Entering School (Stone 3)

The Objective of this Stone:

To teach parents to care for the physical, emotional, and spiritual needs of their children, to invite parents into a small group with other new parents, and to call parents to share highs and lows, read God’s Word, talk about God’s Word, pray for one another’s highs and lows, and bless their children and other loved ones every night in every home.

What Is It?

A three-session course for parents of kindergartners in the church and community titled Entering School.

What’s the Purpose?

To add the sharing of highs and lows to the family bedtime ritual of prayer, blessing, and putting children to sleep with music featuring God’s Word; to incubate healthy families who are aware of the physical, emotional, and spiritual needs of their kindergartners; to spawn the formation of a small group network for young families.

Who Owns It?

A Theme Team of people who love God, like the kindergarten age, and are willing to set up and lead a three-week course.

How Long Does It Last?

Three 1 1/2 hour sessions.

When Does It End?

The sessions conclude in worship with a beautiful Stepping Stone Blessing Liturgy. (If you do this right, it doesn’t end there. Young families join together to form small groups, babysitting co-ops, and teams to take the next “batch” of new parents through the next course.)

PRINTABLE FACT SHEET

Download a detailed printable PDF description of “Entering School (Stone 3)”

Detailed Description:

The whole world changes when your little ones go off to school. Children will be spending almost as much time, if not more, with teachers and fellow classmates than they will with parents. Setting up a pattern for regular open, caring, communication between parent and child becomes extremely important at this stage. In this third Faith Stepping Stone, parents continue to learn about the physical, emotional, and spiritual development of their child. Beyond the developmental education, parents and children are taught how to share their highs and lows with one another every night. Starting this practice now will pay off when those hormones are kicking in with adolescence!

Session 1: Physical Development

Eat, sleep, play (and pray?) are really all a kindergartner needs in terms of physical development. However, how much sleep? What kind of food do they need to eat? Are there any kinds of play that are more helpful than others? All these questions will be addressed in Session 1 for parents to learn, discuss, and share in experiences to equip them to be the best parents they can be. All of these physical developments must be viewed in light of the child being at school for a few hours a day. The church can help parents in this transition time.

Session 2: Emotional Development

Ever hear parents say they will “never be like my parents” and then become exactly like them? During Session 2 you’ll help parents learn some different parenting strategies. They’ll be able to decide what kind of parenting style they want to take on and set up a plan for how they will be that type of parent. If you do not intentionally think about changing or specify steps, you’ll never change. Parents will be led through emotional development issues of helping their children handle stress, understanding intimidation, and realizing that the greatest gift a parent can give their child is their time.

Session 3: Spiritual Development

So far families are blessing each other and praying together; now we’ll add Highs & Lows to their nightly routine. You are building an effective formula for healthy families with each Stone. The hidden secret here is that mom and dad are also sharing their highs and lows (marital vitamins). The brain kicks out powerful chemicals every time you share your highs and lows with someone and then lift them up and prayer! Help families build these faith practices into their home every night and they’ll grow stronger and closer as the years go by (rather than weaker and further apart which has become the “American way”). Following this three weeks, parents and children return to the altar in worship to recommit to the baptismal promises. They recommit to blessing the child each night, praying with the child, putting them to sleep with Christian music and add a promise to do highs and lows every night in every home.

Graduation Quilt

The Graduation Quilt project grows as symbols and colors of the seasonal paraments are added to the hand and foot print panels. Other quilt square ideas include symbols important to the family, family pictures, or a thumbs up and thumbs down to represent highs and lows.