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| | Hi, I am new and loving this forum..I wanted to ask what people do to keep their kids inspired to help those who are less fortunate. It takes sacrifice to do what it takes to help others...i was wondering if anyone had tips that the like to use Thanks,
Blessings,
Lois
Hisfirekids.com |
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| | | Forum Newbie
Group: Forum Members
Last Login: 6/30/2008 9:37:59 PM
Posts: 3, Visits: 5 |
| Hi,
We have missions education during our Wed. night programming. We use a curriculum called Spark from www.thefellowship.info, but we add a lot to it and it would be really easy to do yourself. I teach the elementary age, but preschoolers do similar things.
Basically, each month we focus on a differenet missionary--some international, some in the US. We have 45 minutes, so we start in large group and I tell the kids about the missionary(s) and where they live, who they work with. I like to ask a lot of questions to have the kids tell me things. Ex: What kind of help would a poor person in a big city need? What could a missionary do for a person in the desert in Africa? I am always surprised at how well they answer. I tell them about the churches the missionaries plant or the group meetings they have, ways they care for people. In subsequent weeks, I review, review, review. I always try to point out similarities our kids have with kids/people in the stories and say "how would you feel if that was you?" We have stated one of our main goals is to develop empathy in these children. I also use maps to let the kids point out geography of these places, etc.
THEN, after 10-15 minutes of large group, they break off by grades into 3 groups and go into rotations. Arts, Food and Culture, and Games. Each week they go to one of the rooms. This means the teachers only prepare one lesson for the whole month and the kids rotate through. Arts is a craft relating to the culture (we've made drums from Africa, painted henna on their hands from India--really just brown paint--chinese lanterns). Food and Culture they taste food and drink and here about the culture of the people. They sometimes get to help prepare food. They may have to take off their shoes to enter, cover their heads (girls), sit on the floor, eat with their hands, etc. Games are typical games kids would play in that part of the world--easy to find on the internet.
In each rotation the teacher uses that time to reinforce all the things we talked about in large group and expand on the differences and similarities in culture, in the needs those people have, etc. At the very end, the teacher leads a sentence prayer, helping the kids learn how to pray.
We have had good success. The games is a good place to get men involved. The kids really like it--boys too! I'd love to answer any questions if this isn't clear as this is a passion of mine.
Also we have a super fun Christmas around the world party with a missions store where the kids buy things from a missions catalog that we then donate. They love it and it truly inspires me. |
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