These are mentioned here because of the “Catechism Corner” that each contains, and the rest of each bulletin also is, well, frankly, amazing. Consider how this Catechism Corner puts the Catechism before little children each week, and how it shows parents the ease of using little portions of the Catechism.
Lessons for Lambs is a children’s bulletin that follows the one-year historic lectionary. Lessons for Lambs is not meant to serve as a way to keep kids busy and quiet during the service, but rather to involve them in what’s going on in the service so they can begin thinking about it. The bulletins are geared toward kids in 2nd through 6th grades with varying degrees of independence. They could certainly be used with younger kids, in part, with help from their parents, and by older kids who still need a better theological foundation.
This resource for churches was developed by Mrs. Heidi Sias, and is free of charge for congregational use.
Each bulletin contains:
- Name of the church year week (with an explanation if necessary)
and color; - Artwork depicting the Gospel reading for the kids to color (front cover artwork is by Ed Riojas and has been used by permission of Higher Things copyright © 2006. If you would like to order a complete set of the cover art, CLICK HERE);
- Something for the kids to “listen for” during the service;
- The week’s Gospel reading with questions to think about;
- A biography of a featured person from the Bible (related to one of the weekly readings when possible);
- A catechism lesson (from the 1912 version, now in public domain, which is almost identical to the 1943 edition familiar to many older LCMS members) and/or hymn (also public domain); and
- A puzzle related to what is covered in the week’s bulletin (word search, crossword or word scramble).
- Some weeks also include additional artwork to color or drawing
boxes asking the children to draw something related to the week.
Will a similar product be available for the 3-year series?
Hi Bob,
That same thought struck me. Doing this for the 1-year was quite an endeavor, I am sure, so doing it for the 3-year would be huge. I have contacted the author about the 3-year and hope that something will formulate to make that possible. If you have a moment, I encourage you to click on the email link for Heidi Sias given above in the blog post and let her know you are interested. For a project of that size, no doubt it would be helpful to the author to know that there is interest.
Definitely interested in the 3 year. Meanwhile, this is wonderful! What a resource to help us catechize our 4 kids! Thank you.
Hi again, Bob,
I checked into this and unfortunately, but very understandably, this will not happen, at least not any time soon.
CPH sells children’s bulletin inserts that follow the 3-year lectionary. I have only looked at the sample on their website, not the whole series. In the sample, I did not see any Catechism content. You can check it out here:
https://www.cph.org/p-14852-childrens-lutheran-download-qtr-1.aspx