Teaching the Trinity to a Preschooler

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The other day I was looking at the e-mail post from Catholic Icing on ABC Christian Crafts. Now I'm not catholic though Steve is. We made the decision to bring Hazel up in my protestant church. Hazel does occasionally go to mass with Steve and his mother. Hazel and I usually go to our church every week except when we are sick, and I'll admit to not going a few times in the summer since I found without childcare I was not getting as much out of the service with the distraction of "Mommy, is it almost over?" for almost the whole service. During the school year Hazel goes to Sunday School class while I am in the service. Our church has a wonderful children's program and I know Hazel will learn a lot from it. However, I do try to also include lessons at home so she understands that God is not just something we talk about at church. Ok, back to Catholic Icing and the ABC Christian Crafts. I was intrigued by the ABC Christian Crafts since Hazel learns a letter just about each week at school or should I say her class focuses on a letter each week (she already knows all the names of the lower case and upper case letters). I explored around there and discovered the book 3 in 1: A Picture of God by Joanne Marxhausen. I was able to get a copy out of our library network. It uses an apple to explain the idea of the Trinity.

The basic idea of using the apple is simple. There are three parts of an apple: the peel, the flesh and the core. Although there are three parts it is still only one apple.

The Trinity works the same way. There are the Father, Son and Holy Spirit, but all three make one God. 

After reading the book, we did a simple Trinity craft which I found on Catholic Icing as well. You need three popsicle sticks, pen and glue gun. You write Father, Son and Holy Spirit (one on each popsicle stick). Then you glue them to be a triangle. Add a string or ribbon and it is an ornament.

 We added God and Jesus to the Father and the Son sides. I also suggest not using markers since they bled a bit on the wood. I think a ball point pen would probably have been better.

Next I wanted to extend the lesson and did a search for Trinity crafts. I discovered Preschool Post and their amazing Free ABC Preschool Bible Lessons. The first lesson is the Trinity lesson as well as a lesson on apples and the letter A. They have some wonderful printables and lessons as well as our new favorite song to sing! Here is one of the printables we did. Hazel practiced her letters. The song is in the corner and I wrote on our apple the three parts being one apple.

They also had these neat printables. Hazel colored them for me.

Then while singing the song, the child folds the appropriate part. You get this.

The final printable we used was their bracelets. I colored one in for Hazel and I think she will wear it to church tomorrow.

Again all of these printables came from Preschool Post scroll down to the Bible lesson. They also have wonderful printables for apple lessons!

I have to say, I think Hazel actually gets the idea now, so the book and lessons worked. Plus we love singing the song. Have you approached the concept of the Trinity with your child(ren)?