Sensorimotor Worship: Caring for a Pet

Sensorimotor Worship* can be defined as a spiritual lesson or experience that involves all of the five senses and incorporates visual, auditory and kinesthetic learning styles.

Animals are a unique part of God's creation and the Christian scriptures teach love and respect for them. From Adam's tender care of them in the Creation Story to the exhortation in Proverbs that " . . . a righteous man cares for the needs of his animal . . . " to Isaiah's prophecy that someday the lion will co-exist in peace with the lamb, one can see that part of honoring God is taking care of the animals that he creates. And whether you are religious or not, you can't easily miss the wonder in a child's eyes when they come into contact with an animal or dismiss the therapeutic effect that pets have on lonely people. Animals are amazing and taking care of them can be a part of showing love to our Creator.

My son received a hamster for his 8th birthday last August. "Hammy", as we call her, has become a member of the family. When Hammy first came into our home, we explained to our son that he was being given the awesome responsibility of taking care of one of God's creatures.  He would be the primary caregiver by daily feeding the hamster and cleaning her cage. Along the way, Hammy has also provided some important spiritual lessons:

Lesson #1: Responsibility for another living thing. Learning the value of being a caregiver as a child can certainly make it more natural when that child becomes an adult. Also, in an age where children are often exposed to violence in the media, caring for a pet cultivates the value of life and the natural world.

Lesson #2: Choosing to love and respect even when you don't necessarily feel appreciated. Hammy was not an easy hamster at first. She bit often and my son ran to us many times with a bleeding finger and crying that Hammy didn't appreciate all that he did for her. (We, of course, explained to him that Hammy wasn't being "mean", but rather signaling that she was scared or didn't want to be bothered at the moment with the only means of communication that she posesses.)

Lesson #3: Consistency. With few exceptions, my son cleans Hammy's cage every other day no matter how tired he is or how late it is. Hammy depends on him, and since our son is not naturally an organized person, this helps teach him rhythm and discipline. (For this reason, many Montessori curriculums recommend pet care for children.)

These are all things lessons that we need to understand and reflect the character of God (no matter how big or small we are!). How fun to learn them through one of His cutest creations!

* "Sensorimotor worship" is a term coined by Dr. Sonya Stewart, co-creator of Young Children and Worship, that is rooted in the Montessori educational philosophy. I use it to describe spiritual experiences involving the five senses beyond the church envirionment.

Sensorimotor Worship: Treasure Hunt

The Christian faith emphasizes that each one of us was specially fashioned by a loving God who put much thought into who we are and who we will become. Each human being is an amazing creation and God has given him/her something special to contribute to this world. As my wonderful summer with my children drew to a close, I wanted them to understand and remember this as they stepped back into the rhythm of the school year.  So, I came up with the idea to do a treasure hunt with them.

First, I emptied out an ornate jewelry box and attached a picture of my children to the top of the box to communicate that they themselves are God's treasure.

Then, I placed two different things inside:  1) a verse from the Bible, Psalm 139:14, which says "Lord, I praise you, because I am fearfully and wonderfully made" to remind them of how special they are in God's eyes, and 2) chocolate "gold" coins just for fun.

The chocolate gold coins

Psalm 139:14 - I cut the verse in strips,
so that my 8-year-old, who can read,
could put it together like a puzzle.

Then, I made envelopes to be hid in different places with instructions inside of how to find the next one.

Next I told the kids that they were going to find a treasure and that inside was an important message that God wanted them to know.  My 8-year-old read the clues to my 5-year-old and together they raced around the house to find the treasure.  They seemed quite pleased at the end and happily gobbled up the chocolate.: )  Hopefully, this fun experience will help them to remember that they, along with all of God's children, are the true treasure on this earth!

Sensorimotor Worship: Caring for Others

Sensorimotor Worship can be defined as a spiritual lesson or experience that involves all of the five senses and incorporates visual, auditory and kinesthetic learning styles.

Inspired by reading David Csinos' book, Children's Ministry that Fits, which has a chapter about seeking to further children in their spiritual formation by providing experiences that speak to all spiritual styles (as opposed to heavily leaning on one), I have been considering how to give my children more "action-oriented" or "missional" ways to worship God in the course of everyday life.  Social projects with children are very much on my heart (See this post on a social project that I did with primary school students), but they are sometimes few and far between.

