Five faithful frolics for a gray day
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| enews BY |
| Mary C. Lindberg |
Spring is on the way, but snowy days still creep in. Winter says to early-blooming flowers, "Wait just a minute, I'm not out the door yet!" Soon primroses are frosted with snow.
We eagerly await warmth and Easter. "Come on," we say, "let's get Lent over with and celebrate the Resurrection! Find your yellow and red paints, God, to color the daffodils and tulips. Enough of these gray shades!"
But the gray days of pre-Easter and pre-spring are great times to dig deep and imagine what's to come. What better time to be creative than now, as God prepares a new season of creation? Try these five faithful frolics with preschoolers and kindergartners:
1. Paint a new day.
Find a gray piece of paper and show it to your little one. Tell them: "I can see flowers on this paper, can you?" Then get busy and messy and paint some flowers together.
2. Name the game.
When we are baptized, the pastor says our whole name — beginning, middle and end. Look up what your child's names mean, if you don't know already. Tell them why you picked their names for them. Then rhyme and rhyme and rhyme their name with all kinds of words. And your name too!
3. Beach in a bath.
Put on your swimsuits, get out the water toys and go to the pool — a.k.a. the bathtub. While you're playing in the water, baptize some toy dolls and animals. Say the words and pour the water, "I baptize you in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit." Ask your child, "Can you say it?"
4. Spring has sprung.
Sit next to your child, read one story from The Little Christian, and leap forward off the couch, saying, "Thank you, God, for loving me." Sit down again, read again, spring off your seats again. Repeat until you are exhausted (your child won't be).
5. Listen up!
Soon the world will be full of bird-chirping and insect-buzzing. Take advantage of this quieter time to practice listening for God. Try this hide and seek sound game: Have your child close her eyes, then go to a place not far away and make a quiet sound (you can tap two shells together or shake a salt shaker or whisper your child's name). When your child finds you, give him a big hug and say, "God finds us too."
Good luck with the gray, it's not here to stay, with your children imagine it away.
We eagerly await warmth and Easter. "Come on," we say, "let's get Lent over with and celebrate the Resurrection! Find your yellow and red paints, God, to color the daffodils and tulips. Enough of these gray shades!"
But the gray days of pre-Easter and pre-spring are great times to dig deep and imagine what's to come. What better time to be creative than now, as God prepares a new season of creation? Try these five faithful frolics with preschoolers and kindergartners:
1. Paint a new day.
Find a gray piece of paper and show it to your little one. Tell them: "I can see flowers on this paper, can you?" Then get busy and messy and paint some flowers together.
2. Name the game.
When we are baptized, the pastor says our whole name — beginning, middle and end. Look up what your child's names mean, if you don't know already. Tell them why you picked their names for them. Then rhyme and rhyme and rhyme their name with all kinds of words. And your name too!
3. Beach in a bath.
Put on your swimsuits, get out the water toys and go to the pool — a.k.a. the bathtub. While you're playing in the water, baptize some toy dolls and animals. Say the words and pour the water, "I baptize you in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit." Ask your child, "Can you say it?"
4. Spring has sprung.
Sit next to your child, read one story from The Little Christian, and leap forward off the couch, saying, "Thank you, God, for loving me." Sit down again, read again, spring off your seats again. Repeat until you are exhausted (your child won't be).
5. Listen up!
Soon the world will be full of bird-chirping and insect-buzzing. Take advantage of this quieter time to practice listening for God. Try this hide and seek sound game: Have your child close her eyes, then go to a place not far away and make a quiet sound (you can tap two shells together or shake a salt shaker or whisper your child's name). When your child finds you, give him a big hug and say, "God finds us too."
Good luck with the gray, it's not here to stay, with your children imagine it away.
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