Experience God in Toddler Nursery

Once a month I work in our churches toddler nursery.  This time I did my best to gather some supplies to do a little bit more with the kids, even though a lot of the kids are even younger than Adam who is 2.5.  In fact, most of the attendees on this day were right around 18 months.

I had with me the Easter Story, "God Asks Me to Pray", which was left over from a previous month.  Perfect for October, right?  I figure it's the root of our faith so it could be used anytime.

When you order the Experience God Christian curriculum form Mother Goose Time you get story cards, a lesson book and then a bag of goodies for each child.  If you order supplies for 10 kids, you get 10 bags.  Each bag has all the things you will need for the full month of learning or for all 4 Sunday's if you use it as a Sunday School curriculum.  It includes four crafts and coloring sheets.  You can see more posts about our use of Experience God here.

I first dug through the drawers in our room to see what supplies I had available to me, glue, tape, crayons etc.  I didn't have much so then I looked through the crafts to see what the kids in the room would be able to do and what we had the supplies to do.  Thankfully there was one that met all the requirements.

It went with the theme of praying everyday.  It was a blank grid that you were to write calendar dates on and then let the kids decorate with the provided stickers.

As I got the calendars ready I got out the corresponding coloring sheet, which again goes with the Easter theme.  But that's okay, because He has risen, He has risen indeed!

Adam had just spent an hour the night before decorating his Dad's birthday present with stickers.  So he had just recently mastered this skill.  I first set up Little J's calendar and asked Adam to help her get the stickers off.  It was one of the sweetest things I had ever seen.  He got them off, handed them to her and then she stuck them on.  She would usually finish with a big old clap for herself as she placed each sticker.

Oh, the pride in her face.  It melted my heart.  And look at those little fingers getting so much fine motor practice, during a Bible lesson.  I also made sure to count out loud as I wrote all the numbers on each calendar because I knew little ears were listening.  On a few of the numbers Adam would chime in.  That's what is neat about Experience God, they incorporate the standard learning elements, the ABCs and 123s, into their Bible lessons and games.

Next Adam got to work on his calendar.  When working with stickers and tiny little fingers I always removed the background portion of the sticker sheet.  I explain it a bit more in this post.  I love this because it allows for independence at a young age.

 I wrote across the top, "Adam Prays Everyday in October".

We had another little gentlemen in plaid join us.  Adam helped him all the way through his project as well and with another 2 more kids.  I was so proud of him and he made some good friends too.

I did not try to get the children to put the stickers in any sort of order.  I figured if they covered up a number, it wouldn't be a big deal and no matter where they got it stuck, it was a success.

We did just this craft and coloring sheet on this day.  As each child arrived I worked on making them their own calendar.  I only had 4 kids that day, including Adam.  Soon we were onto snack and play time.  It was a such a perfect morning.

Just in case you doubted me when I described how sweet this time together was, here is a video for proof.