Welcome to my blog. After three years of doing the children's talk, I've decided to take the plunge and share via the web. I've actually been working on writing a "how-to" do your own children's talk. My personal belief is that all adults in our church are able to help children understand The Word and our Episcopal worship. Before I started doing the Childrens' Talk, I had to resolve my own internal conflict with that belief and my fear that I wouldn't be successful or knowledgeable enough (or worse!) bore the children. I also believe that we learn best by doing, and I actually had to live out my beliefs and have faith in God that I could do the Childrens' Talks successfully. And so I began.
What sustained me were all the people in my congregation and of course, Father Glen. Everyone's interest and supportive compliments regarding the children's talks really bolstered my self-confidence. The lessons improved as I learned what works (or doesn't work) and so I approach the next level of standing up for my beliefs by sharing what I've learned with other adults so they too can have their own childrens talks. You are welcome to borrow from these conversations to have a talk of your own with a child you love.
My hopes and prayers are that this blog may help other adults - parents, grandparents, aunts & uncles, and all those who care to learn the joy of nurturing the spiritual needs of a child. I also hope that all adults will experience what I have and begin to realize this one thought. The best gift we can give our children is the knowledge of God's love - His forgiveness, hope and joy to become part of their lives.
-Susan Ciminelli,
Children's Ministry
Episcopal Church of the Holy Communion
The Baptism of Jesus
Good morning. Do you know that today on our Church Calendar we talk about the Baptism of Jesus.
In the Reading for today, it tells about Jesus coming to a man named John the Baptist to be baptized. Then the Holy Spirit descended on Jesus like a dove and God spoke. "This is my son with whom I am well pleased."
[I have a small card showing Jesus in a ray of sunshine looking up at the break in the clouds.]
Look I have a picture.
God did this to show that a Baptism is a sacred event - that means something special happens when you are baptized.
[I drew a picture on paper with a house inside a heart.]
What do you see here?
"A house inside a heart."
You're correct. This is a home inside my heart. I've made a home for someone special.
How is a home different from just a house?
"A home is where you live, a place of your own. A house is just a building."
Would you say a home is the special place where you live and call it your own every day?
"Yes."
So if you make a home in your heart, it's a special place for someone every day to be in your heart. When you are baptized, the Holy Spirit - enters your heart and this is means that Jesus is always with you inside your heart.
So you must be wondering what does that mean?
Here's some pictures on these stickers of things that you can do all the while that Jesus is in your heart...
Which of these things do you like to do? (swimming, roller skating, skiiing, tennis, painting, taking snapshots, reading a book.)
Being baptized means that no matter what you are doing, Jesus lives in your heart. When you make a home in your heart for Jesus, you are receiving God's gift every day.
The Gift
I have a box in my hand - it's decorated so it looks special. What do you think it is?
Children:"A present / a gift."
At Christmas, are gifts an important part of the holiday? Did you receive any gifts?
Children:"Yes."
Did you know what makes something a gift? There's two things that make something a gift.
For example - could I give you a gift even if it's not wrapped special?
"Yes."
So the wrapping doesn't matter. What matter's is that I am giving it - what matters is my happy thoughts about giving you something, right?
"Yes."
Suppose you had a gift for me. Here, take this box and try to give it to me.
Is it a gift if I say no thank you?
"No."
So everyone agrees, a gift is only a gift if when offered, the person accepts it.
Do you know what the very first Christmas gift was?
I'll give you a hint, the very first Christmas gift came from God and was given to everyone -from people living in Bethlehem two thousand years ago to you and me living today.
Can you guess what God's gift was?
"Jesus. Baby Jesus."
Correct. However, not everyone understood God's gift.
People knew God was going to give us a gift - and that gift would be a Saviour.
People were expecting a mighty King who would rescue them from their problems.
Instead God gave the world a helpless little baby.
Children:"A present / a gift."
At Christmas, are gifts an important part of the holiday? Did you receive any gifts?
Children:"Yes."
Did you know what makes something a gift? There's two things that make something a gift.
For example - could I give you a gift even if it's not wrapped special?
"Yes."
So the wrapping doesn't matter. What matter's is that I am giving it - what matters is my happy thoughts about giving you something, right?
