Sharing spiritual practices with children should always be done in an age-appropriate way. The “Tree of Contemplative Practices” is a good beginning point to think of the diversity of practices that can be shared. Of course many other practices exist not on the Tree, such as stewardship, hospitality, generosity, caring for our bodies, and caring for Mother Earth. Children are curious, but also spiritually hungry. What they need most is not only spiritual teaching, but spiritual modeling.
For too long, sharing spiritual practices with children has happened at most once a week in church during Sunday School. Passing down spiritual practices with children is best done first in the home. Without this foundation, children will see little reason to practice faith when they do not see their biggest role models- usually parents or guardians- engaging in these same practices. If spiritual practices aren’t important to you, chances are they won’t be important to your child just because they hear about it for an hour a week!
When teaching children spiritual practices, using engaging and interactive activities is always preferred. Long gone is the old pedagogy of rote memorization or relying only on passing knowledge from old to young. The new pedagogy of spiritual education encourages children and youth to live into the questions, realizing that they have deep wellsprings of wisdom inside of them. Our task as religious educators with children is drawing out the wisdom already inside of kids through faith formation in community.
For further exploration:
Formational Children’s Ministry: Shaping Children Using Story, Ritual, and Relationship by Ivy Beckwith
Children’s Ministry in the Way of Jesus by David M. Casinos and Ivy Beckwith