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The Absorbent Mind: Infant to Six Years-old
In this first stage, ages 0-6, children’s minds are like little sponges soaking up information, which is why they are said to have “absorbent minds.”
From 0-3, kids explore the world through their senses of touch and taste, grabbing everything they can find and usually popping it into their mouths.
It’s their way of learning and crucial for their early years. Thankfully, that practice drops off around age three when they enter formal education settings.
Until the age of six, children still need those concrete experiences. Don’t move to the abstract too soon.
They learn best by handling objects and experiencing things firsthand. The journey towards understanding the abstract, the spiritual, begins with what we can see and touch.
They gather information like gathering pieces of a puzzle. However, they don’t need to put those pieces together just yet.
They’ll connect them in the next stage.
Religious Activities for the Absorbent Mind
What kind of religious activities should we focus on for children under six years old? The emphasis should be on what is real and tangible.
Kids this age need to experience concrete realities, again, without knowing how everything fits into the bigger picture.
Kids are naturally curious and often ask, “Why?” But that’s not because they’re looking for a long-winded explanation.
They want to keep the conversation going, to stay engaged and connected.
At this age, kids are fascinated by names, images, and stories of critical religious realities. Reading storybook Bibles is a great way to feed this fascination.
These Bibles present the significant characters and stories of the Old and New Testaments. They don’t tell the whole story, but that’s fine for this age.
They don’t need to know how the entire Bible story fits together. Making connections too soon can disrupt their natural learning process.
Start with very simple illustrated children’s Bibles like The Beginner’s Bible or The Action Storybook Bible. There is a lot to choose from.
Get a large number of these so you can have a good selection to rotate through. When one gets old, move on to another.
These Bibles tend to repeat the same stories, but that’s good.
Reading these stories over and over will solidify the essential pieces, laying a foundation for deeper understanding in the future.
Engaging in Practical Life Activities
Practical life activities seem like a waste of time but play into the child’s capacities and natural interests.
Having kids do little tasks and chores, like dusting, pouring dry lentils, polishing, arranging flowers, washing leaves, and keeping things tidy, slows them down and engrosses them in the concrete.
Through these tasks, they learn that the ordinary is holy and that the divine touches every part of life.
Crucial Aspects of the Christian Message
Make sure you read stories around the key aspects of the Incarnation and the Paschal Mystery.
Kids are particularly captivated by stories like the Annunciation, the Visitation, the Birth of Jesus, the Presentation in the Temple, the Last Supper, and the Resurrection.
For best results, try to make the teachings tangible and tactile.
You can purchase or make small wooden models and dioramas they can touch and manipulate to bring these stories to life.
Present the story, then let the children use the materials to reflect and explore.
Parables, especially the Parable of the Good Shepherd and the Kingdom Parables, are also vital, as we’ll see later.
However, kids don’t respond well to the Finding of Jesus in the Temple. As you can imagine, the story of a boy getting lost in a large crowd isn’t as appealing.
Foundations of Love, Care, and Protection
Love, care, and protection are the bedrock of a child’s development. Children need to feel genuine love, ideally from their parents.
This need is so fundamental that if children don’t experience it, they’ll spend their entire lives searching for it. Without this foundation of love, religious education can’t truly take root.
While you can’t replace parental involvement in this area, the Parable of the Good Shepherd is the scriptural image you can present that supports this need.
It embodies everything children are seeking.
The Good Shepherd knows each sheep by name, loves and cares for them, feeds them in good pastures, and refreshes them with cool streams. If any sheep gets lost, the shepherd finds it and brings it home, no matter what.
And if danger comes, he risks his life to protect them.
Consider buying or making a model of the Good Shepherd and his sheep.
Present the story and allow your kids to look, touch, and reflect on its meaning. Again, this hands-on approach helps the story come alive for them.
Emphasizing Movement and Touch
Children’s need for movement at this age goes with their need for tactile experiences. They’re naturally drawn to what is concrete and sensorial.
There’s a saying, “Nothing in the mind that isn’t first in the senses.” If movement is restricted for children of this age, their capacity for learning decreases.
Experiencing nature is a wonderful concrete experience that lays the foundation for abstract ideas later. The proper starting point isn’t what we do; it’s what God has done.
