Play! Listen! Talk!

“Knowing Jesus is alive is even better than getting candy in your Easter egg,” the leader at church enthusiastically proclaimed. “I’d rather have chocolate,” was one young girl’s quick response. She’s eaten chocolate and loved it! But her understanding of the words “alive” and “dead” is limited by her experience. It reminded me of another young boy who when asked if Jesus was real answered, “The Easter bunny is real. Jesus isn’t real.” He probably had just posed for pictures with the Easter bunny at the mall, but he had never seen Jesus.

These stories remind me once again that the young child’s understanding is based on what he or she can see and touch. When children repeat words that sound like they understand something, it’s easy to assume that they know the concepts behind the words. But these Easter Sunday stories are clear examples of the limited understanding of a young child. And that’s OK! It’s OK for a child to be a child. It’s OK for a child to like chocolate! Our role in teaching is to be a part of that wonderful process of discovery and learning in the lives of young children. It’s fun to teach a kid how things in the world work—what floats and what doesn’t, or how gravity works. But do you know what’s even better? Getting to be someone who teaches a kid how things work in God’s kingdom! When a young child doesn’t yet understand where Jesus is, the child will definitely understand the love of Jesus that I show him or her. When a child wonders why I’m praying to someone the child can’t see, the child, by hearing my prayers, will develop awareness that Jesus is someone I thank and on whom I depend. Sunday after Sunday, the Bible stories I teach, the Bible verses I repeat, the songs about Jesus I sing are planting the truth about Jesus into children’s lives. I know that God is at work in the life of each child, bringing each seed to harvest at just the right time.

Today I was a “guest teacher” (the preferred way of describing a substitute!) for the third-fifth graders at my church. You might wonder how a teacher of preschoolers would survive teaching elementary kids! At the start, I wondered that too! But while many things were different, I found one thing to be the same: You can never predict what a child is going to say! You know that moment when you’ve just said the main point of the lesson and you think kids are really tracking with you? Often, many of them are following along with you, but there’s always some who are off in their own world. For example, today one of the kids in the class I was teaching found it interesting, just as I was inviting the group to pray with me, to comment that two of the kids’ names were part of Bible words such as “hosanna” and “Philippians.” (Can you find the names?) And isn’t it true that when you teach preschoolers, you have the most interesting conversations about things that have nothing to do with the Bible verse or the Bible story? With preschoolers, it’s often a story of their pet, or a birthday party or a new toy. So what does a teacher of any age do or say when a child wants to talk about something off the track of where your lesson is headed? The best answer I can think of is this: Listen! I listen because sometimes there is a way to connect the child’s comment with the lesson. I listen because sometimes I think kids just need to be listened to. I listen because I care what’s going on in each kid’s mind—and because I’m building relationships with kids for the long term. Actively listening to kids most of the time gives me the ability to say once in a while “My turn for a few more minutes and then you can ask your question.” Or “You’re really excited about that party—tell me about it at the end of our story time.” Don’t you appreciate it when your friends listen to you? I think kids appreciate it, too!

One teacher recently described preschoolers as a swarm of bees. One child finds something interesting to do which causes all the other kids to want to swarm over to the interesting activity, too! In thinking about the ups and downs of life in a room full of preschoolers, I started wondering, “What is it that every teacher of preschoolers needs to know in order to be an effective teacher of what it means to follow Jesus?” How would you answer that question? Some of us might say— “Be prepared!” “Let kids know that the stories in the Bible are true—not make believe.” “Be patient and give lots of love and affection.” “Follow a routine so that the kids know what to expect.” “Pray for each child in your class.” “Remember kids have short attention spans.” “Give each child lots of individual attention.” “Establish a few basic rules.” After church today, I asked an experienced Sunday School teacher this same question: “What’s something every teacher of preschoolers ought to know?” The answer my teacher friend gave was this: “Keep something going on all the time. Don’t let the kids get bored!” This teacher has learned from experience what results when kids are left to their own devices to find something interesting to do! Wise teachers are one step ahead of kids so that the next fun, engaging activity begins BEFORE the kids start looking for something to do. This means that while I’m finishing up the Play to Learn activities, my co-teacher is beginning the Listen to Learn activities. There’s nothing like a fun puppet script, energetic repetitions of the Bible verse or an active song to motivate kids to finish up what they’ve been doing! I love this idea of being one step ahead! And the more I think about it, the biggest step ahead I can take for next Sunday is starting today to pray for the kids I’ll be teaching next week. To help me remember to pray this week, I’m making a list of prayer requests (and checking it twice!). And I’m asking God to help me plan and prepare in such a way that I’m one step ahead!