Saturday, March 21, 2020

5 Books for Instilling Values in Children


I admit it. I am somewhat of a bibliophile. Not a true blooded, died in the wool, bibliophile...but I do love books. Especially children's books. In fact my love for children's written materials actually landed me a job in the children's room of our public library. It was my favorite secular job of all times. But I digress. The purpose of this post is to introduce you to some really good children's books. Ones that will entertain, but also exemplify good values through story.

Disclaimer: As I write this, it is March 2020 and we are in the midst of the coronavirus pandemic. Normally I write to equip children's workers. But two things have happened. First, my husband retired and since he was a pastor, we changed churches. For now I am not working in ministry except on occasion. Secondly, everyone worldwide kind of got moved out of hands-on ministry with the coronavirus. So for the time being, I plan on writing some posts like this one, to equip those at home with children. Someday I hope someone will be reading this, and the coronavavirus disease (COVID-19) will be a thing of the past. Someday, that day will be reality, but for now, we are where we are.

So here we go.

Sunday, March 1, 2020

Decorating Spaces - Snowflakes

When I worked in the children's room at our public library we changed up the decorations with the seasons. Leaves for fall, snow for winter, and flowers and raindrops for spring. So I utilized the idea in our kidmin space at church.

We did stars in December to go along with the Christmas lessons and kept them up until after Epiphany. In the spring, we did butterflies and dragon flies and let the children color them. When we took them down, I sent the ones they had colored home with them.

If you have a suspended ceiling in your space, this is really easy to do. Just use a paperclip or binder clips to attach fish line to the metal grids between the ceiling tiles. It is a little tedious to punch holes in each item, cut the line, thread it through and knot it. I make little loops on the end that will go around the paper clip. If you use binder clips, you don't even need to make a loop at the one end of the fish line, just clip it to the grid. When using paper clips, I always used white ones so they blended in with the tiles.

Why decorate for the seasons? Kids notice it, and so do parents. It says to me that you care enough about the children coming that you want to make their space special. I didn't always do this, but whenever I did, the children loved it. You can watch the video below to see what we did.

If you are interested in learning how we decorated our walls in the J.A.M. Center, you can read about it in several posts. You can link to several sites that provide the materials to draw the designs in my post DIY Theming That Doesn't Look Like You Did it Yourself. 


Snowflakes from Joan Eppehimer on Vimeo.

Wednesday, October 9, 2019

Oh for the Love of Hosea



Like any self-respecting blogger, I love to check my stats. Lately I have noticed people visiting my Hosea for Kids post. I love the story of Hosea. It is rich with God's mercy. So I am excited that people may actually be teaching the truth of this story to children.

There is absolutely no reason to get into what a prostitute is to teach the truth of Hosea. All children need to understand is that Hosea's wife left him for someone else, never mind that it may have been 10 or 20 someone else's. This is such a gripping, literal object lesson. As there are so many children of divorce or abandonment today, kids have seen this phenomenon firsthand. It is not difficult for them to understand how Hosea must have felt. They may have seen a parent's hurt as their mom or dad left for someone else. They may have experienced the hurt of a parent simply leaving, abandoning the family. You can bridge from any of this to help them connect with what is happening in the book of Hosea and their own relationship with God.

Monday, August 26, 2019

Stability in a World of Instability



In the summer of 2018, my husband and I were on a medical leave of absence in Chapel Hill, NC. He participated in an experiment for a pharmaceutical company testing a new type of treatment for the rare disease he has. We were put up in a lovely apartment for three months. My husband's nephew also participated and so his nephew and sister were in the same complex and we got to enjoy each others company all summer long. It was an idyllic summer with lots of sunshine, new friends, new places to go, old friends to reconnect with, swimming in the pool and not a lot of responsibility. It was wonderful and my soul drank in every minute of it.

Wednesday, July 24, 2019

How to Host a Shoebox Party


A few years ago I was asked to create an event that the whole family could attend and interact together at. I planned a shoebox party for Operation Christmas Child (OCC).

If you have never heard of OCC, it is a relief program run by Samaritan's Purse. People pack shoeboxes with a variety of small items such as hygeine, school supplies, toys and clothing. OCC sends the shoeboxes all over the world to needy children. You could also make your own shoeboxes and send them to a local shelter or group homes instead of through OCC (just don't use their boxes!).

Sunday, July 21, 2019

First Bible Milestone


A first Bible ceremony is a great way to help you connect with the families of the children in your kidmin. Normally, a first Bible means a translation such as NIV or ESV or NLT, but I like to take it further. In our church, we give a first Bible storybook to our families. Group used to make a kit for a First Bible Ceremony as part of their milestone markers series.

I borrowed some ideas from the Group kit I purchased, and then made up my own. I like doing a storybook Bible because you can reach the really young children then. Parents are so much more open when their children are young. They don't have as many secular distractions. In addition, I think it is great to catch everyone as young as you can and begin making that parent/church connection. This is one way the church can come along side parents and support them.

Wednesday, July 3, 2019

The Sign Painter's Dream - A Modern Tale of Giving

Before I was the children's ministry director at our church, I worked in the children's room at our public library. I discovered some great books there. I often developed programs around the books to engage the children in the story. I wrote this post several years ago for a homeschool blog, and thought I would share it here.

Tuesday, March 19, 2019

Rahabed!


I was thinking of Tangled when we did this activity. Usually I see something and visualize how we could use it in our lesson, but I was outdone by my co-worker on this one. The story was about Rahab, the spies and the scarlet cord.

Monday, January 28, 2019

DIY Empty Tomb

Our neighbors gave us this pop-up tent years ago for the girls and I to sleep out in the back yard. We used it once for that. But in children's ministry I use it at least once a year. Next to duct tape and a kiddie pool, it is one of the most versatile tools I have used in ministry.


It has been the inside of a cave.

Sunday, October 28, 2018

For the Love of Camels and Rebekah


After spending one year in the New Testament, I find myself back in the old with a whole set of new children. I have visuals from some of these lessons, but the children are younger now, so I am finding that I have to change things up.

I always start to prepare by reading the Bible story first. As I read, I try to visualize the story happening in my mind's eye. When I read this story of Abraham's servant going to find Isaac's wife, I was struck by the fact that he took ten camels. The Bible is very specific to mention that. It is also very specific that Abraham's servant watched closely as Rebekah drew water for those ten camels. Why? That was a lot of work! A camel can drink 20 to 25 gallons in 10 minutes and up to 40 gallons in one session. And there were 10 of them. The camels are key in understanding the story.

Sunday, October 14, 2018

Musings from the Laundry Room


The laundry room, in a children's blog, really? Well, this musing is for everyone, children's workers included. And it is free, so it fits the frugal part of this blog.

Most hometown papers have several columns written by local contributors. Ours has one called, "The View from Hickory Hill" written by a woman whose home is located on, well, Hickory Hill. She shares her viewpoint on all manner of things from class reunions to haying to hand-me-downs.


One day this past summer, while we were in North Carolina on a medical leave of absence, I was inspired to write my own column...in the laundry room. So I thought, if Miss Hickory Hill can write a column about the view from her home, I can write one about my view from the laundry room. I have named it, "Musings from the Laundry Room," just in case I ever get inspired to write another post while in the laundry room.

Pirate Themed Trunk & Treat

Shiver me timbers and batton down the hatch, it's trunk and treat time and have we got a theme for you. Be sure to check the video out a...