Parental Love
A lesson celebrating Parental Love- unconditional love that we receive from our parents and ultimately from God our Heavenly Parent. This lesson also celebrates Heavenly Parent’s Day & True Parents’ Birthday! We’re so grateful to True Parents who teach us about the 4 Realms of Heart.
“Parental Love” Unit: 4 Realms of Heart
LESSON PURPOSE: Learning about our parents’ heart as well as God, our Heavenly Parent, and True Parent’s love for us.
MATERIALS: Picture Book, learning toys, craft supplies
BOOKS: God Gave Us You / Kissing Hand / Love You Forever / I Love You Stinky Face / Guess How Much I Love You
SONG IDEAS: God Loves Me Veggie Tales / I Love You (Barney Theme Song) / What a Wonderful World
AS CHILDREN ARRIVE: Choose 1 Sensory Activity:
Dolls: Baby dollies, diapers, bottles, blankets, stuffed animals.
Mommy Daddy play centers: kitchen play food, building tools, gardening, car garage
Playdough: playdough & heart cookie cutters.
Birthday Sensory bin: filled with streamers, pom poms, party hats, candles, balloons
Offering Table: have children stack clementines, apples, wrapped cookies, etc. Children can holy salt, then stack and pray over it thanking God. And share the snacks later in the lesson.
SCRIPTURE: Display the weekly scripture reading, have an older child read it or use it in the lesson as you like.
“See what kind of love the Father has given to us, that we should be called children of God; and so we are.” -1 John 3:1
“Grandparents handed down love to parents, the parents handed down love to a husband and a wife, and the couple handed down love to children… You were born of your parents, so your parents were the first ones to whom you could speak. Your first sound was "daddy and mommy." What are parents born for? They are born for their children!” -True Father
INTRODUCE the Lesson:
WELCOME: SONG, PRAYER, TP Greeting
SONG IDEAS: God Loves Me Veggie Tales / I Love You (Barney Theme Song) / What a Wonderful World
REVIEW & TRANSITION:
We’ve been learning about the 4 Realms of Heart! Last week, we celebrated Valentine’s day and how to be a good brother, sister/friend to others by learning to give and live for others, not just ourselves. As we celebrate Heavenly Parent’s Day & True Parents Birthday this month- we are going to learn about the heart of a Parent!
ATTENTION GRABBER:
Pregnant Mom or Baby- Show & Tell! If you have a pregnant Momma or a little baby in your congregation- invite them to join you for 5 min! (Or use a photo). Discuss with the pregnant mom or parent of the baby about how God blessed Mommy & Daddy with a child to love! Talk about the baby growing inside mommy’s belly and how the mommy & Daddy do different things to prepare for baby! What did your parents prepare for you when you were a little baby? Nursery, diapers, bottles, books, toys etc! Your parents have loved watching you grow in to big boys & girls since then! (Optional: allow children to dress & hold a baby doll or stuffed animal during the lesson)
True Parents Family Photo- share a photo of True Parents with all of their children and grandchildren! Ask children who the big family is? Talk about True Parents, their big family and parental love.
INTRO:
Your parents want the world for you! Your parents loved you before you were even born! Parental love is the highest form of love- it is unconditional (loves no matter what!) like God’s love! God, our Heavenly Parent, has a parental heart of love for all of his children! In the same way as True Parents and our own parents do.
CHOOSE 1 OR 2: READ A STORY, SING A SONG OR POEM, WATCH A VIDEO:
VIDEOS: click on the link for educational, sing along or dance videos
God Gave Us You Storytime
Part of My Heart Read Aloud
Family Finger Song Fingerplay sing along
READ ALOUD STORY:
SONG OR POEM:
Love Is A Circle Love is a circle, Round and round (make a circling motion with arm) Love goes up, (raise arms up) And Love comes down, (lower arms) Love is on the inside, (pull hands inward towards chest) Trying to get out, (pull hands away from chest) Love is whirling and twirling about! (move hands in a spinning motion)
Family Finger Song Daddy finger, daddy finger, (thumb) where are you? Here I am, here I am How do you do? Mommy finger… (pointer finger) Brother finger… (middle finger) Sister finger… (ring finger) Baby finger… (pinky)
*TEACH the Lesson:
TEACHING POINT 1: Parental Love
TEACHING WITH DISCUSSION: (Can write answers on a white board, draw pictures of the discussion or sit in a circle taking turns with a talking stick.)
Read or Watch a Story- Share & discuss any main points from the story.
