Teach My Littlests
I had expected that there were current materials for the Sunday school class I would be teaching. Instead I was pointed to the materials they already had; different program books, miscellaneous teaching aides, and a conglomeration of other materials - nothing matching. The program I found that would best suit the children in the class was The Wonder of It All: A Program for Orthodox Children, published by Orthodox Christian Education Commission in 1982.
Sure, new and organized materials would have been easier for me, who knows nothing about Orthodox Sunday school, to teach. On the other hand, it has been an interesting time capsule to wade through all the different sorts of teaching materials and try to piece them together. It is amazing to find Orthodox Sunday school materials from 1982, only four years after I was born. Had I been Orthodox, these are the materials I would have learned as a child. But even not having grown up Orthodox, there is something comforting to know that the Orthodox Church was and has been in the world all the time I was growing up. And it's humbling too- here I, the one most unworthy to teach!, am asked to teach and hand the Church to the littlests.
This Sunday we learned the Icon - God's Family lesson. We talked about the iconostasis in church and our icon corners at home. We glued icon cut-outs to a page and drew some of the things we keep in our icon corners. To learn about the iconostasis, I assembled one for us to color and point out the different icons on the iconostasis. The coolest part was that I made it so that the Royal Doors could open. The kids drew our Father Anthony behind the Royal Doors. Dominic was so excited about it that after class he shot out the door to find Father and invite him to the class to look at our project. Father Anthony was well pleased with the children's drawings of him; it brought a big, warm smile to his face. :) May God continue to bless my small, bumbling attempts to teach His littlest children!
The icon corner in our Sunday school room - it's the only thing of interest in the room. The walls are empty. We're trying to avoid hanging anything on the newly painted walls just yet.
The children work quietly (whoa, how did that happen?!) on coloring their iconostasis. It's fun to watch their different styles of coloring.
Our finished iconostasis project hanging on the door. It's too bad you can't see Evelyn's drawing of the priest behind the Royal Doors. She gave the priest she drew, who she both named as Father Anthony and Father Fenton, a nice big "priest's hat" with a cross on it. Funny, because it looks like she's elevated them to Bishop, or perhaps Father Anthony is just wearing Western Rite vesture for the day...!
A closer picture of Dominic's iconostasis where you can see the Royal Doors open and behind them the drawing of our Father Anthony.
Sure, new and organized materials would have been easier for me, who knows nothing about Orthodox Sunday school, to teach. On the other hand, it has been an interesting time capsule to wade through all the different sorts of teaching materials and try to piece them together. It is amazing to find Orthodox Sunday school materials from 1982, only four years after I was born. Had I been Orthodox, these are the materials I would have learned as a child. But even not having grown up Orthodox, there is something comforting to know that the Orthodox Church was and has been in the world all the time I was growing up. And it's humbling too- here I, the one most unworthy to teach!, am asked to teach and hand the Church to the littlests.
This Sunday we learned the Icon - God's Family lesson. We talked about the iconostasis in church and our icon corners at home. We glued icon cut-outs to a page and drew some of the things we keep in our icon corners. To learn about the iconostasis, I assembled one for us to color and point out the different icons on the iconostasis. The coolest part was that I made it so that the Royal Doors could open. The kids drew our Father Anthony behind the Royal Doors. Dominic was so excited about it that after class he shot out the door to find Father and invite him to the class to look at our project. Father Anthony was well pleased with the children's drawings of him; it brought a big, warm smile to his face. :) May God continue to bless my small, bumbling attempts to teach His littlest children!
The icon corner in our Sunday school room - it's the only thing of interest in the room. The walls are empty. We're trying to avoid hanging anything on the newly painted walls just yet.
The children work quietly (whoa, how did that happen?!) on coloring their iconostasis. It's fun to watch their different styles of coloring.
Our finished iconostasis project hanging on the door. It's too bad you can't see Evelyn's drawing of the priest behind the Royal Doors. She gave the priest she drew, who she both named as Father Anthony and Father Fenton, a nice big "priest's hat" with a cross on it. Funny, because it looks like she's elevated them to Bishop, or perhaps Father Anthony is just wearing Western Rite vesture for the day...!
A closer picture of Dominic's iconostasis where you can see the Royal Doors open and behind them the drawing of our Father Anthony.
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