After you read the post before this one...Here's a project for you...sit down alone or with other* parents, teachers, & volunteers and ask yourselves,

"What do I remember from the years before I started kindergarten?"

"What are the things (good & bad) that make me who I am that have roots in my early childhood years?"

"What are the things I did as a child that I still do today, a way of thinking, a passion?" What lingered through the years? If you'd grown up in a different location, with people around you who loved or worked at different things, with different social opportunities or playthings would you be different? We don't really know but I bet you can find connections. I'm not talking about making excuses for ourselves. I'm talking about climbing into the skin of a preschooler. You can specifically apply this to faith and the faith community, if you like but don't limit yourself...

Sure, you could sit and read a lot of scientific journals on the subject but you might find this approach much more fun ... plus these are your kids and you're the ones given opportunity to influence them...



*Not sure if it's best to have a variety of adult personalities, gifts, skills & interests for this or whether it doesn't matter. I'm not focusing on nature vs nurture here, I'm asking what lingered over the years and what would have been happening between 3-5 yrs old to make those roots run so deep? Something I remember from early sunday school when my grandmother was teaching: the finger game "here's the church, here's the steeple, open the doors, see all the people" and a book that's still a Mennonite children's book God's World and Johnny. Gosh! I remember this one too! I remember being in choir of older kids and trying to sing louder than all the other kids. I remember lots but maybe another time...have fun with this...