So, take them outside to experience the wonder of God firsthand. If possible, bring children to gardens with flowing water and plants they can touch.
Nature walks in fields with wildflowers and trees are also valuable experiences.
Provide concrete materials for enhanced learning. As mentioned earlier, wooden models and dioramas are great tools for better understanding Bible stories.
You can also set up a miniature church with a scaled-down altar, altar cloth, lectern, tabernacle, and credence table, which can be incredibly engaging.
Mass kits with miniature replicas of chalices, water and wine cruets, ciborium, candles, altar crucifix, and linens (like a corporal, purificator, and finger towel) are also helpful and readily available.
Sometimes, these kits are recommended for little boys to encourage a vocation to the priesthood. However, this approach goes beyond that.
Little girls can use these, as well. It taps into the principle of sacramentality: accessing the spiritual through the concrete.
At this stage, children only need to handle these items and learn their names. Their deeper purpose will come at the next level.
Ultimately, the goal of the senses is Christ himself, God made visible in a concrete form.
The Need for Order, Routine, and Repetition
Children at this age thrive on external order to feel safe and secure. Change isn’t their friend. 
Disordered environments can cause stress, so it’s crucial to present teachings the same way from the beginning.
Your behavior in engaging with religious teachings and materials sets the tone.
Consistency is critical. It’s not so much about the format as about sticking to it.
Write down the routine so you can follow it every time. Whenever you introduce something new, present how learning materials should be used with careful and explicit modeling.
They don’t need to understand everything at first. Once they know the procedure, you can allow them to engage with it repeatedly and absorb the necessary content.
Fostering Independence through Imitation
Children learn by watching and imitating. Show them how to do tasks step-by-step using simple, clear instructions.
As they get comfortable, you can combine stages for more complex tasks. They often express a desire to do things by themselves.
This imitation phase is critical for their journey to independence. Once they’re confident in doing it as shown, they can start making it their own.
Activities for this age group might seem uncreative, but they are essential.
Tracing simple line drawings is a great example. Drawing freehand is too much for most kids. However, tracing helps them feel successful and builds their confidence to try drawing on their own later.
By around six, many are prepared to move past tracing.
Introduce them to various art media as responses to the stories and materials they’re exploring.
Options like watercolor paints, colored pencils, playdough, sand tray modeling, and letter illumination provide rich experiences.
Allowing them the freedom to choose their media helps foster creativity and personal expression.
The Ultimate Aim
Religious education aims to draw children into a relationship with Christ, even at this young age.
We want them to ask their own questions, sparked by their experiences of wonder and joy.
By engaging the senses of touch, sight, and sound, we help kids see beyond the physical world to the spiritual one.
Encouraging this sense of curiosity and exploration helps them form a deep, personal connection with their faith.
We can’t skip this critical step of starting with the concrete for a successful religious education.
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Resources
See the following resources and information for help in implementing the Concrete Stage faith formation strategies listed above.
Presenting the Good Shepherd Story
We recommend this resource from EducatinginChrist.com for learning how to tell the Good Shepherd story to your children. There's a booklet that walks you through the lesson and a video showing you what to do. It also includes a tracing sheet and printable paper figures you can cut out and mount for demonstration and further play. It's easy to register for this FREE website to access this and other resources. Click here to register.
This was created for use with Pre-K students but it's suitable for storytelling throughout the Concrete Stage up to First Grade.
You can do as much or as little of this lesson as you like. The cut outs can be done very simply using cardstock alone, or you can follow the directions and create wooden mounted figures. Or, you could just tell the story, which is the most important part. You could also involve your children in making the figures as an activity.
Learn More About the Educating in Christ Approach
If you're interested in learning more, there are a host of workshops you can take for FREE at the Franciscan at Home website. For example, there is a video workshop that goes into much more depth about the Concrete Stage from the author we referenced to write this guide. It's called Formation for the Developmental Stages: Ages 3–6.
Follow this easy tutorial to sign up for a FREE account to access this and many other Educating in Christ workshops that follow this approach.
Storybook Bibles
We are heavily indebted to the work of Dr. Gerard O'Shea in the creation of this guide. If you are interested in a much deeper understanding of these concepts, see his book Educating in Christ: A Practical Handbook for Developing the Catholic Faith from Childhood to Adolescence.
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