Little Therese and her Mother Goose "obsession" {AND "How to introduce Jesus to 2 to 3 Year Olds}

Last week, I stumbled upon this video on YouTube while looking for nursery rhyme videos to occupy our not-quite-three-year-old Therese (aka Rysse {pronounced "Reese," like the chocolate "Reese's Pieces" or the actress, Reese Witherspoon) while I was writing an article.

Little did I know that I would be creating a "Mother Goose `monster,'" i.e. that Rysse would become half-obsessed with Little Bo Peep and the other Mother Goose Club videos! It's come to the point that she asks for Little Bo Peep in the morning, as soon as she wakes up, and at night, when she sees my office-issued Mac (which she cutely calls "your printer," haha!). She even cries sometimes, "I miss Little Bo Peep!"

On the brighter side of things, I'm hoping she'll learn to love rhymes, finger plays and such through the videos, which I try as much as I can to watch with her. :-) However, I've been trying to tell both Rysse and her older brother, Tim, that it's Lent, and we / they should try making small "sacrifices" for Jesus - including less TV/computer time (oh yes, I'm one of those moms! Sorry!). OK, I don't know about you guys, but it.has.been.DIFFICULT. How does one explain to a 2+ year old about Jesus' ultimate sacrifice of love in terms she'll be able to understand?! *Sighs* Enlighten me, please.

Anyway, to answer my own question, I think I'll begin by telling her that Little Bo Peep and her Mother Goose friends are all nice and stuff like that, but Jesus is the most fun, most awesome and most musical Person alive! :-)

By God's grace, I discovered this great site earlier while doing research for Mustard, the magazine that I'm in charge of, called Crusader Castle. Looks like a great place to start introducing the Faith to Rysse (and reinforcing it, for Tim!) :-)

Also, I found some informative articles about introducing or explaining Jesus to young children below. If you're in the same "boat" as I am in now, you may want to check them out as well:

Teaching Toddlers: How Do We Catechize the Little Ones? (Scroll down to see the comments, which are all very informative!)

How to Explain Jesus to a 3-Year-Old

How to Explain Jesus to Your Toddlers

How to Teach Little Children About God

"Jesus Loves Me" Toddler Lessons

And last, but not the least, I think I should "review" this article I wrote for Smart Parenting's website over a year ago:

Praise and Play - How to Teach Your Kids About God

Let's pray for one another, shall we? :-) Let's pray for our little ones, too, that they may come to know the height, breadth, width and depth of God's amazing, astounding love for them! :-)