Make Children's Time at church as fun as it is educational.
Children's moment is a brief amount of time for you to make a lasting impression on the children and their families. Pick your words and tools carefully so you're coordinating with the Bible verse of the day, the sermon being given, and the seasons. Make the children's moment fun so the kids pay attention. Choose every-day items for your tools, so the kids can relate to the message.
Lint/Lent
Talk about how excited you are for Lint and how, as you've been doing the laundry, you've been collecting your bag of lint. Pull out a plastic bag full of dryer lint and show the kids. One of the kids is sure to correct you and explain that it's not LINT but LENT. Explain how Christ died for us and how the season of Lent is the 40 days between his resurrection and Ascension. Discuss how we're saved because Christ died for us, washing away our sins. Tie the whole thing together by discussing how the lint is similar to our sins: the washing machine washes away the stains, takes the lint from our clothing, the same way Christ takes away our impurities, leaving us clean.
Laundry Basket of Worry
Carry a laundry basket full of items to the children and talk about the things the kids worry about. Stand and start discussing the things you worry about, like if it's too cold and you didn't dress well enough. Slip a sweater on from the basket. Discuss worrying about if it's going to rain, and put on a rain jacket from the basket and pick up an umbrella from the basket. Talk about worrying about your kids' education, picking up text books. Tell the kids about your concerns at work and pick up a briefcase. Continue until the basket is empty but you're weighed down in too many items. Now talk about how you don't need to worry about these things; you only need to do your best and give the worries to Christ. Give each worry to Christ, returning each item to the basket. Talk about how the worries were too much for you to carry, but they fit easily into Christ's arms and encourage the kids to do their best in whatever they're doing and give the worries to Christ.
Eraser
Set up a large dry-erase board with markers. Ask the kids to raise their hands if they've ever done anything wrong. Then have the kids turn to the congregation and ask the same question to demonstrate to the kids that we all make mistakes. Move to the dry erase board and ask the kids for examples of what they've done wrong, like not doing their homework, teasing a sibling or telling a fib. If the kids don't volunteer anything, you can start by telling something you did as a kid. Write each answer on the dry-erase board. When you have several items on the board, talk about how Christ died for us, and gave us communion so we can be washed clean. Discuss how it's important to try not to repeat our mistakes, but that by taking communion, we admit our mistakes, accept forgiveness and are cleansed. Erase the list on the board to demonstrate this point.
Candy Cane
Talk about the upcoming birth of Christ and what that means for Christians around the world. Give each child a candy cane with the poem attached. Ask one child to read the poem to the congregation. If possible, have the kids hand out candy canes with the poem attached to each member of the congregation, as well.
Christmas Candy Cane Poem about Jesus
Look at the Candy Cane
What do you see?
Stripes that are red
Like the blood shed for me
White is for my Savior
Who's sinless and pure!
"J" is for Jesus My Lord, that's for sure!
Turn it around
And a staff you will see
Jesus my shepherd
Was born for Me!
Tags: Talk about, Candy Cane, Christ died, from basket, worry about
