A broader definition of faith formation for 21st century families

Tuesday, January 1, 2013

Second Sunday in Advent - The Christmas Story 101

Even though we are still in the Advent season, I wanted to share the Christmas story with the kids a little early so that they would have at least a sensory familiarity with it. 
One way to do this is through a child-friendly nativity scene.   In the middle of the room, in addition to the light table and Chrismons tree, we had Fisher Price Little People nativity characters to play with and chew on. Nativity characters are a wonderful tool that kids can use to understand elements of the Christmas story in their own language – the language of play and exploration. The older kids (18 months - 3 years) can explore by using rudimentary forms of pretend-play and the younger ones explore through looking at the pieces and also inevitably chewing on them. Their mouths are just another way they learn about things, which is all the more reason to give them items that they can use and still be safe.

Our parent topic was about if we have a Nativity scene at home or remember playing with one when we were little and the significance of it in your family. 
We also made lift the flap books with brown paper lunchbags. 

When they are folded, the bottom folds over to make a ‘flap’.  We glued pictures inside so that they are partially covered by the flap and we stapled them together like a book.   The books included pictures of: a star, a sheep, an angel and the baby Jesus. 

The older kids colored it (or of course the parents could for the babies, to add a little pizazz) and it’s a simple book that you can read with your little one by saying “What’s this? – A star!  What’s this?  A sheep!” etc. 

What are some ways that you share the Christmas story in "kidlanguage" or "Babylanguage"?  Another way that we did this was to learn the sign language for the Bible verse: "For a child has been born for us" Isaiah 9:6, which involves the signs for 'child', 'born' and 'us'.  I never expect the little ones to actually do the signs, but since many parents do signing with their children already and the toddlers like to try hand motions with songs, it can be a fun way to share a Bible verse with them and then it will be more familiar later.  Kinesthetic memory can be very powerful.


 

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