So I realized that calling this “the Call of David” would make sense to me, and only me. Everyone else looks for David and Goliath activities. They teach that, and maybe Psalm 23, and then don’t really teach much more about David in Sunday School.
How do I know this? Well, I spent a few hours googling King David and looking for stuff to do and got “David and Goliath.”
Prior to this we learned all about King Saul.
David and Goliath
This is usually taught as David standing up to a bully, or having incredible courage, or incredible faith. I’d say it’s a little bit of all of those. It’s also God moving the chessboard to get David where He wants David.
See this brings David to King Saul’s attention and because of this David is playing songs to soothe the troubled king.
David meets his best friend for life. A friend who goes to great risk to save him.
David meets his first wife. A woman who loves him enough to risk her life and lie to her father.
David gains experience as a soldier and commander in the battle.
So that short solo combat between David and Goliath changed the trajectory of his life completely.
But that’s not the big things we get from David
A Man after God’s own heart
It says over and over again in the Old Testament David was a man after God’s own heart. And ultimately that’s where I want my kids to be, running hard after God’s own heart. So we repeated an activity from before and examined what is in our hearts.
Which led to a lot of answers I was expecting, their brother and sister, God, friends, parents. But they also thought of ones I didn’t expect, they added in aunts and uncles, people they want to help, and new things they’ve come to love.
It made my heart very happy to see.
David and Jonathan, a solid friendship
One of the big things I want my kids to get from David is his friendships. David chose wise friendships. It’s so easy to look at a surface level of friendship “I like this person because they do this with me, or they have this toy.” How do your friends challenge you?
We didn’t end up making the David and Jonathan craft I wanted to, but I might come back and do it, then add it in here.
So expect to see more on David’s friendships, and how they challenged each other and brought each other closer to God.
David and Goliath videos, books, and toys
(these are affiliate links)
What’s in the Bible? Volume Five – Israel Gets a King
David Flannelboard Figures
David and the Giant (I Can Read! / The Beginner’s Bible)
The Jesus Storybook Bible: Every Story Whispers His Name
In the end David is so much more than just “David and Goliath,” and I can’t wait for the next few weeks as we learn more about him.
Get your own David and Goliath (and so much more) printable right here.
The story continues in the David and Saul lesson.
I love your David and Jonathan craft! Your bible stories would make awesome ebooks for the Kindle Fire (yes, I know you have a Nook, but…)
That’s on my to do list. I know the formatting would be different on Kindle or Nook, so I need time to look into it. For now at least they’re in PDF so you can have it on your Kindle (I’m assuming Kindle’s can have PDF on it also, right?), not formatted quite right, but someday.
I love the complete story of David’s life. Last year I participated in a Beth Moore Bible study on the life of David, and it was wonderful. Some day I want to go back and write blog posts about all I learned, and how it interconnected with other Scripture. There are so many chapters in Scripture about David. I wonder why the web only has David and Goliath? I guess it goes to show that most Sunday School lessons are superficial, and how there is a need for us to be blogging about how to teach our children the Word of God.
My guess? Because a lot of David’s life doesn’t translate into nice easy crafts and activities, and a lot of them are also not preschool friendly.
I mean I adapted David’s years as kings into a picture book and I severely glossed over a lot of areas.
David and Goliath is easy, make giant shoes for Goliath, maybe a toy slingshot, or if you’re feeling fancy a craft with some stones.
But, how do you boil down the revolt of Absolam into a cute craft for kids? It’s hard.
It’s a real shame they don’t try to figure it out because there are a lot of great lessons in there for kids: respecting authority that isn’t fair; not showing favorites; the long-term consequences of your sins.
Okay, that’s my mini-soap box, and you NEED to write your notes and thoughts on David’s life, I’d love to read them.
The call of David makes perfect sense to me, too. Great unit!!
I’m not surprised you followed my thinking. 🙂
I can see that this is the topic that is near and dear to your heart. I actually visited a place during one of my visits to Israel where David was fighting Goliath. A guide also gave a good account of David’s life before and after.
I am seriously jealous. One of my dreams is to go visit Israel and see all of the sites I’m reading about.
Of course I have a rather long list of places I want to visit and see, and not so much on the money side of things to do all this visiting. Maybe someday I will inherit millions from some long lost relative…..
I’m planning a David and Goliath Bible hero party for my son’s 7th birthday-so appreciate your ideas and you helped me see the stuff behind the David and Goliath story…Thanks so much. I want to share with the kids and help them to know God better. I may do a summer Bible school on this theme too for the neighbor kids.
Oh a summer Bible school on this theme would be so much fun! What a great idea.