I struggle with finding good Bible resources for my three-year-old. Usually, the things I see are beyond her developmental stage or are just really boring!

So, I was excited to come across this site the other day: ABC, I Believe Christian Homeschooling and More. It offers a comprehensive set of activity ideas, lessons, and printables to go along with a Bible verse. Each verse corresponds to a different letter of the alphabet.

This is not simply a “print out a worksheet” sort of site. Each letter has a set of detailed instructions and explanations for various activities in the areas such as penmanship, art, science, math, etc. There are even lists of recommended books that go along with each animal. (You know I love that!)

The lessons are divided into different age groups, so you can focus in on your child’s specific needs and abilities. This appeals to me so much because I rarely do something the way it is suggested in a book. I love having options, taking them all into consideration, and then crafting something specifically suited to my daughter’s interests and abilities. This site makes that process so much easier!

I have to tell you, I was super excited when I first started looking through the site, but then was a little disappointed when I realized that only the first four lessons are free. After that, you have to pay for the rest. The cost is $12.95 which seems to be a bargain for the massive amount of printables, crafts, and step-by-step instruction provided. I don’t know yet if I will buy the rest of the series. I’m waiting to see how Juliet responds to the first four lessons.

At any rate, I wanted to share this great resource with you. Maybe you’ll fall in love with it like I did and buy the set, or maybe you’ll just enjoy the first four lessons! There’s enough in those to keep you busy for a few months, I think!

Do you have any great online Bible resources for kids to share with me?

Last night Lydia and I did an experiment based on the Seeds Worship Song called “The Mouth”. It’s from the Seeds of PraiseCD. And it is based on Matthew 12:34:

For out of the overflow of the heart the mouth speaks.

This is a really fun experiment my husband and I used to do in our children’s ministry. It’s such a perfect example of this verse.

First, I grabbed 2 mason jars, some dixie cups and a bunch of yucky stuff: oil, dirt, mud, rocks and dead leaves. Then I found some yummy stuff lurking in our kitchen: an old can of strawberry soda, some orange juice, frozen cherries and ice.

Lydia and I poured all the gross stuff in one jar. I pretended we were just making something together. I didn’t talk about it being gross or nasty. I let her smell the oil and see what she thought.

Then we filled the second jar with the sweet smelling ingredients.

I asked her, “What happens if I pour out this jar full of dirty stuff?” She said, “Dirty stuff will come out.” So, I poured a little dixie cup full of the oil-dirt drink and a cup of the strawberry-oj. I let her decide which one she’d rather drink.

She easily picked the sweet juice. I let her drink it and she thought it was delicious.

Then I said, “Lydia, let’s pretend this dirty jar is your heart. If you put dirty things in your heart like bad attitudes, whining and disobedience, guess what’s going to come out of your mouth? Dirty bad things.” Then I proceeded to whine and complain as I poured the sludge into a cup.

I showed her the strawberry jar again and said, “But if you can fill your heart with scriptures like Philippians 2:14 and Honor Your Father and Mother and other ones that we learned. Guess what will come out of your mouth? That’s right, good words. Pleasing, gentle, nice words.”

Then we turned on “The Mouth” song again and sang along as we went off to take a bath. I think it was a brilliant (as in bright, not genius!) picture of what God asks of us and desires for our heart! And our lips!

See how easy that was? Use whatever you’ve got to tell your kids about God’s Word!

:: :: ::

Obviously, if you put something like motor oil in the glass, please don’t let your child drink it! You might have a kid who wants to be silly and drink the gross drink. That’s ok, too! You can still discuss the difference in taste between the two drinks. And how it’s a choice to put good things in so good words come out!

{Super Hero Note: As you do this experiment, talk about the different kinds of bad words that can come out of our months–curse words, complaining, arguing, whining, making fun of others and more. (Or just focus on the one your kids have the most problem with!) Explain that these kinds of words do not make us super examples of Jesus. Imagine that dirty nasty drink coming out of your mouth every time you spoke those bad words! Not very super, huh? Instead, when we fill our hearts with good words, songs & scriptures, we’ll easily be able to choose to build others up with our words, say nice things and choose positive words–to have SUPER SPEECH! And that is a SUPER example of how Jesus wants us to be!}

Exhort: to incite by argument or advice : urge strongly : to give warnings or advice : make urgent appeals.

If you were to start a new series on your blog that you would hope to use to encourage yourself and others, I would exhort you to start with a simple word or idea – I do not recommend starting with teaching a 4 year old and a 2 year old about exhortation.

… let us consider how to stimulate one another to love and good deeds (Hebrews 10:24). As parents, we are continually exhorting our children – encouraging, urging forward, teaching our little ones how to love and do good deeds.  Even if we don’t think we are exhorting, we are – I think it’s a natural part of teaching those we love.  We love them, and we want them to love and to do well and to do good things, so we exhort!

Teaching our little ones to be exhorters themselves can be difficult.  I think Elias has a gift of encouragement – he is always telling people how well they are doing and exclaiming over their abilities/attempts/activities.  But I think the natural self, even if gifted with encouragement, has a hard time exhorting.  I mentioned last time how Elias encourages Donovan towards trouble instead of away… wanting to do “fun” things that are not allowed (jumping on beds, throwing balls in the house, etc.), so he delights in Donovan’s lack of self control as he does those things Elias knows he shouldn’t.  Tattling is also a part of this…  when a child comes to “tattle” on another, he is missing his chance to exhort the other to do good.

We have punished Elias for egging his little brother on and for tattling, but we have not exhorted him to exhort Donovan on to good deeds.  That has been our first step.  I think I will also be making a chart (see Amanda’s posts here and here) to help him see when he has the chance to exhort to good deeds or disobedience.

And after starting off with a quiet bang, we quickly fizzled out on exhortation crafts.  That’s OK, though.  Mulling over it for a while and continuing to talk to the boys about it has helped me to come up with something that I think is really fun, and we’ll add to it with each character trait we study…

Introducing “God Wants Me To Be… a book about Christian character traits,” by Elias and Donovan!

I cut out a LOT of pictures of people from magazines, and with each trait we work on, we will copy the trait, definition, and Bible verse into our book, and the boys will select what picture(s) they think illustrate the character trait.

Here is a picture of a little girl telling her friend how to love and do good deeds!

At the end of The List we will have a book of 51 verses that tell us how God wants us to be.  These are similar to the other verse “posters” we’ve made in the past, and I’ve wanted to bind them all up into a “book,” too – perhaps we’ll have a couple of volumes of verses that the boys will be able to look back upon for years to come.

What do you think about your role as exhorter?  How do you help your children encourage others?