Monday, November 25, 2013

Training Children To Take Notes During Sermons




"For as the rain and the snow come down from heaven    and do not return there but water the earth,making it bring forth and sprout,    giving seed to the sower and bread to the eater, so shall my word be that goes out from my mouth;    it shall not return to me empty,but it shall accomplish that which I purpose,    and shall succeed in the thing for which I sent it." Isiah 55:10-11
When we consider the words of Isaiah 55:11 we cannot help but look at our little ones and think that he is also talking to them. For our family the words of Isiah 55:11 ring in our ears that the Lords word "it shall not return to me empty". Well our current church hands out a children's sheet that covers some of the basic information from the passage.

Our kiddos love it, in fact they love it so much they work on it during the sermon and do not listen to the Pastor. It has become for us a distraction from the word of God. That said there is not anything wrong with the sheet itself in fact we will have them complete the sheet when we get home after service but during service if you are old enough we want you to listen to the word of God and taking notes. Because it accomplishes that which it purposes.

Our youngest Children, who are 3 year old twins, get a spiral and a pen or a crayon to write in. I may write a picture from the story or like today I drew a turkey using Bubba's hand because the sermon was on Thankfulness at our friends church. But they just scribble, color & draw in it which is preparing them to take actual notes when they get a bit older.

Our next youngest child is 8 and she uses this two page form Sermon Worksheets for Kids from Forest Baptist Church:
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Forest Baptist Church » Sermon Notes Worksheet: For Kids!!!!!

Although I was unable to get a good copy from their site this form is 2 sheets long and it asks her if they took offering, were the ordinances done. We are Baptist so this Baptism and Lord Supper so this causes her to think about what she is seeing and becoming an active participant. The second page has a space for the child to draw two pictures that pertain to the sermon.

Our older two children in 10 & 15 (Autism delays) use Printable Sermon Note taking sheet for kids from Ministry for Children
Sermon Note taking printable for kids

Since our kiddos are still young we wanted something that help would train them to pay close attention to the sermon and that would guide their note taking. this is a pretty simply form that they write down verses used, main verse, words they don't know and a place to state "What should they do" which really translates to how shall I live this out in my life. 

 Each of these forms are free and the links for them are found above. 

Finally, we review what they learned during the sermon at dinner time and they get their little note sheets out as a reminder.I think we are going to build in some sort of rewards during this time for good listeners! I am planning on having these sheets bound into spiral books for the children as one of their meaningful Christmas Gifts. 

It is our belief that his word will "accomplish that which I purpose,
    and shall succeed in the thing for which I sent it." Isaiah 55:11 so we press on with training our kiddos to sit and listen carefully to pastor. Because it is time well spent, when you are abiding and listening to the word of God!

Sola Scriptura! 

P.S. if you need some more of these or you'd just like to pin them you can head over to our Christian Education pinterest page and follow me and pin like crazy!

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3 comments:

  1. Thank you for sharing those resources! I teach Sunday School and have just started teaching the kids about taking notes during the sermon so this is very timely for us.

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    1. You are welcome, I hope it is a blessing to your students as it has been to mine. :)

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  2. I think it's wonderful that you do this. We have always kept our children with us in the service, and it has been trial and error as to what works and what doesn't. My kids are 3 and 5 and I give them a notebook as well, and also let them look at the Bible. I am not consistent about this, but I will often write a few words in their notebooks and out boxes next to each word and have them check off the boxes when they hear the word. It might be words like 'God,' 'pray,' etc. or words more specific to the sermon if I know what it is going to be about beforehand. I really like this because it makes them actually pay attention to our pastor. I find that even letting my 5 yr old look in his Bible takes his attention from the sermon because he just sits there and reads! I usually let me do that as long as he is quiet though =) I'll work slowly on helping him to pay attention better. What a neat idea, putting your kids' notes into a book for Christmas!

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Thank you so much for your encouraging words!

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