Still my favorite age!
The 5-6 er's will vary somewhere between preschool- like and school-aged in the way they process life... When I taught preschool gym it amazed me that 3-6 months made a 3 and a 3 1/2 so different. I actually think that's true well into elementary school and maybe beyond.
You can go through a child development guide and look at implications for worship but I'm still trying to stick to simple observations. 3-6 er's can communicate. They're learning real skills. They imitate. Their minds are going, their senses are still going, their curiosity and wonder are still alive and well. Their simplicity is profound. They will believe most anything. . . oh, and yes sometimes they have energy to burn. You could always run them hard, but not too hard, right before worship. They don't sweat like adults do...
Seriously...We bring them to worship. Who is this God to them? What do they see and hear and taste and smell and touch? What do they sense? They will be very frank and honest little people. (They probably intuitively know how to worship God in spirit and truth!) They observe. They process. Bring a bag of "planned diversions" (thank you Scott!) but you can probably find new ways to engage them in what's happening around them. They understand, "listen". They understand a lot of things! And they can make connections, however strange some of those connections may seem.
When I talk about engaging a child in worship it doesn't mean talking all the time or explaining everything. I would say if a child is quiet, watching, listening, clapping let he/she just soak up whatever h/s is soaking up. Maybe they're thinking about something totally unrelated but I wonder if that isn't more of an adult thing...I don't know but I wonder...Answering a question with as little information as possible will make anyone hungry for more. When h/s comes back for more tell them more (but as little as possible)! If you have to pass notes, you can draw pictures. They don't care if you don't know how to draw.
Can a little child sing? Praise? Pray? Listen? Bring something to God? Make a joyful noise? A loud noise? Clap? "Be still" and listen? Anything here you can practice at home? What new words and concepts can you introduce to a preschooler during worship? (or a toddler for that matter?) Think through the nouns and verbs and adjectives of worship. Can a pre-school aged child understand and do these things? Probably!
Maybe you bring the 1-2 minute scripture story home and tell it again, ask a wonder question, ponder it together, and let your child respond to God through artwork or play or work or doing. Maybe during the week if you notice something that reminds you of Sunday worship you can draw your child in, too.
But this is a serious question...who is the God that a preschooler knows? How does h/s come to know this God? What does God want a preschooler to know about Him? How does He show a little person these things? I wonder...
This is about the time when imaginary friends can be very very real but God is more than an imaginary friend... I wouldn't worry if He starts that way. God is very capable of being much much more...
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Hey Margie. I agree whole heartedly that a 3-6 y/o child can and does learn so much about God and faith from their interaction (or not) in worship. I also realize that (especially on the 3 year old end) they are still learning how to sit still and listen, a skill that isn't really introduced in school until 1st grade or so.
ReplyDeleteI think back to my upbringing in the church, where we went with my parents, every Sunday, and sat in the pew (literal hard wood pews). Honestly, I don't know how my parents are still sain. I do know in all the churches I was a part of from childhood through college (that would be three) there was always a "cry room" for parents to take their children if they needed a little extra space to express themselves. This was always a room in full view of the rest of the sanctuary, usually with a door and large plexiglass window to block the sound. So, while we don't have the ability to have a cry room right now, I think the family worship area is providing exactly that for our parents and guardians.
Thanx for your tireless work. We are blessed by your efforts!
Providing 1) "cry room" space 2)"in full view of the rest of the sanctuary" - I think, are equally important. [I also agree that we should leave the hard wood pews some place far away.:-)]
ReplyDeleteBrian, you implied something really really important - that just because we don't see a young child "interacting" in worship doesn't mean that they aren't. Their ability to communicate (the adult measure for stuff like that) will probably take a long time to catch up with much of what they experience and there's probably research out there somewhere... sigh... Any parent knows that there's far more going on in those little heads that they can articulate.