Language
Week 44
We easily tell others about events in the past, present, and future
Language is a non-instinctive system of spoken, manual (signed), or written symbols by which human beings express ideas, emotions, and desires. Language is a huge part of the preciousness of our humanity. Animal communication is the transfer of information by sounds, scents, and motions from the sender to the receiver that affects current behavior. It can impact future behavior, too. It is generally instinctive.
Point to emphasize
Even at our age we easily tell others what we did yesterday, today, and what we plan to do tomorrow.
Sample content and conversation with children
- Today we will see that we easily use language to talk about what happened before, what is happening now, and what will happen later.
- Ask the children, “What did you do yesterday?” [Let a few tell what they did. You can prompt them with, Did you go to the park? Did you ride your bike? etc.] Not only can I tell you what I did yesterday, but I can also tell you what I did many years ago. [Show a picture of what your family did in the past and have your child talk about it. (NO amusement parks, entertainment venues, or beaches.)]
- Ask, “What are we doing now?” [Let the children answer: “We are talking. We are having a children’s meeting, etc.”]
- Then ask, “What are you going to do tomorrow?” [Let some of the children answer. Show a picture of a place you plan to go to soon and talk a little about it. Then ask the children if they have plans this weekend and what they are, or if they don’t have plans, what they would like to do.]
- Alternate way to present the above conversation. If your group of children are younger and need more prompts, you may show a series of 3 things instead: (1) a picture of your child (“M”) when she was younger, riding a bike, maybe with training wheels or a tricycle [ask the children, who is this? Yes, this is M. What is she doing? Do you think this happened today? No, this happened a few years ago when she was 1 year old. She started riding her first bike]; 2) show your child on the video “fixing” their current bike [talk to the children, “Oh look it’s M. What is she doing right now?” M can tell everyone, “I help my mommy or daddy make sure my tires are not flat and the bike is safe to ride”]; 3) a picture of the family’s bikes [M can say, my family will ride our bikes around our neighborhood tomorrow.] Wow, we can tell others what we did yesterday and even years before, we can talk about what we do now, and we can also tell everyone what we will do later, tomorrow, maybe even weeks later, like, we will go visit my grandparents in the winter [use a different season if it is currently wintertime.]
- It was really nice to hear from you. God created us so that we can have conversations like this. We can tell others what we did yesterday and what we plan to do tomorrow!
- No animal can have a conversation. Animals only communicate by giving information by their motion, sounds, and scents. Look at this insect. Bees have a great system of movements to let other bees know where the good food source is that they just found away from their nest. [You may the short video clip below of a bee using movement to communicate with other bees.] They do the same thing day in and day out. But they never communicate anything about what they did yesterday or what they will do tomorrow. They do not have the capability.
- But we do! Even at 3 and 4 years old we can tell others what we did yesterday, what we will do tomorrow, and what we are doing right now. No animal communicates like this. God has made us so that we can talk about what we did yesterday, what we are doing today, and what we would like to do tomorrow [here, you can recap some of the things the children mentioned that they did and plan to do.] Thank You, God, for making us this way!
Songs
God is so good
Suggested activities
What sound is this? [Play animal sounds, steps, doorbell, and have the children guess what the sound is.]
Video
#1: Bee using movement to communicate with other bees
(https://www.youtube.com/embed/fJ8ZDB9rsjE?rel=0)