God created everyone, and he loves everyone on this earth. His desire is to see people turn to him for grace, healing and love. There are often injustices done toward people, and he detests it. He is a just God and speaks out continuously against the evils imposed on people in this life. We are encouraged not to judge people and show favoritism. I love that kids aren’t judgmental in this way. My kids have never mentioned other kids being a different color. They don’t know what brands people are wearing or what cars they are driving. They could care less about other people’s size, intelligence or abilities. People are people. Because of this, when approaching this subject of treating people the same, I tread lightly. I have had other moms say that their kids never noticed (or at least mentioned) the color of people’s skin until it was pointed out during Dr. Martin Luther King week. I think it’s really important to learn from the past so as to not repeat the same mistakes, so I’m not saying kids shouldn’t be taught these important historical lessons. However, I don’t want to rush the process if they don’t notice these differences yet. Therefore, I addressed the subject by talking in more general terms. I said something along the lines as this:
Sometimes there are people who choose to not like people for the silliest reasons. They may say something like, “I don’t like people who have blue eyes.” Then, they do the meanest things to the people they have decided to hate. They decide these people should be treated poorly. Maybe they make them sit on the floor when they get a nice seat at the table. They may choose not to go to the same bathroom that person has used. They might give the person only bread to eat while they eat a big, yummy meal. There have been really mean things done because people decide to not be fair and find ridiculous reasons not to like each other. They might choose to not like people because of what they look like, how much money they have, what they believe about God or even who they think our President should be. There are so many reason people choose to treat people poorly. What we need to learn is that God created and he loves all people. God tells us not to hate people for these reasons. He wants us to look out for people that are being treated in an unfair way and make sure we are sticking up for them. You might see this on the playground or in other situations in life, and we always need to make sure we are treating people how God intended – with love and respect. We want to make sure we are treating others in a fair way because that is what God wants. “Do unto others as you would have them do unto you.”
We then sang the song, “Jesus loves the little children all the children of the world – red and yellow, black and white – they are precious in his sight. Jesus loves the little children of the world. Then, it was time to make some folding paper dolls. I have made a printable to make it easy for you to replicate.
You will want to have the kids fold the paper into 8ths. That is folding the paper in half 3x. Then, trace the half person from my printable or make your own, making sure to line up the belly along a fold.
The next step is to cut it out. Abby needed a little help and Kenzie needed a lot of help. Depending on the ages, be prepared to aid this process.
Open it up – Surprise…at least for my kids. They didn’t know where it was going.
Your kids now have four people to color – red and yellow, black and white – they are precious in his sight.
I had them do the colors on one side and then whatever differences they wanted on the back.