March Preschool Resources

Hi Preschool Parents,

I hope all of you had a wonderful experience this past Sunday with all of our changes!  In case you weren’t there, our preschool and children’s class moved to the “purple hall” which is the first hall you see when you walk in the doors of the school.  After a lot of hard work from a lot of volunteers, we were able to create some awesome new environments for our kids! 

Although the rooms look a little different, both in location and theme, what we do has remained the same!  Our 75 minutes or so each week, for our preschoolers all the way down to babies, gives us an amazing opportunity to teach your children so they can take their first steps in their knowledge of God and later take next steps in becoming more like Christ!  That is such a huge privilege and responsibility!!! 

Even though we LOVE teaching your kids each week, the teaching doesn’t stop with us!  In fact, we have only a small part in this!  Just think, there are 60 minutes in an hour, 24 hours in a day, and 7 days in a week.  That means there are 10,080 minutes a week.  We get to be with your kids about 75 minutes, which is less than 1% of your kid’s total week!  My prayer is that you take time on a daily basis to teach our kids about God!  To help you with this and to reinforce what we are teaching on Sundays, we have two different resources for you.  The first is Parent Talk.  This is a resource for the parents of kids under the age of 2 that talks a little about what our babies are learning and how we can help lead them.  The second resource is Small Talk and it is designed for parents of preschoolers who are 2-5 years old.  Small Talk tells you what we are learning each week and it gives some practical ways of how you can reinforce the lessons at home throughout the month.  If you have any questions on how to use these, feel free to email me or call me at the church office.  I would be more than willing to walk you through them!

I look forward to seeing you and your preschoolers this Sunday!

Nicole Huff

Preschool Parenting Resources and Coat Update

Hey Preschool Parents,

I hope you are having a wonderful week so far!  We’re in a new month, so it is time for new Parent Talk and Small Talk pages as well as a new memory verse!  Just a reminder, Parent Talk is for parents of kids in our baby room, Little Lambs.  Small Talk is a resource to get your little ones talking about what we are learning and is designed for 2 to 5 year olds.  I would love to hear how you are using these and what you like best about them!

Also, I wanted to give you an update about Coats for Kids, our Family Ministry service project that we are currently working on.  Sunday was great!  Did you notice the ENORMOUS boxes at the school on Sunday!?!  If not, how did you miss them!?!  🙂  We would love to fill these completely up, but we need your help!!!  This Sunday will be the last day to bring your coats!  Don’t forget to clean out your closets and bring any gently used coats with you on Sunday!  Another great place to find coats is at thrift stores and consignment stores if you have a few bucks to spend on them, or you can ask your friends and family to donate coats from their closets.

After this Sunday, the next step is delivery!  We would love to have our families go to be a part of this as well!  We’ll head out to the refugee apartments on November 20th.  The plan is to meet here at 10:30 AM so that we can be to the apartments around 11.  We’ll probably be there for about an hour and a half or two and then can all stop for lunch on the way home for those who want to hang out together for a little longer. 🙂  If you are interested in helping with handing out the coats, post a comment on here, email me, Facebook me, or sign up on the sheet on the sign in table on Sunday. 

On a personal note, Hannah and I went out to the Refugee apartments a few weeks ago and she has not stopped talking about it.  On almost a daily basis, she is talking about ways we can help the kids we met, whether it is coats, toys, or food.  I love the idea of instilling generosity in her at this young age!  If you have any questions about the what the Refugee apartments are like, let me know and I’m more than willing to answer them or find the answers if I don’t know!

~Nicole Huff

::Coats for Kids::

Just a reminder that we will begin collecting coats THIS SUNDAY!

You will only have two Sundays to bring in your coats, so PLEASE don’t forget!!

We’re also planning to go deliver the coats November 20th together. This will be such a great opportunity for your family to serve another family!! Consider coming with us and showing your children what it looks like to serve those who have less!! There will be a sign up sheet at the check-in table on Sunday AM, but if you think you might forget, just drop us a comment here or send the office an email to let us know that you and your family plan to come with us.

