5 things you need to know to teach babies-2s

So you’ve never taught babies-2s before? No problem. Here are 5 things to know or to pass along to your volunteers who teach these sweet children.

1. The child determines the order of the lesson, not the teacher.
If you attempt to teach babies-2s like you would teach 4th graders, you will forever be frustrated. Allow babies-2s to choose what activity they do and when. All babies won’t do the same thing at the same time. Allow them to play with the items they choose and talk to them about Jesus as they play and complete activities.
2. Their attention spans are very short. They will move from one activity to another and back to the first activity very quickly and very frequently.
Babies-2s won’t sit through one of your lectures on the book of Ephesians. They will constantly be moving and squirming. Embrace it!
3. As they grow, they will continually need to be allowed to make more choices.
Set up activities and allow the children to go between the activities freely.
4. Find teachable moments.
Babies-2s won’t have a very structured Bible time. You will tell the story during activities. Use each activity to talk to the children and continually reinforce the concepts you are teaching that day.
5. Talk to the babies-2s about Jesus, even if they can’t talk yet.
You are building strong foundations for these children to build upon throughout their life. Just because they cannot talk does not mean that they cannot understand and hear about Jesus.
Enjoy teaching the youngest in the preschool area about Jesus! He passionately desires to have a relationship with them as well!