You’ve heard it said that you haven’t really learned something until you can give it away. This is the thought behind having our children retell the story of The Good Shepherd (along with some serious speech and language skills)! I want our kids to know and love the story of The Good Shepherd so well that they can’t help but share it with others. I have found that when kids have their own parable treasure box, that they helped make, it creates a sense of wonder and pride.
Before we go on, I want to clarify why we’re calling this parable The Good Shepherd and not The Lost Sheep. To be honest, I really didn’t grasp the significance until last week when I was reading and ran across these words by Kristi McLellend.
” The subheadings and story titles [in the Bible] often reflect our Western lens, one that asks, “What does this passage teach me about me?” But in the Middle East, the same passages of Scripture often have different subheadings and story titles, descriptions that reflect the Middle Eastern lens asking, “What does this teach me about God? Reading the Bible with a Middle Eastern lens helps us learn to stare at God and glance at our lives.”
Kristi McLelland, Jesus and Women In the First Century and Now
So, here we go! Rather than already having the parable treasure boxes made for them, I let the boys be part of the process! First, we gave the boys this very home-made guide for them to follow as they gathered their supplies.
This activity provides great practice with number and color recognition. There are also multiple opportunities for your little one to practice counting and sorting.
After the parable boxes were made we were ready to start retelling the story! I was all in, but the boys were tired so we pressed pause and continued this activity the next day.
As they prepared to share the story by setting up their green grass, sheepfold, water, and places of danger/rocks, I asked the boys a few questions such as:
- Who are the characters in this story?
- What items do you think we should use for the sheep?
- Where does this story take place?
- Is there a problem in this story?
- What’s the solution?
After discussing these questions, I asked the boys if they wanted to tell the story AND act it out or if they would like to help me tell the story as they acted it out using their boxes. They chose for me to tell the story as they acted it out, so we began!
We keep our parable boxes where the boys can easily reach them and I am amazed at how often they go and get them on their own to tell the story. Watching them truly learn this story and seeing their love for the Lord grow is the best part of all!
Mr. Marc was our next door neighbor and often played songs on his guitar as the boys ran around in the backyard. As part of the Speer Family, he grew up singing gospel music and continues using his gifts to record hymns for CB&J today! These hymns are a timeless way to remind children about the character of Jesus, and we are grateful to be able to share these with you.