Given the impact Jellytelly was having on my two boys - especially my Captain Silly Wiggles, I was thrilled when I learned about Jellyfish Lab's next project. The beloved puppet cast would be hosting a new DVD series called What's in the Bible? that would walk kids through the Bible from beginning to end. I already knew that the folks at Jellyfish had the ability to make the "drier" parts of Scripture accessible to children, so I anticipated a wonderful resource as this new project dug deeper into the books of the Bible. When our copy came in the mail, we stuck it in the DVD player as fast as possible. I loved it. I've seen lots of Christian Ed. resources, but I have never been so impressed as I am with the stuff currently coming from Jellyfish Labs. I knew it was going to be great for kids. I was surprised at how great it was for me! Watching WITB, I learned a ton and came away with a new hunger for reading Scripture. I couldn't wait to tell everyone I knew about this wonderful new tool.
The boys were a different story. They were pretty excited about the shiny new box with Buck Denver on the front, but the show didn't really hold their interest. They would wander in and out, stopping for a few minutes to watch and then moving on to play with a toy and coming back later to watch a little more. That was ok with me. Even if they didn't get anything from WITB yet, I was pretty sure it would come in very handy as they got older.
On with life.... Cap is what many would call a strong-willed child. He's a high energy, rough-and-tumble boy. He's a very logical thinker who doesn't do well with deviating from his idea of what is the right way to do things. He tends to get in trouble. A lot.
Last fall, my husband and I decided to enroll Cap in a nearby preschool program. Suffice it to say that he has not been the picture-perfect preschooler. It wasn't long before I could tell with a single glance at his teacher how the day had gone. If she made eye-contact with me when I walked in the door I knew he'd had a decent day. No eye-contact meant trouble. It wasn't very often that she looked me in the eye when I walked into the building.
Cap has been a tough kid to discipline. I've spent a lot of time around all kinds of kids. When I worked with kids I always enjoyed the kids that were "difficult". For any L.M. Montgomery fans, I enjoyed the Davies more than the Doras. Davies just need more help. Well, God knows best and he certainly gave me a little Davy: a horribly mischeivous, adorably sweet little boy. Most of his trouble came in the area of self-control: Why sit quietly and the table and do my work when I can make the other kids laugh? Why come when I'm called when I know the teacher will chase me if I run away from her? Why play neatly at home when it's so much more fun to dump the entire 2 lb. bag of rice on the floor and play in the mess? The difficulty with disciplining Cap is that he's fickle. Take away his favorite toy and he'll be distraught. Take it away the next time he's in trouble? He could care less. Take away all his toys? So what? For every discipline style we've used, Cap has pretty quickly met us with a "that's ok" attitude. He's not being defiant (usually). He just stops seeing the punishment as being a big deal.
In the midst of our struggle to guide our little Davy in the right direction, Cap actually came up with the answer to our problem. And with one little discussion, God used the Jellyfish to change the way I parent my boys.
At the time, going to the corner was the punishment of choice. It was a devastating blow that altered the course of bad behavior for the few months it was in use before Cap decided the corner was ok. On this particular day, time out was over and I came to sit by Cap and discuss the problem behavior with him. Before I could utter a word, Cap started the conversation:
A distraught little Captain Silly Wiggles: "Mommy, when I do what I want to do, choose myself over others and go my own way, that's called sin."
Flabbergasted Me: "You're right."
Cap: "Sin breaks my arrationship with God, because sin can't be near God."
Me: "That's true."
(Suddenly brightening up) Cap: "But it's ok because God has a rescue plan so we can be with him again!"
This conversation was a direct result, and almost a verbatim quotation, from What's in the Bible?. And everyday we were having the same conversation. Cap would get in trouble and he would initiate a heartfelt discussion about sin and how God saves us from our sin. When he made bad choices, we prayed together. When I shared this with his preschool teacher (a private Christian school) she decided to use the same methods in the classroom.
A lot of things changed with that little conversation in the corner. I learned that it's never too early to point our children to God. By giving them the opportunity to learn about God and the Bible in ways that speak to them, kids grow and flourish with the ability to think about God's place in all of the little aspects of their lives. They have the capacity to understand so much more of our story as God's people than we often give them credit for. From that day on I've been a lot more open with my kids about the meaning behind my decisions, letting them know that things I do with and for them are for the purpose of helping them grow into men that love God and love others. My motivations haven't changed, but our communication has changed drastically.
We now own all 5 of the What's in the Bible? DVDs that have been released to date. All of them are well loved by both of my boys. All of them have sparked discussions that I never would have imagined having with a preschooler. Everyday and all day long we are talking about what's in the Bible (and it's not me starting the conversations). Cap wants to know how God feels about this or that. He explains the nature of the trinity to little Skidamarink. He chats with his aunt about the dangers of apostasy and has a discussion on the life and times of Ishbosheth with the lady sitting behind us at church. He wants to know if grown-ups and people from the Bible have sinned and how they responded to their sin. He plays Captain Pete, spouting off important pirate terminology like Arrr, Shiver Me Timbers and Septuagint. He picks up his little guitar and sings songs about Deuteronomy and Leviticus for his friends.
