Teaching kids the Old Testament through emotion

About this episode

The episode discusses how to teach children about the Old Testament by connecting biblical stories to their emotions and everyday experiences.

Kid asked last week why learning about Jonah. "He's dead and that story's fake anyway." Cool. Great way start Sunday morning. Kids don't care about ancient Israel. They care if Maddie still their friend. If allowed on trampoline after church. If mom making good mac and cheese for lunch. Moses parting Red Sea three thousand years ago? Means nothing. Tried Abraham once. Kid asked if he had cell phone. Another asked how charged his car in desert. Can't picture life without WiFi. Old Testament might as well be about aliens. Reading straight from Bible doesn't work. Did Exodus. Read whole thing out loud. Three kids fell asleep. One asked if almost done. We were chapter two. Can't throw ancient language at second graders. Making it history lesson kills it. "In 1446 BC Israelites left Egypt..." Eyes glazed before finished sentence. They're six. Don't know what 1446 BC means. Half can't remember what year is now. Connected David Goliath to being smallest kid in class. "Ever have do something scary and you're only one who has do it?" Every hand shot up. Didn't plan that. Just said it. Suddenly listening. Because they've all been small kid facing something big scary. Different thing. Same…

Topics covered

• teaching kids
• Old Testament
• emotional connection
• Bible stories
• childhood experiences
• religious education

Keywords

• Old Testament
• teaching
• children
• emotions
• Bible
• religion
• education

Mentioned in this episode

Organizations: Israelites

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