Tips to Teaching Toddlers
Prayer: Prayer makes everything better. Come in before the children arrive and pray in the classroom. Pray during the week. Pray as you travel to class each Sunday and prepare your lesson. Pray for God to move, to “open the eyes of understanding” (Revelation 1), and to use you to minister to the children. The atmosphere of your classroom will change and you will have a greater effect on the lives of the children if you will become a praying teacher.
Preparation: From the time parents bring their children into class, the children need to be the focus. If the teacher is busy cutting the craft or working on the lesson instead of focusing on the children, it makes them feel unimportant and ignored. Make every effort to arrive a ½ hour early each service, so that you can feel ready and prepared when the children arrive.
Patience: Sometimes no matter how many times you ask the little ones to be quiet, they will continue talking, crying, and screaming. Sometimes it can feel like a waste of time to do the lesson. The teacher can get up tight, angry, or impatient with the children. If this happens, just stop. Allow the children to go back to playing and take a break. Later, you might try teaching it again, but even if you never get to the lesson you planned – look for ways to be an example of Christ and teach Godly truths as you interact with the children.
Enthusiasm: Young children are very energetic and must be kept busy. The lesson must be short and to the point. If you go on for too long you will lose their attention. You must also be enthusiastic! You must seem excited about the lesson. When you teach move around, use big gestures, facial expressions, objects that are in the story, or anything else you can think of. If you seem to be excited about what you are teaching, the children will be more apt to listen.
Repetition: I have found this to be very important in my class. The more times I remind the children of the lesson, the better chances of them remembering it. In the puppet skit, the lesson, the craft, the picture, and conversations with the children, I will continually remind them of what we learned. Look for these opportunities through out the class time.
My name is Susan and I rarely have much interaction with children. I see my nephews twice a year and I don't get to spend nearly enough time with them. I never had any children of my own, though I have such a heart for them! I am very excited about this new adventure that I might in a much more loving and meaningful way connect with children!!! Thank you to you all for making this available!!!
ReplyDeleteGod bless!!!