The Call of Samuel: A Toddler Devotion on Listening

Disclaimer: This post contains affiliate links

“Samuel, Samuel” God called a little boy in the middle of the night. This weeks story is about a child. A child whose mother dedicated him to be used for the Lord’s purposes. And in the middle of the night, the Lord spoke to that little boy, and set him apart to be his prophet. I encourage you to read the whole story in 1 Samuel 3. It’s so powerful.

The Lord speaks to our children!

And we have a responsibility to them, as parents to teach them to hear his voice. We, as parents, are like Eli who discerned the voice of God and taught Samuel how to respond. What a beautiful task the Lord has given us, to teach our children to hear God’s voice.

Sticking with a theme of listening, like Samuel listened to God’s voice, we explored our hearing senses and worked on our listening skills.

Read

We read the story of Samuel every single day. Everytime the story used words like “listen” or “hear” I’d make a point to dramatically gesture towards my ears. Vale thought this was hilarious and I think drove home the idea that we listen with our ears.

Telephone Whispers

This is actually an idea I found on Eat, Sleep, and Play, and I thought it was a great way to get little baby involved with our devos this week. I took a toilet paper tube, placed it near baby Naomi’s ear and gently whispered. She moved her head, trying to see where my voice was coming from, and why it sounded different. This was a fun way to mix up her playtime. I tried to get big sister involved, but she was more interested in just watching. However, later I caught her whispering into Naomi’s ears without the tube.

Podcasts

We also listened to a lot of podcasts this week, trying to work on our listening skills. Podcasts aren’t nnecessarilythe first thing that comes to mind when I think of toddlers. However, we love them. We incorporated podcasts into our bedtime routine, and it was a game changer. If you need some ideas for good podcasts, I made a couple lists with a short description of why we like each podcast.

Our Favorite Podcasts (and audio resources) for Preschoolers

AND

Spanish Podcasts for Preschoolers

Also, don’t let your kid have all the fun. I made a mama list too.

5 Podcasts For Your Tired Mama Soul

Action Songs

We also listened to music, but not just any music. Songs with actions (like The Hokey Pokey and Father Abraham). For those living that Spanglish life, our playlist included:

The Hokey Pokey in Spanish

Padre Abraham

Esta es una Fiesta

Coloring

We were boring and just did a coloring page this week. However, it gave us a chance to talk about the story as she colored. This is a coloring page we liked: Samuel Coloring Page

Media

This week we used The Bible App for Kids. This is a great virtual Bible for kids and when I’m in desperate need of a distraction for the toddler, I’m able to pull it out and the app can read her the Bible story (or we also read it together). We used the app this week to read the story on occasion, and also the activity for this story is a virtual coloring page. The coloring page is one of the easier activities on the app, which my independent toddler loves.

We also read Mr Brown Can Moo. Can You? by Dr. Seuss, because it focuses on listening to the sounds various things make, and encourages the kiddos to make those sounds too. Super fun for a toddler’s ever-growing vocabulary.

What tools have you used to teach your children to listen? How does this story of Samuel speak to you? I’d love to hear. Comment Below.