Children's Ministry Resources

Resources for parents

Children’s Ministry Resource List

As we navigate parenting as a church family, we will do our best to update our resource list to equip you with practical ideas.

Mindfulness & Mental Health

Mindfulness takes practice! Click on the button below for a list of great examples of how to help our kids learn to breathe and center themselves that are easy and helpful. (I think these are great for adults too!) "Kids experience negative thoughts and anxiety too, especially in difficult times or when their routines are disrupted. Mindfulness is a great way for us to practice how to be calm and relaxed and learn that our thoughts and emotions don’t need to rule our minds."

Mindfulness exercises for young children

In this uncharted territory, and with the chaos and uncertainty, can come stress on our mental health. Especially as decisions for the rest of summer and the fall continue to happen - it can create a lot of stress and anxiety. And we cannot forget that our kids can feel these emotions too. If you are looking for ways to help your child communicate their feelings, these Emotion Wheels are great for helping them to point out what they are feeling in the moment. Here are two different options:

Supporting your child’s emotional needs during the pandemic.

Parenting Podcasts

Parenting Forward - Cindy Wang Brandt has conversations with thought leaders on parenting children with healthy spirituality.

Evolving Faith - This organization started in order to, "cultivate hope and love in the wilderness" and now they have a podcast that recently launched. It is not a parenting podcast, but is a great listen as they interview people like Austin Channing-Brown and Jen Hatmaker, etc.! 

Parents Take Five – These are 5-10 minute easy to listen to podcasts by Jen Evans from Second Presbyterian Church in Little Rock, AK. They are short, but you get a little nugget to think about with each listen about what it means to be a Christian parent today.

Book Lists

A list of parenting kids in faith by Sarah Besey.

 Anti Racist Children’s Book Suggestions:

 Young Children:

  • Anti-Racist Baby Board Book by Ibram X. Kendi
  • All The Colors We Are: The story of how we get our skin color by Katie

Kissinger

  • All are Welcome by Alexandra Penfold and Suzanne Kaufman
  • Love Makes a Family Board Book by Sophie Beard

 Pre-K-2nd Grade

  • The Colors of Us by Karen Katz
  • I am Enough by Grace Byers
  • Let’s Talk about Race by Julius Lester
  • Sometimes People March by Tessa Allen
  • Hair Love by Matthew Cherry
  • Alma and How She Got her Name by Juana Martinez-Neal
  • Where are you from? By Jaime Kim
  • Dreamers by Yuyi Morales
  • Drawn Together by Menh Le
  • Sing a Song: How “Life Every Voice and Sing” Inspired Generations by Kelly

Starling Lyons

  • Who is my Neighbor? By Amy-Jill Lavine and Sandy Eisenberg Sasso

 3rd – 5th Grade

  • The Undefeated by Kwame Alexander and Kadir Nelson
  • Gordon Parks: How the Photographer Captured Black and White America

by Carol Boston Weatherford

  • Ruth and the Green Book by Calvin Alexander Ramsey
  • Separate is Never Equal: Sylvia Mendez and Her Family’s Fight for

Desegregation by Duncan Tonatiuh