His Treasure Seekers

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:

• “Love, Love” (traditional Bible Song)
• “Great Law – Jericho Robbers” from the ESV Audio Drama Children’s Bible from Faith Comes By Hearing
• “Turn Back” song from the ESV Audio Drama Children’s Bible from Faith Comes By Hearing
• “You Shall Love The Lord” from Hide ’em in Your Heart Vol. 1 by Steve Green
• “So We Love” from 100 Ways to Know God Loves me & 100 Songs to Love Him Back
• “Greatest Commandments (Mark 12:30-31)” from Scripture Rock (Vol. 1)
• “I Want To Be Like Jesus” from Great Big God volume 3
• “Two Commands” from The Singing Bible
• “The Pretty Good Samaritan” episode of Adventures in Odyssey

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 Heaven” video 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:

• “Do to Others” from Hide ’em in Your Heart Vol. 1 by Steve Green
• “Zacchaeus” from the ESV Audio Drama Children’s Bible from Faith Comes By Hearing
• “Zacchaeus” from My First Hymnal: 75 Favorite Bible Songs
• “Do to Others” from Sing the Word from A to Z by the Harrow Family
• “My Shadow” by Robert Louis Stevenson in A Child’s Garden of Verses (also available as an iTunes podcast, I believe)
• “I Whistle a Happy Tune” from The King and I
• “When I am Afraid” from Hide ’em in Your Heart Vol. 1 by Steve Green
• “Do!” from Scripture Rock (Vol. 1)

“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 Bible.  My 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 Storybook, and 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:

• “Storm on the Lake” from the ESV Audio Drama Children’s Bible from Faith Comes By Hearing
• SONG “Be Still” from the ESV Audio Drama Children’s Bible from Faith Comes By Hearing
• “When I am Afraid” from Hide ’em in Your Heart Vol. 1 by Steve Green
• “The Wind and the Waves Obey Him” from 100 Ways to Know God Loves me & 100 Songs to Love Him Back
• “Peace” from Music Machine
• “The Wind” (a poem by Robert Louis Stevenson, found in A Child’s Garden of Verses, which you can also find as an iTunes podcast)
• Karen & Kids podcast: “Storms” (though it wasn’t really about this story)

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.

The holidays are over, we’re settling into life with a new baby, and we’re ready to get back to “school” with the ABC Jesus Loves Me 3-Year Old Curriculum, picking up where we left off with Week 20: Jesus calling the 12 disciples.  I’m so excited to be getting back to our Bible lessons for a number of reasons.  First, Elijah is growing up so fast, and he’s showing more interest in what we’re doing so he’ll be joining us a lot more.

Also, we’ve spent so much time in the Old Testament and now it’s time to focus on the New Testament.  I’m excited to “introduce” my boys to Jesus.  Obviously they’ve heard His name at home and at church, and they know a few stories about Him, but we haven’t spent any time really intentionally going through the gospels.  (Elijah flips through The Rhyme Bible Storybook for Toddlers saying, “There’s Jesus, there’s Jesus, there’s Jesus… The End.” It makes me smile, because really, isn’t that what the whole Bible is about?  But I’m hoping he’ll soon be able to differentiate between the stories of men in the Old Testament and the stories that are actually about the Lord.)

The last reason I’m excited is because Ian got a new Bible for Christmas and I’m looking forward to using it with our lessons.  He loves bringing his Bible to church, and we’ve enjoyed spending time just flipping through it, getting familiar with where certain stories are, the maps at the back, etc.  I want it to be a part of his daily life.  I chose the ESV Seek and Find Bible because it uses the full ESV text while making the Bible accessible to kids 5 to 9.  Okay, so Ian’s still a couple months shy of 4, but it was the best I could do when searching for a “real” Bible.  I love that has so many full-page color illustrations, each accompanied by a clearly written story that can be read separately from the text.  (These stories aren’t exact copies of the Scripture passage, but they use a lot of the same wording while telling the story in a way kids can easily understand.  So it’s almost like a really good Bible storybook integrated with a full Bible translation.)  I’ve read a few of these stories to Ian and they really keep his attention, probably because he can see the picture right there.

My two main objectives this week were to help the boys 1) understand that that the disciples followed Jesus to copy what He did, and 2) start becoming familiar with the names of the Twelve.  I used a few different passages for this week’s lesson.  The curriculum suggested Luke 5:1-11, but I focused on Matthew 4:18-23 because it contained the verse I chose to have the boys memorize: “Come, follow me… and I will make you fishers of men.” Matthew 4:19 (NIV1984).  I also referenced the list of the twelve disciples from Luke 6:14-16.

Rather than introducing the story using our flannel board set as I’ve always done, I started out our week by putting on our iPod playlist as we ran errands Monday morning.  Here’s what we listened to several times throughout the week:

• “Jesus Begins His Ministry” from the ESV Audio Drama Children’s Bible from Faith Comes By Hearing
• “Fishers of Men” from Scripture Rock Vol. 3
• “Really Want to Be a Disciple” from Fruit Of The Spirit: Cha Cha Cherry (Vineyard Music Kids)
• “Twelve Guys” from The Singing Bible
• Karen & Kids podcast: “Following Jesus” (see this post to find out more about how we love Karen & Kids)

We listened to the whole list a couple times through as we drove, and both boys started asking questions about what they heard.  As soon as the story started, Elijah asked, “What’s this movie, Mommy?” so I knew he was interested.  After hearing it, he tried to list the disciples from the passage (Peter, Andrew, James, and John) all on his own and only needed a little help from me before he had them down.  Ian wanted to know why we were singing about being a disciple, so we talked about how we can choose to follow Jesus just like those fishermen in the story.  It was a great introduction so they were really receptive when we got out the flannel board set later on.  (There weren’t really pieces to tell the story of Jesus calling the men in their boats, so I just chose 12 men and a Jesus figure and did the story on my own.)

I read with Ian from his Bible, but I wanted to make sure Elijah really understood it as well, so we also read from The Beginner’s Bible (by Karyn Henley) and Classic Bible Stories: A Family Treasury

Other things we did were to play “Follow the Leader,” and sort (these) disciples picture cards, putting them into three groups as a memorization tool, as they seem to be grouped in the lists in the Synoptic gospels and Acts. (Oops, is my nerd side showing? Sorry. I just love studying the Bible, and if my children can start learning things like this while they’re little I want to jump on it!)  At first I tried to teach the boys this song about the 12 Disciples (to the tune of “Jesus Loves Me”), but then I realized the Karen & Kids episode on our playlist used this one (to the tune of “Bringing in the Sheaves”).  So I switched since it was more fun singing along (though it breaks up the groups by putting Bartholomew at the end).

For our Bible notebook page I combined a fun fish craft from DLTK with a “Fisher of Men” idea from Danielle’s Place.  We colored with markers on coffee filters, then sprayed them with water to make the colors run.

After they dried, I cut a fish shape out of Ian’s and glued on a boy I drew (which he didn’t want to color, so it looks pretty dull).  We taped on a thin stick to be a fishing pole and tied on a piece of yarn.

So it was a fun first week back!  Along with our Bible story, we rowed a Five in a Row (FIAR) book, Madeline, which was a big hit.  My post on that will be coming soon.