We all know that young children think literally and want\nliteral answers. They learn by concrete examples until an age of theoretical\nknowledge is opened to them. My four year old grandson doesn\u2019t understand the\nconcept of The United States but he can point to a map and identify his home\nstate of South Carolina because his father has shown him the concrete example\nof what his state looks like. Yes, he still doesn\u2019t grasp the idea of a state\nor its context within the whole, but he has the first step in the mental\ndiagram of putting it all together.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
I think as teachers we often neglect that simple rule of\nteaching, to include concrete examples with the lesson. My own father was\nespecially fond of maps and so from a very young age I learned where I lived in\nthe whole of the globe and a lot about how to find other locations, read maps,\nget from point A to point B, etc. I thank him for that as it served me\nespecially well in flight school and in doing a bit more traveling than many in\nmy generation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
So let\u2019s make use of this practice in teaching the basic\nBible lessons. Students of the Bible should know where these events took place.\nBuy a good map of the Bible lands. You might also enlist the help of a good\nBible Atlas for adding extra detail in your lessons, especially for older age\ngroups. Plan to teach the life of Christ with at least ten lessons for the\nyoungest students. Begin each lesson with a geography locating activity. Place\ndots, pins, flags, or even cut-outs that display a relevant item (such as a\nmanger) glued to the pins. When you talk about Jesus being born in Bethlehem,\nplace the manger pin on the map at the correct location. Of course, the terms\nMiddle East or \u201cthe other side of the world\u201d (if it is from where you are) may\nnot mean anything to the child yet, but the concrete becomes the basis for the\nconcept later. Another way to enhance this kind of learning is to make a puzzle\nfrom the map by cutting the map into various puzzle-like shapes, then putting\nthe puzzle back together as you teach the geography. If you glue the cut out\nshapes to foam core or card stock and laminate them, you can use them for\nyears.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":0,"template":"","categories":[126],"tags":[167,182],"class_list":["post-7888","eutychus-article","type-eutychus-article","status-publish","hentry","category-eutychus","tag-christian-living-cross-discipleship","tag-ministry-leadership"],"yoast_head":"\n