One very doable way to introduce younger children to social justice and taking care of the poor is to sponsor a child in another country. When each of our children turned five years old, they were allowed to choose a child to sponsor through World Vision.  My son chose a little boy from Ghana and my daughter chose a little girl from Bolivia.  Though we regularly pray for these children together, I have not always done a very good job of corresponding with them. So, during our summer break when we our schedule was more relaxed, we decided to write letters to our children that we sponsor and actually send a package to the three children that we befriended in Uganda in 2009.

First, I set out our photo album of Uganda, pictures of our sponsored children,
and two continent pieces from our Montessori world map to
give the kids some geographical bearings.

We also found each country on the globe. And then,
the kids began to draw pictures for their friends.

My son, the dino expert, wrote about his favorite subject.

My daughter, who is into bugs, drew her favorite subject. 

One of my son's letters. He is, of course, trying to learn two languages
at once and left-handed, so that accounts for the creative spelling!

My sweet 5-year-old ran out of energy after the second picture and didn't want to dictate a letter for me to write.  But that is completely normal for young children.  We prayed for our friends at the end, even though the kids were a little worn out.  That led to a teacheable moment to communicate that doing things for others will often cost us something. : )

I find that activities like this help children to identify with the needs of others who may live far away.  They can also be important steps in helping children learn to be proactive when they see needs around them.

If your children have participated in social projects, I'd be very interested to hear about them! 


(Linked to Raising Memories)

Sensorimotor Worship: Gardening

Sensorimotor worship is a spiritual lesson or experience that involves all or most of the five senses and incorporates visual, auditory and kinesthetic learning styles.  Such experiences are essential for young learners to make sense of the abstract concept of "God".  Almost any "hands-on", everyday experience can be turned into a sensorimotor lesson with a little forethought and preparation.  

The Bible is filled with metaphors about seeds, sowing, reaping, trees and plants.  Jesus himself used agricultural examples that the people of his day knew very well.  Unfortunately, in many parts of the western world, children are no longer exposed to the process of growing their own food or plants, and the important principles contained in these biblical metaphors are foreign concepts to them.  

I would like to suggest that gardening can be an important part of a child's spiritual education.  Not only do the children learn responsibility by caring for another living thing, they come into contact with valuable lessons about sowing, reaping, growth and change.  

What if you don't have a plot of land for a garden?  We live in a big city and only have a balcony.  Fortunately, most plants and vegetables can be grown in containers even in the smallest of spaces.  You need to observe beforehand how much light your area receives and plant accordingly.  There are lots of shade-loving veggies that thrive even in darker places.  

Step 1: Choose seeds and plant them with your children, allowing them to do the majority of the work (within reason of age and developmental considerations).  After planting the seeds, here are some ideas for discussion and prayer over the next several days:

1. Important things with God usually start small like the seeds we just planted.  Ask the child, can you think of some small beginnings in the Bible? (Examples include: Jesus, the King, being born as a small baby in a stable; David was a small shepherd boy when he was chosen as King of Israel) Then, the parent could share some small beginnings either in their own lives or in the lives of their child.  (For example, I showed my son, who is an accomplished artist for his age, some of his first drawings and paintings as a toddler.) Pray and thank God together for the great things that come out of small beginnings!

Step 2: Teach your children  to water the plants daily.

2. Just as plants need water, we need the water of the Holy Spirit.  Why do plants need water?  Why do we need water?  What do we do with water? Read John 4:13 and/or Jeremiah 17:7,8 together.  Why kind of "water" does God give us? How does he give it to us?  Why do we need it?

3. When we grow in our friendship with God, the result is the fruit of the Holy Spirit.  Many plants bear fruit.  Why do you like fruit so much?  Read Galatians 5:22-23 and explain what the nine fruits of the Spirit are. Isn't the world much nicer when love, peace, joy, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness and self-control are visible in our lives?  Pray together for God's fruit to grow in your lives.  (We adults need this as much as the kids!)


Step 3: When the time comes, demonstrate for your children how to trim dead leaves. (This is actually a Practical Life exercise taught in many Montessori preschools.)


