February
Posted on January 31, 2012 by Marsha
Honor . . . such an old fashioned word. How many of us in our casual world honor anyone. God wants us to honor everyone! Every person has value because they were all made by God and our job is to make them feel honored by the way that we treat them.
We are using the life of David from the Old Testament to teach the children honor this month. From his humble beginnings as a shepherd boy to a king who was not ashamed to honor God in a public way, David will give us a great example of how to honor others.
Be sure and pick up the monthly Parent Cue. It is on the table in front of the microphone each week. There you can find the Bible scriptures, the memory verse and discussion starters to help your child apply the monthly virtue.
First hour Kids’ Kompass we are blessed to now have five students helping us. They have named themselves Team K. At the end of each service we will be splitting the kids into small groups by grade and separating the boys and girls so that they can talk with their leader about how they plan to use what they learned each week. I would love to be able to do the same thing second service however I need some more adult volunteers who are willing to serve in the Elementary Ministry. Let me know if you think God is calling you to work with our kids!
Self Control
Posted on December 27, 2011 by Marsha
During the month of January your children will be studying from the book of Proverbs. Yes Proverbs! Not a common book but a book with amazing wisdom that applies to our lives. The virtue is self control, choosing to do what you should do—and not what you want to do.
Self control is a huge issue with elementary students. We will be focusing on four areas that speak directly to issues that children have. Children will learn that God has the power to help us practice self control, specifically to learn to control our tempers and the words that come out of our mouth. The fourth week we will learn how God’s word tells us too much of anything can make us sick. Kids will recognize that video games, candy or tv can be fun but learning to stop before we get too much will prevent us from being “sick” since God is the only thing that we can’t get too much of.
The last week we zero in on what we think. This is so important to elementary students as what we think leads to how we act.
Sunday January 8, immediately following second service we will be having a very important brief parent meeting in the student worship center (gym). Your children will be kept in the worship area so you don’t have to worry about picking them up. Please make plans to attend. We will be unveiling Foundations, a tool that will help you parent Godly children.
An Attitude of Gratitude
Posted on November 3, 2011 by Marsha
Who wouldn’t want your children to have an attitude of gratitude? As we head into a season where children think so much about “getting” instead of “giving” our November theme in Kids’ Kompass is a gratitude pitstop.
When we remember what God has done for us, we can’t help but have an overwhelming sense of gratitude to Him. Because of His sacrifice in sending His only son to die on the cross for us, we need to stop and be grateful for Him saving us, and preparing an eternal place for us.
Meanwhile here on earth our children have so much to be thankful for. When they look at children in other countries they can only begin to thank God for daily blessings that sometimes we take for granted. I hope you take the holiday season as an opportunity to share a project with your children — Operation Christmas Child or the Christmas Party we sponsor at the Community Action Center are both wonderful opportunities to let them focus on the needs of others.
The Bible lessons in Kids’ Kompass this month will focus on: how we need to show gratitude in ALL situations, show gratitude to others, and very important to students of this age — adjust our attitudes and focus on the blessings we have rather than the blessings we don’t have!
Keep your ears open for an incredible new program coming to Eastside. It is called Foundations and is the cooperative work of Early Childhood, Elementary and Student ministries. We will be unveiling the details to all of our parents in January 2012 (which will be here before we know it!)
Take time to say thank you to God this month and teach your children gratitude in our day to day lives.
Orange!
Posted on September 27, 2011 by Marsha
Eastside Christian Church is orange! What is orange you ask? It’s a philosophy of ministry from preschool to college that combines the critical influences of the church (yellow) with the love of the family (red) to fuel faith in the next generation. Orange curriculum is Biblically centered and emphasizes that before a child leaves 5th grade they need to understand the 3 basic truths:
• I need to make the wise choice.
• I can trust God no matter what.
• I should treat others the way I want to be treated.
There are many resources for parents that help them partner with the church to raise Godly children. Two free resources that are available are The Refrigerator Door and God Time Devotions.
The Parent Cue communicates to parents the monthly virtue, the monthly memory verse, the weekly Bible stories and most importantly provides opportunities for intentional “God moments”. These opportunities are expressed in the form of questions that you can use as discussion starters throughout the week. They provide a parent the opportunity to share their faith with their family and teach their children to apply the Biblical principals learned to daily situations.
God Time Devotions are a series of four weekly devotions that older elementary students can complete on their own and younger students can complete with mom or dad’s help. These devotions are thematic and help students remember and expound on what they learned on Sunday mornings.
In addition there are many other resources available to parents at www.orangeparents.org. One resource that is very intentionally designed to help parents raise Godly children is the Cue Box.
The Cue Box is available in either a physical or an electronic form. The physical cue box has a DVD, a music video for the virtue song, a mystery widget to help families remember how to apply the virtue of the month, collectible cards and a virtue poster with a bedtime story on the back. The electronic cue box has access to everything online but no mystery widget. Both are available by clicking on the “store” tab on the website. The physical cue box is $12.00 a month and you can sign up for an auto-ship subscription or order it one time. Both forms allow you access to the 252 website which has a wealth of information for supporting your family.
Each month in Kids’ Kompass the children learn the virtue song which accompanies our lesson. These are also available for purchase at www.Amberskyrecords.com.
October’s virtue is Creativity and our theme is Imagine That! God has created us and given us talents and abilities to glorify His name. Children are amazing at thinking outside the box and remind us of how we can creatively express ourselves to help point others to God. This is a great month to plan a family project that uses your individual talents to accomplish something big for God.
September
Posted on August 29, 2011 by Marsha
This month our virtue in Kids’ Kompass is knowledge. We will be studying the life of Jesus as an example of how He: 1) Trusted God 2) Made wise decisions and 3) Treated others better than Himself. Our theme is “Grow Up” and children will learn that knowledge in and of itself is not important. It’s who you know, not what you know and what decisions you make with the knowledge you attain.
Be sure your Refrigerator Door publication makes it home and to your refrigerator. This is a very important resource for parents to have important “God moments” with your elementary students. Feel free to come worship with us in Kids’ Kompass any time!
Grace
Posted on August 17, 2011 by Marsha
During the month of August the elementary students are learning about grace. Grace is getting something great that you don’t deserve. Our visitor Oscar, from the Outback, gave one of our students a totally underserved dessert from our Sweet Shop as an example of what God’s forgiving grace is like. We can’t do anything to earn it, we can’t buy it but we must accept it.
We are taking a good long look at the parables Jesus told about grace. The lost sheep, the lost coin and the lost son. Look for ways to demonstrate God’s grace to your children through your own living object lessons this month!
Faith and Perseverance
Posted on July 18, 2011 by Marsha
During July and August we have been studying the book of Hebrews in Kids’ Kompass. Yes, I said Hebrews!Not a common book for elementary Bible study. Hebrews is a letter written to encourage new Christians who were facing trials. The writer of Hebrews encourages us to put our faith in God, whom we can trust no matter what, and persevere so that we can grow during tough times and become the person God wants us to be.
I’m always amazed at some of the trials children are faced with at such a young age. It is so important that they learn that God does not promise Christians will not have trials, but He does promise He will be with us through them. Teaching our children to persevere will help them fulfill their God given purpose.
Each month I send home “The Refrigerator Door”. On this publication is our monthly memory verse, the Bible passages we are studying and most importantly questions to start conversations which lead to opportunities to have “God Moments” with your elementary student.
Hello World!
Posted on by Marsha
Welcome to the Eastside Elementary Ministry page. Make sure you come back often because there are many more posts to come!