DISCUSS: Optional: Visual Family Printable
What do your Mommy & Daddy do for you because they love you?
Cook for me! Make me lunch. Tuck me in, bedtime stories. Daddy plays outside with me. Mommy does crafts with me. Drive the car, grocery shop, go to work, etc…
How did your parents prepare for you when you were in your Mama’s belly?
They sang to your belly, Mama ate healthy & listened to your heart at the doctor, prepared a nursery, bought bottles, diapers, baby books…
Do you remember being a baby? How did your parents love you then?
They rocked me, held me, fed me milk, changed stinky diapers, sang lullabies, read stories, played with me…
What is your favorite way to feel love from Mommy and Daddy now? Grandparents? Aunties & Uncles? How do you know they love you?
Hugs, kisses, “I Love You”, playing together…
How does Parental love feel? How does God’s love feel?
Warm, safe, loving, embracing, sweet, nurturing
TEACHING POINT 2: UNconditional love *OPTIONAL EXTENSION
INTERACTIVE LEARNING
Movement Activity- Have children reach out their arms as wide as they can, stretch as high as they can! Hold hands all together and reach as far as they can. Explain that “unconditional” means your parents love you bigger and further and longer than that!
Use a measuring tape to measure different lengths and talk about how our parents, TP and God, our Heavenly Parent’s love can not be measured- it goes on forever!
Your parents love you so much! They love you when you’re happy, excited, try something new, when you’re feeling sad, even when you’re upset. Your parents will always forgive you for mistakes and love you no matter what. You can always go to your parents for anything. Your parents are so proud of you when you learn new things and receive the greatest joy from watching you grow!
CONCLUSION:
As we celebrate Heavenly Parents Day & True Parents Birthday, we remember God’s love for us as a parent! Just like your parents prepared so much for your arrival as a baby, God prepared this beautiful world for us! In the same way that your parents love you- God loves you! So today we are grateful for our Parents’ heart. We give our parents big hugs & blow kisses of gratitude to God, our Heavenly Parent, & True Parents as we thank them for their love on these special church holy days.
TITHING & PRAYER:
Dear Heavenly Parent. Thank you for our Mommy & Daddy who love us so much! Thank you for True Parents and for your love God! We are so grateful. We want to receive all of that warmth, coziness and love to help us grow in to your wonderful children!
APPLY the Lesson:
GROUP ACTIVITIES: choose 1 :
TP Birthday Party! Hold a mini Birthday Party holy day celebration. Sing Happy Birthday to God (to celebrate Heavenly Parent’s Day) and to True Parents! (to celebrate their Birthday). Some ideas: make & wear party hats, throw confetti, share a sweet, decorate a cupcake, play a game with balloons. Have children help set up a mini offering table or make a big card or giant cardboard birthday cake together for True Parents. Leftover Valentine’s decor & party games work great!
Valentine’s Minute to Win It Games- Play fun love, heart themed games together!
CRAFTS: choose 1
Paper Plate Party Hats: pre cut out triangles in the paper plates. Children can paint with watercolors, decorate with glitter, stickers, pom poms, tissue paper!
Cardboard Birthday Cake: this is a whole group craft- have children all paint & decorate a giant cake together. Present it in the Sanctuary after Service or at your holy day celebration & take a photo of all the children with it! (Pre assemble wrapped boxes)
Invisible Message from God- Write “God Loves _____.” on each child’s paper with a white crayon ahead of time. Have children paint with watercolors- to reveal God’s special message! A really cool way to explain gods love. We can’t always see it but it’s there.
Kissing Hand: Have children put their hand prints on a paper and put a heart sticker in the middle. Explain to parents that they can place a kiss in their child’s hand that will go with them everywhere they go and help them feel safe and loved. It never washes off! Kissing Hand Coloring Page
Thank You Cards: Have children draw a picture of their family and write (or teacher writes) what they love about their parents on the card. Card can be in the shape of a heart. Children can color & decorate.
SPECIAL: optional
*BABY PHOTOS: Fun idea for next Sunday! For next Sunday’s lesson of “Children’s Love” ask parents to bring in a photo of their child as a baby! Then we’ll play a baby photo guessing game with all the children. :) Teachers can also participate!
SNACK IDEAS:
Valentine themed healthy snacks!
Enjoy the lesson! Feel free to submit photos to lgavin@unification.org Love seeing lessons come to life and each community
HOME CONNECTION- coming shortly!
PDF PRINTABLE HERE
Save the image to share with parents!