4.  Just like plants need pruning, sometimes we need it, too! Talk with your child about John 15:2 where Jesus says that the Father prunes branches that bear fruit so that they will bear even more fruit.  Trees can't produce new fruit unless the dead, wilted foliage is removed.  In the same way, if we always do everything exactly the same day after day, we can't grow either.  There are times (like Lent) where God leads us to change things in our lives to make room for growth and new experiences.  


Here are some great links for container gardening in limited spaces:

• Design your Container Vegetable Garden from Garden Know How
• Balkonbepflanzung von Äppelsche
• Life on the Balcony

Please be sure to use child-size gardening tools for little hands if at all possible.  Our set is from Tchibo. There was a blue shovel, too, but my son planted it inside the flower box for the radishes as a "surprise"!  

And the unparelleled joy of seeing tiny living sprouts shoot up from the ground.  My son was hopping around the apartment as if it were his birthday! 

Linked up to The Magic Onions.

Jesus, Our Light

I don't always do Godly Play or YWC at our children's worship services and at times I experiment with other things.  But I am, however, committed to a sensorimotor style of teaching and shepherding children. (By "sensorimotor" I mean learning that incorporates  tactile, visual and auditory styles.) With a little thought and training, one can incorporate Montessori principles into any Biblical story or theme.  

Ich verwende Godly Play und Young Children and Worship nicht immer beim Kindergottesdienst.  Ab und zu experimentiere ich mit anderen Ideen oder Konzepten.  Ich bin aber überzeugt, dass Kinder am besten durch Konzepte lernen, die visuelle, auditive, und kinäthetische Lernstile integrieren.  Es ist auch möglich Prinzipien von der Montessori Pädagogik in jeder biblischen Geschichte oder biblischen Thema einzubeziehen.

At our Family Brunch last week, I told a story called "Jesus, Our Light".  I developed this story using the text and ideas from a book called  Adventsstündchen und Osterstündchen by Norbert Thelen.  (When I find a German texts that fit theologically and stylistically, I often use them in my storytelling rather than trying to reinvent the wheel as a non-native speaker.)  This story fits well in the Lenten season, because of the emphasis on light. 

Letze Woche beim Familienbrunch erzählte ich eine Geschichte namens "Jesus unser Licht".  Ich habe diese Geschichte von dem Text eines Buches  Adventsstündchen und Osterstündchen  von  Norbert Thelen entwickelt.  (Wenn ich theologisch und stilistisch passende Texte auf deutsch finde, verwende ich sie oft in Geschichten, damit ich als Nichtmuttersprachelerin das Rad nicht neu erfinden muss.) Wegen dem Thema von Licht passt diese Geschichte gut in der Fastenzeit.

As an intro to the story, I invited the children into a room with no windows and turned off the lights. I had a flashlight and turned it on. Then, I asked the children how they had felt in the dark and what difference the light had made.  I explained that sometimes we have to experience or understand what darkness is in order to really appreciate the light.  I was trying to once again help the children understand that the story of Jesus' death and resurrection has two sides, one full of darkness and one full of light.  And they are both equally important to knowing the character of God.

Als Einleitung lud ich die Kinder ins Zimmer ohne Fenster ein and schallte das Licht ab.  Ich hatte eine Taschenlampe mit und machte sie an.  Dann fragte ich die Kinder, wie es für sie war im dunkelen zu sein und was für einen Unterschied das Licht machte. Ich erzählte, manchmal müssen wir die Dunkelheit erkennen können um das Licht wirklich wahrzunehmen. Mein Punkt was wieder zu untermauern, dass er zwei Seiten in der Geschichte von Jesus und Ostern gibt. Die eine ist traurig und dunkel und die andere ist hell und schenkt uns Hoffnung. 

In the picture above, the yellow circle represents the sun and the arches respresent doors.  The story talks about how people opened their doors (literally and figuratively) to Jesus and his bringing light into their homes and lives.  The four doors recount the episodes where Jesus encountered Blind Bartimaeus, a lame man, Zaccheus and children.  The text ends with the point that Jesus became more important than the sun for these people.  And, of course, I then invite the children to process their thoughts by asking open-ended questions that allow them to place themselves within the story.  


