Bubbles Top Tips

Each quarter, this page will be updated with new Top Tips from Maggie Barfield, the editor of Bubbles...

October - December 2011

As Christmas approaches once again, early years’ specialist Judith Wigley reflects on the real reason for working with young children.

‘I wonder if you have ever studied a young child and watched their reactions and responses. Picture a baby for a moment. Watch them speak through their eyes, see their tiny feet kick and fingers flicker, hear their gurgles or cries, respond to their smile, feel the touch of their hand reaching out to you. They have the potential to make us smile and to fill us with wonder and affection. At times, they frustrate us beyond belief! But they are truly amazing and they radiate the mark of their Creator.

‘God chose to reveal himself in Jesus a helpless, vulnerable baby. He was still the all-powerful creator of the universe but chose to enter our world as a weak, fragile, totally dependent child. The truth of the Nativity scene never ceases to amaze me and, when I look at a new born baby, I am reminded of that scene. I find babies and children profoundly spiritual individuals with a capacity to communicate important truths about the presence of God in each one of us. When I wonder at a newborn baby I am often reminded of God and how he longs to reach out and touch us. I believe that babies and young children are profoundly spiritual individuals and they have the capacity to communicate much of spiritual value to us, who are adults, too!

‘Try to spend some undisturbed time with a young baby. Study carefully their every feature and watch their every expression and movement.

What do you imagine that they are thinking?
How are they responding to you?
What might they be trying to say to you?’

For more information, see the Scripture Union Book ‘Working with under 5s’.