I don’t think we know exactly what time we’ll be meeting yet, but it will probably be around 11am and I will definitely let you know beforehand 🙂 We typically stop to grab lunch on the way.

Here are the coats I bought for a grand low (when you consider how many coats I bought) total of $38!!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

That’s six coats for $38, meaning that I paid roughly $6.30/coat. I know a lot of you have children and coats they’ve grown out of to donate, but at these kinds of steals you could possibly afford to donate your children’s gently used coats AND buy a couple more! I found two of these at the Fish Thrift Store in Loganville and I kind of felt like I probably bought all the decent looking and warm kids’ coats that they had. But then I noticed a kids consignment shop just right across the street and dropped in there. I bought the other four coats there and there were several others I could have bought! As I was ringing up, the lady at the register actually told me that they would possibly be able to donate coats to our collection, so if you stop in there mention it to them! I will definitely be hitting them up for anything they’re willing to share because there are A LOT of kids living in these refuge apartment complexes who are in need of warm coats this Winter!! Don’t forget about them!!

If you give a preschooler an opportunity to serve…

Lately, Hannah and I have been reading the “If you give a mouse a cookie” book series thanks to Chick-fil-A.  So in the same way…

If you give a preschooler an opportunity to serve, they may ask you for a little money to buy a coat for a refugee child.

If you give them the money to buy a coat, then they will ask you to drive them to the store.

If you drive them to the store, they will ask you to take them to five stores before they find the perfect coat.

When they find the perfect coat, they will ask you to take them to the refugee camp to give the coat away.

If you take them to the refugee camp, they will connect with another child.

When they connect with another child, they will ask you to take them back again.

As you continue to take them back, they will develop a relationship with that child.

Once they develop a relationship, they will ask you to …

Give them an opportunity to serve together!

And along with that, you are changing your child’s heart!  They will see the poor as opportunities to share the love of God with rather than “those people” that they try to stay away from.  I wish I had learned this when I was a preschooler!

This is a picture of the coats that Hannah and I got using the money in the preschool offering jar from BLAST.  Thank you to everyone who gives offering each week!  We bought 15 coats for $55!  You can get creative when looking for coats.  We found these at the American Thrift Store in Athens.  15 kids will be warm this winter because of our preschoolers!  Don’t forget, we will be collecting all the coats on November 7th and 14th at the school.

Where to shop for coats this weekend!

Old Navy is celebrating their Sweet 16th birthday with a sale! Yes! But maybe instead of going there to stock up on clothing for you and your family consider going and purchasing a new coat for one, or several, kids living in the Refuge Apartments! Although if you really do need to shop for your family this is a good place to check out. However, then you should consider cleaning out the clothes you’ll be replacing and donating those to the families in the refuge apartments. I’m just sayin’, do we really NEED a closet full of clothes? For $16 a piece you could probably get two coats with the money you set aside to buy one coat with. Score! Two kids will get coats because of your family’s generosity and Old Navy’s birthday celebration 🙂

http://oldnavy.gap.com/

I couldn’t find on the website when the sale ends but I’m guessing it’s only on for the weekend, so shop soon!

We still won’t be collecting until the first Sunday in November though, so hold on to your purchases until then.

Preschool Resources

Hey Preschool Parents,

Just a few quick things.  First, below are the Parent Talk and Small Talk pages for this month.  Parent Talk is a page for parents of preschoolers under 2 just to read.  It normally includes a devotional thought as well as a little discussion about something parents of babies and toddlers deal with on a regular basis.  Small Talk is designed for parents of 2 to 5 year olds.  It includes four practical ways that you can reinforce the items your kids are learning on Sundays.  I would highly recommend using these on a daily basis.  🙂  Also, just a quick reminder for parents of our older preschoolers.  Don’t forget to have your child wear the cape we made last week all month long on Sundays.  We are focusing on Super Heros and this is a great way to get them involved in what were are learning starting when they are getting ready at home before heading off to the school on Sunday!  Also, you may have noticed the post below about our Coats for Kids.  Start getting your preschoolers involved now in looking for/buying coats for the kids at the Refugee Camp.  We’ll be collecting on November 7th and  14th. 

