- Whether your child is about to start school for the first time, or you’ve been through it all before, here are a few tips to help make the transition out of holidays a little easier on the whole family:
- Get back in the habit of homework by having regular reading time every day. Ask questions about what they’ve read, and get them to write a little bit too.
- Start gradually making bedtime earlier; late sleep-ins or bleary-eyed children won’t help stress levels in that first week back.
- Get the family thinking about ways to make school mornings run more smoothly. A personalised chart is a great way to make sure kids know what they need to do and can check it off as they go. They’ll grow in responsibility, and you can break the nagging cycle!
With school starting, term-time program resumes this Sunday for our kids groups. This term we're thinking about the early church - what happened in the first few years after Jesus lived, died, came back to life, and then went to live with the Father. That would have been an exciting time - for the first time people were hearing that God loves us, and made it possible for us to be his friends - lots of these people had only ever heard of gods who were fickle and violent and selfish, and the only way to relate to them was to beg and plead, make bargains, and butter them up.
Imagine hearing for the first time of a God who wants to do us good, who is more eager to give us good things than we are to ask him for them! It would have been a scary time too - because not many people believed in Jesus, and the early Christians were often viewed with suspicion, even thrown in gaol, or beaten up, or even killed because of their beliefs. What a privilege to live in a country where we can openly worship Jesus, talk about him, meet together, and tell other people about our beliefs.
While we think about the early church, we're also thinking about our church - St Jude's wants our kids to know that they are truly part of this Christian community, so we're looking at ways to encourage kids to participate and to contribute. This year the Diggers are joining the morning tea team, rostered on together to prepare and serve morning tea a couple of times each term - many hands make light work, and they loved the trial runs we had last year!
Our MCs are also looking for ways to include kids in the whole-church part of our services, to encourage them to join in with the rest of the congregation, and to take part in leading prayers, Bible readings, etc. Ideas welcome!
