West Side Kids

January 31, 2010

This month, we’ve been learning to love God like Jesus did!  How can you love God?  I can love God like Jesus did! 

We can love God by singing songs to Him, dancing for Him, reading His Word, memorizing words from His Bible, and praying to Him.  This has been a great month!  Each week we’ve had a blast worshipping God with fun and rowdy songs. 

Our kiddos also showed love for God by memorizing words from His Bible.  ”Love God with all your heart.” Matthew 22:37

Parents, We have had so much fun worshipping God this month at church on Sundays.  But showing love to God through worship is something that we should do all week long!  If you don’t have a great preschool worship CD in your car or at home, make it your mission to get one this week.  Here are my top picks:

Reach Up High by Willow Creek Association

Touch The Sky by Willow Creek Association

Little Praise Party by Yancy

This Thursday, January 28th, kids and parents are invitied to come hang out at Chuck E Cheese at 10:30 a.m.  I’ll bring a bucket of tokens so the kids can play while the moms & dads can talk and hang out.  Feel free to invite your friends to come and hang out too.  It’s a great opportunitity for stay at home parents to connect with a few other people. 

Also, please note that we changed the Valentine Cookie Making Day to Friday, Feb. 12th at 10:00 a.m..  Come let your kids make a mess in our kitchen- instead of yours and take home some Valentine cookies to share with family and friends.

This month we are learning how to show love to God.  We can show love to God by singing, dancing, reading God’s word and praying.  How can you love God?  I can love God like Jesus did!

Today, we learned that Jesus taught his disciples how to pray.  He told us 4 things we should say to God.  1) God, you are special (wiggle fingers in the air) 2) God, your word is right (hold out 2 thumbs) 3) God, please give me what I need (hold hands out in front of yourself)  4) God, please forgive me (hug self)

Parents, praying nightly before bedtime with your child is a great discipline to introduce.  Just be careful not to let your child fall in the “rut” of using prayer time to name everyone they have ever met.  “God bless mommy and daddy, and grandma, and cousin Suzie, aunt Gladys, and aunt Mary, and Chelsie, and Billy, and the lady who works out the grocery store……”   Of course, we want children to care for others, but it’s important that we teach them to pray sincerely in coversation with God.   Be sure to be an example to your child when praying.  First, give God praise for who He is.  Emphasize his worthiness.  Then, ask for God’s guidance and forgiveness.  Next pray specifically for the needs of the day.  The more you pray conversationally with God, the more your child will want a relationship of their own with Him.

The kids have been working really hard on their Bible memory words.  They love “showing off” that they know it!  Be sure to say it at home with your child.  “Love (cross hands over heart) God (point up) with all your heart” (draw a heart with your fingers over your heart.)  Matthew 22:37  (hold hands open like a book)

Our Support Ministry provides a wonderful program called Broken Promise, for children who have experienced the stress, sadness  and uncertainty of  divorce.  It begins on Tuesday, February 2nd at West Side Christian Church.  It meets every Tuesday from 6:45-8:00 for 13 weeks.  

Broken Promise is for children 4 years old through 8th grade.  One of the parents (not both) attends with the children.  Parents meet in a separate room with other parents to learn about what their child is experiencing and ways to help them.  Children are divided up by age group and will learn about the grief cycle and the emotions that everyone goes through when they experience a loss.  They will also learn appropriate ways to express their anger, as well as tools for coping with difficult emotions.

One of our parents wrote this about Broken Promise:

My son went through Broken Promise when he was 4 years old.  At that age, he didn’t have a clue what being married was or what the word divorce meant.  While going through the program, he had a conversation on the phone with his daddy.  His dad was telling him that he missed him and that he wished that we could all live together again.  My son responded, “No Daddy, you and mom tried living together before and you couldn’t, so you got a divorce so now you have to share me.  I love you both!”  This just floored me because it showed how much my son was understanding because of Broken Promise.  It was amazing.  The program touched us so much, we are now serving other families through the Broken Promise ministry.

It is a life-changing program for children.  If you would like more information click here.  To register, call the church office at 793-2800.  Registration ends February 1st.

With this cold weather, are your kids bouncing off the walls at home yet?  We have three upcoming play days scheduled so that your kids can play with other kids while you get to have some grown-up talk with other moms and dads.  Even if you have an infant who might be too young to play, you are welcome to join us for the grown-up chit chat.

•  Thurs. Jan. 14^th,  10 a.m.,  White Oaks Mall play area
• Thurs. Jan. 28^th,   10:30 a.m., Chuck E Cheese      we’ll provide some tokens so the kids can play
• Friday. Feb. 12^th, 10 a.m., Centennial Hall at WSCC,  Valentine cookie making.  We’ll provide all the supplies, you can take home the finished product!

Feel free to invite other moms you know who might like to join in!

January 10, 2009

This morning we learned about the 2 most important things.  Jesus said that the most important this is to LOVE GOD.  He said, the second more important thing is to LOVE OTHERS.  This month our key question and answer are:  How can I show love to God?  I can love God like Jesus did.

To help us remember our story, we drew pictures of people we love, we played a game jumping on hearts, and we made a yummy strawberry jelly heart-shaped sandwich for treats.

Parents, During our talk time, we named people that we can show love to this week.  We talked about how important it is to show love for people even when it’s hard.  This week continue this conversation at bedtime.  Remind your child of times you saw them show love for others throughout the day.  Ask them if there were times they didn’t show love to others?  Be sure to give your child lots of praise for the ways they have obeyed God, while challenging them to always try to improve.  Be sure to say, “I am so proud of you for showing love to others and God is proud too.”

Our memory verse this month is “Love (cross hands over heart) God (point up) with all your heart.” (draw a heart with your fingers over your heart).  Matthew 22:37  (hold hands open like a  Bible)