Ministry-to-Children.com » Church Nursery

Children’s Development From Age 0-3

Kristin Charles — Thu, 30 Jul 2009 10:53:14 +0000

Children learn through play. They’re naturals. It’s us adults that sometimes need help! We’ve forgotten how. Plus it’s difficult to know how much babies and toddlers understand anyway.

Next time you serve in the nursery, play with your own little tikes, or take care of children this age, use these developmental ages and stages as a guide to know how to play with them.

0-6 months: Sensory Learners

Infants absorb the world around them. Their visual and auditory skills are developing quickly. They love black and white contrasts, their parents’ voices, and reaching and grasping items. Tummy time is beneficial, as is flashlight or mirror play, and singing favorite nursery songs.

6-10 months: Little Explorers

Babies this age learn to impact their environment. They develop an understanding of cause and effect. “If I shake this rattle, it will make noise.” They also begin to understand object permanence: the realization that just because the ball is under the blanket doesn’t mean that it ceases to exist. Peek-a-boo games, texture exploration, ball play, and singing are some of their favorite activities.

10-16 months: Budding Communicators

Children this age are mobile. They crawl, stand, cruise, and walk. They learn to communicate with hand movements, sounds, and words. Baby signs are helpful at this age to reduce frustration levels. You can also support growing language development with songs (Wheels on the Bus, Itsy Bitsy Spider, I’m a Little Teapot, etc.) Favorite toys may include jack-in-the boxes, instruments, and push and pull toys.

16-22 months: Problem Solvers

These little guys and gals figure out how the world works. Their curiosity is insatiable! They will fill a pail, empty a pail, fill a pail, and empty a pail. They crave repetition and find security in routines. Favorite activities may not include toys at all. They are just as content with boxes and spray bottles, climbing on equipment and furniture (be cautious!), and playing any game with a trusted adult. Ring around the Rosy and London Bridge are favorite songs!

22-28 months: Creative Thinkers

Children this age enjoy pretend play. They utilize creativity, symbolic thinking, and imagination. They love role playing. In any one hour, they may be mommy, daddy, firefighter, teacher, doctor, or singer. Support their development by playing along with them: create costumes, play dress up, and talk about their pretend world. Utilizing play-dough, paint, sand, and water will help develop their fine motor skills in a fun way. Musical games like the Hokey-Pokey and musical chairs are also a big hit!

28-36 months: Logical Thinkers

Add sequence, order, and rules to the Creative Thinkers and you’ve got the Logical Thinkers. Their imaginations take off and they create their own scenarios for everything! If they attend a pretend baseball game, they will pack for the trip, ride in the car, walk to the stadium, buy concession food, and cheer on the team. To encourage them, be a part of their pretend world! Be spontaneous, fun, and creative! At 28 months, children begin to truly socialize with peers and they love it! Provide many opportunities for friend interaction.

I hope this serves as a helpful guide. Please feel free to add any comments or suggestions. As we get on a child’s level to play with them, may we love and serve them as Jesus would, according to their unique ages, abilities, and preferences.

Much of this information was derived from Zero To Three, a non-profit organization that resarches and supports infant and toddler development.

How To Make A Church Nursery Schedule

Tony Kummer — Sun, 04 May 2008 03:28:27 +0000

Creating the nursery schedule at church is one of my least favorite administrative tasks as a children’s minister. The next schedule is due out this week, so I thought I would share how I do it.

6 Steps To Making A Church Nursery Schedule

1. Revise The Old Dates

I’ve moved to a 6-week rotation for our church nursery. I simply open the Word document on my computer and edit the old dates by looking at my calendar. This saves me time because I don’t have to shuffle workers for 5th Sundays. It also makes the commitment level seem more manageable for the volunteers.

You can download my Sample Church Nursery Schedule as a Word document. It is very similar to my real one, only I’ve used fake names.

2. Review For Special Dates

While I have the calendar out, I look for special dates that will affect the nursery. These might be weeks when we cancel Sunday night church, or when we don’t offer a nursery because of a church-wide dinner.

3. Remove Any Outgoing Volunteers

I keep a master copy of the church nursery schedule in my office. I use it to make notes when workers need to come off, change their service dates, or I have new volunteers to add. It helps to keep these notes in a central location by actually writing them on my copy of the schedule. I just delete these names at first and leave the spots as blanks until the next step.

4. Fill The Empty Spots

Then I find workers to serve in the blanks on my schedule. I should probably write more in depth about finding volunteers, but for now here are a few time saving tips. How do I get volunteers for church nursery?

Identify and recruit new nursery workers before you need them. While drafting the new schedule, I often think of potential volunteers to add to my recruiting list. Why not contact these people in before you’re in a pinch?
Use a church nursery job description or volunteer handbook to set clear expectations. Having clear communication up front helps you avoid nursery burnout.
When I can’t fill all the nursery spots I will just write “Volunteer Needed” and send it out anyway. This lets usually results in a wave of new workers. Seeing the specific need in the bulletin is much more powerful than sending out a generic appeal for help. In cases where I still don’t have workers, I call the on my substitute list.

5. Pray For The Volunteer List

Why not take 10 minutes to pray for the nursery roster while it’s top of mind? Pray that God will bless them for their service. Ask for protection for their health so they don’t call in sick. Mention each volunteer by name. Then expand your prayer to include the hours of ministry represented on the list. Ask God to call out new volunteers with a heart to love and serve the little ones. Don’t waste this opportunity for specific prayer.

6. Encourage The Workers

Send encouragement with the nursery schedule mailing. I always like to send notes of encouragement to the volunteers included in their nursery schedule. This can be a great way to remind them how important their ministry is to the church.

Send a handwritten thank you note. Just something simple to say, “I’m glad God has your in our church and I’ve prayed for you this morning. May God bless you.”
Send an encouraging article. You can find some that I’ve written at the bottom of this page under “related articles.”

Some More Time Saving Tips

Keep a list of volunteers on call. These can regular volunteers who are willing to take an occasional second shift, or others who can only work on occasion.
Send the schedule in several different formats. We put it in the church worship folder (Sunday bulletin) 2 weeks at a time, post it around the church, and I mail ever people their own copy of the 6-week schedule. Some churches like to do reminder calls, but this is overkill in most small churches. If your congregation is tech savvy, you can email the church nursery schedule as well.
Use a one-page format (or smaller) and alter paper colors each month. Most of our schedules end up on people’s refrigerators, so I try to keep it as fridge-friendly as possible.
Put your contact number on the schedule. This gives people easy access when they need to make a change to their nursery commitment.

What Do You Think?

If you’ve found this article helpful, please leave a comment below to let me know. You can also ask a follow up question or share your own thoughts. Some of the best tips on this website come from readers, so don’t be shy. Click here to leave a comment.

7 Reasons Why Your Church Nursery Service Is Vital To Your Church

Tony Kummer — Wed, 23 Jan 2008 04:57:30 +0000

Too often serving in the church nursery can seem like a thankless job. One of the key tasks for children’s ministry leaders is to help volunteers understand their importance. With that in mind, I offer these following 7 reasons why serving in the church nursery is important.

Please feel free to copy these and distribute them in your church. Download this article as a Word document for easy printing.

Reason #1
God is in the church nursery. This may come as a shock, but the Bible has specific promises about God’s presence when children are welcomed and loved in Jesus’ name. You can read my article about this titled God Is In The Church Nursery.

Reason #2
Your service in the church nursery allows church goers to focus on worship, rather than worrying about their children. In a very real sense you ministry makes it possible for the pastor to fulfill his ministry.

Reason #3
The first (and sometimes lasting) feelings a child will have toward church is formed in the nursery department. While not everyone agrees, I believe that a positive experience in the church nursery is essential.

Reason #4
When you serve in the nursery, you are being entrusted with the most important (and vulnerable) members of the church family. There is no greater treasure on this side of heaven than the little ones God has given us. You must be someone special to have a job that is so important.

Reason #5
Your service is essential for your own spiritual growth. You may have never looked at it this way, but a growing Christian is always a serving Christian. Jesus was known for putting others first, when you serve in the church nursery you are walking in his example.

Reason #6
The church nursery is the first contact young families will have with your church. Your friendly greeting and exceptional care for their children can make a great first impression for your church. If they don’t feel like their children are safe, they will not return – and rightly so.

Reason #7
Your service in the church nursery is a powerful opportunity for prayer. If every nursery worker would spend several minutes praying over the children in their care, imagine how God might begin to change this coming generation. There is no better way to create an environment of spiritual nurture than to pray while you serve in the nursery.

I hope this article will be useful to you and your church. If so, leave a comment to let me know. Your feedback is an encouragement for me to post articles like this.

What do you think about this list? If you have an 8th reason, just leave me a comment below.

Remember that God blesses those who serve his children.

Writing A Church Nursery Manual In A Small Church

Tony Kummer — Wed, 12 Dec 2007 00:28:19 +0000

You must have clearly written church nursery manual regardless of your church’s size. In this article, I want to offer some tips and point you to other resources that can help you develop your own church nursery guidelines.

Ideas For Church Nursery Manual

Know your church culture. Many smaller churches will express skepticism or distrust to a written church nursery manual of policies and guidelines. This is normal and should not surprise or offend you. Small congregations typically have a much higher natural trust level among the membership because nearly everyone is related or long time members. But don’t use this as an excuse not to create guidelines for your church nursery.

Even little churches should have clearly written expectations. You will have to accommodate this attitude by writing a smaller manual. Even so, it is important to get something in writing that you can build on later. If your church nursery manual is not consistent with the culture of your church, your volunteers will ignore or resent your efforts.

If you are in a small church, do not copy and paste from a mega church nursery manual. For my church, we have a one-page set of guidelines that we post in every nursery or early childhood ministry room. I would like to expand this later. But for now, we cover the basics and try to model the more advanced items.

Balance trust and accountability. Writing down your expectations can change the dynamic of your church nursery. It can also damage relationships if not handled correctly. You must find ways to affirm your existing volunteers and assure them that you do trust them to provide care for the nursery.