He doesn't know this stuff because he's super smart or super spiritual. He knows this stuff because, through the creative works of What's in the Bible? and JellyTelly, the Bible has been made accessible to him. He has soaked up information about the story of God and his people. The things he has learned have shaped his thinking and given him a special lens through which to view the world. My little Cap is learning, as a 4 year-old, to look at the world from God's perspective. And that is certainly enough to make me gush about how much I love What's in the Bible?.
DVD 1 First 5 Minutes
Showing posts with label JellyTelly. Show all posts
Showing posts with label JellyTelly. Show all posts
6.16.2011
Our Introduction to the Jellyfish
I am a Christian who has always had a very big heart for kids. Before I had kids of my own, I taught Sunday School, worked in a church office, helped with youth ministries, directed VBS, and held a position as Director of Children's Ministries at our church. When I had my own kids it seemed obvious to me that my primary parenting motivation would be pointing my kids to God.
Before I met the Jellyfish, I had one son. Cap went to church when he was a week old and spent several days a week playing in my office at the church, playing in the nursery during programming, and worshipping with us on Sunday mornings. From the time he was born he heard that God loved him on a regular basis. He had three storybook Bibles and a cross hung on his wall. He loved it all and I thought things were going well. I knew that the most important thing I could teach my little guy was that God loved him. As a young child, Cap needed to know that church was a happy place to be where he was surrounded by people who loved God and loved him.
The tricky part of Christian parenting comes in the next stage. How do you point your children to God as they get older and capable of more comprehension? The hardest part of all seems to be introducing the Bible to kids. The storybook Bibles do a good job of highlighting some cute little stories from the Bible, but I'm not sure they always get it right. Sure, we can learn that God keeps his promises from the story of Noah. But is that what that story is all about? How do we teach children the Bible as a whole? The good book has some pretty messy parts. There's a lot of death and destruction. A lot of people making really bad choices. And there are those really tedious bits about genealogy and rules and specific instructions for building stuff. If I struggle with some of those things, how can I possibly share meaning from them with my child? I tend to think ahead. I didn't anticipate actually dealing with these aspects of the Bible for quite awhile with Cap. But, I figured by thinking ahead I would better know what to do when he was ready for more in-depth Bible reading.
Enter the Jellyfish. After watching VeggieTales with Cap and now newborn Skidamarink one day, I began to wonder what VT creator Phil Vischer was up to now-a-days. I knew that he was no longer running Big Idea Productions, the parent company of VeggieTales. So was he working on anything new? That's when I came across the Jellyfish. Jellyfish Labs - Phil's new company. I read a little on Phil's blog and found out about a project he was working on called JellyTelly. JellyTelly is a web-based mini-tv network for Christian kids. It looked interesting. I listened to Phil talk about why JellyTelly existed: to help kids who spent so much time surrounded by meaningless media know what they believed and why. Sounded great to me. Then I opened an episode. There was a puppet newsman who answered questions from kids: anything from silly to deeply theological. There was a puppet Sunday School teacher who taught about books of the Bible. There were puppet explorers who shared information about God's Amazing Animals and a puppet scientist who narrated old science films to share about God's wonderful creation. There was a puppet pastor who sang unknown hymns and defined big words. There was a puppet pirate that taught manners. Plus there were other, non-puppet programs: bands that played songs to teach kids about the Bible and faith, animated rocks that specialized in Scripture memorization, and more. I liked what I saw, but the content was definitely intended for an audience of older kids. My little toddler and newborn would be waiting awhile before they were old enough for JellyTelly. So I thought.
The next morning Cap, who had been sitting on my lap for my first perusal of JellyTelly, asked me if he could watch "computer Bible." In fact, he asked me if he could watch "computer Bible" every day. First thing in the morning he would climb out of bed and ask me to turn on JellyTelly. I let him watch whenever he wanted, but wasn't expecting him to be picking up much. Over the next few weeks I was amazed at the way the Bible was becoming real to him. He was learning things I didn't know until I was in high school. At barely two-years-old, he would pick up my Bible, flip through the pages, and name all of the books from Genesis to 2 Samuel. In order. What's the 10th book of the Bible? 2-year-old Cap could tell you! He knew that the book of Deuteronomy reminds us that "God gives you his best, give him your best, and you will be blessed." He would walk around the house singing God Rocks! songs that were really verses of scripture. Long verses of Scriptures. My 2 yo knew the 8 fruits of the Spirit. He could sing 1 Corinthians 13 for you. He was blowing me away, soaking up all the information on JellyTelly.
But, it was head knowledge . He memorized all of those things the same way he would eventually memorize colors and shapes and letters. (Yes, Cap knew the first 10 books of the Bible and what they were about before he could tell you if something was red or blue.) Still, I was excited about JellyTelly. Though Cap may just be memorizing information, I knew the things he had learned would be a doorway to some important conversations later on - much later on down the road. So I thought...
