The Importance of Story
A few minutes ago I began looking through the mail that has piled up on my desk in the last several days while I was participating in two of the GBOD’s conferences for churches, conference workers, pastors, and laity; and I opened a new book from NAEYC on the importance of STORY! Well, I almost jumped out of my chair and ran down the hall to tell anyone who would listen, but I am the only one on the hall on this late afternoon. The importance of story came up so many times in the last week.
Jesus told the crowds all these things in parables; without a parable he told them nothing. mt. 13.34
The book is entitled From Lullabies to Literature: Stories in the Lives of Infants and Toddlersby Jennifer Birkmayer et al. They get it! And we should get it too! We, as Christians are a people of story. The bible is filled with wonderful stories of our journey, our traditions, our faith. For children to know these stories, we need to read them and sing them and act them out. We need to continue to find ways to help them discover the richness of their Christian heritage, thereby laying a firm foundation for their continued faith formation.
Find a children’s bible, read Runaway Bunny, sing spirituals, tell them the story of the little child in Bethlehem. They are infants and toddlers for only a short time. Take that time to give them the spiritual nourishment that they need for spiritual growth.
peace
December 15th, 2008 at 7:00 am
We have just started addressing this issue and downs syndrome. with the child with Downs we have a youth as the childs assigned Buddy. In the coming year we are going to prepare a list of volunteers to be ready to be a buddy, then do an outreach to the local downs sydrome parents support group.
Autism spectrum disorder and Aspergers Syndrome are of course a much different issue. We just had a 3rd grader dignoised this week with the spectrum disorder. With him he is in the regular midweek program. we work with his mom to prepare him for the order of events. When we start up in 2009 we will give her the same notes as the teachers so she can prepare him for the routine. Volume levels are often to much for this kids so we try to keep it down.
He does not have a buddy, but is shadowed so a problem can be seen before it happens.
Spectrum is just that- each kid will be at a different level. What works for one might not work for another. The big thing realize they are in regular school with all the kids and don’t want to be pointed out as different. Create a safe sanctuary for all your kids, especially those w/ autism by not tolerating any type of bullying. By teaching Christ like behavior and encouraing the children to follow His ways it can be a safe place for all. (yes I know that sounds nice & is much harder in real life
– Also don’t be a mother hen. If the kids see you swoop and coodle a crertain kid- especially if the child is older, then his age group will pick on him.
December 15th, 2008 at 7:01 am
sorry this was suppose to b a response 2 autism
June 24th, 2009 at 8:56 pm
Great article, I am about 3/4ths of the way through it. I will post some questions after I done. This is good stuff.