Memorizing Psalm 23

And now for a post I've been meaning to write since January . . .

This year my mother-in-law gave us a lovely wall calendar featuring the 23rd Psalm.  Each month features one sentence of the Psalm plus an illustration, making it a perfectly-paced aid for the kids to memorize the Psalm over the course of the year.

As we started memorizing the first sentence, "the Lord is my shepherd," the kids mastered it quickly, but I realized it meant nothing to them having met neither sheep nor shepherd in their little city-kid lives.

We hit the library and after rejecting a lot of text-heavy, black-and-white illustrated, published-in-1963 sort of books, we found Sheep by Peter Murray.

It's not exactly what I was hoping for, but was the best we could do.  It has large, bright photographs of a variety of sheep breeds, lots of sheep facts, and it helped create some background knowledge for the kids to understand a bit more of what it means to be a shepherd.


(Now really, don't you think he could have found a more photogenic sheep for the cover?  Some one primped and fluffed and snowy white instead of this frumpy girl with bits of straw clinging to her wool and nose?  Eh, well, realism I suppose . . .)

I've discovered that an acquaintance raises sheep, so I'm hoping to arrange a field trip for the kids now that it's spring to build even better context for understanding the beautiful metaphor of this Psalm.

Psalm 23

    A psalm of David.

 ¹ The LORD is my shepherd, I shall not be in want. 

 ² He makes me lie down in green pastures, 

he leads me beside quiet waters, 

 ³ he restores my soul. 

He guides me in paths of righteousness 

   for his name’s sake. 

⁴ Even though I walk 

   through the valley of the shadow of death,

I will fear no evil, 

   for you are with me; 

your rod and your staff, 

   they comfort me.

 ⁵ You prepare a table before me 

   in the presence of my enemies. 

You anoint my head with oil; 

   my cup overflows. 

⁶ Surely goodness and love will follow me 

   all the days of my life, 

and I will dwell in the house of the LORD 

forever.

Lent for Preschoolers

A radio program to which I listen launched a series on Ash Wednesday that would carry listeners through Christ's life--from birth to resurrection--over the forty days of Lent.  I'm not from a faith tradition that emphasizes Lent, so I had not even realized it was upon us.

However, since repetition and building context are so key to engaging preschoolers in genuine learning, adopting a similar plan for Big Brother (age 5) and Sis (nearly 3) seemed worthwhile.

The Plan
We were given the book Jesus the Friend of Children a few years ago, but have not read from it much.  It contains forty-nine stories covering the entire life of Christ.  Each story is just a single page and is accompanied by a traditional-style illustration.   A few of the stories take place after Christ's resurrection so we'll save those for after Easter.  We are reading one story most days and the book will get us through the 40 days of Lent nicely.

In Action
I loved that as we started the book, we started with the same stories we had focused on at Christmas--the angel visiting Mary, Jesus' birth in Bethlehem, the shepherds, the wise men.  I'm hoping that starting there will help the kids make the connection between the celebration of Christ's birth and the celebration of His resurrection, rather than seeing them as two unrelated holidays.

When we first began, Sis wasn't particularly interested in the book, but my kids--like most preschoolers--love ritual.  Now, as soon as everyone is in pjs they are racing each other to the arm chair to read our "Easter book" as it's been dubbed.

Easter is still three and half weeks away.  It's not too late to start!  Grab a Bible story book and pick some of the key accounts from Christ's life to read each day.  Start laying a foundation for your little ones to understand the significance of our Easter celebrations.

I John 4:10 This is love: not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins.