Read 100 Best Ideas to Turbocharged your Preschool Ministry for Free Online Page B

and our kids.These loving relationships provide a favorable environment where preschoolers can learn and soak up God’s Word.
    Fun Experiences—We do everything we can to make the Bible come alive for our kids by incorporating games, hands-on activities, and creativity.The last thing we want a preschooler to say as he or she leaves our church is “It was boring,” and we do everything in our power to keep that from happening.
    I was in the lobby recently saying goodbye to families as they left, and I noticed a 3-year-old who was crying.When I asked the parents what had happened, they said it was their first time to visit our church, and their child didn’t want to leave.They’ve been attending ever since.This should be our goal every week—kids having such a good time soaking in God’s Word that they don’t want to leave when their parents come to pick them up.
—Eric

Were you aware that at birth our brains have almost all the neurons they will ever have?The brain continues to grow after birth, but it reaches 95 percent of its adult size by the age of 4.A look at the incredible milestones occurring during the preschool years of life gives a whole new perspective on what to expect from these little ones with brains almost as big as ours.
    Here’s some of the amazing progress preschoolers make each year.
    3 Years—Children in this age group love to talk and sing.They’re able to answer simple questions such as “What are you doing?”“What is this?”and “Where?”They also ask a lot of questions—oftentimes just to keep the conversation going.By 3, a child will use sentences of three or more words and have a vocabulary of 300 to 1,000 words.Children begin to describe what they’re seeing and doing and start using words to reason things out.Three-year-olds can hold crayons between their first two fingers and thumb, use blunt scissors, stack nine or 10 blocks, wash and dry their hands, and catch a large bounced ball with their arms.They like to look at books and will listen attentively to age-appropriate stories.They can copy a rough circle or cross, and they can work puzzles with large pieces.
    4 Years—At this age children have a growing understanding of past, present, and future, and they’re able to follow familiar routines on their own.Typically, 4-year-olds have a vocabulary of 1,000 words and use sentences of up to eight words.They can answer the questions “Whose?”“Who” “Why?”and “How many?”They jump well, run fast, hop on one foot, and climb ladders, trees, and playground equipment.Children this age enjoy sorting objects into groups; they can form shapes and objects with clay, such as snakes, cookies, and simple animals, and build block structures that are vertical and horizontal.They like stories about how things grow and how things operate.They’re able to hold a crayon using a tripod grasp and reproduce some shapes and letters.Four-year-olds paint and draw with purpose, butwhen they have trouble implementing the ideas they have in mind, they may call their creations something else.
    5 Years—Five-year-olds know thousands of words and can say them clearly.They can describe people and events in detail and use complex sentences.At this age, children understand and use time concepts such as yesterday, tomorrow, day, and night.They ask innumerable questions such as “Why?”What?”“Where?”and “How?”This is a stage where children make great strides physically.Five-year-olds are in constant motion and can’t sit still.They can skip using alternate feet, walk backward, jump or hop forward 10 times in a row, and balance on either foot.They can catch a ball from three feet away and ride a tricycle with speed and skill.They can count to 20 or more and identify four to eight colors.Many children at this age know the alphabet and can reproduce lots of shapes and letters.Most 5-year-olds demonstrate fair control of a pencil or marker, and are able to cut on the line with scissors