Play! Listen! Talk!

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!