into the Kingdom.  Not only should we adult disciples “let them come,” but we should learn to “become like” the little children.  What an encouraging message for preschoolers!  We had a lot of fun going through Week 30 of the ABC Jesus Loves Me 3-Year Old Curriculum

This week I introduced the story with a song from a lesson at missionarlington.org. It is set to the tune of “Are You Sleeping” and goes like this:

Jesus sat upon a hi—ll, with His friends, with His friends.

All the little children wanted to see Jesus

So they ran, so they ran.

“Stop the children, stop the children,” said the men, said the men.

Jesus said, “I love them, and I want to bless them.

Let them come. Let them come.”

It was a fun way to change things up a little bit, plus it required the boys to practice their listening skills to know what we were talking about.

We read the story from Mark 10:13-16, which I love because it specifically says that Jesus “took them in his arms and blessed them.”  What a beautiful picture!  Imagine what it would have been like to be a small child nestled in the arms of the kindest, gentlest, most loving person to ever walk the face of the earth.  What pure delight to gaze into his twinkling eyes and feel his tender touch!  I’d guess they never wanted to leave.

We acted out the story with our flannel board set, read from Ian’s ESV Seek and Find Bible, as well as from Read Aloud Bible Stories Vol. 1 and The Beginner’s Bible (by Karyn Henley).  We played a version of”Red Light/Green Light,” like the disciples telling the children to “STOP” and Jesus saying to “let them come” (another idea from the missionarlington lesson). We also looked through Precious In His Sight, a beautiful photo book of prayers for children around the world.

For our Bible notebook page we made a collage of pictures of different kinds of children.  First I cut a picture of Jesus holding a child out of a story book that had beautiful illustrations but such poor theology I didn’t want to read it to my kids.  Then we looked through old magazines to find pictures of children.  Ian has a little trouble cutting things out, so it was good practice.  (I found it helped if I tore the whole page out so he could maneuver it as he cut).

Much to my disappointment, I couldn’t find a reading of the actual Scripture for our iPod playlist this week, but the songs did a pretty good job of telling the story, as well as our memry verse for the week (“Let the children come to me…” Mark 10:14)

Feeding the 5000

We missed a week due to sickness, but now we’re back in the swing of things, just finishing up Week 28 of the Bible lessons from the ABC Jesus Loves Me 3-Year Old Curriculum.  I chose to use the story as it is told in John 6:1-13 instead of the suggested passage in Matthew because John mentions the little boy who shared his food and I thought Ian would appreciate that detail.  Our memory verse was “Nothing is impossible with God” Luke 1:37.

To introduce the story, I told it to the boys using our flannel board set while I read out of Ian’s ESV Seek and Find Bible.  The story was in several of our story Bibles, but I just had a lot of trouble getting into it this week.  We listened to the ESV story several times on our playlist and enjoyed watching a video, “Bread from Heaven,” together.  It took some artistic license, creating a back story for the boy with the fish and loaves, but it definitely helped Ian understand the story better.  There’s also a a game on the Charlie Church Mouse Preschool CD-ROM that goes along with it.

I have to admit, I was feeling very uninspired this week.  There wasn’t much I could find to go with this lesson from my usual favorite resources.  Then I stumbled upon whenyourise.com. Basically it’s a blog by two moms doing a fantastic job at what I’m attempting to do here.  After perusing their site, I realized I haven’t been tapping into my own creativity very much (something I hope will change!)  I also borrowed one fun idea from them.  We set up all the bears and dolls we could find to be our “crowd.”

 Then I showed the boys our basket with 2 “fish” and 5 “loaves” (goldfish crackers and croutons), though I’d really hidden more of each under the napkin. (Yes, I miscounted my “loaves.”  We fixed it when we started reading from the Bible.)

The food just kept coming!  It was a fun way to have our snack, and Ian enjoyed acting it out so much we had to do it all over again.  Thankfully I had a big carton on goldfish, because it would have been hard to explain that we’d run out of food!

  

I printed out a basket and some fish and loaves (I set my printer to print 2 pages on 1 sheet so they’d be smaller) to put in it. I just let Ian color, cut, and paste them onto a page for our Bible notebook.  This was the first time I’ve had him try to cut things out himself.  It was definitely a learning experience!

  

Our iPod playlist this week was short and to the point, but we listened to it a lot.  This is one of my favorite teaching tools since we can use it in the car or during playtime at home.  Here’s what was on this week:

I’m looking forward to the next few weeks as we talk about Palm Sunday and the Resurrection.  (I try to keep “Easter” as a fun spring celebration with bunnies and egg hunts, etc., while keeping “Resurrection Day” about Christ’s triumph over death.  That way we can still enjoy the fun cultural stuff without diluting the sacred nature of the true holy-day.) Okay, so I got a little ahead of myself!  But at least my planning is done for a while–now I just need to plan THIS week!

