Teaching the Christmas story at playgroup

(This is actually a post I planned and took photos for last year and never got around to posting, but better late than never!)

The nature of our playgroup is that it is a group run for people in the community, and our prayer and hope is that it might lead parents and kids to develop an interest in God and Jesus.  This means that times like Christmas and Easter are important- because they are very natural times for talking about such things.

The first year I ran playgroup I decided to do two weeks on the Christmas story with the kids.  The first week I found a good story book and read it through.  On the second week, when I got to a picture of the "nativity scene" I asked if any of the kids remembered who the characters in the story were.  One boy yelled out "Santa" and another girl cried "The Wiggles".  I realised then that perhaps with pre-schoolers I needed a few more weeks to get the story to stick :)

The follow year, and this year, I worked out a cool way to cover the Christmas story, assisted with some suggestion from the website kidzlink which has some great ideas which I stole and adapted for my situation and style.

The first thing I did was get a plastic plant we had at church and turned it into a Christmas tree!

Then I brought in my nativity scene which my sister bought me when she went to Israel.  I like it because its really rustic, it's not very comercial, and in some ways it represents quite well I think the simplicity of the first Christmas.

Each week I choose part of the Christmas story to cover.  Usually in the first week I do the Angel telling Mary and Joseph they are going to have Jesus, the second week they go to Bethlehem and have Jesus, the third week the shepherds and the fourth week the wise men.

I wrap up the pieces of the nativity scene which come up in that week.  I don't have an angel in my set so I had to use this ornament :)

Once the pieces are wrapped, I place them underneither the Christmas tree

Each week I pick a few kids (making sure its not the same ones every week!) to unwrap the "presents" and then I use the figures to tell the story.

I love it, because it involves the kids, they don't just hear but they see and touch as well, and we have multiple weeks to go over the story.  It also starts with things they associate with Christmas (presents and trees) and uses them to bring it back to the real reason behind the celebrations.

To keep emphasising it, I also show them the pictures from the Beginner's Bible, which I think does a great job of covering the Christmas story.

It is amazing how much more the kids take it.  They love looking at and holding the Baby Jesus.  And each week I get to say- "Christmas is actually all about Jesus"

And so far this year, we haven't had a single mention of the Wiggles.  Thought the term is not over yet!

love B

The work year over

For the first time all year- I am staring at the possibility of having a to-do list actually completed.

Clean office
Send final email re summer supervision
Put together activity sheets for Christmas and Boxing Day services.

Then I'm off.

Reflections on this year at work.

Really tough.

And yet really wonderful.

I wouldn't say it has been the easiest working year of my life. I've just been overwhelmed with the tasks I've had to do. It's funny- for various reasons- our whole staff team has designated this year as the year of "Just getting by". All the grand plans of things we hoped to achieve were dumped around May- and just surviving the year with the day to day jobs has been enough of a triumph.

And yet, God has continued to work.

Term 4- the craziest term in the year- has also been the most amazing. My Playgroup friend Maggie has become a Christian. The kids at Youth group seem to really be growing. I have three women to follow up in the New year who really want to know more about Jesus. My Mum's Bible study group is filled with the most enthuastic women. And after a slow year on the Sunday School front- at the end of the year we have been innondated with new families and crazy numbers of kids!. For the first term ever- I didn't have any stresses in organising Sunday School leaders and one of the leaders commented that this term of teaching- rather than being the overload she had felt previously- had been a huge delight and had really grown her in the faith. And our Carols service was the best attended ever with heaps of visitors. I am so thankful to God for this term, and humbled that I had so little to do with it :)

As I close the chapter on the best term of the year- I get excited about the holidays and try not to think too much about term 1- the worst term of the year. It's always so difficult!

But for now I'm relishing the fact that the for the first time all year- my to do list is about to become empty.
love Belinda

Updates

November isn't a good day for blogs.

I don't know if December is going to be any better.

Life is hectic but kinda exciting too!