"Yes."
Suppose you had a gift for me. Here, take this box and try to give it to me.
- Child : "Here's a gift for you."
- Me: "No thank you. I don't want a gift today."
Is it a gift if I say no thank you?
"No."
So everyone agrees, a gift is only a gift if when offered, the person accepts it.
Do you know what the very first Christmas gift was?
I'll give you a hint, the very first Christmas gift came from God and was given to everyone -from people living in Bethlehem two thousand years ago to you and me living today.
Can you guess what God's gift was?
"Jesus. Baby Jesus."
Correct. However, not everyone understood God's gift.
People knew God was going to give us a gift - and that gift would be a Saviour.
People were expecting a mighty King who would rescue them from their problems.
Instead God gave the world a helpless little baby.
Do you think some people wondered, "Now how could a baby save us?"
Do you think some people rejected God's gift because they didn't understand why God would send a baby?
On Christmas eve, we celebrate God's gift to us and accept Jesus in our lives. This means that we remember Jesus every day. By doing this, we have done our part (part two) and received God's gift -his Son Jesus in our lives. By doing this, we do have a Savior. And He is Christ the King! Remember to receive Jesus in your heart so you can truly have God's Christmas gift to you.
Merry Christmas!
Merry Christmas!
How Do I Do It? Secrets for Success
First - anyone following this blog will need to understand that I can't replicate what I do "live" with my audience of children. I can only tell you what I think as I organize and plan what and how I'll share the "talk". Afterall, the Childrens' Talk is about TWO-WAY communication with a child. There's an element of unpredictability and a risk of failure (not getting the thought across to the child.)
In order to make this blog work, I have to tell you a little about how the "live" version works, then tell you what I cannot replicate in the blog and then provide the tools, insight and planning that I do and perhaps what I've learned or the childrens' reactions. YOU have to have imagination to get a sense of the "magic" and "fun" of talking to children. The BEST thing is the experience. Adults in my church often tell me how much they enjoy the Childrens' Talk. So if you read this blog, please know that this is likely to be a dry and much less fun version of what I do "live" with children.
At Holy Communion, the Childrens' Talk occurs just after The Peace, so all the readings and the Gospel have come before the Childrens' Talk. Because I'm also the organist and select the hymns, I have already noted the upcoming readings and themes for each of the next few Sundays. I think about what a 5 to 8 year old might relate to as I read the readings, the Psalm and the Gospel. You might wonder why I don't just read the Gospel. I refer you to Mark 6:14-29 and you tell me what part of that Gospel reading would you want to explain to a 5-year old? So for Proper 10 - I would likely have chosen the image of King David leaping with joy - and the theme of expressing joy when praising the Lord. There have been one or two Sundays where none of the readings, the Psalm or the Gospel lent themselves to very young children, and so what I have done is focus on part of the worship.
I only take a very tiny piece - like the story or theme - such as the Miracle of the Loaves and Fish or a phrase - "give us this day our daily bread" or what the altar is, or what the Advent wreath and candles represent. I try to keep the talk within 5 minutes or less and I make sure I have a closing point I can say in a short sentence using simple words. My objective is to teach something that will be positive and memorable. I'm only creating a foundation for understanding not trying to conduct a seminary.
The other very important part of my childrens' talk is to have an object for the children to focus on at the beginning of the talk. I almost always have something they can see and hold or watch. Without getting too deep into brain research or educational learning theory - what I can tell you about the age group I work with (3 - 9) is that they are concrete thinkers. They learn best by having something tangible. This is how babies develop and children and even adults still learn best this way. In layman's terms, we call this learning by doing.
The last piece of the plan is to ask good questions and not be afraid to have those awkward pauses of silence when children don't respond right away. This is "think time" and really - that's what you're after. If you can create a moment when the child is reflecting on your question and trying to come up with a response, you are really doing your job. In a way, the response is really kinda irrelevant because, we want children to be curious and think more. If they don't have the answer and it's really uncomfortably long wait, you can change your question to a "would you say the answer is ....?" and the child can feel safer to answer with a yes. Then proceed with your talk. Of course, there's a difference between thinking and confusion. You have to look at their faces to tell the difference. (Sorry, I can't teach you how to do that in this blog.)