October Small Talk

October Parent Talk

Coats for Kids

::ATTENTION PARENTS::

As we head into the month of November, we are going to be talking to your kids about how God takes care of us. God also asks us to take care of others. First we have to see a need and then we have to do something about it. We want your families to begin looking through your kids’ closets for clean, gently-used coats or buy a brand new coat to donate to the kids living in the Refuge Apartments. We’ll be collecting the coats on Sunday mornings for the first two weeks of November.

Preschool Small Talk

Hey Preschool Parents,

First of all, I have to admit that I am a total slacker for not posting these at the beginning of the month.  Back in July, our preschool ministry began using a new curriculum.  Along with the new curriculum came new resources for you, the parents.  I hesitated in putting the resources out there because I knew there would be tweaks to what we were using, both on our end and the curriculum’s end.  Well, I think all of those things have been worked out, so at the beginning of each month, check out the blog to see the Small Talk cards for your preschoolers.  There are two different cards based on age, so make sure you pick the one for your child.  For the parent’s of children under 2, the Parent Talk card is really a parenting tought for you.  For parents of 2 to 5 year olds, there are 4 different activities you can use throughout the month to reinforce what we are teaching your children on Sundays along with the memory verse for your child.  You can use these activities individually or all together and as frequent or infrequent as you want throughout the month (although I would highly recommend frequently!).  As a parent, you are the primary person responsible for your child’s spiritual growth.  Yes, the church is there to help you out, but you get to spend so much more time with your child than we do, so make sure you are making the most of your time!  🙂

~Nicole Huff

Small Talk: 2s-5s

Parent Talk: under 2

Do you have a family time?

Hey Preschool Parents,

I was thinking about this question yesterday, so I figured I would ask you.  There are so many times that I am busy with life and I don’t slow down to spend quality time with Hannah.  Times when she has been acting like a three-year-old, and I have had enough of her (in the most positive way possible :)).  These are the times that I don’t often think about family time.  My outlook completely changes, especially when Hannah is having a bad day, when I stop and look for the ways to connect with Hannah and when I think about if I am showing her Jesus through my actions when I am annoyed with her. 

One thing that Hannah and I do almost every night, though, is to have a time of Bible reading and prayer.  As Hannah has grown, the look of this has changed slightly, but it is something I want to make sure I do.  Hannah and I have gone through a couple of different Bibles that have different Bible stories in it.  Once we finish one, we switch to a different one and then we end up rotating back to it later.  The other part of our nightly routine is prayer.  This has been the one that has changed a little more as Hannah has grown up.  Initially, I would prayer (or really recite) the prayer that my parents used with me when I was little.  As Hannah began to remember this prayer, I started to think about the fact that I was just reciting something and not truly “teaching” Hannah to pray through my actions.  At that point, we added in a time of prayer loosely based on the ACTS prayer acronym (Adoration, Confession, Thanksgiving, Supplication) in addition to our recited prayer.  Within a few weeks, Hannah had named this “Talking to God.”  There were many nights that Hannah would tell me that she didn’t want to pray, she just wanted to talk to God.  Once Hannah got this concept, I started asking her to “talk to God” after I finish.  Now that Hannah is 3, she needs to tell God 3 things.  Most days it is “Thank you God for my day, thank you for my night, and thank you for _____.  Amen.”  Although she hasn’t gotten ACTS idea yet, at least she is on the way!

Do you have a family devotion time?  If so, I would love to know what it looks like!  Take a few moments and leave a comment.  Along those lines, I will randomly draw a winner based on those who comment and will have a special family friendly prize for you to use to have a family time!

Last, I want to encourage you to attend Kidology Live! coming up this Sunday.  For more info about it and to sign up, please check out the post about it!

~ Nicole

God-Time & Refrigerator Door Cards

Mar. 21, 2010 GTcards

Mar. 21, 2010 RDcard

Also, don’t forget about Kidology Live! This Sunday, 6:30pm @ the WH

Sign up to let us know you’re coming by leaving a comment on the blog.