Our dinners have been known to have almost the same number of children as adults. One of the lovely things about our model is it provides a great space for everyone, regardless of age to be an active participant in worship. The kids eat with us and share in the discussion. Sometimes they contribute more than others, mostly depending on if the topic holds their interest. No matter what I know that sitting with us while we talk is good exposure for them on how we are faithful and spiritual people. Kids learn the most about faith from watching the adults in their lives practice faith. Every week these kids get a front row seat on our faith and are treated as equals in sharing about their faith and spirit.
As stimulating and amazing as our faith can be, I know bored when I see it, so we let the kids leave the table when they start to glaze over. This also allows us adults to venture a little deeper into some darker or more grownup spaces. Until this month they used to go and play with some games and would come back to us when they needed something. This has worked well so far, but we realized we could make this a better experience for the kiddos and for the adults. To that end we’ve asked a friend’s son to come and hang out with the kids during the time when they are playing. He’s leading them in crafts and guiding them as they play games. What’s really cool is he has decided to join us for dinner. He’s part of the group and gets to contribute as he feels comfortable.
We had been thinking for a while about what to do with the kiddos and how to help them have a rich experience at our dinners. What we ended up with was an outside the box solution to have a teen basically play with them. We have a set of crafts that the kids can work on and a huge selection of board games. Organized fun should help prevent the conflicts we’ve run across a few times and reduce the amount of times the kids come back in proclaiming there is nothing to do. For the first week of Lent the kiddos made a paper chain to hang in the dining room as part of our Lenten focus. It’s wonderful to have their creativity a part of our worship. I love the way our model incorporates the kids and provides a space for them to contribute, form relationships, and have fun. Once again over a time a beautiful solution to our wonderings was found, reminding me, yet again, of the wonder and creativity of God in all things.
-Eilidh
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| The paper chain. |
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