Exciting number one
Tim has finished exams! He is now a big bad fourth year- and only 12 months off finishing for good. Doesn't seem possible that these last three years have gone so fast.

Exciting number two
Christmas ministry! What do I mean? I mean playgroup parties and Scripture Christmas parties, and our Carols Outreach service. I am also giving an evangelistic talk at an outreach event for our playgroup Mum's. Please pray for me.

Exciting number three
One of the playgroup Mum's in my Bible study has become a Christian! She and I sat down today to talk about it because she wants to be baptised. She brought along another friend who has been thinking through Christianity and in the course of the conversation she realised she wanted to be a follower of Jesus too! I feel overwhelmed by God's incredible mercy in these women's lives, and the opportunity I have to see God work in so many amazing ways.

Exciting number four
Tim and I got to be God-Parents for our friends beautiful little girl Maggie. We were greatly honoured.

Exciting number four
I just had a lightening visit down to Melbourne for my cousin Kate's 10Th birthday. And. We. Saw. Mary. Poppins.
SO GOOD!

Please pray. Lots of excitement, but lots to do as well.
love Belinda

Avoiding a Martha Christmas, and having a Mary Christmas ;)

I love Christmas. I am a total Christmas junkie! I love carols, I love lights, I love the smell of fresh pine wafting through the house. And I love the Christmas story- because it's not just a story it is true and when I remind myself of that I get overwhelmed with amazement at my incredible God.

This year though I am finding myself sliding into a very Martha Christmas. Martha is the sister who was so busy serving that she didn't have time to sit at Jesus feet and listen. Her sister Mary however just sat at Jesus' feet to listen And as I sit here this morning getting ready to wrap 50 odd presents for the kids at church, and ice some thank you gingerbread biscuits for my beautiful, beautiful team of Sunday School teachers- I am tending to think of Christmas as a chore rather than a point of celebration

Ironically I am spending most of my time working hard so that other people do see the true meaning of Christmas- I'm just so busy doing it that I'm forgetting myself. But I don't want a Martha Christmas. I want a Mary Christmas ;)

So, I thought I'd post up some special memory of Christmas that I have, some serious some not- to get my mind back in the right frame.

-Sandy and I loved Christmas time, because suddenly their was a whole new realm of pretend play opening up for us. We would spend hours under the Christmas tree, pulling off the angels and taking them on little adventures

-Mum and Dad and Sandy always kindly set aside my two favourite jobs for me to do- and even as an adult they sometimes still do. I was the one who put the star on the top of the Christmas tree, and I was the one who set out our nativity scene. The nativity scene was made in Bethlehem and was unpainted, wooden and simple. I loved it because it seemed so much closer to what the Bible says than the usual Mary in her beautiful blue robe and Jesus with blond hair.

-My sister was in Israel a few years ago and bought me my own little wooden nativity scene. I am so excited about bringing it out for my Playtime kids on Tuesday and giving them a sense of the simplicity and preciousness of the first Christmas.

-My favourite time of Christmas, funnily enough, was always Christmas Eve rather than Christmas. Christmas Eve had such a sense of anticipation. It was also when we went to church- and that to me was when Christmas went from just another holiday to something special. I remember a late night service at the small church near my Grandparents farm. We sang all those beautiful Christmas Carols and then we walked home under a sky full of country stars. I looked up and imagined the star of Bethlehem- gleaming to show the Magi the way.

-But my most precious Christmas memory wasn't even at Christmas. One night when I was Fourteen (I don't even know if it was December), I remember I was lying in bed and I couldn't sleep. I remember thinking about Mary, who someone had told me was probably very young when she had Jesus, because that's when people got engaged or married in those days. I thought to myself Mary might have been my age. It spun me out so much that I sat up in bed. I looked down into my arms and imagined a little baby in them. And then it struck me. Mary wouldn't just have held a baby. She was holding Jesus. She was holding God! God had become a baby. That was when I finally started to understand.

Immanuel. God with us.
Mary Christmas,
love B