The Good Samaritan

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Jesus’ parable of the Good Samaritan in Luke 10:25-37 is such a beautiful (and rather convicting) picture of compassion.  It was also our Bible story for the ABC Jesus Loves Me 3-Year Old Curriculum Week 27.  Once again, I chose a different memory verse (mostly because we just did the suggested verse with a different story).  So we memorized, “Love your neighbor as yourself.”  I didn’t include a reference because this phrase is found several times throughout the Bible (in Leviticus, 3 gospels, and even a few of the epistles).  In other words, this is a really important concept for us to grasp!

To be honest, I felt like I was barely keeping my head above water this week.  Our calendar suddenly got crazy last week, and between multiple birthday celebrations, multiple doctors’ and dentists’ appointments, a marriage seminar this weekend, and a few other “extras” this week, I’m surprised we did anything at all!  (And I’m considering taking next week off, since I’m writing this Sunday night and haven’t even started getting things ready for the next lesson.)

Here’s what we did manage to do this week.  We read the story from Ian’s ESV Seek and Find Bible and acted it out with our flannel board set.  I printed out a hidden picture puzzle and maze for Ian’s “workbook.”  We watched two videos: The Good Samaritan from Nest Family Entertainment and Veggie Tales: Are You My Neighbor? (available streaming on Netflix).  And we listened to our playlist quite a bit as we drove around town:

Zacchaeus

Poor Zacchaeus.  I don’t think I’d be too thrilled if the first thing people remembered about me was that I was “small in stature.”  Zacchaeus was the star of our Bible lesson from the ABC Jesus Loves Me 3-Year Old Curriculum (Week 26).  As we read Luke 19:1-10 I realized that Zacchaeus was much more than a “wee little man,” as the old song calls him.  He is a great example of repentance, transforming from a greedy tax collector who thought only of himself into a generous benefactor who recognized how his actions affected had others and tried to make amends.  Because of this, I chose to focus on the Golden Rule for our memory verse: “Do to others as you would have them do to you.”  Matthew 7:12  It’s a lesson I think Zacchaeus took to heart, and as Jesus said, “This sums up the Law and the Prophets.”  In other words, this is the key to walking in God’s ways.  I want to start planting these seeds of truth in my children’s hearts now while they’re so young.

As usual, we told the story in numerous ways.  On Monday I introduced the story by explaining what a tax collector was and why people didn’t like Zacchaeus.  Then I told the story while using our flannel board set, which the boys still really look forward to every week.  After that we read it Ian’s ESV Seek and Find Bible Throughout the rest of the week we reinforced the story by reading it in The Beginner’s Bible (by Karyn Henley), The Rhyme Bible Storybook, and  Classic Bible Stories: A Family Treasury (We try to read/listen to the ESV passage every day as well.)

We spent time with Zacchaeus in a few other ways this week as well.  I printed and laminated a series of picture cards and had Ian put them in the right order to retell the story.  He really enjoyed this activity and pulled them out on his own several times.  He also remembered the story was on the Charlie Church Mouse Kindergarten CD-ROM and entertained Elijah with it on the computer.  (Elijah still can’t figure out how to use the mouse, but he loves watching Ian play games.)  Both boys enjoyed watching the Treasures in Heavenvideo from Nest Entertainment.

For Ian’s Bible notebook, we made a picture of Zacchaeus in the tree.  I painted Ian’s hand and forearm brown to make the trunk and branches, and then he sponge painted the green leaves.  “Zacchaeus” was a print-out from mssscrafts.com (one of my favorite resources when planning Bible lessons).

    

As alsways, our iPod playlist was one of my most valuable teaching tolds.  Our playlist this week contained a few items that related to our Before Five in a Row book, If Jesus Came to My House by Joan G. Thomas, which seemed like a good complement to Zacchaeus, so here’s our complete list.  Items related to this Bible lesson are in bold:

The Prodigal Son

This week we immersed ourselves in the Father’s love as we focused on the parable of the prodigal son according to the ABC Jesus Loves Me 3-Year Old Curriculum Week 25 lesson plan.  The story is found in Luke 15:11-32.  It’s hard not to be moved by the tender love of the father whose excitement about having his son return to him outweighs any disappointment or anger he might have felt regarding the son’s foolishness.  What a comforting picture of God’s love for us!

Because the story takes place in so many places, I skipped telling it with the flannel board this week.  Instead we just read the passage in Ian’s ESV Seek and Find Bible every day, as well as reading in two of our Bible story books: The Beginner’s Bible (by Karyn Henley) and The Rhyme Bible StorybookAs soon as I first read the story, Ian remembered it from the Charlie Church Mouse Kindergarten CD-ROM, so he enjoyed playing that throughout the week.  He’s been really into mazes lately, so I put this one from Danielle’s Place in his workbook for the week.

Ian enjoyed seeing the story when we watched “The Prodigal Son” from Nest Entertainment’s Animated Stories from the Bible series. (Despite a couple negative reviews on Amazon, I like this video.  It creatively tells the biblical account without detracting from the powerful message.)

I used a different memory verse than the curriculum suggested, choosing instead to go with “God is love” from 1 John 4:16.  Since Valentine’s Day is next week we made cards for Daddy at the same time we did our Bible notebook pages using hearts that I cut out and some Valentine stickers.