I think it was just before Cap turned 3 that we got our first What's in the Bible? DVD in the mail. WITB was the newest Jellyfish Labs project, aimed at teaching kids about the Bible as a big picture, with the help of our favorite puppets. Again, I figured it was way over Cap's head. Again I was proven wrong. JellyTelly had already influenced our life by introducing all kinds of new concepts to Cap. Now it was WITB's turn to shake things up.
Before I met the Jellyfish, I had one son. Cap went to church when he was a week old and spent several days a week playing in my office at the church, playing in the nursery during programming, and worshipping with us on Sunday mornings. From the time he was born he heard that God loved him on a regular basis. He had three storybook Bibles and a cross hung on his wall. He loved it all and I thought things were going well. I knew that the most important thing I could teach my little guy was that God loved him. As a young child, Cap needed to know that church was a happy place to be where he was surrounded by people who loved God and loved him.
The tricky part of Christian parenting comes in the next stage. How do you point your children to God as they get older and capable of more comprehension? The hardest part of all seems to be introducing the Bible to kids. The storybook Bibles do a good job of highlighting some cute little stories from the Bible, but I'm not sure they always get it right. Sure, we can learn that God keeps his promises from the story of Noah. But is that what that story is all about? How do we teach children the Bible as a whole? The good book has some pretty messy parts. There's a lot of death and destruction. A lot of people making really bad choices. And there are those really tedious bits about genealogy and rules and specific instructions for building stuff. If I struggle with some of those things, how can I possibly share meaning from them with my child? I tend to think ahead. I didn't anticipate actually dealing with these aspects of the Bible for quite awhile with Cap. But, I figured by thinking ahead I would better know what to do when he was ready for more in-depth Bible reading.
Enter the Jellyfish. After watching VeggieTales with Cap and now newborn Skidamarink one day, I began to wonder what VT creator Phil Vischer was up to now-a-days. I knew that he was no longer running Big Idea Productions, the parent company of VeggieTales. So was he working on anything new? That's when I came across the Jellyfish. Jellyfish Labs - Phil's new company. I read a little on Phil's blog and found out about a project he was working on called JellyTelly. JellyTelly is a web-based mini-tv network for Christian kids. It looked interesting. I listened to Phil talk about why JellyTelly existed: to help kids who spent so much time surrounded by meaningless media know what they believed and why. Sounded great to me. Then I opened an episode. There was a puppet newsman who answered questions from kids: anything from silly to deeply theological. There was a puppet Sunday School teacher who taught about books of the Bible. There were puppet explorers who shared information about God's Amazing Animals and a puppet scientist who narrated old science films to share about God's wonderful creation. There was a puppet pastor who sang unknown hymns and defined big words. There was a puppet pirate that taught manners. Plus there were other, non-puppet programs: bands that played songs to teach kids about the Bible and faith, animated rocks that specialized in Scripture memorization, and more. I liked what I saw, but the content was definitely intended for an audience of older kids. My little toddler and newborn would be waiting awhile before they were old enough for JellyTelly. So I thought.
The next morning Cap, who had been sitting on my lap for my first perusal of JellyTelly, asked me if he could watch "computer Bible." In fact, he asked me if he could watch "computer Bible" every day. First thing in the morning he would climb out of bed and ask me to turn on JellyTelly. I let him watch whenever he wanted, but wasn't expecting him to be picking up much. Over the next few weeks I was amazed at the way the Bible was becoming real to him. He was learning things I didn't know until I was in high school. At barely two-years-old, he would pick up my Bible, flip through the pages, and name all of the books from Genesis to 2 Samuel. In order. What's the 10th book of the Bible? 2-year-old Cap could tell you! He knew that the book of Deuteronomy reminds us that "God gives you his best, give him your best, and you will be blessed." He would walk around the house singing God Rocks! songs that were really verses of scripture. Long verses of Scriptures. My 2 yo knew the 8 fruits of the Spirit. He could sing 1 Corinthians 13 for you. He was blowing me away, soaking up all the information on JellyTelly.
But, it was head knowledge . He memorized all of those things the same way he would eventually memorize colors and shapes and letters. (Yes, Cap knew the first 10 books of the Bible and what they were about before he could tell you if something was red or blue.) Still, I was excited about JellyTelly. Though Cap may just be memorizing information, I knew the things he had learned would be a doorway to some important conversations later on - much later on down the road. So I thought...
I think it was just before Cap turned 3 that we got our first What's in the Bible? DVD in the mail. WITB was the newest Jellyfish Labs project, aimed at teaching kids about the Bible as a big picture, with the help of our favorite puppets. Again, I figured it was way over Cap's head. Again I was proven wrong. JellyTelly had already influenced our life by introducing all kinds of new concepts to Cap. Now it was WITB's turn to shake things up.
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