At the same time the church nursery manual initiates a system of accountability and may offend a small number of workers. It is essential that you meet with nursery volunteers in small groups or individually to explain the new guidelines and assure them that “no one is in trouble.”

Some Resources For Writing A Church Nursery Manual

Download my one-page Church Nursery Volunteer Worker Guidelines (job description)
Encourage your nursery volunteers with my article titles God Is In The Church Nursery
Sample Church Nursery Manual and Safety Guidelines (PDF)
Excerpts From Another Church Nursery Manual (PDF)

Church Nursery Volunteer Worker Guidelines (job description)

Tony Kummer — Mon, 26 Nov 2007 05:30:06 +0000

Here is a list of volunteer expectations that I have been using for our church nursery. We don’t have a formal church nursery worker manual, but these guidelines have several ideas for safety that move in the right direction. I do not use the term ‘job description’ in the document. We want our people to think of their work in the church nursery as a ministry or service to the Lord. Feel free to use these in your church or leave a comment to help me revise them in the future. You can download this as a word document: Church Nursery Worker Guidelines

When I first introduced these, I called a meeting for all church nursery workers. It was a process of re-teaching what many of our best volunteers already knew. Do these guidelines solve all our issues? No, but they set clear expectations and help the church nursery minister more effectively.

Church Nursery Volunteer Worker Guidelines (job description)

Service Description – Early Childhood Ministry Volunteers

And Jesus took a child and put him in the midst of them, and taking him in his arms, he said to them, “Whoever receives one such child in my name receives me, and whoever receives me, receives not me but him who sent me.” (Mark 9:36-37)

Service Titles: Nursery Volunteer (Babies & 1s), First Steps Leader (2s & 3s)

Ministry Purpose: Your role is to provide safe, secure, nurturing, clean and efficient care to our children. Your ministry responsibilities include playing with the child or directing his play, reading to him, praying for each child, exhibiting Christ-like patience and love, and relating the events of the day to the lesson and theme in words the child can understand.

Service Expectations:

Arrive 15 minutes before scheduled service time.
Pray! Pray! Pray! Pray individually for children as they play, as they listen to the story, and for the other caregivers as you work together.
Every child’s diaper should be changed before parent’s pick up. Potty training children should ‘try’ at least once.
Oversee the check-in process. All children should have name stickers on their back. All cups and bags should also be labeled.
Oversee the check-out process. Parents will need their “ticket” to claim their child. If they don’t have they will need to wait for the Children’s Minister before the child is released.
Clean and straiten the room after the children leave.
Report and concerns or ideas for improvement to the Children’s Minister.
Attend occasional Early Childhood Ministry meetings.

Interacting With Parents:

Always thank the parent for bringing their child. It is our privilege to serve them
Always smile (even when you are tired)
Always tell the parents about any diaper or feeding events
Always follow dismissal plan

Teaching Little Ones:

Early Childhood is best time to build a God-centered worldview for children. We have provided age appropriate teaching material for all Early Childhood Ministries. This material is easy to prepare and use. Instructions are written in the curriculum. Here are some suggestions. If you need additional help see Tony or Kellie.

Integrate the biblical truth or theme into the activities the children are doing. Take advantage of every opportunity to make the truths “real” to the children, repeating them over and over, applying them to anything normal around them.
- Example: “Do you see the elephant in the puzzle? God made elephants. What else did God make? God made everything!”
Your role is to teach the children a short Bible lesson each week. It is important to be able to express excitement, energy, and love for God’s word when sharing the story and its principle. It is to be taught as truth, not as just a story.

Please sign and date if you agree to these expectations.

______________________________________________________________________________

God Is In The Church Nursery

Tony Kummer — Sun, 03 Jun 2007 06:15:10 +0000

Use this article to encourage your church nursery workers. Try sending it along with their schedule and reminded everyone that babies matter to God. The church nursery can be so much more than childcare. But it begins with an awareness of the presence of God with the little children. {download here}

God Is In The Church Nursery

Where is God on Sunday morning? Of course, God is everywhere. We know that God is enthroned in the praises of his people. (Psalm 22:3) When we gather to worship – God is with us.

We know that God is there when we pray. Jesus said, “For where two or three are gathered in my name, there am I among them.” (Matthew 18:20) When we pray – God is with us.

We know that God is there when his Word is read, preached, loved and obeyed. The Lord says, “I am watching over my word to perform it.” (Jeremiah 1:12) When the Bible speaks – God is with us.

We know that God is everywhere. “Can a man hide himself in secret places so that I cannot see him? declares the LORD. Do I not fill heaven and earth? declares the LORD.” (Jeremiah 23:24) “The eyes of the LORD are in every place, keeping watch on the evil and the good.” (Proverbs 15:3) No matter where we go – God is with us.

But did you know that God is back in the church nursery? “And Jesus took a child and put him in the midst of them, and taking him in his arms, he said to them, “Whoever receives one such child in my name receives me, and whoever receives me, receives not me but him who sent me.” (Mark 9:36-37) When you welcome a child in the name of Jesus you welcome Jesus himself. When we minister to children – God is with us.

If you wonder why so many people are blessed by serving in the church nursery. Now you know – God is there.