Saturday, October 29, 2011

Celebrating Reformation

This coming Sunday we will be celebrating the Reformation at a joint church service with our sister churches here in Tokyo.  This is one of our favorite services of the year - great hymns, wonderful fellowship and a special chance to hear a different pastor preach (if my husband isn't the preacher that day!)
Since both kids are still pretty little they don't really have a concept of what was reformed and how that impacted the world.  However, they are old enough to know that reforming means changing something.  They also both know parts of the story of Martin Luther.
Katie and Martin dolls with barrel for her escape, Luther's Seal with detachable layers
and a Luther's Small Catechism Quiet Book 
This year, in order to help my kids understand more, I was able to pick up a few cute & useful things from the SuchAsThese Etsy shop. Rachel, who owns the shop, is married to a former missionary, now pastor, friend of ours.  The things she has made are exactly what I was hoping to make/buy to help the Bible be tangible for our kids.  Miss Mega in particular is at a stage when tactile learning (touching things) is key.

In Maria Montessori's book "The Child in the Church" she talks about faith development.  I love that she puts so much emphasis on faith and shares great ideas for getting kids involved in church.  One thing we have done at our house is include the Bible and its stories into our school time each day.  Around Reformation Day each year (Oct. 31st) we expand that to include a bit of church history.
This year the kids are learning about Katie and Luther, that they were a family and lived/worked at the church like we do.  Zilla is picking up on the meaning of Luther's seal (Mega likes to take it apart and put it together again...) as well as using the Small Catechism to learn about key points in the Bible.

Oh, and before I forget... Here is a link to another blog I came across while looking online for ideas.  Maybe in a few years we'll be dressing up to reenact things from the Reformation story too?

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