Der gelbe Kreis im Bild oben stellt die Sonne dar und die Bögen sind Türe.  Die Geschichte erzählt wie Leute ihre Türe (wörtlich und bildlich) zu Jesu geöffnet haben und wie Jesus Licht in ihre Häuser und Leben gebracht hat. Die vier Türe sind von dem blinden Bartimäus, Zacchäus, einem Gelähmten, und den Kindern.  Der Text beendet mit den Gedanken, dass Jesus noch wichtiger als die Sonne für diese Leute war. Im folgenden Ergründungsgespräch habe ich Fragen gestellt, die den Kinder helfen sich in der Geschichte hineinzufinden.

After the story, the children had the opportunity to either do some Practical Life activities or work with chalk pastels.  We have used pastels several weeks in a row now, because I want the children to become familiar with this medium and discover the possibilities. Chalk pastels are fascinating to younger children from a tactile point of view, although adults who look at their free drawings without seeing the process are often unimpressed.


Nach der Geschichte konnten die Kinder eine Aktivität aussuchen.  Sie hatten die Auswahl entweder  eine "Praktisches Leben" Aktivität zu machen oder mit Kreidepastellen zu arbeiten.  Wir haben schon ein paar Wochen hinter einander mit den Kreidepastellen gearbeitet, weil die Kinder dieses Kunstmedium gut kennenlernen sollen und die Möglichkeiten damit entdecken.  Kreidepastellen sind ein taktiles Vergnügen für Kinder, aber Erwachsene, die nur die fertige Bilder anschauen ohne den Prozess zu beobachten, sind oft völlig unbeeindruckt. 

Sensorimotor Worship: Winter Art

Sensorimotor worship can be defined as a spiritual experience that is visual, auditory and kinesthetic. Young children are sensorimotor beings who discover their world with the five senses.   In order to begin to understand a concept as abstract as “God”, they have to be able to explore in the same way.  Almost any spiritual experience can be made sensorimotor with a little thought beforehand. 

In my previous post, I mentioned that in creating spiritual space for our children, we should consider what we and our children are naturally drawn to and use these interests to provide opportunities for our children build a relationship with the Father, Son and Holy Spirit.  My natural bent is towards art and creativity.  While my children also enjoy being artistic, they are equally passionate about nature.  Unfortunately, nature pedagogy was not at all a part of my own childhood, so I have had to make an effort to engage my children in this way.  However, I am now of the opinion that nature pedagogy is one of the most effective ways to help children learn and experience God as the Creator as well as develop compassion for other living things. It is also sadly one of the most neglected aspects of children’s ministry in the church, although some churches are starting to catch on to this idea.

I want to share with you a recent way that my children and I combined both of these interests to worship God together. It is winter here in Berlin and we have lots of snow. In fact, we have the most snow that the city has had since 1931!  Having grown up in a very warm part of the Southern United States, I am absolutely fascinated by snow.  Taking this as a cue, I began to talk with my children about winter, what happens during this season, and why it is important for animals and vegetation. Then, I suggested that we take a moment to thank God for the different things we like about winter and also thank him for his wisdom in creating this wonderful season.

Afterwards, I explained that we were going to do something together to help us keep thinking about how wonderful God is for coming up with the idea of winter.  We were going to make ice ornaments and I got the idea from this book, Make it Wild, by Fiona Danks and Jo Schofield:

 (I actually have the German version called Werkstatt Natur.) This innovative book has tons of great ideas for making art “for the moment” (rather than something to take home and keep) and allows children to connect with nature in a hands-on way.      

Step 1: Making molds for our ice ornaments out of modeling clay.  My 7-year-old easily made his own shapes, but my four-year-old needed help from cookie cutters.

 

   

 Step 2: Filling the molds with water and laying string in the water to freeze, so that they can be hung up.

Step 3:  Lay the molds in a cold place and wait.  We had fun guessing how long it would take.  My son said 3 hours and my daughter said 100.  It actually took about 7 hours for them to freeze.

And “Voila!” – ice ornaments!  Here you can see a heart and Baby Jesus in a manger:

Here is a Christmas tree and a star:

We hung our finished ornaments from the table on our balcony. This might seem a strange place to hang them, but the table is right at eye level for the children when looking through the balcony door.: )

This art exercise isn’t so great for children’s church, since it takes a while for the ornaments to freeze and there is generally a week in between sessions of children’s church. However, it is perfect for families or religious schools or kindergartens, where are children able to see the results the next day.