So in a nutshell, the Childrens' Talk goes like this...
- Susan
In order to make this blog work, I have to tell you a little about how the "live" version works, then tell you what I cannot replicate in the blog and then provide the tools, insight and planning that I do and perhaps what I've learned or the childrens' reactions. YOU have to have imagination to get a sense of the "magic" and "fun" of talking to children. The BEST thing is the experience. Adults in my church often tell me how much they enjoy the Childrens' Talk. So if you read this blog, please know that this is likely to be a dry and much less fun version of what I do "live" with children.
At Holy Communion, the Childrens' Talk occurs just after The Peace, so all the readings and the Gospel have come before the Childrens' Talk. Because I'm also the organist and select the hymns, I have already noted the upcoming readings and themes for each of the next few Sundays. I think about what a 5 to 8 year old might relate to as I read the readings, the Psalm and the Gospel. You might wonder why I don't just read the Gospel. I refer you to Mark 6:14-29 and you tell me what part of that Gospel reading would you want to explain to a 5-year old? So for Proper 10 - I would likely have chosen the image of King David leaping with joy - and the theme of expressing joy when praising the Lord. There have been one or two Sundays where none of the readings, the Psalm or the Gospel lent themselves to very young children, and so what I have done is focus on part of the worship.
I only take a very tiny piece - like the story or theme - such as the Miracle of the Loaves and Fish or a phrase - "give us this day our daily bread" or what the altar is, or what the Advent wreath and candles represent. I try to keep the talk within 5 minutes or less and I make sure I have a closing point I can say in a short sentence using simple words. My objective is to teach something that will be positive and memorable. I'm only creating a foundation for understanding not trying to conduct a seminary.
The other very important part of my childrens' talk is to have an object for the children to focus on at the beginning of the talk. I almost always have something they can see and hold or watch. Without getting too deep into brain research or educational learning theory - what I can tell you about the age group I work with (3 - 9) is that they are concrete thinkers. They learn best by having something tangible. This is how babies develop and children and even adults still learn best this way. In layman's terms, we call this learning by doing.
The last piece of the plan is to ask good questions and not be afraid to have those awkward pauses of silence when children don't respond right away. This is "think time" and really - that's what you're after. If you can create a moment when the child is reflecting on your question and trying to come up with a response, you are really doing your job. In a way, the response is really kinda irrelevant because, we want children to be curious and think more. If they don't have the answer and it's really uncomfortably long wait, you can change your question to a "would you say the answer is ....?" and the child can feel safer to answer with a yes. Then proceed with your talk. Of course, there's a difference between thinking and confusion. You have to look at their faces to tell the difference. (Sorry, I can't teach you how to do that in this blog.)
So in a nutshell, the Childrens' Talk goes like this...
- Read the readings and select a tiny - tiny piece to talk about.
- Keep your talk to under 5 minutes. (The first few times, you're only going to know this by practicing and timing yourself in advance. After you've done a couple dozen, you'll start to get the inner timing down.)
- Think of some object that you can bring to start off your talk. Some are really obvious - like bring a flashlight to start your talk about Jesus being "The Light of the World"
- Think of your message. What simple thought do you want each child to remember? Put this in a closing statement and commit this to your memory. The closing has to be strong to be memorable.
- Now think of questions you can ask to get you from the object to the closing message. Remember to use what children see and hear during church or things they may have learned by watching the adults. Draw on things the child is likely to know. It also means you need to know a bit about the children. For example if you talk about how to forgive others and you use siblings in your example, remember that not all children have a sibling and may not be able to understand what you mean. Be sure to get to know the parents of the children you talk to (if you aren't the parent already) so you will have an idea what the child's earthly experiences have been so far, and then you'll be able to come up with questions that the child will be able to respond to.
- I also give things to the children when I'm done. Stickers are popular, but I've also been prepared to have some of my "props" for the talk in quantities so I can give them to the children. (Once I used a small rock for my talk - and made sure I had enough rocks so each child could choose one (have extra so there's a choice for the last child as well.) In this case I remind them of what the rock will make them think about.
- Susan
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