  

We had a really long iPod playlist this week, mostly because I included a number of songs from the Father’s House CD by Brian Doerksen.  (The album is based on the story of the prodigal son and has many songs that convey God’s love toward his children.)

The playlist was a big hit this week, especially the Adventures in Odyssey episode.  Ian also had a lot of fun dancing to the “Celebrate” songs and G-O-D is L-O-V-E.  The last one led him to request the Hide ’em in Your Heart DVDs, which he hasn’t watched in ages.  I’m so glad he had fun with our Bible time this week!

Jesus Calms the Storm

“Peace, be still!” Jesus dramatically displayed his power in this week’s Bible story from the ABC Jesus Loves Me 3-Year Old Curriculum, Week 23 lesson plan.  The story is found in all the synoptic gospels, but we read it from Mark 4:35-41 because that’s where the picture was in Ian’s ESV Seek and Find BibleMy main objective this week was to help Ian understand the meaning of “peace.”

For once, Ian wasn’t eager to jump into our Bible story Monday morning.  I wasn’t going to push it, but then he saw The Story About Ping in our “school” basket (post coming soon!) and wanted me to read it.  I love our Five in a Row books, but I am determined to keep Bible as our top priority so I told him I would read it to him after we had read our Bible story.  Once I started reading it from his Bible, he forgot all about “Ping” for a while.  Instead, he raced to the flannel board set and had me read it again while he placed the pieces.  I think we did it three or four times before he felt ready to move on.  (And then Elijah, who had been listening to all this from the kitchen as he finished breakfast, had to come in and have a turn with the flannel board.)  Later that day I heard Ian telling Grandpa the story using the flannel board again.  In fact, he asked me to read the story from his Bible almost every day this week so he could act it out.  I think he liked the drama.

The “story” page in Ian’s Bible (a simple retelling that goes along with the picture) stated that Jesus was sleeping in the “back” of the boat.  I read that page to him first, but then every time afterward I read from the Mark passage, which used the term “stern.”  I was surprised that Ian caught the difference the very first time he heard the ESV version.  So I printed out a picture that helped us learn the basic parts of a boat.

Throughout the week, we read the story in The Beginner’s Bible (by Karyn Henley), The Bible in Pictures for Little Eyes, The Rhyme Bible Storybookand Classic Bible Stories: A Family Treasury.   (I try to read from the ESV plus one Bible storybook each day.)  We also had a lot of reinforcement from our weekly iPod playlist:

For Ian’s Bible notebook page, we glued a simple boat craft on top of a page of blue “bubble painting.”  I mixed some bubble bath solution with blue paint powder in a pan.  Then Ian and I blew the bubbles up and repeatedly laid the paper on top to make prints.  When the whole page was covered we set it aside until it was dry enough to glue on the pieces of the boat.

  

Jesus Heals the Little Girl

This week our Bible lesson (about Jesus healing Jairus’ daughter) came from the Week 22 lesson plan of the ABC Jesus Loves Me 3-Year Old Curriculum.  It was a pretty simple lesson, which helped me with my main objective: to help Ian understand the meaning of the words “heal” and “miracle.”  I know that seems basic, but I realized as we read through such stories that an almost four-year old really has little framework for understanding those concepts.  I’m glad that by the end of the week, he really seemed to get it.

Our first time through the story, I used our flannel board set, (and the boys both enjoyed retelling the story on it throughout the week).  Immediately afterward Ian and I read the story in his ESV Seek and Find Bible(The passage is from Mark 5:21-24, 35-42.)  We also enjoyed reading the story in two of our Bible storybooks with Elijah: The Bible in Pictures for Little Eyes, and The Rhyme Bible Storybook.

  

Ian really enjoyed “The Miracles of Jesus”  video from Nest Family Entertainment.   I think this was the main tool that helped me meet my objective of teaching him about healing and miracles.  He kept asking why the people were sick and trying to figure out what was going on.  Over and over he watched as Jesus healed people and everyone talked about it being a miracle.  As soon as the movie was over, Ian wanted to watch it again.  (Actually, I think he watched it at least three times this week.)  I love this whole series because they really bring the stories to life.   (We don’t have the budget to buy all the DVDs, but they broadcast on a couple different DirectTV channels, so I record them on the DVR each week and then save them for the appropriate lesson.)

I didn’t have a lot to go along with this lesson for our iPod playlist, but here’s what we listened to:

  • “Woman Healed and Little Girl Lives” from the ESV Audio Drama Children’s Bible from Faith Comes By Hearing
  • “Wonderful Words of Life” from the Lillenas Kids Hymn Project
  • Karen & Kids podcast: “God Can Do Anything” (another resource I record as it’s available and save for when I want it)

For our Bible notebook page I just didn’t have any great inspiration, so for the first time I opted to just include a coloring page.  As long as I don’t make a habit of this, I’m not going to beat myself up over it.  I didn’t even do a memory verse, although it would have been an easy week because the verse in the curriculum was one we’d already done.  (I find it much easier to help Ian memorize when I have a song to put on our playlist.) I’m just glad we spent more time on our Bible lesson this week than we did last week.

That’s not all we did, though.  You can read more about our week in my post on “The Snowy Day” (from Before Five in a Row).

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