| This project deals with how to help young children who have grown up in Christian family to develop positively their Christian identity. Although many people are born in Christian families, they do not preserve their Christian faith. This problem creates the decline of congregational memberships, religious conflict among family members, and failure to hand down faith to the next generation. There are social and cultural causes. However, the weakness of Christian education at home is the most serious reason. Thus, the ultimate objective of this paper is to help parents to help their children develop Christian faith. The goal of Christian education for young children is not to make them memorize Christian information, as is the goal of many local churches, but to help them develop positive images of Christianity.;This project relies heavily on library research about the characteristics of young children, in conjunction with interviews of five Christian education ministers and eight parental couples of young children.;Chapter 2 examines the characteristics of young children such as memory span, languages skills, motivation, and emotion. This chapter also presents developmental theories of Erik Erikson and how these characteristics impact the learning process. Chapter 3 mentions faith education in the Old Testament and developmental theories of James W. Fowler. Furthermore, this chapter illustrates the ideas from family education of five educators. Finally, this chapter creates new theories of Christian education based on the arguments presented in chapter 2 and 3. Chapter 4 analyzes the current situations of education such as goals, methods, and systems of local churches and home. Chapter 5 creates new educational models: informal and formal education models. Chapter 6 mentions the roles of the local church to support parents in Christian education efforts at home such as preparing parents education classes, supplying useful materials, and creating a supporting team. The conclusion states the strengths and weaknesses of new educational programs for young children at home. In addition, the conclusion demonstrates the future tasks of local churches to solve the weaknesses of children's Christian education at home. |
