Play! Listen! Talk!

Today I had the bright idea of bringing in a play workbench with toy wrenches, hammers, nails, pliers, a level and more! I envisioned how much fun the kids would have as they pretended to build and be carpenters. Perfect for this first lesson about Noah and his family building the big boat!

So with high hopes, I set out the workbench as one of the Play to Learn activities in the room. And, just as expected, every single child that came in wanted to play with the fun building toys. Can you imagine what happened to my bright idea, however? Soon there were tussles over who was going to get to use the hammer, and quarrels about the cool drill and tug-of-wars with the interesting-looking pliers and wrenches. To top it all off, the workbench had buttons to push that made all the sounds of the tools (including a commercial message that said “Welcome to Home Depot!).

My bright idea didn't turn out the way I thought it would. And the conversation about Noah that I had intended to have didn’t take place. That was the bad news. The good news, however, is that the Bible verse for today “God made us to do good” (see Ephesians 2:10) was a perfect fit for my bright-idea activity. There were plenty of opportunities (“teachable moments,” I call them) to talk about good things to do when we’re playing with friends!

Today I planted seeds. Today I talked to preschoolers about God sending Jesus to be the Savior of the world. Today there were some really BIG thoughts in our Bible story about Adam and Eve.

Big Thought #1: The snake or serpent was really Satan. Satan is God’s enemy. (Thanks to Star Wars, however, I know at least the boys all understood the word “enemy.”)

Big Thought #2: Adam and Eve disobeyed God’s rule. Disobeying God is called “sin.” (Before the story, playing with cars and trucks and building stop-and-go signs helped us get started thinking about rules to obey.)

Big Thought #3: Adam and Eve had to leave the beautiful garden because they disobeyed God’s rule. But God didn’t stop loving them. He cared for them and promised to send Someone one day who would take the punishment for all our sin. (I saw serious faces when I told about Adam and Eve having to leave the garden. But then the words of God's love made a deep impression.)

As I prepared for this lesson, I’ve been praying that I would know how to share such big thoughts with my class of preschoolers. I was tempted to skip over some of these concepts. But then I remembered that my job is to plant the seeds. It’s God’s job to water them and help them grow. Got any seeds to plant in your class?

Who’s talking the most in your class? You? The kids? The parents? I heard it said once that in a class setting the person doing the most talking is the one who is learning the most!

After today’s class, I’m actually kind of glad about that, because we were ALL talking! Kids were talking to each other and to their teachers. Parents and teachers were talking at the door at the beginning and end of class. Even Skitter the squirrel puppet was talking! We were talking about all the amazing things God put in His creation. I had an excuse to bring lots of fun stuffed animals for kids to see and touch, and every animal I showed seemed to prompt a story from an eager-to-talk preschooler!

What was really cool was that the kids weren’t just eager to talk to each other. They were eager to talk to God, too! Today our Bible verse was “Pray always and be thankful” (see Colossians 4:2). After we said the verse together and even learned it in sign language, we did just what the verse said to do: We prayed and thanked God for the world He made and for making us! So, my advice is to keep on talking! Talk to your kids and their parents, and make many opportunities for them to talk to you. Most of all—keep talking to God about the needs and lives of of the children whose faith you have the privilege to nurture.

What are the kids in your class fascinated with? Today we had a visiting boy who only wanted to draw garbage cans! So we set aside the fish mural we had planned to make and got out paper and crayons and he drew brown, green and then blue garbage cans! I had a hard time thinking of how to connect garbage cans with the wonderful world God made! Garbage is the opposite of God’s magnificent creation!

Soon, however, the fascination with garbage cans turned to fascination with the "Cleanup Party" song—which is our favorite way this year to put away toys. I’m not sure how long this fascination will last, but I’m hoping it lasts a long time!

Best of all was the kids’ fascination with the Bible story. There’s nothing better than seeing kids respond with interest and curiosity to the stories from God’s Book. Often, but especially today when we had several first-time visitors, we say the words “The stories in this book are true! The words in this book are God’s messages to us. I love hearing the stories from the Bible, and I hope you do, too!”

I'll happily draw garbage cans or whatever it takes, if the relationship that is built leads a child to hear God's Word!